Australian School Library Association > Publications > Young adult fiction: part of a differentiated curriculum?

Young adult fiction: part of a differentiated curriculum?

By Heather Voskuyl

ACCESS, Vol. 21, Issue 2, 2007, pp. 5-8.

(The views expressed in articles are those of the author(s) concerned and do not necessarily represent the views of ASLA.)

The drive to differentiate the curriculum is resonating across Australia but what does this phrase actually mean? Curriculum documents define it as ‘programs that provide flexibility and choice, for the range of individual differences in the classroom’ (NSW Department of Education and Training 2007). In my school, it means that each teacher is being challenged to differentiate their teaching program so that every unit:

• incorporates various levels of difficulty within its content
• recognises that students use various learning styles and accommodates this
• incorporates a variety of means of assessment so students can demonstrate what they have learned in different ways.

The justification for this challenge is the belief that every teaching program should strive for the best match between a learner’s capacity and the level of experiences provided. Differentiation, or variety, is essential to avoid underachievement if you agree that ‘some children have greater facility with abstract thought, critical reasoning and meta–cognitive skills than others’ (Braggett et al. 1999). Can we apply this curriculum initiative to young adult (YA) fiction and if we do, what are some of the implications?

Differentiating the curriculum in the context of our YA fiction collection requires that we attempt to acknowledge and examine our assumptions about:

• students’ abilities
• students’ needs and interests
• students’ probable or possible responses to particular content or formats.

Perhaps nothing would change as school library YA fiction collections already incorporate diversity to suit a range of abilities. We already have high expectations of our adolescent readers while allowing/encouraging them to demonstrate their individual reading preferences and styles. We already understand that individual readers respond differently to the same text. We already acknowledge that when we read YA fiction, we do so from a different perspective from our adolescent readers and with a different purpose.

YA fiction

What do we mean by YA fiction? The controversies that are often generated by the announcement of the winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Award reflect the paradox of YA fiction. YA fiction is defined by its readership but the parameters of that readership are disputed. Some experts define YA as catering for students between the ages of 12 and 18; others extend it age 24 (when is an adult a young adult?). There is general agreement that YA fiction was constructed as a bridge between the content and style of children’s books and the content and style of adult books. What is not so generally agreed is the pedagogical element that is intrinsic in a genre that is (mostly) written by adults, published by adults and purchased by adults.
The pedagogical element is always present, not only as didacticism and puritanical censorship but as a commitment to certain values and knowledge that the individual or community feel needs to be handed on. (Norst 1989, p. 748)
When a genre is constructed by adults but intended for younger readers that genre has a cultural significance. Norst argues that we always apply our personal beliefs and values to that task even though we may try to avoid being didactic or overly censorious.

Authors of novels directed towards adolescents confront the dilemma of preserving the innocence of youth or confronting their adolescent reader with a more challenging narrative.
Every author, providing he is writing for someone other than himself, develops his narrative as a function of a certain type of reader whom he bestows with certain qualities, faculties and inclinations according to his opinion of men in general (or in particular) and according to the obligations he feels should be respected. (Onega & Landa 1996, p. 191)
Jeri Kroll, author and critic, is very conscious of these obligations. She writes of the ‘burden of worrying constantly about non-literary matters’ (1996, p. 345) that writers of YA novels bear. Maria Nikolajeva (2000) coined the term ‘dear child’ in describing the readers of YA fiction to express that dilemma. To what extent do we need to protect the adolescent reader and is it then possible to extend the adolescent reader? Johnston has described YA fiction as a genre that creates a thinking space for the adolescent reader. YA fiction offers a safe place for the adolescent reader to experience emotions and consider ideas and opinions. Does YA fiction stretch the mind a size larger in the adolescent novel of ideas (Hollindale 1995) or does it mar the adolescent reader by exposing them to nihilistic beliefs?

Protagonists

It is a common characteristic of YA fiction to have adolescent protagonists with whom the adolescent reader is expected to identify. Stephens argues that authors of novels that locate the reader within the narrative assume that the reader’s subjectivity is lost as part of the reading process (1992, p. 4). This practice discourages the adolescent reader from questioning the novel and hinders their development as readers. The implicit beliefs represented in these texts are more powerful because the adolescent reader is positioned to uncritically absorb them. Stephens argues that ‘the optimum enabling state for the reader is to have a number of available reading strategies, including an interrogative engagement with the implied reader’ (1992, p. 70). If they align themselves with an adolescent protagonist, the adolescent reader risks matching ‘their own sense of selfhood with ideas of self constructed in and by the text’ (1992, p. 68). The relationship between a reader and an author can be likened to that of a social contract. The reader freely and independently cedes part of their liberty to the authority of the author for the sake of the benefits to be derived form reading that novel. A subject-reader position, uncritical of the text, leaves the reader open to the intellectual manipulation seen in didactic texts.

A national curriculum?

