CHAP. 6: IMPLEMENTING THE YOUNG ADULT READER INVOLVEMENT MODEL

Recognizing the range and diversity of readers in a classroom, young adult literature can help the teacher to meet their needs by getting to know their students first. It is very important for a teacher to look at their students and get to know them slowly. One of the ways which they can do this is to get the students to introduce themselves and ask them who are their favourite authors or books and then learn from them slowly. By getting to know the students, the teacher will know what books they like to read and giving them a choice to choose books that they love to read. It is best if the teacher does this since, there is a range and diversity among students. Getting the students to choose their favourite book will make them to read more and most of all appreciate it. This will provide them some enthusiasm and interest. If we look from a different perspective where the teacher provides the book, some students will feel that the teacher is forcing them to read the book and not based by their own interest. Although some will agree with the teacher’s selection, but overall students would like to prefer something which they have a good background knowledge and the interest to read. Therefore, it is always best if the teacher can give them some opportunity to choose books which they love to read.

Besides that, giving them a list of the bestseller books and a summary of it will give them more happiness to select books which they love to read. As all of us know, students love something new and if the teacher can provide a list like this, the students can choose books that they like to read. But, the teacher also needs to be careful and know what books the students are choosing. This is to make sure that they are not brought to sensitive issues but towards developing good values.

For students with discipline problems and who are reluctant to read, the teacher here can choose books that depicts their characters. For example, if that student is very naughty, the teacher can choose books that depicts the characters which are naughty. In other words, students will be indirectly related to it. When these type of students read these books, they will be able to associate themselves with the character and later begin to improve themselves. This will in return reduce the teacher’s burden when dealing with these type of students.