Y'all, I am beyond excited to announce that my ALAN Picks Review submission was chosen to be featured in their March 2023 newsletter!
If you've never heard about the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN), according to their website, the collective of great folks "promotes communication and cooperation among all individuals who have a special interest in adolescent literature, presents programs and conferences on this subject, promotes and increases the number of articles and publications devoted to it and integrates the efforts of all those with an interest in this literature."
The ALAN Picks Review is a featured section of ALAN's newsletter that showcases book reviews that include a pedagogical analysis of the latest YA and middle-grades books, culturally relevant teaching strategies and ideas for student engagement with YA texts in the classrooms and library communities nationwide.
Last semester in my YA Lit class taught by the magnificently wonderful Dr. Rosa Nam, we were assigned to create an ALAN Picks Review for one of the 20 books we had to read. I must admit, this class caused me great anxiety in the beginning because my reading life only consisted of academic texts, non-fiction scientific memoirs, and the occasional self-help book to get me through an issue I was facing; all of which were barely skimmed and never finished. The greatest part about this course was that all books were self-chosen (outside of the 5 class texts that she graciously still allowed a choice of which we wanted to read) and that each week she did a book giveaway (I was able to score 6 books over the course of the semester).
Dr. Nam encouraged me to submit my review to the editor and I am elated that mine was chosen among three other great reviews, including one of my classmates (Great job Maddie!!). This experience has boosted my confidence not only as a student, but also as a future educator and a writer, here's why:
I have been through quite a bit of not so great experiences in the classroom. I won't even burden you with the horrific racist trauma that haunts my high school years, but on my journey to my Bachelor's degree, I've been victim to many different microaggressions from instructors and classmates. My input in class was either disengaged or shunned by mainstream folks to the point where I gratefully accepted the pandemic days of Zoom with open arms because we weren't required to have our cameras on. It was easier to be invisible behind a blank screen. Luckily, with a more culturally inclusive setting here at Colorado State University, I no longer have the problem of being invisible, my work allows me to shine as bright as the melanin found within my skin.
One of the largest roles of being an educator is creating a safe, inclusive, and nurturing space for students to learn, grow, and become responsible and adequate human beings of this world. One way we do this is by creating engaging and relevant lessons, assignments, and assessments for students to interact with during their time spent in our classrooms. One of the elements of the APR is to create teaching strategies and activities for educators to use if using the texts. Needless to say, the material I provided shows my achievement of this which shows my capability of completing this task during my career.
This review is my very first 'publication' of any of my work in my collegiate life (back in middle school I had a collection of poems published in the school district's newsletter, which was ages ago, btw). I used to enjoy writing for the fun of it, creating poems and short stories, but due to many different factors, one being the racist high school I attended, robbed me of that joy. And although, yes, no one physically bound my hands to keep me from writing, the opportunity and confidence wasn't present. This was reestablished not only in my YA lit class, but from many other courses I've had, especially now in my current semester. So look out world, more from Marquita Woods coming soon (we'll see)!
Until next time!
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