The first thing raised by Buehler that challenges my thinking is something that I feel most ELA teachers struggle with or are at least aware of. The fact that our education system is highly driven by standardized tests. This leaves ELA teachers in a bit of a tough spot, as it is argued that YA novels are not appropriate for classroom lessons. I disagree with this fact and feel the purpose of having students read YA literature is not to make them great test takers. The purpose is to challenge their thinking, help them grow as readers and learners, approach topics that are tough to talk about at times, and overall give them an opportunity to discover reading that is beneficial for them.
Buehler mentions how class readings are harmful to many students because they are not involved in the selection of the novel. Those readers lack a wide variety of novels that they have been able to explore outside of school, therefore their introduction to novels is often forced upon them without any consideration of their likes, personality, hobbies, etc. This can often time put a bad taste in the mouths of students. This is one of the reasons why I am not fully sold on a classroom novels. I don’t want to force a particular novel on my students, I like to give them options instead. If I am able, my plan would be to have class novels read as groups rather than a class, to provide some agency for students in selecting which of the novels they’d like to read.
As far as Buehler’s 3 elements that are necessary for a proper framework for YA Pedagogy, I agree with them all. I struggle the most with #2, because I am not an expert in the field of YA yet. I don’t know which novels are best suited for which students because I have not read all of the novels I wish I had. While I agree with this a necessity, it is a challenge for me. I stand firmly on the belief that knowing your students is the most important aspect of teaching. You HAVE to know your students in order to teach effectively. Knowing which novels to pair students with is part of knowing your students, it is the other part of the equation that challenges me. I have to broaden my own reading variety in order to make the proper suggestions. Otherwise, I will only be suggesting books that I personally enjoy, not books that I think my students will connect to or enjoy.
To be honest, I still struggle with the distinction between middle grades and YA literature. I think it depends on who you ask, as Buehler mentioned. Parents, librarians, teachers, students, readers of YA, authors of YA, companies that sell YA, will all give you different answers on what is and isn’t YA. So I think it is mostly up to the reader to determine. If it is a story that a young adult reader can erlate to, understand, connect with, then it is YA.
Jason's Thoughts 