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Using a platform like Youtube to tell students narratives is beneficial for many reasons.

1. Allows you to create media that is representative of both interconnected and independent narratives and identities when working collaboratively.

2. Accessible to a wide range audience

3. Allows you to work collaboratively or independently to give each story justice

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Importance of Text Selection & Representation in Literature

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Importance of Text Selection & Representation in Literature

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As teachers, it's important that we select texts and supplementary materials that are relevant to our students and provide opportunities to connect within the classroom. It's also vital that we recognize the shift in what constitutes "good" literature as the digitization of the YA genre has expanded the types of works students are engaging in.

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Educators, specifically ELA educators

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Each chapter discusses a different pedagogical approach to teaching digital YAL and surrounding digital YA culture.

Throughout the book, the authors provide practical strategies for using children's and young adult literature to encourage personal growth and educational transformation within students alongside personal accounts brought forth by students, teachers, librarians, and researchers who actively engage with the process of restorying in YA digital contexts.

*Authors' Key Questions:
1. How can restorying traditional understandings of YAL help education realize social justice in today's digital age?

2. How can pedagogy, advocacy, and activism through digital YAL and digital YA culture advance social justice in schools and communities?

*these questions were used to help guide both the authors and readers in their exploration of these topics
(Coleman et al., 2023).

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The traditional definition of YAL refers to a genre of literature specifically for and about young adults and was mainly print based. In contemporary contexts, specifically in the rise of digital advancement, YAL has transformed to be more than just print based literature.

The digitization of YAL texts alongside the communities (both on and offline) that have formed around these works of YAL have greatly expanded what YAL means (Coleman, Griffin, & Thomas, 2023).

With this in mind, educators must recognize this expansion of YAL's definition and "invite renewed consideration of what counts as 'good' literature for young people" (Coleman et al., 2023, p. 2).

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Restorying Young Adult Literature: Expanding Students' Perspectives With Digital Texts (2023)

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Restorying Young Adult Literature: Expanding Students' Perspectives With Digital Texts (2023)

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Storytelling allows people to put their collective stories in a conversation with one another and against dominant narratives and stories that perpetuate white privilege, white supremacy, and patriarchy. When people engage in collaborative storytelling, they can explore general themes they share.

For example, in this chapter, three students who all identify as first generation Latinx students had different stories to tell  even though major parts of their identities are shared. Their narratives allowed them to counter the monolithic representation of first gen and minoritized students.

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Young Adult Literature (YAL) - Refers to a genre of literature that focuses on the experiences of young adults. Traditionally YAL has referred to print-based texts.
Digital YAL - Refers to literature for young adults that exists in all manner of digital forms and formats, and these, too, espouse literary quality.
Digital YA Culture - Refers to the network of blogs, social media feeds, fan communities, apps, and other digital platforms that allow YA enthusiasts to create social transformation through the circulation, discussion, and engagement with YAL and media.
Participatory Cultures - characterized by:
1. Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement;
2. Strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others;
3. Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices;
4. Spaces where members believe their contributions matter; and
5. Some degree of social connection among members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at least caring what other people think about what they have created)

(Coleman et al., 2023, p. 4)

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"An embrace of digital YAL and digital YA culture is key in restorying a more just future for the teaching of English and for the world"

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"An embrace of digital YAL and digital YA culture is key in restorying a more just future for the teaching of English and for the world"

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(Coleman et al., 2023, p. 5).

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Restoring Digital Access: Youth Librarians as Access Builders in a Digital Era

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Restoring Digital Access: Youth Librarians as Access Builders in a Digital Era

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Technology is growing, and libraries provide access to information and technology. However, libraries are the first to suffer budget cuts, which damages a vital component of the school. Youth Librarians are essential because they have multiple roles, such as teacher-librarian, media specialist, reader advisor, and literacy advocate.

Librarians have classroom experience and can teach students how to navigate fake news and research efficiently.

