LIBR 261-01
Resources for Children Ages 6-12
Fall 2005

Penny Peck
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Textbooks | Course Requirements

NOTE: You should be able to enroll in our Blackboard course by August 20, 2005. You will be required to use a password access code which I will provide using MYSJSU Messaging system.

Course Description

An overview of literature and information materials, including media and Web sites, 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.

Textbooks

Required Texts
Horning, Kathleen T. From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Books. HarperCollins, 1997. $13.95. ISBN 0-06-446167-X.

Lynch-Brown, Carol and Tomlinson, Carl M. Essentials of Children’s Literature. Fifth Edition. Pearson, 2005. $40.00. ISBN 0-205-42015-X.

Available from Amazon.com and from several used book Web sites.

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.

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Course Requirements

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 August 20, 2005. 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. You will be graded on both the content of your posts (not just “I agree”), and meeting the minimum of posting or chat at least once a week. The weekly “chats” will be held on Mondays from 6:00-6:50pm. The first “chat” will be held on Monday, Sept. 12, 2005, and the last on Monday, November 28, 2005; last day to post to the Discussion Board is Monday, December 5, 2005.

Reasonable Accommodation of Disabilities
Students who need accommodation due to a disability must register with SJSU’s Disability Resource Center (DRC) during the first three weeks of the semester.   The Center will work with the students to determine the disability, document it, and determine the services and accommodations necessary for student success. Then, the DRC will contact the faculty member to determine the types of consideration necessary.

Students attending the Fullerton campus should first contact the Disability Resource Center in San José since they are SJSU students. The DRC will then direct the students to supporting resources on the Fullerton campus.

The DRC Web site: http://www.drc.sjsu.edu/

Academic Integrity
Read the SJSU Academic Integrity Policy
http://www2.sjsu.edu/senate/S04-12.pdf

Assignments
The assignments for this course (along with their due dates):

All assignments should be a Word file posted to the Blackboard site in the Digital Drop Box, or sent as a Word document attachment to e-mail. All assignments must use APA format for sources.

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 at least 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 2005, not earlier. Give an evaluative review of at least 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 (see p. 52-56 of Horning).

Assignment 3: Genre Fiction
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, e-mail me the title so I can okay it. Read the book and write an evaluative review at least 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 complete step-by-step instructions for some related fun (non-homework-like) activities (art projects, food, games, crafts, etc. with complete step-by-step instructions.)   Suggest at least 5 other novels in that same genre that a reader may also enjoy (You should read these books in their entirety, and give full bibliographic information and a two or three sentence description of each of the books). List all the sources you used.

Assignment 4: Informational/Nonfiction Books
Choose a nonfiction/Dewey Decimal numbered subject area to do a “collection development” project. This area should be somewhat 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 you would purchase (not a Web site). Compile these into a list, with each item having a short two or three sentence annotation. Write up a 2 or 3 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?   Which items did you actually read or see? Be sure to give a list of all the sources you used.

Assignment 5: Reader's Advisory Notebook/Database
Create an entry for 50 items appropriate for children ages 6-12. Each entry should include the bibliographic information, a brief , but complete, plot description, a genre label, a reading level, and mention of any books that are similar in style content, theme or characters. Also include any of the following items that you think might help you with reader's advisory activities in the future:

• Personal thoughts
• Subjects/themes
• Awards
• Series Information
• Character names/descriptions
• One/two sentence high interest annotation (that might be used on reader's advisory bibliography)
• Programming/lesson ideas
• Notes on passages that would be good to use for booktalks/programming.
• Anything else you'd like to add

Complete project should include entries for all different book genres and reading levels discussed in class. Complete project should include several recent (1990+) award winning titles.

Entry's can be formatted using Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Excel. You may not use any of the books used in your other assignments. These are 50 other books besides those. You must include at least (but not limited to) 20 novels. The other 30 can be a mix of easy readers, transitional fiction chapter books, nonfiction, folklore, poetry, biography, graphic novels, DVD/video, CDRoms, or audio recordings for our age group (but not Web sites).

Grading
The following activities will be reflect your final grade by following percentages:

Penny Peck, August 2005