1. The Young Adult Literature
Elective: Challenging the Canon
Sarah Andersen
Fenton High School
@yaloveblog
http://yaloveblog.com

2. Where It Began
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3. ENG 580
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5. Creating the Elective
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6. Why the YA Elective Works
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7. Why the YA Elective Works cont.
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8. Course Breakdown
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9. First Few Days of Class
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10. The Trimester Project
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11. Trimester Project Options
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12. Author Study
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13. Banned Books Campaign
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14. Books to Movies
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15. Similar Theme/Topic
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16. Assessments
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17. Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
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18. Looking for Alaska by John Green
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19. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
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20. What else took place?
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21. Points of Pride
● Most students read 6+ books in 12 weeks
● Culture of literacy
● “Literacy Lockers”
● Author Skype chats
● Book Club

22. Some Pitfalls
● Open to grades 9-12
○ Better for 11-12th grade students
● Counselors “dumped” students into class
○ A positive challenge
● Students finished books quickly
○ A good problem to have!
● Expensive
○ Class library
● Reluctance to participate

23. YA in the Core Class
● New district, no YA elective
○ Opening up discussions w/department &
administration
○ District finances
■ Reframe class?
■ Grant writing
■ Donors Choose

24. YA in the Core Class cont.
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25. In Closing...
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