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Media Specialist
Librarians function as the school's library and media outpost. Providing access to books and storage for projectors and Chrome books. They also provide lessons on how to use technology.
Advisors
Librarians can teach students and teachers how to navigate the web and center voices around YA literature.
Advocates
Librarians can assist in deciphering the credibility of a site, article, or website to ensure students and teachers have the correct answer.
(Restorying Young Adult Literature, P. 42-45)

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1) Offer a book list in support of a unit and engage in book talks.

2) Collaborate on a lesson using digital storytelling and epistolary novels  (literary work in the form of letters).
3) Assist in developing a lesson plan that helps students visualize data from digital YA novels read in class concerning the local, national, and international.
4) Create digital timelines to help students visualize the relationship between novels and their relationship with real-life events.
5) YA Librarians can help revitalize old lessons.
(Young Adult Restorative Literature, P. 40-41)

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James Joshua Coleman
(he/they)
University of Iowa

Autumn A. Griffin
(she/her)
Georgia State University

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
(she/her)
University of Michigan

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Chapter 2 - Restorying Text Selection: Overcoming the Paradoxical Feeling of Digital YAL

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Chapter 2 - Restorying Text Selection: Overcoming the Paradoxical Feeling of Digital YAL

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Youth digital YA production, whether in school or out of school, informal or formal, occurs simultaneously across networks, platforms and modalities.

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Restoring YAL Curricula: Un-Whitewashing Curricula in English Language Arts

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Restoring YAL Curricula: Un-Whitewashing Curricula in English Language Arts

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"[This book] brings together a symphony of perspectives, identities, and political commitments to consider the role of digital tools and technology in the teaching of YAL"

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"[This book] brings together a symphony of perspectives, identities, and political commitments to consider the role of digital tools and technology in the teaching of YAL"

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(Coleman, Griffin & Thomas, 2023, p. 10).

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Literary curriculum as white property.

The notion of "whiteness as property" was pinned by Cheryl Harris.

Griffin and James believe situated humanities curricula serve as white property, arguing its purpose to perpetuate white supremacist narratives by:

1)     Emphasis on canonical context. (Canonical literature refers to works divided into different categories representing different periods, authors, geographical locations, and cultural influences.

2)     Excluding the stories of people from racially minoritized populations.

3)     Misrepresent or distort the stories of racially marginalized populations.
Therefore, only white narratives are presented to the public and circulated in schools.

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Restoring YAL: un-whitewashing curricula in English Language Arts.

Teachers can start restoring English Language Arts by:

1)     Taking up an expansive definition of text.

2)     Positioning students as knowledge makers.

3)     Reimagining possibilities for collaborative curriculum creation with students as partners.
Restoring Young Adult Literature, P. 55)

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Today's internet contains recommended readings and entries from teachers across the country. Many digital literacies have been created to disrupt literary whiteness, supported by #DisruptText, which four women of color created.
(Restoring Young Adult Literature, P..62)
#Wakanda syllabus. https://libguides.macalester.edu/wakandasyllabus

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·       Teachers demonized students who use technology in the classroom.

·        Critical pedagogies and texts allow students to read the world.

·       Adolescence is depicted through the eyes of adults and then presented to the adolescents in classrooms. This concept is similar to teachers who innately expect students to underperform and are surprised when they do.

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Fandom refers to a community of people passionate about something, whether it's a film, a band, a television show, a book, or a sports team. For students in ELA classrooms, fandom appears as Fan Fiction or Fan works.

Fan works consist of students redacting canon or popular novels, films, or comics and blending important information related to the editor to make the story more inclusive.

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Alongside the 3 primary authors of this book, there are also 8 contributing authors who consisted of friends, colleagues, and research partners of the 3 primary authors.

Coyote Shook (they/them)
Latrice Ferguson (she/her)
Bethany Monea (she/her)
Perla Gonzalez (she/her)
Joselyn Andrade (she/her)
Keiry Chicas (she/her)
Rabani Garg (she/her)
Shyamu Korwa (he/him)

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Shyamu, a student in New Delhi, India, was facing the challenges of the pandemic lockdown just like everyone else. The Black Lives Matter movement had also gained a lot of traction during this time so Shyamu would see a lot of content on his social media feeds about it. In class, he had a teacher discuss it briefly. At the children's home he lived at, he was told to participate in an art project so he created a poster of an African American woman inspired by the BLM movement. A few months later, he put his design on Redbubble and was selling his art through there.

