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. This
course uses the SJSU Blackboard website for all our interaction. Students
enrolled in this course can enroll in the Blackboard site beginning Tuesday,
May 27, 2003.
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 “External Links” section of the Blackboard, journal
articles available on the SJSU library database, and children’s
books borrowed from you local public libraries. 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 for 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, June 9, and the last chat on Monday,
August 4, 2003. The last day to post to the Discussion Board is Monday,
August 4, 2003.
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 journal
articles assigned for the class. You will also see a series of Lectures,
the weekly topic for the chat and discussion question, and more extensive
descriptions of the assignments. You will also want to visit your local
public library (usually a Main and not a branch 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, and
Publisher’s Weekly.
Assignment 1: Due
Monday, June 30, 2003 by 11:59pm.
Assignment 2: Due Monday,
July 14, 2003 by 11:59pm.
Assignment 3: Due
Monday, July 28, 2003, by 11:59pm.
Assignment 4: Due
Friday, August 8, 2003 by 11:59pm.
All assignments should be posted to the Blackboard site Digital
Drop Box or emailed to me as a Word document, attached to the email.
Grading:
Each of the four assignments is worth 20 percent of your grade; class
discussions are worth the other 20 percent. Don’t forget, during
Summer Semester you basically are doing 15 weeks of work in 8 weeks, so
anticipate working at a brisker pace than the regular Fall and Spring
semesters.
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