College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department of English, Foreign
Languages, and Journalism
ENG 403/503: Literature for Children
Fall, 2008
Professor: Dr. Mike Cadden
Class time and place:,
11:00 AM-12:30 PM T, TH and 4:30-7:20 TH in 210
Dr. Cadden’s Office:
222-C
Office
Hours: 9:00-11:00 AM T, TH; 2:00-4:30 T; and by
appointment.
Office Phone: 271-4576
E-mail: cadden@missouriwestern.edu
Web
Page:
http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/Faculty/cadden.asp
(On which a copy of this syllabus can be
found.)
Course Description:
English
403/503 is your opportunity for you to learn about children’s literature as an
art form, which will have implications for those of you who will end up
teaching; but the point of the course
isn’t to teach you how to teach children; the point of the course is to teach you about children’s literature. The two things aren’t at all mutually
exclusive, but they also aren’t the same. The course is an introduction to the
genre of literature for children. There is so much more out there than can be
covered in fifteen weeks. The course can’t be an exhaustive look at the whole
field. We’ll focus on an introduction to the nature of children’s books.
Through critical examinations of folk tales, novels, poems, and picture books,
we will attempt to understand how children's literature distinguishes itself
from "adult literature”--and when it doesn’t.
Education
majors should consider this course to be the content course companion to some of
your education methods courses: EDU 320
(Language Arts Methods), EDU 360 (Assessing and Individualizing Reading), EDU
380-385 (Reading Approaches), EDU 440 (Curriculum Methods and Materials in
Early Childhood Education), and EDU 483-4 (Practica in Reading). But ENG 403
isn’t a methods course; this is a literature course that focuses on children’s
literature.
Let’s learn
together as much as we can about what makes children’s literature tick. It is
my goal that you’ll leave the course more thoughtful about what makes
children’s literature the interesting and enjoyable genre that it is--for
adults as well as for children.
Prerequisite:
Successful completion of ENG 108 or 112.
Required Texts:
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux.
Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key.
Lord, Bette Bao. The Year of the Boar and
Jackie Robinson.
Paulsen,
Gary. Woodsong.
Sendak,
Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are.
Evaluation:
Participation: 10%
Midterm Exam (folktales and
novels): 25%
Final Exam (picture books): 25%
Reviews (1 book, 1 journal, 1
website): 15%
Bibliographic Essay: 25%
Attendance:
The
MWSU Policy Guide states that “each
instructor will determine and make known to the class the requirement for
attendance” (45). If you don’t come to class you will obviously jeopardize your
class participation grade. I will not quantify how much presence equals what
grade. I will be judging your total participation performance, not just your
presence. I can also tell you that the exams draw heavily from class work. Also, since you are responsible for all
announcements in class, you run the risk of missing important information
regarding other assignments; I will not accept absence as an excuse for
ignorance. In short, if you’re not here, you’re going to suffer through other
assignments directly and indirectly. Be
on time, please.
Academic Dishonesty:
All cases in which students pass off others’ work as their own will be
referred to the Dean of Student Affairs. Students run the risk of failing the
assignment as well as the course depending on the magnitude and nature of the
offense. If you are unsure about how you are using sources, please check with
me.
Late and Missing Work:
I reserve the right to refuse any late work.
Revision Policy:
All written work may be revised any time up until the revision due date
(please see calendar). I require that all revisions be accompanied by the most
recent graded version.
Policy on Students with Disabilities: Any student in this course who has a
disability which requires different contexts for either evaluation or
expression should contact me in the first few weeks of the course so that those
needs can be considered.
Calendar
Week One (Aug. 25-29):
Introduction to course, critical approaches, and folktale types.
Week Two
(Sept. 1-5): “Red Riding Hood”—tale types and versions; Fable as children’s
literature, children’s literature as fable.
Week Three
(Sept. 8-12): DiCamillo.
Week Four
(Sept 15-19): Lord; Review #1 Due.
Week Five
(Sept. 22-26): Gantos.
Week Six
(Sept. 29-Oct. 3): Censorship; Bibliog.
Essay book lists due. Banned Books Reading, Wed. 7-8 PM
Week Seven
(Oct. 6-10): Paulsen; Review # 2 Due.
Week Eight (Oct. 13-17): Mode; Exam I.