If there is a national curriculum for Australian YA fiction, it is located in those books that win the national and state awards, for it is those books that are most frequently purchased by Australian school libraries. The CBCA award and the reading awards of the NSW, Victorian and Western Australian premiers are all based on notions of literary merit and suitability for a mature reader in secondary school. The Young Australian Best Book Award (YABBA) for the most popular novel for older reader is unique in its emphasis on readers. YABBA awards are determined by popularity and it is the adult organisers’ explicit intention to not just encourage reading but to also develop the adolescent reader’s willingness to express their ‘opinions about books’ (YABBA 2006). These awards reflect the lack of agreement about how we define the readership for this genre. The CBCA and premiers’ awards mention ‘maturity’ and ‘secondary school’ but the controversies surrounding YA fiction have arisen out of the difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of a novel being suitable for and interesting to secondary students ranging in age from 12 to 18. The YABBA awards are restricted to younger adolescent readers as students in the later years of secondary school are not included. Do we dare allow older adolescent readers an opinion about YA fiction? Or are we assuming that the ‘serious readers’ have all moved on to adult fiction and the needs of those who have not are well satisfied by content that is suited to a 14-year-old? Similar tensions exist with other awards, such as the Smarties Awards and the Koalas Awards.

Expectations

Some psychologists believe that reading YA fiction can be a form of therapy for adolescents. Muss suggests that the study of problems of adolescence as reflected in literature would benefit a class of adolescents because this activity would assist their personal development (1988, p. 83.). His work is based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, a belief that through role play, individuals can learn to restructure their own moral schemata and incorporate those of others.

It is perhaps because of similar beliefs that some adults endorse a formula for writing YA fiction that narrows rather than differentiates the genre. The complete idiot’s guide to writing for young adults (Perlberg 2006) advocates that a YA novel must have:

• a protagonist who is a young adult
• subject matter of interest to young adults or within the experiences of young adults, usually placing the protagonist in conflict with the larger world
• the reading level of a young adult (that is, using a young adult’s vocabulary).

I am unsure what Perlberg means by ‘the reading level of a young adult’ but she does note that her criteria reflect the type of fiction that arise from a belief that ‘the YA category was developed as a marketing tool’ (2006, p. 4) and she acknowledges that this product is read and enjoyed by adults and, conversely, that some young adults read adult fiction. Perlberg’s opinions are in stark contrast to McCallum’s tribute to ‘the radical diversity in adolescent fiction’. McCallum describes YA fiction as a genre that uses the narrative form to ‘represent and communicate ideas of such complexity and of such significance for any young reader’s quest for meaning and self-definition’ (1999, p. 260).

Hollindale argues that child and adolescent readers are best served by a genre that incorporates diversity: ‘Each child needs and deserves a literature, but the literature that meets their needs is unlikely to be a homogeneous one.’ (1988, p. 8). Some authors of YA novels have tried to counter this perception by arguing that YA fiction is a genre with its own particular discipline:
In a YA novel of 40,000 to 70,000 words, every scene must be essential to illuminating character, moving plot or working on a symbolic level. To do two of these at once is good; to do all three is impressive. (Charbonneau 1995, p. 18).
Charbonneau’s description of a YA novel illustrates Hollindale’s diversity in its flexible length – 40,000 to 70,000 words – and the focus on the elements of story-telling.

Reading preferences and styles

In my experience, not all adolescents have or will develop heightened levels of literacy skills but I would like to suggest three things: firstly, that adolescent readers can and do make choices about how to read YA fiction; secondly, that adolescent readers bring to YA fiction not only their literacy skills but a much broader set of life experiences that will be reflected in their responses; and thirdly, that we read YA fiction from the perspective of a critical reader not an adolescent reader.

Author and critic Peter Dickinson suggests in his article A defence of rubbish that ‘the adult eye is not necessarily the perfect instrument for discerning certain sorts of values’ in children’s fiction. The naivety of the child reader ‘can take or leave in a way that an adult cannot’ (1970, p. 9). Meek (1980) suggested a sequence of rhetorical questions to address the problem of being an adult critic reading books written for child readers. Meek prefaced her remarks by stating that many articles about the act of reading apply to very few (child) readers. Most child readers do not have heightened literacy skills and therefore have a limited ability to determine how they will read a text. Meek concluded that for the imagined child reader, the surface level of a text is very important as this may well be the only level available to them.

The distinction between a child reader and an adolescent reader is, perhaps, that an adolescent reader can choose how they will read a novel. It is important to note that all readers have the power to stop reading a text at will. The simplest way for a reader to approach a novel is to be an obedient reader, suspending disbelief and surrendering themself to the author and their novel (Iser 1978). Another approach is to be a resistant reader and deliberately resist the author’s intentions. Resisting authority is a trait commonly associated with adolescence. The adolescent reader is neither an automaton nor a puppet. They can choose not only whether to continue reading the novel but also which approach they want to take. Their choices will vary, according to their literacy skills and mood. Their choice may change while they are reading, between reading sessions and with subsequent re-readings of the same text.

