University of Rhode Island
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
LSC 530: Reading Interests of Children
Spring, 2007

Gale Eaton
Telephone: 401-874-4651
E-mail: geaton@mail.uri.edu
Office hours by appointment

Mondays, 6:30 - 9:15 p.m. LSC 530 (Reading Interests of Children) is an online course for the spring of 2007. The vast majority of course content will be offered asynchronously via WebCT. The official class time is Monday evening, however, and this means:

á       When the class meets face-to-face, it should be on a Monday evening. We will plan to meet on January 22 (with January 29 as a snow date); March 5; and April 30.

á       Each new "lecture" should be available by the Monday evening listed in this calendar. A new discussion topic will also be available, for discussion on the "lecture" topic throughout the week. (For instance, discussion on the January 22 introduction is expected to continue until January 28. If the discussion is still active, the topic may remain open for another week or so, but on January 29 a new discussion is scheduled to begin.)

á       Each assignment is considered due by 6:30 p.m. on the Monday evening listed (not just sometime during the following week). 

Catalog Description

Building, maintaining, evaluating, and promoting collections for children in public libraries and elementary school media centers. Fiction and nonfiction; books emphasized, digital and other resources also discussed.

Topics to be Covered

During the course, students will:

1.   explore and discuss the educational, recreational, developmental, and informational needs of children and the particular needs of those adult library users (parents, teachers, etc.) who support them (GSLIS 9, 10, 11, 20; RIDE 1, 3, 4)*;

2.   consider issues related to children's access to information, confidentiality and intellectual freedom in light of the American Library Association's Code of Ethics and Freedom to Read statement as well as current law (GSLIS 2, 3; RIDE 11);

3.   develop skills in locating, selecting, evaluating, and promoting children's books and related media (GSLIS 4, 16; RIDE 2);

4.   discuss the application of contemporary theories of child development, educational practice, literacy and literary criticism to the evaluation and use of library materials for children (GSLIS 11, 13; RIDE 2, 6, 7);

5.   write a paper on issues in collection development or a plan for collection development in a specific area (GSLIS 4, 8; RIDE 8); and

6.   through oral or online presentations, written reviews and annotations, communicate the knowledge and enjoyment of books and other library materials (GSLIS 6, 8; RIDE 8)

* Numbers in parentheses refer to relevant University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Educational Outcomes and Rhode Island Department of Education Beginning Teacher Standards.

Through the Eyes of a Child: An Introduction to Children's Literature (7th Edition)The textbook: Through the Eyes of a Child (7th ed., 2007, by Donna E. Norton and Saundra E. Norton) is the recommended text for this course. I chose it because 1) its school orientation should help balance my public library orientation, and 2) it is a valuable reference book, with up-to-date bibliographies that will help you select books for your reading logs. Buying it with a "special value pack ISBN number" should gain you access to their Teacher Prep site. However, textbooks are monstrously expensive these days, and since I don't teach out of them much (and there's no test), you should regard this purchase as voluntary, not compulsory. 

Norton, Donna E., & Norton, Saundra E. 2007. Through the eyes of a child: An introduction to children's literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. 

á       Class is scheduled to meet January 22, March 5, and April 30. Face-to-face sessions are scheduled because children's literature depends so much on voice and illustration. If you miss these sessions, there is no way to make them up; you simply miss them. It would be tactful of you not to ask your instructor, "Will I be missing anything important?" (She labors under the fond delusion that everything she puts into this course is for your use, and she would never deliberately waste your time.) Obviously, much of the content will be mirrored on the WebCT site, but you will miss stories and live discussions and the sorts of things people don't know in advance they're going to pop out with. 

á       As adult students, you know your own needs and responsibilities, and should be trusted to make your own decisions about attendance based on that knowledge. For instance, if there is a blizzard in New Hampshire but just a dusting in Rhode Island the night of a face-to-face session, it would be reasonable for you to stay home and keep safe rather than driving down from New Hampshire. If your board of trustees is meeting to discuss your budget for the next fiscal year, it would be reasonable for you to meet with them and defend it. If you feel impelled to take a vacation in the Caribbean, it would be polite of you not to mention this too many times to your instructor.

