4
    ?
    S ?
    SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE ST ES
    NEW COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
    1.
    Calendar Information
    ?
    Department English
    Abbreviation Code: FNC,I
    ?
    Course Number: 367
    ?
    Credit Hours: 4 Vector: 2-2-0
    Title of Course: Studies in
    Children's Litera-tvre
    Calendar Description of
    Course: LAn
    intensive study of selected works of children's
    literature from various periods. One objcct
    o-f--..lhe
    course will b-t© consider whetherrf
    principles of interpretation and evaluation differ for children's and "adult"
    literature.
    Nature of Course 'Lecture/Seminar
    Prerequisites (or special instructions):
    Any two of ENGL 101, 102, 103; and any one of ENGL 204, 205, 206
    What course (courses), if any, is being dropped from the calendar if this course is
    approved:
    none
    2.
    Scheduling
    How frequently will the course be of feredt least
    once every
    4
    semesters
    Semester in which the course will first be offered?
    81-1
    Which of your present faculty would be available to make the proposed offering
    possible? Curtis, Harris, Steig
    3.
    Objectives of the Course
    (see attached
    sheet)
    4.
    Budgetary and Space Requirements (for information only)
    ?
    7
    What additional resources will be required in the following areas: none
    ?
    0
    Faculty
    Staff
    Library
    Audio Visual
    Space
    Equipment
    5. Approval
    Date
    '
    : '2.
    ?
    Q_--77
    F.
    &,-,tLa-^^
    ?
    c
    Department Chairman
    ?
    Chairman, SCUS
    SCUS 73-34b:- (When completing this form, for instructions see Memorandum SCUS 73-34a.
    Attach course outline).
    Arts 78-3
    .
    ?
    .
    Proposal for English 367: Studies in Children's Literature.
    Nature and objectives of the course:
    First, a brief history of the teaching of children's literature in
    the English Department: In 76-1, a Special Studies course in children's
    literature was given jointly by Professor Steig and Visiting Professor Bleich.
    Student demand for the course was very heavy, and the drop-rate was low.
    Subsequently, the Department proposed a new course, English 363, Varieties
    of Fantasy, which, it was understood, would sometimes be taught as a
    children's literature course, concentrating on fantasy for children. Since
    its approval, English 363 has been offered alternately as Science-Fiction
    and as
    .
    Children's Literature. There has been a consistently high enrollment
    and continuing demand for both courses, which has created something of a
    problem, in that there has been little opportunity to offer 363 with a
    different content, such as adult fantasy or the gothic novel.
    Children's literature has in the past decade become an •extremely
    active and lively subdivision of literary study in English departments
    throughout North America. The annual journal, Children's Literature,
    enters its eighth year with a new publisher, Yale University Press, and
    several other journals have recently begun publication--journals con-
    cerned with children's literature as a field of study within the disci-
    pline of English literature, rather than to the use of children's litera-
    ture in the elementary or secondary school classroom. UBC has courses
    in children's literature in the faculty of education, the English
    department, and the graduate School of Librarianship.
    The children's literature courses taught thus far under the
    rubrics of Special Studies or Varieties of Fantasy in our English
    department have made rigorous demands on students. The "response"
    approach described in the attached course description for 80-1 has
    generally been used, but there is no requirement that such an approach
    always be used in this course; the only requirement is that children's
    literature be treated seriously and as of value in itself. The English
    department's approach will always be sionificantly different from that
    of Education 465, which is directed towards the use of children's
    literature in the elementary or secondary classroom; indeed, the courses
    should, for students goinn into teaching, complement one another.
    The creation of English 367 will acknowledge and regularize an
    already existinq situation: that the demand for a course In children's
    literature is heavy, and that it must be given frequently. It will
    reduce the pressure on English 363, so that a number of interested faculty
    members may offer that course with a different content than either
    science-fiction or children's literature. And it will make our offerings
    more nearly equivalent to those of a large number of English departments
    in North America.

    Back to top