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GREENSHEET
Course Description:
An overview of literature and information materials, including media
and websites, for children ages 6-12. The emphasis will be on the evaluation
and selection
of materials for school and public libraries. The course will also include
history of children’s literature, current trends, multicultural materials,
and use of these books in library programs.
Course Objectives:
At the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
•
Demonstrate a familiarity with a variety of children’s literature and
information books as well as various media for this age group,
•
Critically review and evaluate materials, and use related collection development
resources and selection tools,
•
Use children’s books and other materials for library programming,
•
Develop a Children’s collection policy for a school or public library.
The course supports the following SLIS Objectives:
•
One or more specialized aspects of information management, and
•
Evaluating and utilizing relevant research studies from a variety of
disciplines.
Course Format:
This is a web-based course. All of our interaction will take place on the SLIS
Blackboard site; you should be able to enroll in our Blackboard course
by Jan. 20. 2004. Course materials will be available primarily through
the Course Documents and “External Links” sections of the Blackboard, books
from your public library, and journal articles available on the
SJSU library database. Assignments for the course should be posted electronically.
Our
class discussions (worth 20 percent of your grade) will be conducted using
a Blackboard “chat room” and/or your responses to a different
discussion question posted each week. You can either attend the chat or post
to the discussion questions, or do both. Use whichever method is most comfortable
to you, but always post to the Discussion Question before we have
the weekly chat on that topic. The weekly “chats” will be held
on Tuesdays from 6:30-7:20pm. The first “chat” will be held on
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004, and the last on Tuesday, May 11, 2004, last day to
post to the
Discussion Board is Friday, May 14, 2004. There will be no chats on Tuesday,
Feb. 17 or Tuesday, March 30 due to holidays.
Textbooks:
Horning, Kathleen T. From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing
Children’s
Books. HarperCollins, 1997. $13.95. ISBN 0-06-446167-X.
Tomlinson, Carl M. and Lynch-Brown, Carol. Essentials of Children’s
Literature: Fourth Edition. Allyn and Bacon, 2002. $46. ISBN 0-205-33593-4.
Available from Amazon.com and from several used book websites.
Other assigned reading:
Be sure to see the Course Documents on the Blackboard for the assigned
readings for the class, including the journal articles assigned for
the class. You will also see a sequence of lectures, the weekly topic
for the chat and the discussion question, and more extensive descriptions
of the assignments.
You will also want to visit your local public library to find the children’s
books you will use for the assignments as well as reading book reviews
in School Library Journal, Horn Book, Booklist, and Publishers’ Weekly.
Assignment 1: Due Tuesday, March 9, 2004, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 2: Due Tuesday, March 23, 2004, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 3: Due Tuesday, April 20, 2004, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 4: Due Tuesday, May 4, 2004, by
11:59pm.
Assignment 5: Due Tuesday, May 18, 2004, by 11:59pm.
All assignments should be posted to the Blackboard site in the Digital
Dropbox, or sent as a Word document attachment to email.
Grading: Class discussions are worth 20 percent of your grade; Assignment
5 is worth 20 percent, all other assignments worth 15 percent.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Assignment 1: Easy Readers
Choose five easy readers to read and evaluate. Write a book review of each
of the five books. Each book review should be approx. 150 words in length,
not counting the bibliographic information. Give full bibliographic information.
Look at reviews in School Library Journal or Horn Book for a model. These
are evaluative reviews, not just plot descriptions. Evaluate the text and
the illustrations, commenting on the media used for the illustrations and
how (or if) the text and illustrations work well together. The Easy Readers
should be aimed at the age group that reads Green Eggs and Ham, Frog
and Toad, or Are You My Mother? You may include one “moving up” or “transitional” book
among the five. For a definition, see Horning’s From Cover to Cover,
pages 121-148 and the Lecture marked “Easy Readers.” Make sure
these are not picture books!
Assignment 2: Folklore
Choose one illustrated folktale – not a collection of folktales or fairytales,
but a single tale published with illustrations, like a picture book. This should
not be an original story, but a folktale, fairytale, tall tale, legend – a
traditional tale (see pages 46-68 in Horning). It should have been published
between 2000 and 2004, not earlier. Give an evaluative review of approx. 250
words, commenting on the text and the illustrations, including the media used
for the artwork. Things to include: brief plot description, description of
artwork, do the illustrations and text work together or not? Are the text and/or
illustrations true to the culture from which the folktale originated? Is the
source of the story documented? Comment on the source note.
Assignment 3: Genre Fiction Part I
Read a chapter book aimed at 4th-6th graders, from the mystery, historical
fiction, sports, adventure, animal story, fantasy, humor, science fiction,
or realistic fiction genres. This should be a book considered “literature;” not
a paperback series knock-off but an award-winner or runner up, or by someone
considered a good writer in the field. If you are not sure, email me the
title so I can okay it. Read the book and write an evaluative review approx.
250 words in length. Write a 2-5 page description (approx.) of how that book
could be used in a Reading Circle (sometimes these are called “Mother/Daughter
Book Clubs,” or Readers’ Roundtable, etc.). Include at least
5 suggested discussion questions tailored to that particular book, and some
related fun (non-homework-like) activities (art projects, food, games, crafts,
etc.) Suggest at least 5 other books in that same genre that a reader may
also enjoy (you don’t have to read these suggested books in their entirety,
but give full bibliographic information and a one or two sentence description
of each of the books; you should have read some of each book, however). Be
sure to list all the sources you used.
Assignment 4: Genre Fiction Part II
Choose a different genre from the book chosen for Assignment 3, and read one
chapter book, aimed at 4th-6th graders. Write an evaluative review (approx.
250 words), and suggest at least 5 other books in that genre that a child
may also enjoy, giving full bibliographic information and a sentence or two
about each book (you don’t have to read of these in their entirety
but read some of each to have a familiarity with each). Instead of writing
up an description for a Reading Circle, write a 2 or 3 page description for
any other type of library program that this novel could inspire: a tea party,
a Readers Theatre or play, an author visit, a film showing, a library display,
a hands-on project like an arts or craft activity, etc. Give a clear description
of how this program can be organized, publicized, conducted, costs, etc.
The programming idea shouldn’t be too “homework”-ish. Be
sure to list all the sources you used.
Assignment 5: Informational/Nonfiction Books
Choose a nonfiction/Dewey Decimal numbered subject area to do a “collection
development” project. This area should be limited; i.e. “Insects
and Spiders,” not animals, or baseball, not sports. Other topics could
include poetry from a specific culture (African-American, Latino, Asian-American,
etc.), history from a certain time period (the Holocaust, the Civil War), biographies
of a specific focus (contemporary American women), etc. Select ten items to
suggest for purchase in that subject, for children grades 3 through 6. All
of the items should be in print, and at least one of the ten items
should be a video, DVD, CD or other non-book media. Compile these into a list, with each
item having a short (approx. 50 word) annotation. Write up a 1 or 2 page description
of the selection tools, review journals, and other sources you used to select
the books; which were most helpful? What tool(s) did you use to determine if
an item is still in print? How did you decide what to choose? What did the
local library have or lack in this area? Be sure to give a list of all the
sources you used.
Penny Peck, December, 2003
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