Collection Coming of Age in a Complex World

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Collection

Coming of Age in a Complex World

This modular ELA collection for grades 7–12 invites students to explore the complexity of identity and develop a sense of agency as they reflect on what it means to grow up in today’s complex, interconnected world.

Resources

Subject

English & Language Arts

Grade

7–12

Language

English — US

Published

Sep 6, 2024

Culture & Identity

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Introducing Coming of Age in a Complex World

This English Language Arts curriculum collection invites students to explore the questions that matter to them, in all their complexity. The young adults in your classroom are deeply invested in exploring their identities and relationships to others in the world. At Facing History, we view adolescence as a time of opportunity and growth; a time when young people are looking to engage in their communities; and a time when students are primed to think critically about complex topics like identity development, belonging, agency, inequity, and justice.

With daily opportunities to read, write, and talk, this collection provides powerful opportunities for self-reflection and personal growth. Our coming-of-age texts reflect a wide range of voices and perspectives, and our engaging learning experiences invite students to consider the complexities of the young adult characters they encounter—their choices, motivations, influences, and the moral universes of the settings they inhabit. Through these imaginative learning journeys, students cultivate empathy and clarify their own coming-of-age experiences, beliefs, and ethics in community with others during a time when it can feel like everything around them is in flux.

Looking for more ELA materials? Check out our Borders and Belonging ELA Collection for more great resources that invite students to explore the complicated world of belonging and the tangible and intangible borders that shape it.

What’s Included

Collection Overview to orient you to the collection contents and provide sample pathways through the content
Back to School Toolkit to help you build community with your students
Three on-demand webinars featuring #DisruptTexts co-founder Dr. Kimberly Parker, young adult author Jennifer DeLeon, and Katherine Schulten of the New York Times Learning Network in conversation with two winners of the NYT student Coming of Age contest
Introductory lesson that explores the concept of “coming of age”
Three multi-genre text sets for Grades 7–8, Grades 9–10, and Grades 11–12 with lesson plans and assessment ideas
Unit Guide for teaching Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming
ELA Unit Planning Guide to help you design a coming-of-age literature unit for a book of your choosing
Book Club Guide with the resources and tools to launch student-centered book clubs
Whole School Read Planning Guide to help you foster a school-wide literacy community

This collection is designed to be flexible, so you can choose the resources that are best suited to your unique context. To build your own pathway through the collection, we recommend selecting resources from each of the three categories below: Before Teaching, Getting Started in the Classroom, and Go Deeper.

To prepare to examine coming of age through a critical and ethical lens in your classroom, we recommend that you start by watching one or more of these recorded webinars:

Coming of Age in Literature and Life: A Webinar Featuring YA Author Jennifer DeLeon (1 hour)
Jennifer De Leon explores questions of identity and belonging in literature and in life and provides guidance for how you can center students’ identities and experiences through the books you teach and critical dialogue in your classroom.
Coming of Age: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, and Finding their Voice (1 hour)
In this lively panel discussion, The New York Times Learning Network editor Katherine Schulten and winners of the NYT student Coming of Age contest explore questions about identity and belonging, discuss the power of storytelling during the process of coming of age, and provide resources for educators on deepening student voice in their classrooms.
Teaching Coming of Age: Exploring Literature and Agency with #DisruptTexts Co-founder Dr. Kimberly Parker (1 hour)
Dr. Kimberly Parker explores how stories have the power to transform the way young people see themselves and others. She discusses the process for choosing texts with a focus on equity and voice, as well as creating classroom spaces for exploring literature through a critical and ethical lens.

The classroom resources in this collection begin with an engaging introductory lesson that prepares students for the concepts they will encounter throughout the learning experiences in the collection. We encourage you to teach this introductory lesson before engaging students with other resources in the collection.

What Does it Mean to Come of Age? | Introductory Lesson

This lesson can be used in any secondary grade level.

After building schema for the concept of coming of age in the introductory lesson, students will be ready to engage in a thematic unit. You can choose to teach a mini-unit with short, multimodal texts; a longer book unit; or combine components for a deeper learning experience.

