21st Century Literature

Criteria for Quality
Literature changes as technology changes. It is important that we provide our students with access and exposure to popular literature of the time. Currently, graphic novels, digi fiction, doodle fiction, and manga fiction are new and popular formats of 21st century literature. This type of literature is often seen to break traditional norms of text formats and deal with themes and current issues which reflect the culture and technological society we live in today. Often these pieces of literature rely on visual story telling through symbol, image, and/or multimedia formats (videos/blogs/websites). With consideration of these elements in mind, it is important to make sure that resources are available for students to use to get the full experience of the text (such as access to technological tools, experience with technology). It is also important to make sure to be open towards these new ways of literature. I would highly suggest reading and experiencing the texts before introducing them to your classroom. This type of reading may be new for many readers and explicit instruction may be needed in order for the most effective comprehension to occur. Overall, suggestions for including these texts in your classroom would include:

• Reading the text before bringing it into the classroom
• Make sure the content in appropriate
• Explicitly teach how to read these books
• Have students share their understanding of the book (as they are often quite technologically savvy)
• Introduce a broad variety of 21st century literature into your classroom
• Provide access to technology needed to enhance comprehension of story
• Embrace the new insights/experience 21st century literature offers

Examples of Quality
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) by Jeff Kinney (doodle fiction)
Looking into the Lexile measure and CCSS text complexity measure, this book is suggested to be appropriate for the 4-5th grade span of students. With consideration of the doodle features in this book, I would even say this book would be appropriate for 3rd grades. If I were to chose this book for a read-aloud, I would first want to make sure each student was able to have a copy of the text in their hand so they could see the wonderful additions the doodles tell. I would say this book would be an appropriate read aloud for 3rd graders. The events and language used in the book seem to be elements they could easily relate to. The events taking place in this book emphasize themes of friends/friendships, sibling relationships, growing up, and middle school. The author does a great job o illustrating and telling the story through his doodles. As mentioned through the theme of growing up and school, relationships between authentic local happenings and these experiences could easily be made with the students and their lives. If using these books in my classroom, I would make sure to have discussion and explicit instruction explaining how to read the doodle fiction book.

39 Clues: The Maze of Bones (2008 ) by Rick Riordan (digi fiction)
According to the Lexile measure and CCSS text complexity measure this book is deemed an appropriate reading level for the grade span 2-3. With consideration of the literature elements of this book, I would say it is more of an appropriate book for 3rd-4th graders.  If using this book as a read aloud in my classroom, I might use it for 2nd graders. However, it would also be important to make sure time is taken to use the digital additions to this book. These features will help students use their reasoning and problem solving skills. I also think it will be important to make sure discussion is spent on pulling out clues as well as getting students to use comprehension strategies such as inferencing and pulling out key details. As this book is read, readers will encounter themes of cooperation/teamwork, sibling, making difficult decisions, and survival in difficult situation. Overall, this book is extremely adventuresome and the author does a great job of integrating technology into this 21st century book. See a video of the author giving a read aloud over this book by clicking the following link (read aloud by Rick Riordan). Overall, with additions of historical tidbits inserted through out the text, readers could connect this story to governmental issues.