Week Nine (Oct. 20-24): Popular series: Stine, Park, Christopher,
and the American Girls.
http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/childrens/serieslist.html
http://www.ability.org.uk/childrens_series_books.html
http://www.bookloversden.com/bseries.html
http://www.bookloversden.com/gseries.html
Poetry:
issues of interpretation
Week Ten
(Oct. 27-31): Poetry; voice, age, and nonsense; Review #3 Due. Friday, Oct 31 is Last Day to Drop this or any course.
Week
Eleven (Nov. 3-7): Poetry collections reviewed; Picture Books: introduction and
issues of format (have with you both Sendak and a picture book of your choice).
Week
Twelve (Nov. 10-14): Picture Books: 3rd and 4th
dimension; Bibliographic Essay due for
those who wish to revise.
Week
Thirteen (Nov. 17-21): Picture books: placement & shared meaning; medium
& style.
Week Fourteen (Nov. 25): Peter Rabbit and reading a picture book
as a whole.
Thanksgiving
Week
Fifteen (Dec. 1-5): Picture Books: Group work; Review Revisions Due; Bibliographic Essays Due.
Exam II:
Section I: Tuesday, Dec. 9, 11:30 AM - 1:20 PM in
Section II: Thursday, Dec.
11, 4:30 - 6:20 PM in
ENG 403: Literature for
Review
Assignments
Worth: 15%
Length: Approximately
one-two single-spaced pages each.
I would like for you to review a children’s
literature web site, a scholarly journal that has a primary focus on children’s
books, and a book about children’s literature (the book can be a
children’s literature handbook or a book on children’s literature theory and/or
criticism). I want you to write a brief report for me, yourself, and for your
peers about each of those three resources.
Please
review sources that are specifically children’s
book related. Don’t review an education journal that isn’t about children’s
books; don’t use journals that deal with teaching reading strategies but which
don’t address children’s literature itself as the primary focus of study.
Finding books and journals about children’s literature: You
simply need to go to the online catalog (Towers) and, using the quick search
function, type in some of these possibilities: “children’s literature,”
“children’s literature criticism,” “children’s literature theory,” “children’s
literature American,” children’s literature multiculturalism,” “children’s
literature feminism,” etc. You should review
a book that interests you, and you may decide to do a more thorough search if
our initial quick search doesn’t look promising. The book needn’t come from our
library, though we do have plenty!
A list of appropriate journals can be found at this website,
some of which are held in our library, though you aren’t limited to using our
library’s holdings: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/%7Emjoseph/journals.htm.
When you review a journal, review the
entire journal as a whole rather than just a single article. I suggest that
you look at a number of issues so that you don’t mistakenly generalize about
the journal based on one issue of the journal.
A list of websites can be found on
my own list of links (http://staff.missouriwestern.edu/~cadden/), though,
again, you needn’t limit yourself to my own discoveries. Find a different site related/devoted to
children’s literature if my links don’t look interesting.
What to include (format):
1. Provide
complete citation information for the book, journal, or web site in question in MLA style.
Book or Journal
Last Name,
First Name. Title of Book: Including
Subtitle. Edition. Place of (indent five spaces after first line)
Publication: Publisher, Year.
Website
1. Name of
author (if given)
2. Title
of page accessed (in quotation marks)
3. Date
when the material was posted (if given)
4. Title
of the database (underlined) (e.g.. New York Times Online or ERIC)
5.
Publication medium (Online)
6. Name of
the computer service (e.g. Netscape Navigator or Lexis or CompuServe)
7. Date of
your access of the material
8. URL
(not in MLA handbook, but something useful for us):
Vandergrift,
Kay. "Author Biography and Autobiography Page." Created January 31, 1996, Last Updated
February 8, 1997. Online. Netscape Navigator. July 9, 1997.
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/authorbios.html
For more
specific detail on some of the subtleties of citation:
Gibaldi,
Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5th ed.
This text
is available in the library and in my office.
MLA
Citation information provided by Diana Hacker and Bedford/St.Martins Press:
Hacker,
Diana. Research and Documentation Online. Bedford/St. Martins. 20 Dec.
2003. http://dianahacker.com/resdoc/
2. Summarize what the source offers the viewer/reader as
thoroughly as you can. What is
provided? How is it arranged or
organized? What are the most important
topics or points? Give a clear sense of the content. Remember, you are
providing yourself (and possibly your classmates) a review that will enable the
reader to visualize the source as well as possible in print. This is to be
useful to someone who has not seen the source. This is not the place to comment
on the content, however; just provide the content information here.
3. Pick a single interesting structural (text), thematic
(subtext), or contextual issue connected to the journal and comment on its
significance. Examples: Is the website’s layout surprising or interesting
(structure)? Does the journal prove of use to a variety of people (context)?