á       Asynchronous: Each week, you are expected to read and respond to content in the "lecture" notes and in your classmates' postings to the discussion topic. (If you fail to post for several weeks and then send us twenty messages all at once, isn't it rather like skipping class for half the semester and then dominating the discussion when you come back?)

Your grade for the semester will be based on these things:

  1. Participation (15%)
  2. Online Presentation (25%)
  3. Final Paper (30%)
  4. Portfolio (30%); includes materials log and Newbery Nomination

If you have an idea you're longing to implement and can't make it fit one of these assignments, let me know; maybe we can negotiate an alternative.

Important requirements for all assignments: 

Interpretation of grades: A grade of B on an assignment in this course will mean that you have met the basic requirements for the assignment; your performance would be acceptable on a professional level. A grade of A will mean that your performance is not only acceptable, but distinguished. A grade of C for graduate students indicates failure to perform at an acceptable level for graduate credit. 

Individual assignments will be graded according to rubrics on a scale of 1 (Little Evidence of the Standard) to 5 (Well Above the Standard). 

Q. Why do the rubrics on the assignment pages go only from B-/C+ to A-/B+?

A. The instructor does not expect any of you to score below a B; and to earn an A implies that you go beyond the mechanical attempt to do what the instructor wants and make the assignment your own, distinguishing yourself in ways that may be quite unpredictable but recognizably excellent. 

 

 

 

 

Dates

Topics

Assignments due

Jan 22 (f2f)

Introduction: The Uses of Children's Books

 

Jan 29

Folk Tales and Storytelling: The Literature of Orality

 

Feb 5

Picture Books I (ABC, 123, P-K)

 

Feb 12

Picture Books II and Easy Readers (K-2)

 

Feb 19

Collection Development and Materials Selection

Optional: Portfolio installment for early feedback

Feb 26

Electronic Communications Technology (ECT): New Information Environments

Online presentations, Feb 26, Mar 5, or Mar 12 (sign up in advance for date)

Mar 5 (f2f)

Classics: Is Peter Pan Possible?

 

Mar 12

Nonfiction I (Exposition)

 

Mar 26

Nonfiction II (Narrative)

 

Apr 2

Easy fiction (1-4) and Series Books

Newbery Nominations: Advance List

Apr 9

Poetry, Music, and Graphic Novels 

 

Apr 16

Realistic and Historical Fiction (3-6)

Final paper

Apr 23

Fantasy: The Geography of Magic (3-6)

 

Apr 30 (f2f)

The LSC 530 Newbery Free-for-All

Portfolio

 

Books for discussion: Most weeks, we will be discussing children's books (and other materials) by genre, and it will be your responsibility to read and examine recommended materials in those genres. The more books we can actively discuss, the better. Required titles: 

March 5, Peter Pan and Wendy, by J. M. Barrie, required. You can find it in libraries, in various editions, or online (here's one site: http://www.literature.org/authors/barrie-james-matthew/the-adventures-of-peter-pan/ ). For a richer discussion, you could also read The Little White Bird (the very peculiar adult novel in which Peter Pan made his first appearance, even before going on the stage); a recent prequel (Peter and the Starcatchers, by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry); or a recent sequel (Peter Pan in Scarlet, by Geraldine McCaughrean); or you could check out a movie version (there are many!); or you could investigate some other peculiar writer of children's classics from a century ago (Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame, for instance, were about as peculiar as J. M. Barrie). What if these guys hadn't lived so long before COPA? 

 

April 16, either Virginia Euler Wollf's Bat 6 and Karen Hesse's Witness. Both are distinguished; both are examples of stories told by many narrators (I'd call them polyvocalic); both have their admirers and detractors, which should make for interesting discussion. There's some disagreement as to whether they're both appropriate to children as young as 6th grade, and that's worth discussing, too.

