The Young Adult Journal

I have a classroom full of Young Adult Literature (YAL); literally. I have collected thousands and thousands of books most often in sets of six purchased out of pocket from Scholastic, Orca, local library quarter baskets, collected from conferences, and begged for in pre-released form from anyone who will read the emails I send with the persistence of a stalker.

 

Sometimes my books go out and come back, sometimes they filter through students, and sometimes I find them in various bookrooms. The fact is if the books are out, it means they’re being read; so I’m as happy as can be! Although I have had some semblance of success keeping track of what goes in and out of my room, I seem to miss the mark when it comes to keeping track of what information goes in and out of my head.

 

When students ask me what I read or if a book is any good, I find that my active September mind has sadly seeped into the recesses on my February carpet or and that my memory of those books has evaporated into the flying pencil holes that don my ceiling.

 

To keep track of what I have read, I started keeping a YAL reading journal. Organization-wise, it helps me keep track of what I read as well as my immediate excitement or disappointment for the book.

I document using MLA referencing on the top margin, write the date I completed the reading on the top middle, and number the book in the order that I finished reading it. To keep track, I write a three part blurb.

• The first blurb is a photograph-esque summary so that I remember precisely which baseball book (for example) is which. I keep track of this much like one keeps track of Seinfeld episodes. “The one with the Soup Nazi,” so that when I remember the detail/ thought-shot, I can immediately reference the recesses of my mind.
• The second blurb gives me the lowdown on which students I predict will respond well to the book. Sometimes I’ll include first names of students, or specific situations that may be relevant to the book. That way I can quickly look at the title of the book and the middle blurb notes to figure out which student would respond most openly.
• The last blurb provides me a brief lesson-plan suggestion box. I come up with ways to apply a part or whole of the book and which curriculum it may work most strongly with.

Sometimes just exposing students to a part of a book with a read-aloud is enough to get them asking to borrow the book before the end of class; even reading as few as a few sentences aloud to a class provides enough information to make the book relevant; at that point a student just needs the hook!

 

To supplement this journal, I have also provided a student journal to the classroom that does not leave my room. Students can follow the documentation format, and write a quick summary/reaction so that others can use those opinions to judge if they might also be interested in reading the book.

 

Overall, keeping a YAL journal handy has provided me with a reference tool that has become invaluable to my library; and even more importantly, has become a tool that I can reference time and again to help them become lifelong readers.

 

Originally published by NHCTE: http://nhcte.org/files/35797211.pdf