Option 1: Teach a text set as a 1-2 week mini-unit. Each text set includes multimodal texts, lesson plans, and assessment ideas that support students to explore an essential question through collaborative learning experiences, engaging discussions, and writing tasks.

Being Seen: Becoming Who You Want to Be for grades 7-8
Identity and Storytelling for grades 9-10
Power, Agency, and Voice for grades 11-12

Option 2: Use our Teaching Brown Girl Dreaming unit guide to teach a multi-week unit on Jacqueline Woodson’s coming-of-age memoir in verse

Option 3: Develop and teach a unit on a coming-of-age book of your choice using the Facing History ELA Unit Planning Guide

Option 4: Combine components for a longer unit. The Coming of Age in a Complex World Collection Overview provides sample pathways that illustrate how resources can be combined according to your purpose and the amount of time you want to devote to exploring coming of age in your classroom.

Guide

This guide orients teachers to the contents of Facing History’s Coming of Age in a Complex World collection and supports them to plan and teach a coming-of-age literature unit in grades 7–12.

New

woman wearing a black shirt and black glasses talking to students

Lesson

Students build a schema for the resources they’ll encounter in the Coming of Age collection by exploring what it means to “come of age” in the world today.

Group of students writing on large piece of chart paper.

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 7-8, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a two-week unit exploring the essential question “How do we become who we want to be in the world?”

Female students engage in classroom discussion.

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 9-10, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a 1–2 week unit exploring the essential question, "What makes me, me?"

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 11-12, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a 1–2 week unit exploring the essential question, "How do I empower myself to speak up and take action on behalf of myself and others?”

Four students at their desks, working in a group.

Guide

Teach a unit on Jacqueline Woodson's coming-of-age memoir in verse that invites students to reflect on their own experiences and identities.

A girl leans against a wall while reading a book.

Guide

This guide provides the framework and classroom resources to help you design an English Language Arts unit for middle or high school students centered around a book of your choosing.

Three educators smile while sitting together working.

Guide

Implement book clubs that build community and help students make meaningful connections to books they are excited to read.

A close up of shelves in a school library filled with books of different sizes and colors.

Guide

This planning guide will help you design and implement a Whole-School Read that centers students’ voices and experiences.

Blue and purple toned books, view from above

Toolkit

These back-to-school activities and teacher resources will help you lay a foundation for a reflective and caring community at the start of the school year.

Students move around the classroom in conversation with each other. One student looks directly into the camera with a smile on their face.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

In this webinar, Facing History, The New York Times Learning Network editor Katherine Schulten, and winners of the NYT student Coming of Age contest delivered a lively panel discussion.

A teacher and two students in a library talking and looking at a paper and laptop

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore questions of identity and belonging in literature and life and learn how you can center students' identities and experiences through literature and dialogue.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore the process of choosing texts with a focus on equity and voice, as well as creating classroom spaces for exploring literature through a critical and ethical lens.

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Coming of Age in a Complex World

Resources

Subject

Grade

Language

Published

Introducing Coming of Age in a Complex World

What’s Included

Build Your Own Pathway

Coming of Age in a Complex World

Resources

Subject

Grade

Language

Published

Introducing Coming of Age in a Complex World

What’s Included

Get to Know the Collection

Build Your Own Pathway

Explore the Coming of Age in a Complex World ELA Collection

Coming of Age in a Complex World: ELA Collection Overview

What Does It Mean to Come of Age? | Introductory Lesson

Being Seen: Becoming Who You Want to Be

Identity and Storytelling

Power, Agency, and Voice

Teaching Brown Girl Dreaming

ELA Unit Planning Guide

Centering Student Voice and Choice: A Book Club Guide

Whole-School Read Guide: Foster a Literacy Community

Back to School: Building Community for Connection and Learning

Related Professional Development for ELA Educators

Coming of Age: Student Perspectives on Reading, Writing, and Finding their Voice

Coming of Age in Literature and Life: A Webinar Featuring Young Adult Author Jennifer De Leon

Teaching Coming of Age: Exploring Literature and Agency with #DisruptTexts Co-founder Dr. Kimberly Parker

Access the wide range of Facing History resources for English Language Arts classrooms.

Inspiration, insights, & ways to get involved