 

Participation

What is the assignment: To participate in class exercises and discussion, both online and in face-to-face meetings.

Who will do it: Everybody.

When will it be due: Weekly. Class is scheduled to meet on three Monday evenings: January 22, March 5, and April 30. (see attendance policy and calendar page). The instructor will post weekly "lecture" notes by 6:30 each Monday during the semester, and will open a discussion topic for the week. Each week, you are expected to read and respond to content in the "lecture" notes and in your classmates' postings to the discussion topic. Topics may remain open for a week or so after the next topic is opened, just in case somebody says something really juicy near the end of the week and you want to respond; but you're expected to drop in at least a couple of times a week. (If you fail to post for several weeks and then send us twenty messages all at once, isn't it rather like skipping class for half the semester and then dominating the discussion when you come back?) 

Besides the weekly topics, additional topics will be "Announcements" (to tell the class about upcoming events, nifty resources, etc.); "Assignment Information" (where the instructor will try to clarify your questions about this syllabus); and "Coffee Break" (where we can go off topic -- sometimes the most useful things you learn in a course are things that come up during break).

Discussion (in class or online) can be based on several things:

Grading

Participation will be graded on quantity and quality; civility is an important part of quality. 

Above the Standard (B+ or A-)

Meets the Standard (B)

Approaches the Standard (B- or C+)

Presentations

What is the assignment: To report to your classmates on a plan for marketing a program or service to meet the information needs of a specific clientele, either in a public library children's room or in a school library program serving K-6. Focus will be on the needs of clients (children, students, parents, teachers, or others who might reasonably use your library); any materials used (books, audiobooks, DVDs, websites, video games, etc.) will be selected for excellence in this service context.

Who will do it: Individuals or pairs. Let the instructor know if you plan to collaborate with a classmate, and how you plan to divide the responsibility for the report. 

When will it be due: February 26, March 5, or March 12 (sign up for date, topic, and partner by February 12). 

How it will be presented: 

Report should be available online to instructor and classmates. 

Your report should be posted or e-mailed to the instructor by 6:30 p.m. on the day it is due. Discussion of the February 26 reports is due between February 26 and March 5; of the March 5 reports, between March 5 and March 12; and of the March 12 reports, between March 12 and March 19. To encourage discussion, both authors and classmates are encouraged to ask open-ended questions.  

Principle objects of the assignment: 

  1. to identify the information needs of a clientele, and articulate a rationale for meeting those needs;
  2. to identify relevant resources for meeting the needs;
  3. to develop a strategy (e.g., a lesson plan for the media center or a program for the public library) linking resources and clientele; 
  4. to develop procedures for assessing the outcomes; and
  5. to share your research and ideas effectively with classmates. 

Content:

1. First, identify your clientele. Use a mix of demographic variables (e.g.: age, language group) and situational variables that you might encounter in your chosen public library children's room or K-6 school library media program. Some possibilities:

Then, think about the ways identity and circumstance interact to shape information needs. If a child has ADHD, you can predict some of her information needs from her diagnosis -- and in many ways, her diagnosis will become part of her identity. But she may still have a love of art, a quirky sense of humor, a personal history -- she'll be a unique individual, not just a stereotyped case of ADHD. Some of that child's information needs will be created by predictable circumstances, shared by so many children that your collection is bound to have books for the occasion -- she'll have to do a unit on Egypt or the rainforest, or she'll have to adapt to her parents' divorce. 

Why do you want to meet the information needs of your clientele? What outcomes will justify your efforts to support them? Will the benefits be only to the immediate clients themselves, or will they extend to others in your community? As you answer questions like this, you are establishing a rationale for your proposed investment in resources and strategy. 

