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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

young adult literature, YA, secondary education, middle school

College

Humanities

Department

English

Abstract

Does contemporary young adult (YA) literature belong in the secondary education classroom? That is the question that has been on everyone’s tongues in the last several decades. In 1973, The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) was created as a subunit of the NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English). It was the beginning of a movement to promote adolescent literature in the classroom (Gill). It seems logical that “adolescent” literature should be taught to adolescents, and yet the topic has sparked serious debate. Many teachers are unsure how to work with adolescent literature and they still cling to the classics—after all, the “classics” have “stood the test of time” (Crowe 123). Many teachers face resistance when it comes to incorporating YA literature into a real classroom. Two common arguments against using adolescent literature are (1) Classics are more within the comfort zone of teachers because they are for the most part accepted by the general public and that is what they are used to teaching, and (2) YA literature might be more beneficial outside the curriculum—for students to individually read for personal enjoyment—turning to YA literature in the classroom might actually backfire (Angelotti 74–75). Yet countless of testimonials have proved that young adult literature in the right hands can be a very beneficial teaching tool. In fact, Donald Gallo argues that it is the “classics” that may create an “aliterate society”—because when students feel like they can’t understand and relate with what they are reading, they can get turned off to reading altogether (33–34).

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