Grant T. Smith, Ph. D.
From Using Young Adult Literature in the English
Classroom by John H. Bushman and Kay Parks Bushman
“I
don’t want to analyze authors. I
want to enjoy them. I want
the boys in class to enjoy their books because of what’s in them…Youth,
I believe, should not analyze its enjoyments. It
should live. Criticism is
the province of age, not youth. They’ll
get to that soon enough. Let
them build up a friendship with the written word first.”
--Robert
Frost
Definition
of Young Adult Literature: Young
adult Literature has many common characteristics: Conflicts are often consistent
with the young adult’s experience, themes are of interest to young people,
protagonists and most characters are young adults, and the language parallels
the language of young people.
--any
book freely chosen for reading by someone in this age group is called young
adult literature—
Lifetime
developmental tasks that confront adolescents: According to Erikson (1963)
the major developmental tasks that confront teenagers are the formulation, and
reformulation of a personal identity.
· Achieving
new and more mature relations with age mates
· Achieving
a proper masculine or feminine social role
· Adapting
to physical changes and using the body effectively
· Achieving
emotional independence from parents and other adults
· Preparing
for marriage and family
· Preparing
for an economic career
· Acquiring
a personal ideology or value system
· Achieving social responsibility
Piaget and Cognitive Development
The Concrete Operational Period (ages 7 - 12 years)
Young adults become more independent in their thinking. They can think logically, classify, and show relationships. The real world is extremely important to these young people. Their thinking revolves around immediate and concrete objects rather than concepts and abstractions.
The Formal Operational Period (ages 12 to adulthood)
During this time, adolescents are able to apply logical operations to all classes of pr0oblems. It is during this final stage that abstract thinking prevails. Adolescents are able to reason about abstract propositions, objects, or concepts that they have not directly experienced. At this time, young people are able to hypothesize and use deductive and inductive reasoning.