2. Once you have thought about your clients and their circumstances, think about what resources they need. Sometimes, the best you can do is locate material on the right topic, at the right grade level, and hope the kids will slog through it. But librarians live for those moments when we can find the perfect resources to set a given child's imagination ablaze. If we give children enough to complete an assignment and pass a course, we've met their information needs, maybe, at a passing level. But if we kindle their enthusiasm for a subject, we may help create an appetite for lifelong learning. Meeting their information need at a deeper level creates more and more information needs. 

So, when select resources for this assignment, think about the outcomes you'd like to achieve for your clientele. We'll be talking about selection tools and how to evaluate materials for children. This assignment should give you practice in evaluating materials for a specific group of children (or of adults who serve children) in terms of their specific situational needs. The way you evaluate the materials will be influenced by your understanding of the real information need. Just as one example, if you decide your report is going to be about supporting the elementary school social studies curriculum, you could go the strictly pragmatic route (they're going to have to do this unit on states that requires each child to list the capital, the major industries, the state bird, etc. -- so, we need a series of books on the states); or you could explore the rationales for teaching history (try http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/dev-k-4b.html for starters). In the one case, you could easily measure the effectiveness of your strategy for meeting information needs by counting how many children found all the required bits of information for their reports. In the other case, you'd be looking for evidence that history "connects each child with his or her roots and develops a sense of personal belonging in the great sweep of human experience" -- much harder to measure! But it would certainly change your approach to choosing materials. 

3. When you've identified your clientele, their information need, and some marvelous resources for meeting the need, you also need a strategy for putting resources into the hands (and minds) of clients.  You don't have to come up with something from scratch. If you are planning to work in school library media services, you'll find a wealth of books, journal articles, and websites to help you develop lesson plans, for instance. If you're planning to work in public library youth services, you'll find almost as much support for developing programs. 

Possible topics and strategies are endless: family literacy programs; creative dramatics in science (or history, or...); homework help centers; oral history projects; consumer education for children; children as storytellers; online discussion groups or games. If your imagination flags, check out your reading list, School Library Journal or Booklinks for ideas, or look for books on programming in children's rooms and school media centers. 

Like your resources, your strategy should be directly related to your desired outcomes. One of my all-time favorite responses to this assignment was from Carol Dunbar. Her clientele: teachers who needed instructional support. Her major resource: an already existing professional collection that was almost unused. Her strategy was based on the recognition that teachers had NO TIME -- so you couldn't realistically expect them to come into the library and find the wonderful books and journals waiting there for them. No. You had to sneak those things into their hands by nefarious means. But 5th and 6th graders often like to volunteer -- what if you got the best readers to record some of the best professional journal articles, so teachers could listen to them (like audio books) on their commute? And teachers using the phone in the teachers' lounge get put on hold -- what if you made it really easy for them to communicate needs to the librarian while they're just waiting there? And even teachers have to go to the bathroom -- what if you put professional reading material in baskets in the stalls, and improved the overhead lighting?

Very strategic. 

4. Part of your assignment is to plan outcomes evaluation for your proposed strategy. Carol Dunbar's strategy in item 3 involved inputs that could be measured: books, journals, student volunteers, light bulbs, etc. It would also be easy to measure the outputs: how many of those books, journals, student recordings, etc. did the faculty actually borrow and read or hear? But the outcomes would be more difficult to observe: how much did the professional collection help faculty members in implementing new methods of instruction, for instance? Thinking back to the discussion of resources in item 2, you can see that children's reports with all the right state birds, capitals, and so forth correctly listed would be measurable outputs, while the inspiring language at the National History Standards website is about desired outcomes. 

Typical outputs for children's programs include increased circulation and (in public libraries) borrow registration levels. In school library media programs, higher grades and scores on standardized tests might be outcomes -- but I'd argue that even those are surrogate measures for the real outcomes you hope to achieve. Those real outcomes go beyond subject knowledge (though that's always good) and even information literacy (often represented at the K-6 level by the "Big6" skills, http://www.big6.com/). So -- kudos to anybody who can create a simple, plausible way of assessing how well your strategy achieves your desired outcomes, based on your original rationale. 