Michel Pecheux formulated three types of subject position that the reader could adopt: the obedient reader, who identifies and accepts the ideology and image projected by the text; the disobedient reader, who refuses the identity offered by the text; and a third reader, who transforms the subject position that is offered (Selden & Widdowson 1993). This third reader is a reader who has made the transition from a reader-subject position to a position from which they are able to interrogate the text and the society that produced it as suggested by Stephens (1992). Adolescent readers are in the process of being formally taught the critical literacy skills that empower them to select from these reader positions.
At first Gunno hadn’t known either what was being taught. It made him think of the credits at the pictures where he just wanted the meaningless words to drift away and leave him with the picture, which they seemed only to obscure. He had just wished that the speaker would leave the music to wash over him as he was used to: not study it, not try to understand what was going on in the composer’s mind. But as he listened and got pulled further and further into the teacher’s framework he changed his mind. He could see what was being taught … (Nilsson 1993, p. 52)
If we substitute composer’s mind with author’s mind and teacher’s framework with author’s framework then Eleanor Nilsson has described an adolescent reader acquiring choices: to either become immersed in a story or to reflect upon the author’s craft. Neither response invalidates the other; the importance is that Gunno knows he can choose.

Differentiation

As teacher librarians, our reader position is that of Pecheux’s transformative reader. We interrogate YA fiction with a specific purpose. If we want to differentiate our curriculum then our task is to make available a varied collection of YA fiction. Such a collection will challenge adolescent readers with their various needs, interests and abilities and will elicit responses reflecting individual reading styles. We need to include Dickenson’s rubbish and Hollindale’s novels of ideas. Doing so provides Johnston’s thinking spaces; spaces that ‘empower rather than repress adolescent readers’ (Trites 2000, p. xii).

References

Arts NSW 2007, NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2007 guidelines, The Arts Council of NSW, Sydney, NSW, accessed 9 March 2007, http://www.arts.nsw.gov.au/awards/LiteraryAwards/2007%20awards/GuideLines.htm

Braggett E, Morris G and Day A 1999, Reforming the middle years of schooling, Hawker Brownlow Education, Highett, Vic.

Charbonneau E 1995, 'If you want to write a young adult novel', Writer, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 18–20.

Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2006, Children's Book of the Year Awards, Children’s Book Council of Australia, Norwood, SA, accessed 9 March 2007, http://www.cbc.org.au/awards1.htm

Dickinson P 1970, ‘A defence of rubbish’, Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 7–10.

Hollindale P 1995, 'The adolescent novel of ideas', Children's Literature in Education, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 83–95.

Hollindale P 1988, Ideology and the children's book, The Thimble Press, Woodchester, UK.

Iser W 1978, The act of reading: a theory of aesthetic response, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Johnston RR 2006, The particular qualities of novels addressed to adolescent readers,(unpub.) UTS, Sydney.

Kroll J 1996, 'Gillian Rubinstein's Beyond the labyrinth: a court case and its aftermath', Paradoxa, vol. 2, no. 3–4, pp. 332–345.

Meek M 1980, 'Questions of response', Signal, vol. 31, pp. pp. 29–35.

Onega S and Landa J 1996, Narratology, Longman, London.

McCallum R 1999, Ideologies of identity in adolescent fiction: the dialogic construction of subjectivity, Garland, New York.

Muss RE 1988, Theories of adolescence (5th ed.), McGraw-Hill, New York.

Nikolajeva M 2002, 'A dear child: by way of introduction', Crearta, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 3-7.

Nilsson E 1993, The house guest, Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, Victoria.

Norst MJ 1989, 'Children's literature in translation', Meanjin, vol. 48, no. 4, p.748.

NSW Department of Education and Training 2007, Differentiating the curriculum, NSW Department of Education and Training , Sydney, NSW, accessed 9 March 2007, http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/policies/gats/programs/differentiate/index.htm

Perlberg D 2006, The complete idiot’s guide to writing for young adults, Penguin USA, New York.

Selden R and Widdowson P 1993, A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory (3rd ed.), Harvester, Wheatsheaf, New York.

State Library of Victoria 2006, The prize for young adult fiction, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, accessed 9 March 2007, http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/literary/pla/yaprize/index.html

State Library of Western Australia 2006, Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, The State Library of Western Australia, Perth, WA, accessed 9 March 2007, http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/pba.html

Stephens J 1992, Language and ideology in children's fiction, Longman, London.

Trites RS 2000, Disturbing the universe: power and repression in adolescent literature, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.

YABBA 2006, YABBA the Children’s Choice Book Award in Victoria, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, accessed 9 March 2007, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~yabba/

Heather Voskuyl is head librarian at Queenwood School for Girls in New South Wales. She has worked in school libraries in New South Wales and Papua New Guinea and in both the state and independent sectors. She is currently a student of UTS Sydney completing a doctorate. Her topic is 'Plainsong or polyphony? Representations of adolescence and the interpellation of the adolescent reader in young adult fiction'.

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Last updated 5 July 2007