Young Adult Nonfiction: Gateway to the Common Core

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No matter the location, schools are guided by standards, including Common Core State Standards. This collection of contributions by some of the countrys leading literacy experts offers practical suggestions for implementing young adult literature to meet the demand that standards mandate for focusing on nonfiction in teaching literacy. The challenges to CCSS abound, and teachers who are currently seeking avenues to reach their students no matter what content they teach will find the strategies and suggestions useful. The text advocates using young adult literature to accomplish content area literacy and is intended as a primer for those who are building curriculum.

Reviews

A casual observer might dismiss this as an ordinary annotated bibliography, but it would be a mistake for librarians to bypass this guide to integrating nonfiction into middle- and high-school education. Part of the volume is bibliography, but the essays also suggest lessons and activities to accompany the highlighted works. This volume is meant to enhance teaching in language arts, social studies, and even science and mathematics. A chapter on collaboration between language arts and science teachers through nonfiction literature suggests numerous titles that integrate genetics, evolution, ecology, and epidemiology ... Another section suggests supplementing informational texts with historical fiction to enhance comprehension of history. Two particularly interesting components are a chapter on using graphic nonfiction to fortify STEM classes and another on using nonfiction to reinforce math vocabulary through stories. Following the articles is a bibliography of sources cited and additional works. More nonfiction selections sorted by discipline precede the detailed index. This is an essential addition to the professional collection in any middle or high school concerned with broadening student perspectives (or thorough implementation of the Common Core State Standards.) * Booklist, Starred Review *
Recent years have brought an increase in the availability of high-quality young adult literature and a corresponding increase in popularity of the genre among adolescent readers. The need to bridge students out-of-school literacy with classroom life is imperative, and teachers in middle and upper grades have both knowledge of YA literature and the ability to integrate it into school learning spaces. Offering what may be a welcome surprise to educators, this book demonstrates that nonfiction YA literature can indeed facilitate the rigorous learning goals of the Common Core. Young Adult Nonfiction serves as a timely, practical set of resources for secondary-level teachers across content area disciplines. Each chapter clearly illustrates the ways YA nonfiction can help students achieve the standards for ELA/literacy, math, science, and technical subjects while providing a multitude of resources in the form of YA titles, web resources, and even unit and lesson plan ideas. [A]ll teaching ideas are linked clearly to Common Core Standards. This book is a great option for an interdisciplinary, school-based, professional learning community. It is a useful resource for teachers looking to build connections between literacy and content areas. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, professionals. * CHOICE *
A compact tool for interdisciplinary curriculum construction, this introduction to Common Core teaching stresses the integration of humanistic themes in a range of classroom endeavors. Editors incorporate aspects of narrative milieu as spurs to thinking, discussion, problem-solving, literacy, and composition. Themes branch out to such mind-expanding concepts as risk-taking and strategizing, the focus of Jon Krakauers Into Thin Air and Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird. . . .Nonfiction works...elucidate graphic design, nutrition and health, forensic medicine, primate and environmental research, and racial and gender equality. By stressing such elements as textual evidence and relevant details, the text builds respect for primary sources and accurate presentation of scientific absolutes and historical cause and effect, as with the Manhattan Project and the expansion of womens rights during World War II. This is a must-have addition to the young adult professional shelf. * VOYA *
Young Adult Nonfiction: Gateway to the Common Core collects both a pithy rationale and classroom tough practices that coalesce to advance nonfiction YAL in all classrooms, not just those of the English and literacy variety. This book is one that teachers will want to keep within an arms reach, as it will help defend practice just as surely as it will inspire the use of young adult nonfiction to the benefit of students. The editorial team expertly assembled leading scholars and educators to craft this important addition to the field of young adult literature. -- Christian Z. Goering Ph.D, Professor, English Education, University of Arkansas, Director of the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, Faculty Director of the Center for Children & Youth
With this book, Young Adult Nonfiction, Hayn, Kaplan, Nolen, and Olvey have gathered together a collection of scholars whose advice and wisdom raise above the demands of the common core and provide teachers with a vision of how young adult nonfiction can be a useful key to seamlessly introduce informational text, cross-curricular knowledge, and text complexity into the language arts classroom. This book will remain an important guide for using nonfiction with students for many years after the hoopla of the common core has passed precisely because it focuses on the timeless issues of good pedagogical practices. -- Steven T. Bickmore, Associate Professor of English Education,University of Nevada Las Vegas; curator, Dr. Bickmores YA Wednesday Blog

Author Bio

Judith A. Hayn is the Interim Associate Dean in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She publishes and presents regionally and nationally on issues of social justice in young adult literature. Jeffrey S. Kaplan is an Associate Professor in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership at the University of Central Florida. As the former president of ALAN, Dr. Kaplan continues his research interests concerning the value of young adult literature. Amanda L. Nolen is the Interim Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations in the School of Education. Heather A. Olvey earned her Masters of Secondary English Education degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She currently teaches in the Little Rock schools and continues her focus on teaching literacy through young adult literature.