Presentation:

5. Finally, you are expected to share your ideas effectively with classmates, by means of an online presentation. Your presentation should be both informative and interesting. The introduction should describe your clients, their information need, and your rationale for addressing it. Discuss your strategy: what outcomes do you want from your lesson plan, program, or other action? Why do you think the strategy you've chosen will get better results than other possible approaches would? 

You may wish to demonstrate your program -- or at least, write out a detailed scenario for some portion of it. You may have to excerpt it. For instance, if your plan is to do a series of story hours, you can't give us the whole series, but you can summarize one or more stories (or link to online versions) and explain how they fit into your strategy. 

Your conclusion should tell us something about your plans for evaluating the outcomes of your strategy. The more important the outcomes, the harder they will probably be to measure. To be meaningful, however, assessment should be directly linked to desired outcomes. 

You may do this presentation as a web. In it, you should summarize your face-to-face presentation on the main page, and link to sub-pages (or external URLs) for important supplementary materials such as:

If you are unable to create a web, you may do your report as a Word document, with appendices for supplementary materials. 

Making your presentation available via WebCT:

Grading

Presentations will be graded on content (rationale, 15%; resources, 20%; description and/or sample of strategy, 20%; evaluation procedures, 10%) and form (organization, 15%; effectiveness, 20%).

Above the Standard (B+ or A-)

Meets the Standard (B)

Approaches the Standard (C+ or B-)

 

Portfolio

What is the assignment: To record your semester's activities and achievements in this course. This is an opportunity for reflection on the material you will have read and discussed all semester. (Note: "reflection" here means "dispassionate contemplation of what it means and how you can use it in a professional context," more than "getting in touch with your emotions on this subject." Unsupported personal opinion is not enough.) Your portfolio will include at a minimum these things:

  1. Title page
  2. Table of contents
  3. A log of children's books and other media you have read, viewed, listened to, examined, and evaluated for this course. For each item recorded, there should be a complete bibliographic citation. Items can be enhanced by annotations and special notes (e.g., grade level, recommendation codes, notes about how best to use the item). There should be at least 40 items, including a balance of materials in different genres and for different age groups. They should be listed alphabetically by author within categories, and the categories should be listed in this order:

o      Required books: Peter Pan and Wendy; either Bat 6 or Witness

o      At least 2 books of folk tales and/or myths

o      At least 10 story picture books (I mean, picture books that have stories, like Where the Wild Things Are or Peter Rabbit)

o      At least 5 ABCs, 123s, concept books, and/or wordless picture books

o      At least 3 books of expository nonfiction (e.g., science, technology, cooking, how-to)

o      At least 3 books of narrative nonfiction (e.g., history, biography)

o      At least 2 books of poetry and/or plays

o      At least 4 chapter books for emergent readers (e.g., easy series books)

o      At least 4 fiction books for fluent readers 

o      At least 4 non-book items 

4.     Your nomination for the class Newbery award, with a critical essay using the ALSC Newbery Award Terms and Criteria (except for date and place of publication) and making a strong case for why your choice is the most distinguished LSC 530 book of the year

You may include additional relevant material at your discretion. For instance, you could reflect on more than the required number of exercises; you could develop your own collection development policy; you could critique research articles on children's literature and reading. Especially welcome would be an introduction and conclusion to the portfolio, and transitional paragraphs between sessions, showing how the different sections contribute to your overall professional philosophy and qualifications. 

When will it be due: By April 26 at the latest; but April 19 submissions will be gladly accepted and, if possible, returned early. Many items in the portfolio will be due throughout the semester in more casual form -- usually as part of the discussion. It is hoped that you will use feedback on earlier versions to improve what goes into the portfolio.

How it will be presented: Your portfolio may be submitted in hard copy or as an e-mail attachment; or you may mount it on your own site and give the instructor your URL.

