Part of being successful at understanding how childhood and childhood culture are created in literature involves looking carefully at a wide variety of texts. Because class time is limited, we cannot read all the books that you should be familiar with; nor can I expect you as students to read all that I've read in the short space of this semester.

In order to find a sort of solution to this problem, we will create a collaborative web site filled with book reviews of both picture and chapter books that have been written for a target audience of five - fifteen year olds. Students will choose their books by lottery early in the semester.

Picture Books: Each student will write 300-500 word reviews of two different pictures books that they have been assigned through the lottery. Students' reviews should have four sections: 1) a brief summary of the story/plot, including the book title, author, and illustrator; 2) an explanation of how the book constructs an image of childhood, making reference to specific pictures and words from the book, as well as to ideas you have picked up from reading Nodelman and Reimer's The Pleasures of Children's Literature; 3) an explanation of what "conservative" and "progressive" elements are worth noting in the book; and 4) a set of 3-5 Internet links that would be useful to teachers, parents, or children if they are interested in this book.

Chapter Books: Each student will write 300-500 word reviews of two different chapter books (one short, one long) that they have been assigned through the lottery. Students' reviews should have four sections: 1) a brief summary of the story/plot, including the book title and author, and an explanation of what genre of children's chapter books the story falls into; 2) an explanation of how the book constructs an image of childhood or pre-adolescence, making reference to specific passages from the book that prove your points or assertions, as well as to ideas you have picked up from reading Nodelman and Reimer's The Pleasures of Children's Literature; 3) an explanation of what "conservative" and "progressive" elements are worth noting in the book; and 4) a set of 3-5 Internet links that would be useful to teachers, parents, or children if they are interested in this book.

Students will submit their reviews electronically to Dr. Banks (book review groups); they will be either approved, approved with slight revisions, or revise and resubmit. Once reviews have been approved, the reviews will be added to the course blog and will be available to all students. This online space will be available to teachers and parents around the world as they attempt to choose books for children.

Sample Book Review

Periodically, students will be asked to do various activities connected to the different readings we do for class. These activiteis will be, for the most part, connected to chapters and ideas we explore together in Nodelman and Reimer's The Pleasures of Children's Literature, although some will be language arts activities connected to the novels/books/poems we're reading .

Several activities will start as in-class free-writes/drawing, and students will be asked to develop these at greater length; others will be assigned as out-of-class activities. Students should pay careful attention to any verbal directions as many of the activities will not be written down anywhere.

Activities will be evaluated by check, check-plus, and check-minus. Revised versions of some of these will appear in your final Course Portfolios.

Literacy Map
We've been surrounded by "literacy" since before birth; some studies even suggest that the sounds and rhythms of language and music pierce our mother's wombs and add to the complexity of sound that we experience all those months in utero. Regardless of whether that's true or not, we do begin experiences languages when we emerge into the world. Whether we've been "readers" or not, whether we like to read or not — none of these matter because we are at all times functioning in a literate society. In fact, if we don't like to read, schools, adults, culture all tell us that we're "illiterate" and that something must be fundamentally wrong with us. Is it? Surely not . . . surely there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the Greeks and other cultures that existed for ages without a written literacy.

For this activity, however, I want you to think carefully about all the reading and writing activities that have surrounded you, going back as afar as you can. Create a map of your earliest memories with language, moments when you realized that language was words and that words could be written and re-experienced. What books have stood out for you? What do you remember? What moments have been particularly hard or easy for you?

Think of these moments, as complexly as possible, and map them on the paper I've provided. You should work in small groups, sharing markers and crayons, and talking about them as you draw them. When I call "time," you should carefully fold your maps and hold on to them for homework.

For homework, think of one story you could tell about one of the "texts" or "experiences" you've had and write a few paragraphs about that experience on the back of you map. Bring that map to the next class.

Mapping Our Experiences with Children
This assignment, like the Literacy Map, asks you to think back to your past, although a perhaps more recent past, to begin to envision how you separate yourself from children (and by association, "childhood"). Specifically, I want you to think about some of the following moments:

When did you first began to separate yourself from a child/children-in-general? When did you first begin to see children as somehow different from you? Maybe this was the first time you were put in charge of younger child, or maybe you remember holding a little brother or sister and thinking that this create was somehow rather different from yourself. For example, when did you start babysitting (if you did) and how old were you? The friend I borrowed this assignment from began "babysitting" at the age of 12, even though the "babies" she was watching after were about 6 or 8. She was still very much a "child" herself by some standards, but now she was in charge of other children.

From that Ur-experience, trace other moments up till today. Thnk of all the places you encounter children (restaurants, schools, Sunday School/church, the bookstore, the library, etc.) Try to plot at least five significant moments of experiencing children. Likewise, try to make at least two of these moments those that don't conform to assumptions we've talked about regarding children: perhaps moments when a child was exceptionally cruel to another child, or perhaps when a child said something markedly racist or sexist or homophobic, or perhaps when a child was devious or just generally malicious. These images don't often jump to our minds when we think of children, but most of us have had some experience with these "deviant" children (and I use deviant in quotation marks to call attention to why we think the behavior is "deviant" if it is actually rather commonplace).

Divide your map into two sections: on one section, plot experiences that involve "appropriate" or "acceptable" behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, talk, etc; on the other, plot those experiences in which children seem "inappropriate" or "unacceptable" in their behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, talk, etc. Those things that you have trouble classifying, place closer to the middle; those that seem clearly acceptable or not, place further away from the center of the page.

For homework, write a few paragraphs about one of these experiences and bring the map to class for the next meeting.

