Criteria and services involving YA literature


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Criteria and services involving YA literature
information as defined by their habitsWeek 3
Lecture

• Dr. Betty Marcoux
• LIS 566
• Winter Quarter 2007

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Lecture Outline

• Beginning
• Terms
• Ideas about YA behaviors
• Middle
• Issues for consideration
• Strategies regarding YA lit
• Finish
• What is an observation vs assumption
• Strategies for Assignment 1
• Concluding remarks
• 3 articles to read
• Generalities about YAs and literature
• Announcements
• Readings discussed
• No discussion questions do your
  reviews/responses
  
• Chat moved to Thursday this week

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Terms

• Observation
• Assumption
• Inference
• Trend vs behavior
• Annotation vs review

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YAs their behaviors - 1

• Social Behavior
• Large groups clusters pairs
• Girls peer validation decision making
• Boys verbal physical jousting
• Boy / Girl dynamics
• Social Types
• Racial socio-economic groupings
• Skaters punks jocks cool kids
• Gothics nerds/brains
• Others

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YAs their behaviors - 2

• Adult Relationships
• Qualitatively different from peer relationships
• Behavior dependant on adult proximity authority
  dynamic
  
• Service needed vs service provided
• Advice as needed desired only
• Consumerism
• Shopping (even if not buying)
• Clothing choices presentation of the self
• Status defining

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YAs their behaviors - 3

• Technology Use
• Access to technology
• Multi-tasking
• Technology as fashion
• Addiction
• Activity
• Energetic moving
• Multiple activities at single venue
• Autonomous vs collective

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Powers Limitations of YA Literature

• Common experience to discuss
• Serve as a discussion topic
• Give confidence to readers
• Increase global understanding
• Comfort and reassure
• Give insights into YA world

• Cannot cure emotional illness
• Cannot guarantee behavior
• Cannot solve problems

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Right book Right student

• Literary analysis issues of readers advisory
• Personal interests
• Yours and/or students
• Social political values
• Sociological influences
• Popularity/relevancy
• Right level
• Multiple genres/content areas - diversity

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How to find the best ones

• What different types of writing meet specific
  needs and how can they do this best
  
• Should reviews of young adult books be less
  promotional and more critical
  
• Is the writing and scholarship in the field aimed
  too much at the uses of literature rather than at
  the analysis of the literature itself

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4 categories of writing about YA books

• Personal use
• Annotations
• Reviews
• Scholarly/pedagogical uses

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Personal Use Record what you read

• Running narrative
• Short summary of book
• Main characters
• Other details
• Running bibliographic info
• Authors name
• Book title
• Publisher with date
• Costs/availability
• Running genre list
• Can overlap
• Helpful not only to individual student but
  units/themes also
  
• Running evaluation of what you have read
• How did you like it and why
• How would it best be used
• What is positive or potentially controversial
  about title
  

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Personal Use Share what you read with someone
else

• What is the book about
• What is the tone of the book
• Hook with 1-2 good sentences that illustrate
  these points-
  
• Why should a YA care enough to read it
• What is the purpose of this annotation
• Length depends on this
• Use descriptive phrases/key words
• Key sentence or two

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An annotation of a YA read

• Focuses on content story
• Reviews often start with annotation
• Tend to be non-judgmental
• Evaluative criteria missing for the most part
• TWILIGHT partial annotation
• A story about love and devotion Twilight weaves
  together the ideas of vampirism and young love
  peer concerns and historical and cultural
  concerns about vampires. A first book for the
  author Stephanie Meyers Twilight takes place in
  two very different worlds Forks and Phoenix.
  XXXXX
• No criticism or commentary about the quality of
  Twilight nor is it listed as recommended
  for.etc.

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Review for purchase

• Similar to annotation but audience may be
  different
  
• Timeliness of review and its subsequent
  publication
  
• Evaluation criteria
• Literary quality
• Reader interest
• Potential popularity
• Philosophy of material
• Be careful to not interpret good literary quality
  for good use/popularity of material

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VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) criteria
(http//www.voya.com/)

• Quality
• 5Q hard to imagine it being better written
• 4Q better than most marred only by occasional
  lapses
  
• 3Q readable without serious defects
• 2Q a little better editing or work by the author
  would make it a 3Q
  
• 1Q hard to understand how it got published

• Popularity
• 5P every YA was dying to read it yesterday
• 4P broad general YA interest
• 3P will appeal without pushing
• 2P for the YA reader with a special interest in
  the subject
  
• 1P no YA will read unless forced to for
  assignments

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Scholarly/pedagogical articles on YA literature

• Much deeper in discussion
• Usually centered around a topic rather than a
  book due to timing
  
• Usually 3 kinds of these articles
• Articles that focus on subjective responses of
  readers to books
  
• Articles that are descriptive but pedagogical in
  nature to help define how to best use material
  (informative)
  
• Articles that restrict themselves to the
  literature itself and not to the reader or user
  of it tend to discuss patterns genres trends
  underlying issues. Usually these books are the
  serious ones that support this level of
  analysis.