Grading

Participation will be graded on quantity and quality; civility is an important part of quality. 

Above the Standard (B+ or A-)

Meets the Standard (B)

Approaches the Standard (B- or C+)

 

Final Paper

What is the assignment: To write a term paper on any topic having to do with the selection and evaluation of library resources for children up to about age 12. 

Relevant issues include information needs assessment; policies for collection development and acceptable Internet use; the process of selection; the publishing and marketing of children's books; the use of government information by and for children; the development of special collections for parents and teachers; the use of different media (such as videos, audiobooks, comics or e-books) in the collection; weeding, repair, and conservation; interlibrary cooperation; copyright; and intellectual freedom. Clear your topic with me in advance if you are unsure. A suggestion: narrower topics may turn out to be more interesting than very broad ones, and open-ended questions are usually more fun than foregone conclusions. 

Choose an approach that makes sense with your topic, whether it is literary criticism, or history, or social science. A few possibilities:

For more ideas, check the suggested reading list; or browse journals like Children's Literature in Education or The New Advocate; or read the calls for scholarly papers in Children's Literature Association Quarterly; or ponder some of the recurring questions on PUBYAC, CHILDLIT, or your favorite listserv.

Who will do it: Individuals.  

When will it be due: April 16, 6:30 p.m. 

How it will be presented: 

Principle objects of the assignment: This assignment should give you an opportunity to explore your chosen topic in some depth. 

Grading

Papers will be graded on the basis of content (40%), organization (35%), and mechanics (25%). Criteria below are deliberately open-ended, because what works best for one kind of topic (e.g., a literary analysis of one or more books, or a discussion of how Narnia has been adapted to movie, video game, and board game formats) might not work so well for another kind of topic (e.g., a review of evidence showing that preschool story hours make a positive contribution to language acquisition and emergent literacy).

For any good topic you can choose, there is almost sure to be an ongoing professional and/or scholarly discourse about that and similar topics. Scanning the way other writers have handled such topics may help you choose your own approach, whether you agree with them and want to build on what they've said, or disagree and want to point out an angle they've missed. The best papers exhibit both imagination and discipline.

4. Above the Standard (B+ or A-)

3. Meets the Standard (B)

2. Approaches the Standard (C+ or B-)

Additional Resources

Children's Literature Sites

ALISE Youth Services SIG: http://www.uky.edu/~smcqu2/alise/youth_services/resources.htm 

Children's Literature Association: http://chla.wikispaces.com/ 

Children's and Young Adult Literature: http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/subjects/childlit.htm 

Index to Internet Sites, Children's and Young Adults' Authors and Illustrators: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/biochildhome.htm 

The International Research Society for Children's Literature: http://www.irscl.ac.uk/links.htm 

Kindersite: http://www.kindersite.org/ 

National Centre for Research in Children's Literature: http://www.ncrcl.ac.uk/clsites.htm 

School Library Journal: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?publication=slj 

Program Resources:

Authors at Your Library: http://www.authorsatyourlibrary.org/ 

Awesome Stories: http://www.awesomestories.com/ 

Connecticut Storytelling: http://www.connstorycenter.org/sharing.html 

National Storytelling Network: http://www.storynet.org/ 

Story Arts Online: http://www.storyarts.org/ 

Children's Literature Discussion Lists:

child_lit information page: https://mailman.rutgers.edu/mailman/listinfo/child_lit 

Multicultural Resources

A Line in the Sand: http://www.hanksville.org/sand/ 

Mitten, Lisa. General Indian-Oriented Home Pages. http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/general.html 

Multicultural Books: http://www.lib.iastate.edu/commons/hdfs240/multicultural.html 

The Environment Children Inhabit: Reading and Media

National Assessment of Educational Progress, Reading: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/

National Center for Education Statistics. 2005. Youth Indicators, 2005: Trends in the Well-Being of American Youth. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005050

National Center for Education Statistics. 2005. Forum Guide to Education Indicators. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005802