Does the book seem to imply something interesting or surprising or
challengeable regarding children’s literature (subtext)?
4. Provide an overall critique of the site/journal/book.
Given the information you've provided in # 2 & 3 above, how successful is
this resource? How well does it do what
it seems to want to do? Is it something
you think you'd return to? Could you
improve it somehow? Would you only use
part of it? Give us a general sense of
the strengths and weaknesses of this resource so that when you look back on it
later you can remember what you thought of it. Try to give a thoughtful
response to this resource beyond "I liked it" or "I didn't like
it." Start with those reactions as
you review and ask yourself "why?" and move on to details.
All reviews should be about
one-to-two sides of a page, single-spaced. A bit more or less is not a problem,
though much less is likely going to be indicative of incomplete development. Don’t
include a separate works cited page: the citation is the title (see #1 above).
A Note on Revision: If you are submitting a revised
copy of your review, please resubmit the original copy that has my written
comments (staple or paper-clip the old to the new).
The act of
revision does not guarantee an improved grade. Editing isn’t the same thing as
revision. If you would like feedback beyond that which I have written on the
original, you may visit me to discuss revision strategies at any time prior to
submitting a revision.
Please proof-read the page before
submitting it. Language is important. I expect that your work will be carefully
read and edited before you give it to me.
Insufficiently edited reviews will be returned with a failing
grade. Help with grammar, citation and
other language issues can be obtained in my office or at our own Center for
Academic Support.
English 403: Children’s Literature Dr.
Cadden
Bibliographic
Essay
Worth: 25%
Length: ~10-15 pages.
The Task
You will choose a particular author, theme, or genre in
children’s literature in order to investigate it further. You will
choose a number of representative works by that person, relevant to the
idea/theme, or in the genre in question. The number of books will vary
according to your project, but seven to ten is the usual range depending on the
availability of books. Seven books is the minimum number.
The goal here is to become well acquainted with one small piece of the big
picture of children’s literature beyond our course readings, so you may not
use any class texts in your list of books.
Who or What?
Author: One
possibility would be to choose someone who is a good fit for the readers you’ll
encounter in the grades you want to teach; but then I also encourage you to
read whatever author you’re interested in despite his or her curricular
“use.” If I think your choice is either
inappropriate or if I just don’t know the name, I’ll talk to you.
An
alternative to picking one author is to choose another context of origin to
examine. You might look at books written by people from a particular place
(region, country), ethnicity, tradition, or belief system. Books by
Japanese-American writers (as opposed to simply being about Japanese-Americans,
which might be written by a non-member of that ethnic group) is one choice.
Theme/idea: You might decide that you want
to look at older and/or recent books about orphans, poverty, AIDS, divorce,
death, circuses, animal characters, environmentalism, Christianity, gay-lesbian
issues, talented/challenged characters, immigration, dance, homelessness,
birthdays, dragons, etc.
Genre/mode: Adventure stories, folktale
sub-genres (creation myths, Marchen tales, trickster tales, etc.), picture
books (though this would have to be paired with another genre or theme or
author/illustrator), comedy, tragedy, irony/satire, parody, coming-of-age
stories, mysteries, travel, historical fiction, dream stories, poetry (of
various sorts), science fiction, diaries/journal-forms, utopia/dystopia, etc.
Where?
Where to find names or ideas from which to choose? Other than your own or your child’s reading
histories, I suggest that you pore over the bibliography information that I
handed you, the websites listed on my links page
(http://www.MWSU.edu/~cadden/), the list of resources on children’s and young
adult literature at our library, the local library’s children’s section, and
local bookstores. I’ll be very glad and interested in talking about possible
choices for you depending on interests you might have. Start looking at options right away so that you can begin reading,
limiting your subject, and taking notes. I may have some ideas about books
that fit your interests as well and may be able to steer you toward a more
manageable focus within your chosen area, so please don’t hesitate to employ me
as a bibliographic resource!
How?
I don’t give models. Why?
Well, because I find that people tend to take the model and push the
content into that container whether it fits or not. Rather, I’ll describe what
I want and you try to provide that making your own organizational decisions to
accomplish the task.
Let’s consider a sense of format that also deals with
matters of focus. I won’t give you a page limit here, but you might consider
that in terms of double-spaced pages, you could devote a page or two to
introductory materials (see below), a couple of pages for each book (summary
and analysis), a few pages of conclusions, and a works cited page. This might
mean that you have somewhere between twelve and twenty pages.
