I have to admit that at first, I didn't see the real value in this idea. I thought it'd just be sort of silly and we wouldn't get much out of it. I was quite wrong. Though we only had a brief time to interact with them, I saw immediate value.
I think many of us especially in this class, most of us English or Education majors of some sort, we probably had relatively positive experiences with reading growing up, perhaps even accelerated. Many of us said we may have skipped YA Lit at least a little, if not entirely. We missed out on this literature, but that doesn't mean that many teens don't enjoy it and benefit from it. And hearing what they had to say about why it was important to them to have this kind of class was insightful.
I just saw how much they enjoyed their class, if nothing else. They respected and liked their teacher and trusted her book choices. They seemed to actually read the books, to enjoy them, and to learn from them. Some of the students said they hated reading before this class, and I was excited to hear them say that they really liked to read some of these books. I've said from the beginning that reading is beneficial no matter what kind. And this sort of thing can definitely be a stepping stone to enjoying more challenging reading as an adult.
I also had to comment on the references to the classics. I commented on the blog that it sounded more like they had teachers who were unable to reach them with the classics, to connect the underlying themes to their lives. One student wrote how the sex, drugs, and love in the YA books they just didn't find in Romeo and Juliet... I think they missed something, which made me so sad.
It reinforced to me, as a preservice English teacher, that it is ESSENTIAL to connect with my students, to help them connect with the literature, to help them find relevant meaning. It will turn them off from reading if I can't do that effectively.
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