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Syllabus
LL ED 520: Literature for Adolescents
Overview | Objectives | Materials | Library Resources | Technical Requirements | Course Requirements and Grading | Course Schedule | Academic Integrity | Accomodating Disabilities | Additional Policies
Overview
Critical study of adolescent literature, its diversity of cultural voices, and designs for its use in secondary school classrooms.
Course Objectives
The three objectives for this course are the enjoyment of adolescent literature, the critical analysis of adolescent literature, and the design of experiences with adolescent literature to support life-long habits of reading.
- Enjoyment of adolescent literature: Being an avid reader, and a member of a community of readers are two key goals for enjoyment. Examining your own habits, purposes, and communities, sharing your responses to young adult literature, and exploring new genres broadens your reading knowledge base, generates new choices, and supports conversations with readers with diverse interests.
- Critical analysis of adolescent literature: Framing literary analysis from multiple perspectives or lenses increases the potential interpretations for a work of young adult literature. Knowing the underlying beliefs of each framework regarding how a text re-presents truth, reality, identity, and culture is a key goal that can guide the activity of critical analysis, and the purpose for interpretive activities in classrooms or other social groups.
- Designing experiences with adolescent literature: Designing curricula for schools, or other non-formal educational venues, must connect the values for reading as a social literacy practice and the values for criticism as a school literacy practice with the histories, habits, and skills of particular readers. Choice, time, invitation, inquiry, and sharing are key structures for curricula designs that simultaneously develop reading habits and skills.
The course will explore all three objectives. However, the course assessment is structured so each student can choose one of the three objectives as their major goal for the course.
Required Course Materials
Most World Campus courses require that students purchase materials (e.g., textbooks, specific software, etc.). To learn about how to order materials, please see the Course Materials page. You should check LionPATH approximately 3–4 weeks before the course begins for a list of required materials.
This course requires that you access Penn State library materials specifically reserved for this course. You can access these materials by selecting Library Resources in your course navigation, or by accessing the Library E-Reserves Search and search for your instructor's last name.
Library Resources
Many of the University Libraries resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the Libraries website, you can
- access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases;
- borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep—or even your desktop;
- get research help via email, chat, or phone using the Ask a Librarian service; and
- much more.
You can view the Online Students' Library Guide for more information.
You must have an active Penn State Access Account to take full advantage of the Libraries' resources and services. Once you have a Penn State account, you will automatically be registered with the library within 24–48 hours. If you would like to determine whether your registration has been completed, visit the Libraries home page and select My Account.
Technical Requirements
| Operating System | Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS), supports most recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac operating systems. To determine if your operating system is supported, please review Canvas' computer specifications. |
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| Browser | Canvas supports the last two versions of every major browser release. It is highly recommended that you update to the newest version of whatever browser you are using. Note: Cookies must be enabled, and pop-up blockers should be configured to permit new windows from Penn State websites. |
| Additional Canvas Requirements | For a list of software, hardware, and computer settings specifically required by the Canvas LMS, please review Canvas' computer specifications. |
| Additional Software | All Penn State students have access to Microsoft Office 365, including Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. |
| Hardware | Monitor: Monitor capable of at least 1024 x 768 resolution |
| Mobile Device (optional) | The Canvas mobile app is available for versions of iOS and Android. To determine if your device is capable of using the Canvas Mobile App, please review the Canvas Mobile App Requirements. |
Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ)
During the semester you will receive information for completing the Student Education Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ). Your participation is an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on your learning experience. Your feedback is important because it allows us to understand your experience in this course and make changes to improve the learning experiences of future students. Please monitor email and course communications for links and availability dates.
If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Service Desk.
For registration, advising, disability services, help with materials, exams, general problem solving, visit World Campus Student Services!
Course Requirements and Grading
Method of Instruction
Success in this course requires each member to consistently and fully participate in asynchronous conversations about course readings and about independent choice readings of young adult literature. All work completed each week in the course will be shared in community forums. Small group collaborative forums will provide support for the development of lesson activities and the construction of shared knowledge about course ideas.
For your final project in the course, you will choose one of the following options. You may engage in all four options, but your final assessment will be based only on one that you share with the entire class in the last lesson of the course. Each option parallels a central objective for the course.
- Read 13 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., Goodreads) You would post at least once for each novel.
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., Goodreads). Write a critical literary analysis in which you critique how identities, relationships, activities, and values are constructed by teens across the social worlds of several YA novels, including some from class YA novels. How do the characters use language and action to negotiate and transform their social worlds, and develop consciousness and agency? How do the words and actions used by the characters illustrate a developing awareness of the identities and relationships valued in the social world being negotiated? How do the characters, and you as the reader, become aware of the ideologies that frame your meanings? The group of novels could have a thematic, genre, author, or some other connection. See Lesson 7 for additional information on this option. All class members will draft an analysis on characters in one class YA novel, and this option involves revising the analysis with instructor feedback to an expanded paper.