The introductory material: briefly tell us a bit about the
author/theme/genre that you’ve chosen. What interests you in the subject and
what exactly will we be discussing? What
have you ruled out in the course of defining this focus? Then tell us a bit
about the main connection you’ll be covering across the books--the “thread”
that ties them together. If I’ve chosen Gary Paulsen, for instance, I might
focus on the fact that he writes about boys in adventurous outdoor
circumstances. I’ll be sure to compare the books in terms of that focus as I go
through the paper. The introduction might note various other trends or patterns
in the collection of books that are of secondary importance and interest.
The body of the essay is devoted to discussing each book in
turn, focusing on the thread that connects each to the others that you
discussed in the introduction, but also
explaining other observations about the book that might not have anything to do
with the other books. Begin your discussion of each book as you do in a
book review: summarize the book for us as briefly
as you can (writing brief plot summaries is tough!) What makes a bibliographic
essay distinctive from other essays is that the writer assumes that the reader isn’t familiar with the books. Be
mindful of proportion—the summary shouldn’t be most of your discussion, and you
should be careful to include commentary
on the idea that links the books as well as on other noteworthy things you’ve
discovered. Don’t just note the presence of the focus (“In this book too
Paulsen writes about boys in the wilderness.”
“This is another book in which Paulsen writes about wilderness-lovin’
boys,” etc.); discuss it and compare to other books’ use of it. If most of what
you have is summary and you don’t have much commentary, there will be problems.
The conclusion of the essay is very important, and is not
simply a formality in which you sum up what you’ve said. The conclusion should
be where you share, in a few pages of detail, what you think makes this
collection of books and the thread that unites them interesting, significant,
and useful, and where it might be taken from here. Dwell further on the threads
that unite them. Feel free to point out shortcomings or problems. What, after
having looked at these books in comparison, are your thoughts about trends,
limitations, successes in the area of study?
Draw thoughtful conclusions about all of these books, their relationships
to each other, and the implications they have for young readers.
You should include a bibliography that cites the primary and
any secondary materials used. You aren’t required to use a certain number of
(or any) secondary materials, just what suits your task. You may have consulted
a website, biography, journal article . . . cite those. Please use MLA style (available on line--http://www.mla.org or in
the MLA Handbook available in my office or the library). Be sure to cite any material quoted or paraphrased from another source.
There are several sources which will give bibliographies of
books published by an author including: Something
About the Author (Ref. PN 451 .S696), Contemporary Authors (Ready
Ref. Z 1224 .C761 .A1), and the Dictionary of Literary Biography (Ref.
PS 221 .D554). There also were several other biographical sources mentioned on
the MWSU bibliography linked to my web page, but some of them are getting quite
old. For additional sources of biographical information you may want to consult
the following index: Biography and
Genealogy Master Index (Available on the computers, and on Index Table 5).
A word of caution. Few published lists of an author’s work
are complete or up-to-date (in the case of living authors). You need to check the
date of publication of the volume which contains the bibliography you’ve found.
Often the bibliography will not even include the author's works published
during the previous year or two.
For more recent information on new books published, you
should consult the various periodicals mentioned on the bibliography and more
general periodicals such as Publisher's Weekly. Many of these
periodicals are indexed through the Reader's Guide Abstracts, Humanities Index,
or Masterfile Elite on the library computers. Amazon.com and the Barnes &
Noble sites are good resources as well. MWSU librarians are happy to help you
with this.
Another source of more recent information is the Baker &
Taylor CD-ROM, available on most of the computers in the Reference room. It lists
books that are being published, as well as many which have gone out of print.
You can search by author, therefore this would be a good place to look for
updating most of the printed bibliographies. This is not a reviewing source as
it gives only citations.
You’ll find lots to comment on as you read. I suggest that
you read each book with a pen and paper handy, and even plan on returning to
books as you read the others (Reread?!
Heavens!) I think that with the
pieces of this assignment, the number of books, and the many links, you’ll be
able to generate a lot of interesting material.
Please
proof-read the paper before submitting it. I will want it to be as
professional looking as it can be in case we should decide to distribute these
to each other. Language is important. I
expect that your work will be carefully read and edited before you give it to
me.
Help with grammar, citation, and other language issues can
be found at our own Center for Academic Support (http://www.missouriwestern.edu/cas/),
my office, and
I hope that you will share these final copies with each
other when you’re done! Good luck!