Teacher Round Table

A Conversation Inspired by Arianna Banack’s “Connecting and Critiquing the Canon: Pairing Pride and Pride and Prejudice”

Authors

  • SHELLY K. UNSICKER-DURHAM University of Oklahoma
  • SHAISTA FENWICK
  • NAJAH AMATULLAH HYLTON
  • SUZANNE SUTTON
  • CONNOR WOODARD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2021.5.1.128-152

Abstract

Study and Scrutiny has focused on the publication of critical and empirical studies surrounding the scholarship and critical merits of Young Adult literature. Because other journals provide a space for pedagogical practices concerning YA, the editors have intentionally shied away from explaining to teachers how to teach a particular title in a particular way. Still, the intention of the journal has been, in part, to support the learning of secondary students as readers and the classroom practices of their teachers. This section hopes to serve as a space to open the conversation surrounding YA literature, its critical merits, and ways that the research might serve teachers as they make curriculum choices about both texts and strategies. The idea is to bring teachers, as intellectuals, into conversation surrounding the scholarship of a featured study. For this issue, four Oklahoma teachers from four different school districts focus on Arianna Banack’s article “Connecting and Critiquing the Canon: Pairing Pride and Pride and Prejudice.” 

Author Biographies

SHELLY K. UNSICKER-DURHAM, University of Oklahoma

SHELLY K. UNSICKER-DURHAM is a PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma. A former ELA classroom teacher, she is currently a co-editor of Study and Scrutiny. Along with young adult literature, her research interests include expressive writing pedagogy and teacher conversations. 

SHAISTA FENWICK

SHAISTA FENWICK has been teaching for six years. Originally from Trinidad Tobago, Shai moved to Houston, Texas where she began a teaching career working as a paraprofessional focused on adaptive behavior for the hearing and visually impaired. She’s taught in the middle grades at an Oklahoma City charter school, and this is her third year teaching British literature to seniors at Moore High School. Keeping YA novels on the bookshelves of her classroom library, Shai often excerpts YA lit to draw parallels and “inform and season what’s happening in the curriculum.” 

NAJAH AMATULLAH HYLTON

NAJAH AMATULLAH HYLTON, an author and spoken word artist in her ninth year as an English teacher, is currently teaching sophomores at Putnam City West High School. She’s taught in several schools around the Oklahoma City metro area, three years with 7th-graders, as well as two years with juniors and seniors. Najah loves reading YA lit, keeps it in her classroom library for leisure reading, and has taught a few YA novels whole class, like Wonder to 7th-graders and currently The Book Thief to her 10th-graders. However, Najah has intentionally leaned into teaching the canon because she wants her students to know they are “fully capable of tackling classical texts.” 

SUZANNE SUTTON

SUZANNE SUTTON, after fifteen years as an English Language Arts teacher, is in her first year as a library/media specialist at Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City. She began teaching English in a rural setting with juniors and seniors, along with AP classes, where much of her curriculum focused on the canon. The latter half of that career found Suzanne in an urban setting, teaching 8th and 9th graders, where she incorporated YA literature with book club scenarios, for example a Coming-of-Age theme with titles like Monster, House on Mango Street, as well as including graphic novels like American Born Chinese and Pashmina. 

CONNOR WOODARD

CONNOR WOODARD is in his fifth year of teaching secondary English, having taken a year off in the middle to work on his masters’ degree. Currently he teaches on-level and honors-level sophomores, as well as AP juniors, at Norman North High School. His work with YA literature has included titles like House on Mango Street, Persepolis, and Dreamland Burning. He’s also ventured into literature circles, where his sophomores chose their own titles, largely YA novels. Connor enjoys the support of an administration that once he’s supported his curriculum choices with a rationale, along with the standards, he can teach, even with the video game, Undertale, which Connor likens to YA lit in its engagement and appeal to students. 

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Published

2021-12-31 — Updated on 2022-04-06

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2021): CREATIVE CONTAMINATION: GENERATING ENRICHMENT THROUGH ADAPTATION

Section

Interview

License

Copyright (c) 2021 SHELLY K. UNSICKER-DURHAM

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.