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., a course forum, Goodreads). Create a text set or unit plan for a social world issue that can be investigated through one or more young adult novels. See Lesson 8 for additional information on this option. All class members will work in a small group to create a multimodal website that inquires into the social worlds involved in multiple YA novels in the class set of 9 novels. With this option, you would develop a different text set on any idea that interests you and potential teen readers.
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., a course forum, Goodreads). Conduct action research with teen readers in which you explore the use of alternative activities for the study of literature using YA novels. Write a report in which you describe specific examples from your students’ inquiry into social worlds with YA novels, and identify patterns in what and how they think in their inquiries into lived and represented worlds. See Lesson 4 and 5 for additional information on this option. All class members will explore the characteristics of alternate approaches to the study of literature that originate in culturally-oriented reading practices, one of which is the social worlds inquiry orientation that forms the basis of interpretive activities in Lessons 6 - 12. With this option, you would collect stories from your work with teens about their thinking and activities with texts during alternative culturally-oriented practices.
*Several of the lessons in the course are based on the 9 YA novels listed as whole class YA novels. You may count in your total all of these novels that you read. You don't have to include these 9 class YA novels in your total read for any of the four options, but you can if you wish.
Project Breakdown
Success in this course requires each member to consistently and fully participate in asynchronous conversations about course readings and about independent choice readings of young adult literature. All work completed each week in the course will be shared in community forums. Small group collaborative forums will provide support for the development of at least one major project.
Affinity Group
An affinity group is a group of people linked by a common interest or purpose. The first day of class you will complete an informal survey evaluating your reading preferences and style. During the first week of class, your instructor will place you in your affinity group based on the responses you provide. You will work with this group throughout the semester on a variety of activities.
Check for Understanding
At the conclusion of each lesson, you will be presented with a non-graded activity titled “Check for Understanding.” This activity is an opportunity for you to not only reflect upon what you have learned in the course (lesson content and readings), but also build and share upon that knowledge with your classmates. As such, you instructor will assign you to a small affinity group during the first week of class.
Unless noted otherwise, each lesson’s Check for Understanding involves the use of a collaborative wiki to share and develop your ideas with your affinity group based upon a prompt provided by your instructor.
After your affinity group has been formed, collectively, you need to assign a group leader. It will be his/her responsibility to create and share the wiki space with the rest of the group at the beginning of the week for each lesson’s Check for Understanding activity.
You should plan to work on the wiki throughout the week as you gain ideas from what you have learned in the lesson. You are encouraged to build off of and expand upon ideas from other contributors of your affinity group. Please do not wait until the last minute to contribute. Doing so (waiting until the last minute) defeats the benefits you and your group will gain as a whole,
At the conclusion of week’s end, your affinity group’s team leader will then share your group’s wiki with the rest of the class. Please submit your collective work by Sunday, 11:55 p.m. (ET) of each week.
There are a number of wiki’s that are available. For this course, we recommend that you use SpiderScribe. This is a very easy and intuitive concept mapping wiki to use. Please click the following link to watch the introductory video.
Please note that SpiderScribe is not part of the Penn State system and as such, does not have the same protective firewalls as our course. If you are uncomfortable with going outside the Penn State system, you may want to use Confluence WikiSpaces, which is part of the Penn State system. The downside to Confluence WikiSpaces is that it is not as intuitive to use, nor can you easily share your wiki. You will have to email each space you create to not only your affinity group members, but also to each course member once your group has concluded their working session.
If your team would like to use another tool besides SpiderScribe or Confluence WikiSpaces (i.e., Google Docs, PB Works), please contact your instructor first for approval.
Goodreads Discussion Forum: Hooked on YA Books
Goodreads is a social media site where members can share and discuss books in groups that they join and even create. Please join Goodreads and then join our course group, “Hooked on YA books 2015,” which was created specifically for this LLED 520 class. Built into our group is a discussion board that will allow group members to collaborate and share ideas.
You are required to read a number of young adult literature selections of your choice over the semester. Your instructor will provide various prompt(s) with each lesson. Reflect upon the question being asked and apply it to the YA novel you are currently reading. Unless otherwise noted, your initial post is due Sunday, 11:55 p.m. (ET).
Discuss YA literature by posting and replying within YA literature social media forums. This includes Goodreads as well as any other YA literature social media forum(s) you already belong to. Please note: there is not a maximum requirement. Post and reply as much as you desire, but you should post or reply at least once each lesson.