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The literary Canon

• Tends to be driven by academic needs
• Great Books canon versus diverse canon
• Magical realism/mysticism
• Sexism
• Racism
• Character desegregation
• Traditional vs expanded
• Oral tradition vs written word

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Kinds of questions

• Factoid recall (AR-like)
• Commentary on another persons generalization
• Make generalizations
• Comment on relationship of work to human
  experience
  
• Comment on generalizations found as they relate
  to own life

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Ethnic Literature

• Can it only be written by someone from that
  ethnicity or background
  
• Can it only be reviewed by someone with that
  reference point to that ethnic culture
  
• Is it okay to define the large differences
  between groups through this literature
  
• Lumping of ethnicities
• Japanese Chinese
• Native American tribes
• Hispanic cultures

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Common Service Philosophies

• Both serving YA age group
• Minors
• Rights/Responsibilities
• Both working to maintain/increase reading
  interest
  
• Both need to respond to YA needs
• Both need marketing and publicity strategies
• Both are responding to reference and homework
  needs
  
• See VOYA article A Fantastic Team (Dec 2004
  357- 359) on website (http//www.voya.com/)

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Different Service Philosophies

• Public Library
• Administration
• Collection
• Programs
• Services
• Resources
• Electronic
• Print
• Non-Print
• Facility
• Hours
• Staff

• School Library
• Administration
• Collection
• Programs
• Services
• Resources
• Electronic
• Print
• Non-Print
• Facility
• Hours
• Staff

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Doing Assignment 1

• Choosing a venue
• Gaining entry
• Understanding phenomena
• Observer effect (hiding behind the potted plant)
• Lessons Learned What would you do differently
  How can this assignment be structured
  differently
  

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Observation Venues

• Mall
• Library
• High school
• Middle school
• Metro bus
• Church
• Skateboard park
• Movie theater
• Other

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An Observation

• A boy seemingly of Asian descent approximately
  13-15 years of age enters the teen zone of the
  library. He is wearing loose-fitting jeans with
  ragged edges a thermal t-shirt under a striped
  short-sleeve polo a ball cap with a company
  logo brim facing backward. Walking briskly he
  approaches one of the stand-up terminals near the
  reference desk. He types for a few seconds then
  clicks the mouse scrolls and clicks again. His
  brow furrows and mouth contorts slightly. He
  pounds his hand on the keyboard. His head turns
  to the left then right eyes scanning the teen
  zone. He looks at the person behind the desk for
  a second. She does not look up from her
  crossword puzzle. The boy swiftly leaves the
  teen zone and exits the library.

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Observed vs Assumption

• The book he needed to pass English 103 is checked
  out.
  
• The boy needed tech support but the librarian
  wouldnt help him.
  
• Theres a waitlist for the Anarchists Cookbook.
• His girlfriend just broke up with him via email.

• This boy is a middle class or upper-middle class
  student at a local high school.
  
• Adults ignore teens with problems.
• Teens are frequent users of technology.
• Teens are short-tempered.
• Librarians are lazy.
• Asian-Americans are not welcome in the Teen
  Zone.
  

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When you write up Assignment 1

• There are inferences listed on the previous
  that are risky they assume too much about the
  situation.
  
• Brief observations are inadequate to make
  inferences that go beyond surface features.
  
• Negative stereotypes of YAs are constructed from
  such cursory observations.

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In doing your assignment consider

• What do these observations tell us about YAs
• What dont these observations tell us about YAs
• What are some of the YA service implications that
  may be considered as a result of these
  observations

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A Cautionary Note

• When doing observations stick to what you can
  see hear smell etc.
  
• If you suspect a deeper meaning this is an
  observer comment not an observation. Keep those
  comments separate.
  
• Action research is less rigorous but should
  still strive for an element of objectivity.

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Conclusion

• Literature service to YAs is universal
• Literature services to YAs is everyones job
• The question is NOT what a YA finds in a school
  or public library to read but what happens to
  that YA as a result of the reading.

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Consider these things

• Old tasks new ways
• Open to their world and behaviors
• Flexibility
• Respect
• Ask you arent supposed to know it all
• Combine your expertise with theirs

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Readings

• No text reading this week
• 3 articles to read
• Astroth (1994)
• More information on ephebiphobia
• at risk definition and perceptions
• Statistics to back up ideas
• Meyer (2001)
• Advocates for the inclusion of teens on teen
  projects
  
• Suggests that the key to success will be in
  allowing teen input to considerations
  
• Offers suggestions for how to do YA outreach and
  improve YA reading/library use statistic
  
• Wadham (2004)
• Advocates for use of fantasy as a way to include
  and excite interest in YAs
  
• Suggests that by talking about the unknown with
  YAs there is an admission of everyone having
  unknown characteristics that can bridge more
  between generations.

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Announcements

• Respond to the TWILIGHT review no later than
  Wednesday January 17 at 8 PM PST at week 3
  E-post (on the webpage as a link)
  
• Chat this week will occur on THURSDAY not
  WEDNESDAY!
  
• If there is not a chat transcript nothing will
  be posted under announcements if there is you
  will find it there.