Thread by @GCSE_Macbeth

Some quick, late thoughts about YA books on the curriculum.

@DavidDidau blogged on this today, and it got me thinking. This isn't meant as a point-by-point response or anything -- read this, then read his blog, and decide for yourself.

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I think YA books can happily co-exist on the KS3 curriculum with older and more canonical books. That's not to say they're the same, or there are no qualitative differences. I just think our subject can encompass both.

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While the concept of the "Canon" is problematic, most teachers would agree that there IS an academic discipline called "English" and at its core is a canon of agreed-upon "great works". And many would say those works should be at the centre of English in schools.

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Which is all fine.

But as English teachers we don't -- can't? -- just end our involvement with reading and literacy at the school gate. Most English teachers would also say they want to produce lifelong readers. Lovers of books.

Well, ...

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If we want students to engage intelligently and discerningly with books outside of school -- which we all do! -- then bringing some of that engagement into class might not be such a bad idea. We should acknowledge how reading habits are formed and our students read.

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If you're wondering why Year 8 won't move beyond Diary Of A Wimpy Kid at home, then the solution isn't Great Expectations in class.

Great Exp. is worthy of study in the academic discipline of English, but it's highly unlikely to form a reading habit in a reluctant reader.

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To model the experience of reading for pleasure and imprint it on students, it might behoof us to bring some of that pleasurable reading into the classroom.

In balance with the canonical stuff, not in opposition to it. The class who read Noughts and Crosses together might...

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...miss out, for a few weeks, on nuanced patterning of language and imagery. But they will sit transfixed by the story, because that book is gold-dust for reluctant readers.

Which is not to imply that YA books don't contribute towards literary study.

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Doug Lemov, in "Reading Reconsidered", has the great concept of "pre-complex" books. Those are books that train developing readers in the complexities and challenges that "great" books present, but in an approachable and surmountable way.

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So, for example, if we know that Jekyll and Hyde lies on the GCSE horizon, and it presents challenges relating to changing viewpoints, non-linear narrative, archaic language, unfamiliar context etc, then we can choose KS3 books that prepare the ground for those elements.

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That's where YA fiction can play a part -- as a training ground for more challenging canonical texts. Time spent on how changing viewpoints and varying accounts create the mystery in One Of Us Is Lying isn't wasted if it lays a foundation for J&H or Inspector Calls.

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The prose of YA books can indeed be rich, and meaningful to study for its own sake and as a better prompt to creative writing, perhaps, than older adult ficiton. This is the opening of The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge:

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Plenty to discuss, plenty to model, plenty to engage and inspire.

I like my canonical texts, I really do, and I do think their study is important. Even though policing the canon means making partial, contingent judgements about literary merit and the purpose of English.

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I just think that in our rush to make KS3 English rigorous, knowledge-rich and intellectually authentic -- all fine aims -- we shouldn't be too quick to skip the valuable, intermediate step that YA fiction can provide.

Cheers.

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