Although libraries like Joyner place picture books in the "easy" section, such placement demonstrates a phenomenal misunderstanding of how complex pictographic/visual literacies function, a move which likewise suggests that alphabetic literacies are both more complex and more important than visual literacies. However, if we were to suggest such a thing to visual artists, we might find ourselves in quite a battle. After all, any college student who has had an "Intro to Art" or "Art History" course knows that reading paintings and other visual media is intensely complicated.

As we've discussed this semester in our reading of Molly Bang's Picture This and chapters from Nodelman and Reimer's The Pleasures of Children's Literature, picture books involve very complicated use of color, composition, texture, tone, shape, motion/movement, etc. Likewise, picture books have become a central component of childhood literacy education. As Nodelman and Reimer note, "Merely in existing, then, picture books imply attitudes about what their audiences are and how they should behave —what sort of concerns adults must have for the audience, what the audience deserves to experience and has a right to own, what skills of ownership it has or must learn" (278-79). Picture book occupy a strange and sometimes uncomfortable space between childhood and adulthood.

For Major Project #1, student will find a text like those demonstrated in class (a poem ostensibly written for adults) and break that text down into a series of pages with accompanying images. Like Christopher Myers's illustrations in Harlem or Wings, which consist of found objects creatively arranged, your illustrations should advance the words in some way. They may tell their own story, or even parallel simultaneous stories (like those of Jan Brett), but there should be some connection between the words of your found text and the visuals you choose to decorate them with. On some level, this may seem like a slightly advanced form of scrapbooking.

Accompanying the picture book itself will be three (3) double-spaced pages of analysis which explain your answers to the following questions:

1. How did you choose your text? Why?
2. How did you decide on your illustrations? Why? What mood, style, etc. are you hoping to accomplish?
3. What aspects of picture book theory (Bang, Nodelman & Reimer, et al.) apply to your book?
4. Why do you think your picture book is or is not appropriate for young children? Explain your work.

Requirements:

1. Picture books must be at least 20 pages and may not exceed 40 pages.
2. At least one-half of the pages should contain visuals (graphics, pictures, clip-art, etc.).
3. Alphabetic texts must be written originally for an adult audience.

Due Dates:
Draft for Peer Review: February 3, 2005 in class. (Projects that do not go through the drafting process may not be considered for a grade.)
Due for Evaluation: February 8, 2005 in class.

After a full semester of reading literature written for children and pre-adolescents, critical texts that discuss those texts, and after asking complicated questions about children, childhood, and adolescence, students in this course should be prepared to write extended analyses of a particular text or theme that arises in the literature of the course (as well as those texts read for book reviews).

For Major Project #2, students have a choice. They may either create a full, two-week unit addressing a particular theme and choosing appropriate picture and chapter books for use in that unit, or they may write a traditional academic essay in which they explore a particular construction of childhood and show how this theme functions in at least two chapter books.

Themed Unit: Students who choose to develop a themed unit should isolate a particular theme and articulate a set of learning objectives for a particular age group of students. These learning objectives should be integrated throughout the two-week unit (each activity should be linked to connected learning outcomes). Students should include at least two picture books and a chapter book that we’ve read this semester as part of this unit. Each unit should likewise contain original projects appropriate for the intended audience; these units should consist of at least 4 mini-projects and at least 1 larger project (the mini-projects should be connected to the larger project so that all the projects work together as part of the unit). Themed units should have a one page, single-spaced cover memo that explain the theme of the unit, the primary learning outcomes, and how the texts and projects work together to achieve the listed learning objectives. Themed units should also contain ancillary materials such as any worksheets, mini-project directions, major project directions, etc. which are part of the unit, as well as a timetable for each day and what activities will occur.

Traditional Academic Essay: Students who choose to write a traditional academic essay should focus on a particular construction of childhood (making reference to Nodelman and Reimer) and analyze how two different chapter books that we’ve read articulate that construction of childhood. Students might find that two books offer competing images of childhood/pre-adolescence and might develop an essay in which they explore these differences and explain why these images of childhood/pre-adolescence might be popular now or why they might not, or why they might be healthy or dangerous, etc. Or students might look at two books that seem similar (in tone, style, audience, theme, content) and then demonstrate how a more careful reading of the two books shows something quite different (for example, Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder are very similar in as much as they are about two sets of young people who travel "south" to visit family and end up having hilarious adventures; however, because of racial differences and different time periods, the young protagonists have quite different experiences that are worth exploring in a critical manner). These essays should be at least 10 double-spaced pages in length and should contain a careful, pointed thesis statement, as well as several quoted examples from the two books that help make your points. These essays should also make use of at least two outside pieces of critical writing like the articles you might find in Children's Literature Quarterly or The Lion and the Unicorn.

Both types of projects will be evaluated based on the level of critical thought that each student demonstrates in creating and completing the work, as well as how professional the finished products appear. Likewise, drafts of the projects will be due for peer review and teacher review before the finished draft is due; students whose projects miss these deadlines will find their grades greatly diminished.

Due Date:

For your Course Portfolio, you will be collecting the texts that you've put together this semester and assembling them in an order that will allow for me to evaluate the work you've done. The "new" material in the Portfolio will be your Major Project #2 and your Final Exam; all other materials should be projects that have been graded/evaluated/responded to in some way. You should organize your portfolio in this order:

You can pick up these portfolios during first summer semester or during fall semester. If you do not return by December 2005, I will throw away the portfolio as I have limited room in my office. If you would like me to mail the portfolio to you, then bring a postage-paid box with your address on it and I'll gladly drop your portfolio in the mail to you.

Due: April 28, 2005 between 2:00 and 4:30 p.m. You should turn your portfolios in to me in Bate 2143 (my office). Only portfolios handed to me in person will be accepted.