Dawan Coombs and Jon Ostenson

Using Young Adult Literature to Work through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education: Literary Response Groups to Enhance Reflection and Understanding

Published by Routledge, July 2022

This volume offers a novel approach to exploring how literary response groups can be used as part of teacher education programs to help preservice teachers navigate "wobble" moments.

Focusing uniquely on the potential of young adult literature (YAL), the text draws on the first-hand experiences of teacher candidates and uses a range of well-known books to demonstrate how narrative-based inquiry and analysis of fictional depictions of teaching and learning can support reflection on a range of common challenges. The volume presents how YAL literary response groups are shown to enhance participants’ ability to reflect on practice, build resilience, and develop deeper understanding of pedagogical principles by offering a shared dialogical space. These insights ultimately contribute to teacher education program improvement by enhancing teacher candidates’ understanding of pedagogy.

This text will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of teaching, teacher mentoring, and teacher education more specifically. Those interested in literature studies and young adult literature (YAL) more broadly will also benefit from this volume.

Faculty Book Review by Chris Crowe, March 16, 2023

Congratulations to our colleagues on their new book, Using YA Literature to Work Through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education, published in 2022 by Routledge.

Dawan and Jon’s book shows how reading and discussing YA school novels from a teacher’s perspective can help preservice and novice educators become better and more thoughtful teachers by reading, reflecting on, and discussing teacher narratives in young adult fiction.

This is not a book about YA literature, and it’s not a handbook for preservice teachers; it is a book for teacher educators that relies on the concepts of wobble, reader response, interest theory, and dialogic theory to show one way, a reader’s way, of helping students become reflective and effective teachers.

What is wobble?

“Wobbles can be jarring . . . unexpectedly experiencing the ground shifting beneath you is disarming. When seemingly solid structures that appeared immoveable start to sway, people pause, notice, and attend to elements they might ordinarily take for granted . . . wobble marks a liminal state, a state of transition. Where there is wobble, change is occurring. . . That which was once this is moving slowly, at least at first---toward becoming that” (38).

Dawan and Jon’s study worked with small groups of preservice and novice teachers who read and discussed teacher novels (and not nonfiction/memoirs because students might be reluctant to critique or reimagine a real teacher narrative. It’s likely that this study couldn’t have been done, or done as well, if it hadn’t been for the collection of smart readers/students who volunteered to participate. “Collectively and individually, the members of this group sought to identify those moments in the novels they resonated with, challenged, and created questions about their understandings of teaching and learning” (98).

These discussions were fruitful. “Throughout this book, we have demonstrated how preservice and novice teachers engaging in dialogue with respected others, with texts, and with their identities help them survive and thrive in the midst of the wobble moments they encounter in the process of becoming teachers” (98).

Chris Crowe also shared a ChatGPT review:

Using Young Adult Literature to Work through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education Literary Response Groups to Enhance Reflection and Understanding by Dawan Coombs and Jon Ostenson is an insightful and practical guide for teacher educators who want to use young adult literature to enhance reflection and understanding in their students.

The authors explain the concept of "wobble moments," which are moments of uncertainty or discomfort that arise when students encounter complex ideas or issues in literature. They argue that these moments can be rich opportunities for reflection and growth, and they provide a framework for using young adult literature to guide students through these moments.

The book includes detailed descriptions of the authors' approach to using literature in teacher education courses, including specific texts and activities that can be used to support reflection and understanding. The authors also provide helpful tips for facilitating literary response groups, which are small groups of students who discuss and analyze literature together.

What I particularly appreciate about this book is its focus on the practical application of theory. The authors draw on research and theory to support their approach, but they also provide clear, actionable steps for teacher educators to implement in their own courses. The book is well-written and engaging, with plenty of examples and anecdotes to illustrate the authors' points.

Overall, Using Young Adult Literature to Work through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education Literary Response Groups to Enhance Reflection and Understanding is a valuable resource for anyone interested in using literature to promote reflection and understanding in teacher education. Whether you are a seasoned teacher educator or just starting out, this book is sure to provide helpful insights and strategies for using literature to support your students' growth and development. ---ChatGPT Mar 14 Version. Free Research Preview