This shows the fluidity that the youth move across platforms, networks, and modalities, and the ways the digital influences the nondigital YA production.

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Librarians are disappearing from school libraries with every budget cut. Librarians are a vital resource that students and teachers shouldn’t be without because they are Media specialists, advisors, and advocates who can assist teachers with finding information and enhancing lessons.

They can also help disrupt the canon by finding reliable, school-friendly sources to supplement reading. Teachers should also encourage Fandom as a source of reading and inspiration. However, reconsider publishing the work.

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Teachers can facilitate a space for students to to tell their own stories, in their own way and in their own time, and on platforms that are accessible to them. Teachers can engage in pedagogies that encourages their students to express themselves through different platforms and media besides the traditional written essays that are one of the only ways storytelling is done in an English classroom. By doing this, teachers will cultivate an open and welcoming environment for personal reflection which will allow students to use creativity and mindfulness when working on their assignments. (pg 79)

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Today's children's publishing industry holds a lot of racial inequities in the stories it publishes, thus heavily impacting the available representations teachers can provide for their students in the curriculum of their classroom.

"Mirrors" in literature provide students with a reflection of themselves in the works they have to read as a class. The lack of representation in the publishing industry greatly impact BIPOC readers in classrooms.

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While on one hand there is so little BIPOC representation in the books that are published and picked for curriculums - on the other hand, "the amount of digital YAL circulating through digital media (e.g., blogs, podcasts, and social media) has exploded" (Coleman et al., 2023, p. 13).

This paradox between encountering inequitable text selection in schools and having an inordinate amount of options strung out through digital medias can be incredibly overwhelming for educators as "locating the right intersectional representation for your classroom" and "knowing your literature" seems almost impossible (Coleman et al., 2023, p. 13).

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"Knowing the Literature" - Questions to Consider While Navigating Digital YAL Today:

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"Knowing the Literature" - Questions to Consider While Navigating Digital YAL Today:

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1. In the midst of rapid shifts in content and access to digital YAL, how do teachers know which texts to select for their classrooms?
2. How do we simultaneously address both historical gaps in YA publishing and the overabundances of representation in digital YAL culture?
3. How do we embrace the feeling of paradox around text selection in order to disrupt canon and pursue antiracist teaching in ELA?
4. What role might digital YAL, especially texts produced by student authors rather than commercially published authors, play in teachers' text selection? How can student authors restory classroom texts?

(Coleman et al., 2023, p. 13).

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Left to right - Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena German, Kimberly N. Parker, Julia E. Torres

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A social media hashtag started by Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena German, Kimberly N. Parker, and Julia E. Torres in May 2018.
With this hashtag, they "sought to 'advocate for a more inclusive and restorative curriculum and pedagogical approach in English Language Arts'" (Coleman et al., 2023, p. 14).

#DisruptTexts has since become a national movement and grassroots organization to provide resources for disrupting traditional ELA and aiding/developing teachers who are committed to anti-racist teaching pedagogy and practices. Their website offers guides for teachers, recommended readings, and discussions on current topics in ELA education.

Four Principles:
1. Interrogating our own biases
2. Centering BIPOC stories
3. Applying critical lenses
4. Working in community and highlighting restorying as a means to reimagine text selection and navigate the felt sense of paradox elicited by text selection today

For more information on #DisruptTexts, visit disrupttexts.org

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This chapter includes a deep dive into the creation of an ELA unit on speculative literature. Shook offers an in depth curriculum map, an approach to the texts, and insight on teaching queer literature.

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"The co-option of 'queerness' into a charity model of teaching in which queer characters exist simply as a tool for heterosexual characters and/or readers to practice empathy and learn to 'be themselves'...has serious limits...Furthermore, reducing queer narratives to pithy 'love is love' slogans in which the pinnacle of conflict revolves around a character overcoming shame or 'coming out' offers little for students when it comes to imagining futures for queer characters beyond acceptance from the very society that mistreats them" (Coleman et al., 2023, p. 25).