SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

EDUCATION 465-4

?

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Summer Intersession, 1989

(May 8—June 16)

Mondays/Wednesdays

8:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.

Location: MPX 7600

Instructor: Paula Hart

PREREQUISITE:

60 hours of credit.

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Literary, educational, and sociological perspectives on literature for children.

OBJECTIVES:

This course will get you exploring the variety of books, poems, and stories available to

children, give you a chance to look at the literature in terms of current issues (multiculturalism,

values, censorship), and help you generate ideas for making literature a vital part of your

school day. To help meet these objectives, class format will include a variety of experiences,

such as book sharing, workshops, discussions, and lectures.

OUTLINE OF TOPICS:

-

Discovering children's literature (exploring the range of experiences and prominent

authors and illustrators)

- Historical and contemporary scope of children's literature

- Responding to literature

- Why children need books

- Sharing literature with children (through booktalks, reading aloud, story-telling, readers'

theatre)

- Children's literature in the school (e.g. role in the development of reading, writing,

speaking, and listening; role in cognitive and affective development; integration into

other curricular areas)

- Canadian children's literature

REQUIREMENTS:

-

Class participation in all oral, written, and group work

- Reading journal: a journal of personal reading to include responses, thoughts,

reflections, and reactions (including reference to course content, related reading, and

responses of others)

- Completion of

I

of the following:

- Unit plan based on a book, author, theme, genre, or issue

- An original children's book/story

- Study of professional review sources including a review aimed at publication in one

of the sources

- Classroom/library or school literature promotion project

REQUIRED TEXT:

Huck, Charlotte. Children's Literature in the Elementary School, 4th ed. Holt, Rinehart and

Winston, 1987.

SUGGESTED PRE-READING:

Jim Trelease's enthusiastic and helpful annotations in The Read-Aloud Handbook (see library

holdings) make

it

a good starting place for exploring books. You might want to try Judith

Saltman's Modem Canadian Children's Books for Canadian titles.