Literacy Matters - Vol 21 - Winter 2021

care, and poverty (Dutro, 2019, p. 5). There is also a need to be cautious of unintentionally making assumptions or marginalizing students (DiAngelo, 2018; Love, 2019), perpetuating racist beliefs. Given these concerns, it can be easy to turn away from these topics and texts that cause tension or discomfort in our classrooms (Borsheim-Black & Sarigiandes, 2019; Howard, 2016; Michael, 2015; Tatum, 2005). However, this process facilitates a deeper understanding of the novel. It also builds relationships among one another, understanding the impacts of traumatic experiences and how they relate to current lives. Questions may abound for teachers interested in this type of pedagogy, including concern about YA literature’s complexity or selecting appropriate texts and fostering conversations about personal traumas in the classroom. In addition, teachers may not want to compare their hardships with their students’, which is essential not to create an “us” versus “them”mentality. However, sharing our own situations and experiences is crucial, even if not 100% related. The simple act of sharing our own stories allows students to understand that space is provided to share their stories. Therefore, we explored YA novels’ complexity and explained ways to engage students in vital conversations related to the characters’ traumatic experiences. Through hypothetical vignettes written from the second author’s past experiences with similar texts, we provide examples of how teachers could provide space for a pedagogy of testimony and critical witnessing (Dutro, 2019; Dutro & Bien, 2014). It is important to note, with this type of pedagogy, especially in the beginning, it is natural to feel uncomfortable, and comments may not be perfect as teachers and students grow together (Howard, 2010). It is also necessary to learn about secondary trauma, learning about a traumatic experience from someone else, and practicing personal self-care. Interacting with Complex and Diverse Literature levels or “perceived literary and cultural prestige” are not the only factors determining complexity. Instead, complexity is determined based on other factors and what students will do with the text (p. 28). In this sense, complexity is both “found” and “made.” Found complexity relates to the language and structures employed in crafting the novel, the layers of meaning, and the reader’s knowledge demands (Glaus, 2014). Readers make complexity through personal connections, rigorous analysis of the text, and conversations with others revolving around real-world issues. Further, the level of reasoning required to analyze deeper meanings the author conveys contributes to the novel’s complexity (Hess, 2013). Such close reading allows for transactions with text that are personal, social, and analytical (Beers & Probst, 2013). According to Rosenblatt’s (1994) transactional theory, readers approach texts differently depending on their purpose. Reading from an efferent stance focuses on gleaning Buehler (2016) argued secondary educators should modify how they view complexity to ensure that Lexile

information for specific purposes, such as learning a new skill. Readers approaching with an aesthetic stance make personal connections to and interpretations of the text. Therefore, no two people have the same experiences with a text. Although readers approach a text with their purposes and prior knowledge, an individual’s response depends upon the activity systems to which the reader belongs. Activity systems, such as families, religious organizations, and social groups, influence its members’objectives and the tools, norms, and roles used to achieve them (Beach, 2000). These differences color readers’interpretations of the characters’actions and motivations. Hence, Lewis (2000) argued when the reader’s culture is different from that of the book’s characters; an aesthetic stance means readers recognize their outsider status. Instead of interpreting the text through personal connections, readers take a critical stance acknowledging the social, political, and historical influences on their text views. The reader is changed when responding to literature that both recognizes similarities and brings awareness to differences. Each new encounter with a text becomes part of the reader’s lived experiences, shaping how the reader views subsequent texts and the world outside of literature (Sumara, 1996). Thus, by reading and discussing trauma-related literature, there is the potential for readers with similar experiences to those represented in the text to learn to process their traumas in healthy ways and for those responding as outsiders to develop empathy. Novel Selection and Analysis We chose to investigate multiple young adult novels to determine their complexity and understand traumatic topics represented with an understanding of literature’s transformative power. Criteria for novel selection included: (a) received awards or honors, (b) demonstrated elements of complexity identified in Buehler’s (2016) framework, and (c) focused on traumatic events faced by secondary students. We then conducted a content analysis (Johnson et al., 2017), first using Buehler’s (2016) elements of text complexity as a priori codes: (a) language, (b) structure, (c) other stylistic elements, (d) characters, (e) settings, (f) plot, (g) literary devices, or (h) topics and themes and then elaborative coding (Saldaña, 2015). Our final round of coding investigated patterns related to each novel’s topics and themes. Although many novels meet these criteria, we highlight How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon (2014) in this article (see Table 1 for resources to locate additional diverse texts). Some of the accolades this novel has won are: (a) Coretta Scott King Award, Author, Honor, (b) Winner, IRA Notable Books for a Global Society, and (c) YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. Elements of complexity in How It Went Down include characters, structure, plot, language, and themes. This text is particularly relevant in the current social- political climate, as it primarily deals with the trauma of racially motivated shootings and includes classism and domestic abuse. We provide a summary of the novel, a brief explanation of how the author creates complexity through the characters and traumatic themes, and classroom instructional examples modeling the reciprocal process of sharing testimony and bearing critical witness.

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