Be sure to keep track of your social media posts for each book entry via your Goodreads Reading Journal (see below).
Goodreads Reading Response Record
Throughout the semester, you will be reading a variety YA novels and providing analysis, reflection, and commentary though a variety of channels. Download the Reading Record template and enter the title for your various book entries. For each book entry, you will include a copy of responses that you post to the course and/or social media sites, along with the URL’s to your postings. This document will be turned in at the end of the course via the Goodreads Reading Record Drop Box.
Yammer Discussion Forums
Similar to Facebook, Yammer is an Enterprise Social Network that brings together people, conversations, content, and collaboration in a single location. Yammer can be easily accessed through a web browser or mobile device, you can connect and collaborate with coworkers anytime, anywhere. In this course you will have access to three different Yammer Discussion Forums.
Yammer Discussion Forum: Affinity Group
This forum within Yammer is set up for you to communicate and collaborate exclusively with your affinity group. In many cases your affinity group will prepare a posting of your small group ideas to share for whole class discussion in the main Course Forum. You are free to post and reply in any affinity group.
Yammer Discussion Forum: Lesson Readings
Whereas the Goodreads site and its discussion board prompts you to critically think and discuss YA novel(s) that you are currently reading for the course, the Lesson Readings Yammer Discussion Forum will be a space for the entire class to reflect and post their reactions to instructor delivered prompts about the course readings (required readings: textbook books and eReserves). At times you will share the results of your affinity group's wiki construction in this Forum for whole class discussion.
Yammer Discussion Forum: Course Forum
This forum is set up as a hub for discussion and collaboration with the entire class (unlike the affinity group). The types of instructor lead prompts will vary within this forum for each lesson.
Final Project
For your major project in the course, you will choose one of the following options. ou may engage in all four options, but your final assessment will be based only on one that you will designate with the instructor no later than the 6th week of the course. Each option parallels a central objective for the course.
- Read 13 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., a course forum, Goodreads).
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., Goodreads). Write a critical literary analysis in which you critique how identities, relationships, activities, and values are constructed by teens across the social worlds of several YA novels, including some from class YA novels. How do the characters use language and action to negotiate and transform their social worlds, and develop consciousness and agency? How do the words and actions used by the characters illustrate a developing awareness of the identities and relationships valued in the social world being negotiated? How do the characters, and you as the reader, become aware of the ideologies that frame your meanings? The group of novels could have a thematic, genre, author, or some other connection. See Lesson 7 for additional information on this option. All class members will draft a short 5-7 page analysis on characters in two class YA novels, and this option involves revising that analysis with instructor feedback into an expanded paper.
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., a course forum, Goodreads). Create a text set or unit plan for a social world issue that can be investigated through one or more young adult novels. See Lesson 8 for additional information on this option. All class members will work in their affinity group to create a multimodal website that inquires into the social worlds involved in the choice and class YA novels they read. With this option, you would develop a different text set on any idea that interests you and potential teen readers. This text set could be a list of print and media texts and a plan on how they would be used together, or could be an individually created multimodal website.
- Read 9 young adult novels* of your choice across a variety of genres and post your responses and opinions to a community forum of your choice (i.e., a course forum, Goodreads). Conduct action research with teen readers in which you explore the use of alternative activities for the study of literature using YA novels. Write a report in which you describe specific examples from your students’ inquiry into social worlds with YA novels, and identify patterns in what and how they think in their inquiries into lived and represented worlds. See Lesson 4 and 5 for additional information on this option. All class members will explore the characteristics of alternate approaches to the study of literature that originate in culturally-oriented reading practices, one of which is the social worlds inquiry orientation that forms the basis of interpretive activities in Lessons 6 - 12. With this option, you would collect stories from your work with teens about their thinking and activities with texts during alternative culturally-oriented practices.
*Several of the lessons in the course are based on the 9 YA novels listed as whole class YA novels. You may count in your total all of these novels that you read.
See the Course Schedule located for a summary of the lessons, reading assignments, discussion assignments, activities and assessments.
Grading
Because coursework will be mostly group-based, assignments will be graded as pass/fail. If you have questions throughout the semester about your grade, please check the gradebook and communicate with your instructor.
Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Graduate Courses for additional information about University grading policies. If, for reasons beyond the student's control, a student is prevented from completing a course within the prescribed time, the grade in that course may be deferred with the concurrence of the instructor. The symbol DF appears on the student's transcript until the course has been completed. Non-emergency permission for filing a deferred grade must be requested by the student before the beginning of the final examination period. In an emergency situation, an instructor can approve a deferred grade after the final exam period has started. Under emergency conditions during which the instructor is unavailable, authorization is required from one of the following: the dean of the college in which the candidate is enrolled; the executive director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies if the student is enrolled in that division or is a provisional student; or the campus chancellor of the student's associated Penn State campus.For additional information please refer to the Deferring a Grade page.
