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GREENSHEET
Course Description:
An overview of literature and information materials, including media and
websites, for children ages 7-12. 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.
Important: "Academic Dishonesty Procedures" - see http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/soc-spring/soc-spring-273.html
Course Format:
This is a web-based course. All of our interaction will take place on
the SLIS Blackboard site. Course materials will be available primarily
through the Course Documents and "External Links" sections of
the Blackboard, 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 Mondays from 6:30-7:45pm. The first "chat" will be
held on Monday, Jan. 27, 2003, and the last on Monday, May 5, 2003, last
day to post to the Discussion Board is Friday, May 9, 2003. There will
be no chats on Monday, Feb. 17 due to Presidents' Day, Mon, March 24 due
to Spring recess, or Mon., March 31 due to the Cesar Chavez holiday.
Textbooks:
Horning, Kathleen T. From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing
Children's Books. HarperCollins, 1997. $13.95. ISBN 0-06-446167-X.
Nodelman, Perry and Reimer, Mavis. The Pleasures of Children's Literature:
Third Edition. Allyn and Bacon, 2003. $57.00. ISBN 0-8013-3248-6.
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 Monday, Feb. 24, 2003, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 2: Due Monday, March 10, 2003, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 3: Due Monday, April 14, 2003, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 4: Due Monday, April 28, 2003, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 5: Due Friday, May 9, 2003, by 11:59pm.
All assignments should be posted to the Blackboard site in the Assignment
Manager (this replaces 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."
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 2003, 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?
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 or 3 page description 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). 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. 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, 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 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 (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? Be
sure to give a list of all the sources you used.
Penny Peck, December, 2002
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