Explore UCD

UCD Home >

EDUC10200

Academic Year 2024/2025

Young Adult Fiction: Readers, Rebels & Realisation (EDUC10200)

Subject:
Education
College:
Social Sciences & Law
School:
Education
Level:
1 (Introductory)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Assoc Professor Áine Mahon
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This module introduces students to Young Adult Fiction, encouraging a critical and creative engagement with a range of texts in this burgeoning genre.

It is open to students from all disciplinary backgrounds.

We will consider the literary text as a potent source of personal, philosophical and educational meaning for young people and adults - as a potential locus for growth, realisation, and emancipation.

Core texts include Northern Lights (Philip Pullman), The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), Heartstopper (Alice Oseman), Asking For It (Louise O'Neill), Normal People (Sally Rooney), and The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas).

The module will also make space for creative writing practice, depending on the preference and interest of the students. The pedagogy of P4C (Philosophy for Children) will be used in certain weeks to foster discussion.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students will have developed their ability to:

Appreciate the significance of reading and fictional literature in the lives of young people
Critically analyse a literary text
Discuss a range of critical and creative texts in small and large groups
Communicate their ideas clearly and sensitively, both verbally and in writing
Engage with scholarly (peer-reviewed) literature
Enhance their own creativity through imaginative and reflective writing

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

26
Autonomous Student Learning

50
Lectures

12
Tutorial

12
Total

100

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lectures
Individual Writing Time
Small Group Discussion
Large Group Discussion
Low-Stakes Writing Tasks
Philosophy for Children

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: This module seeks to encourage and reward those students who:

• Have thoughtfully engaged with the weekly assigned reading
• Participate actively in group discussion		 Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No
10
 No
Group Work Assignment: In groups of three or four, students will present on one of the six core texts for this module. The presentation should be roughly 15 minutes long. Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No
30
 No
Reflective Assignment: Four short writing tasks (around 400 words each) will be submitted by students throughout the trimester. Each writing task will be linked to one of the six core texts from the module. Week 4, Week 6, Week 8, Week 10 Graded No
60
 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

There are six core texts for this module.
Students are encouraged to source print copies of these texts as soon as possible (from UCD/local libraries or bookshops etc) and to bring their copies to class every week.


Primary Reading

1. Collins, S. 2008. The Hunger Games (New York: Scholastic)
2. O’Neill, L. 2015. Asking For It (London: Quercus).
3. Oseman, A. 2019. Heartstopper (London: Hachette Children’s Group)
4. Pullman, P. 1995. Northern Lights (London: Scholastic).
5. Rooney, S. 2018. Normal People (London: Faber and Faber).
6. Thomas, A. 2017. The Hate U Give (New York: Harper Collins)


I’ve included below some further reading that will hopefully aid your critical appreciation of the texts above, and that will act as starting points as you develop your individual writing tasks for the module.

Secondary Reading

Allen, Melissa. 2023. “In a Romantic Way, Not Just a Friend Way!”: Exploring the Developmental Implications of Positive Depictions of Bisexuality in Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper”, Journal of Bisexuality, 23 (2).
Banks, W. P. 2009 “Literacy, Sexuality, and the Value(s) of Queer Young Adult Literatures”, The English Journal, 98 (4).
Barros-Del Rio, M. A. 2022. ‘Sally Rooney’s Normal People: The Millennial Novel of Formation in Recessionary Ireland’, Irish Studies Review 30 (2).
Basu, B.; Broad, K.; and Hintz, C (eds). 2013. Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. (London: Taylor and Francis).
Day, S.K.; Green-Barteet, M.A.; Montz, A.L. 2014. Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction (London: Routledge).
Darling, O. 2021. ‘”It Was Our Great Generational Decision”: Capitalism, the Internet, and Depersonalization in Some Millennial Irish Women’s Writing’, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 62 (5).
Fitzsimmons, R. and Wilson, C.A. 2020. Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction. (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press).
Hill, C. 2012. ‘Dystopian novels: What imagined futures tell young readers about the present and future’, in J. Hayn & J. Kaplan (eds.), Teaching young adult literature today (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
Mahon, Á. and O’Brien, E. 2018. ‘Risky Subjectivities in Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Studies in Philosophy and Education 37 (2).
Moffatt, K. and May, M. 2021.’Death from all sides; Spectacle, Morality, and Trauma in Suzanne Collins’ the Hunger Games trilogy’, Mortality 26 (4).
Mooney, J. 2023. Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature: Gender and Power in Louise O’Neill’s Young Adult Fiction (New York: Routledge).
Owen, G. 2019. ‘Adolescence, Blackness, and the Politics of Respectability in Monster and The Hate U Give’, The Lion and the Unicorn 43 (2).
Rustin, M. and Rustin, M. 2003. ‘Where is home? An essay on Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy 29 (1).
Wood, N. 2001.“Paradise Lost and Found: Obedience, Disobedience and Storytelling in C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman”, Children’s Literature in Education 32 (4).
Zipes, J. 2003. ‘Foreword: Utopia, dystopia, and the quest for hope’, in C. Hintz & E. Ostry (eds.), Utopian and dystopian writing for children and young adults. New York: Routledge.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22 Tues 11:00 - 12:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31 Tues 11:00 - 12:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 32, 33 Tues 11:00 - 12:50
Print this page
Fill in the following details:
Enter the body of your query here.

From time to time UCD would like to send you further information that we feel, based on your enquiry, would be of interest to you.