Full Description
This book offers revolutionary approaches to in-class discussions about young adult literature. It shows teachers how to think more widely than the themes of a book to consider how they might operate as prayers of lament, yearning, anger, confession, thankfulness, reconciliation, joy, obedience, pilgrimage, contemplation, and equanimity. It also offers a variety of ways for classroom discussion to consider a representative sentence or two from a young adult novel, and from that allow students to connect to linked passages in the rest of the novel. These approaches for classroom discussion are drawn from a variety of contemplative traditions, including Jewish and Christian faith traditions and include florilegium, lectio divina, PaRDeS, Ignatian Imagination, havruta, and marginalia. Drawing from a range of in-class experiences, the authors explain each approach in the context of twelve popular and critically interesting young adult novels including The Hate U Give, Long Way Down, Speak, The Poet X, The Fault in our Stars, Brown Girl Dreaming, and others. This book will transform discussions that are disconnected from the book, lacking in relevance, or missing the energy that drives good conversation into meaningful and energetic class discussions that students and teachers alike will value.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: New Ways to Interpret and Discuss Young Adult Literature
Chapter 1: Prayers of Lament in Internment
Chapter 2: Yearning in The Hate U Give
Chapter 3: Speak and Long Way Down Graphic Novels for Prayers of Anger
Chapter 4: Confession in Goodbye Days.
Chapter 6: Thankfulness in The War that Saved My Life
Chapter 7: The Poet X and Louisiana's Way Home as Prayers of Reconciliation
Chapter 8: Using Havruta to Consider Orbiting Jupiter and Beast Player as Prayers of Obedience
Chapter 9: Prayers of Contemplation in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Chapter 10: Finding Joy in The Fault in Our Stars through Floralegium
Chapter 11: The Inquisitor's Tale: Using PaRDeS to Explore Pilgrimage
Conclusion: Closing our Discussion and the Books
References
About the Author
