We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together.
John Green and Literacy
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It just occurred to me that someone–gasp!–might not know who John Green is (you need to know. He’s a best-selling YA author who has written Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines and his latest book that WILL WRECK YOU and have you coming back for more, The Fault in Our Stars). That’s right, I put a link to every one of those books. That’s because you need to go read. Now. He has the most beautiful lines. “I fell in love the way you fall asleep. Slowly, and then all at once.”
Right? That one’s from Fault. Then, from Paper Towns, “What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”
To the original intent of this post: NCTE’s English Journal published an interview with John Green. (if the person who posted this first on Dr. Kittle’s class site is also in our class, thanks!) While the whole interview is not on literacy, a question on the whole “literacy crisis” issue does come up. I’m falling in love with this man. Just the other day, a teacher in the school I’m observing at dismissed the idea that teens are reading nearly as much as they ought to be. Maybe there’s some truth to what she said, but the dismissal kind of bothered me. I hear it all the time. It’s that whole thing–what you expect tends to come true.
ANYWAY, the question is at the bottom left on page 69: “What do you feel are the greatest challenges that stand in the way of increasing readership among young adults? How do you feel that everyone in the educational community (writers, teachers, parents, and so forth) can encourage young adults to read nowadays?”
I don’t know to what degree I can quote, but he basically states “Actually I think teens read a lot more than they did even ten years ago. They’re always on the internet reading statuses, websites, etc. I also think the pidgin stuff they write is language/real writing. The problem is that they’re not reading critically.”
Seriously, go read if you get the chance. If you aren’t a member of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), you can access the article through the school’s computers. “Literature is Not a Cold, Dead Place: An Interview with John Green.”
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3 Replies to “John Green and Literacy”
Thanks Lisa!! Totally want to read The Fault in Our Stars over break now. Every time a teacher says youth are reading less it makes me wonder what the teacher means by this? Does she mean Moby Dick? How many adults have read a bunch of canonical novels this year? ALL the teens I know are reading all the time…including lots of young adult novels: Perks of Being a Wallflower, Speak, Stargirl, The Book Thief, and on and on. And like you, I cringe at the dismissive tone towards youth no matter what. How odd to grow up in a culture where none of the things you care about are valued by adults around you…
Thanks for the insights!
There’s still such a belief that the only kind of reading that matters for teens are the canonical texts; and this to the point that few teachers even seem to acknowledge that other texts of worth exist. I told a high school teacher this week that yes, I love literature. When I followed it up with “I read mostly young adult lit” her face kind of froze. Yes, YA is still literature. The good stuff can be analyzed just as much, it’s complicated and layered and amazing. It’s not all junk food, and even then junk food has a value (I think). It could be a gateway drug if we’d allow it to be. I still hold the canonical texts in high regard, but if we’re going to convince teens to read anything, we have to not just respect but learn to love (or at least understand that love) for the texts they are reading. I’m hoping that my love for YA will translate into a relationship with them. I think it will. Any time a teen comes to my house and laments reading, they generally leave with a book in their hand or at least some kind of excitement about the idea that there IS something cool out there. They just didn’t know it yet.
And ain’t nobody willing to analyze text unless they’re first even remotely invested in the story.
Also, Stargirl is on my soon TBR list. First I have to read Requiem :D