Course Schedule
Note: All due dates reflect North American eastern time (ET).
Lesson 1: Reading habits, purposes, and communities
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Course Reserves (To access these articles, click on the Course Reserves link in your Course Navigation Menu.)
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Lesson 2: Teen literacies in and out of school
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Lesson 3: Finding and constructing communities of readers
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Lesson 4: Traditions and Alternatives in Teaching Literature
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Lesson 5: Academic Literacies and Culturally Oriented Reading Practices
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Lesson 6: Inquiry-based social worlds curricula with YA literature
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Lesson 7: Critical literacy for the critique and transformation of social worlds
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Lesson 8: Multimodal inquiry into social worlds with YA literature
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Lesson 9: Multimodal websites for inquiry into social world issues, identities, activities, and values
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Lesson 10: Intercultural thinking and diversity in YA character identity
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Lesson 11: Digital venues for response to YA literature
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Textbook Inquiry-Based English Instruction: Engaging Students in Life and Literature
Course Reserves (To access these articles, click on the Course Reserves link in your Course Navigation Menu.)
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Lesson 12: Video authoring with YA literature
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Lesson 13: Exploring the course multimodal websites and projects
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There are no readings assigned for this week's lesson except the reading of your classmates' projects. |
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Note: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please go to the Graduation Information on the My Penn State Online Student Portal.
Formal instruction will end on the last day of class. Provided that you have an active Penn State Access Account user ID and password, you will continue to be able to access the course materials for one year, starting from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered (with the exception of library reserves and other external resources that may have a shorter archival period). After one year, you might be able to access the course based on the policies of the program or department offering the course material, up to a maximum of three years from the end date of the academic semester in which the course was offered. For more information, please review the University Course Archival Policy.
Academic Integrity
According to Penn State policy G-9: Academic Integrity , an academic integrity violation is “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” Unless your instructor tells you otherwise, you must complete all course work entirely on your own, using only sources that have been permitted by your instructor, and you may not assist other students with papers, quizzes, exams, or other assessments. If your instructor allows you to use ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person (e.g., from Course Hero or Chegg) or by generative technology, such as ChatGPT, you must identify their source. You may not submit false or fabricated information, use the same academic work for credit in multiple courses, or share instructional content. Students with questions about academic integrity should ask their instructor before submitting work.
Students facing allegations of academic misconduct may not drop/withdraw from the affected course unless they are cleared of wrongdoing (see G-9: Academic Integrity ). Attempted drops will be prevented or reversed, and students will be expected to complete course work and meet course deadlines. Students who are found responsible for academic integrity violations face academic outcomes, which can be severe, and put themselves at jeopardy for other outcomes which may include ineligibility for Dean’s List, pass/fail elections, and grade forgiveness. Students may also face consequences from their home/major program and/or The Schreyer Honors College.
How Academic Integrity Violations Are Handled
World Campus students are expected to act with civility and
personal integrity; respect other students' dignity, rights, and
property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all
can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment
of academic integrity is requisite to respect for oneself and
others, as well as a civil community.
In cases where academic integrity is questioned, the Policy on Academic Integrity indicates that procedure requires an instructor to inform the student of the allegation. Procedures allow a student to accept or contest a charge. If a student chooses to contest a charge, the case will then be managed by the respective college or campus Academic Integrity Committee. If that committee recommends an administrative sanction (Formal Warning, Conduct Probation, Suspension, Expulsion), the claim will be referred to the Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response.
All Penn State colleges abide by this Penn State policy, but review procedures may vary by college when academic dishonesty is suspected. Information about Penn State's academic integrity policy and college review procedures is included in the information that students receive upon enrolling in a course. To obtain that information in advance of enrolling in a course, please contact us by going to the Contacts & Help page .
Accommodating Disabilities
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has resources for students with disabilities. The Student Disability Resources (SDR) website provides contacts for disability services at every Penn State campus. For further information, please visit the SDR website.
In order to apply for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability resources office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation based on the documentation guidelines. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus's disability resources office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.
Additional Policies
For information about additional policies regarding Penn State Access Accounts; credit by examination; course tuition, fees, and refund schedules; and drops and withdrawals, please see the World Campus Student Center website.
Veterans and currently serving military personnel and/or dependents with unique circumstances (e.g., upcoming deployments, drill/duty requirements, VA appointments, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor in the case that special arrangements need to be made.