Outline

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7/11/05 10:50 AM

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

EDUC 465-4

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Tel: 291-5998

WEDNESDAY 4:30-8:20 PM

EDB 8620

PREREQUISITE: 60 credit hours.

DESCRIPTION

Children's literature? Children's literature? Children's literature? Is there, in fact, something that can be

legitimately called children's literature? If there is, is it different from other forms of literature and, if so, why

and in what ways? And does it have its own standards and yardstick of excellence?

Why bring literature and children together, anyway? And which books should we bring to which children.

And when? -- is there, for instance, a way of fitting book to child (or child to book) like the glass slipper to

Cinderella. And to what ends? And in what different ways?

These and related questions are surely at the very center of the educational enterprise, both at home and at

school, from the earliest years of infancy to the last stages of adolescence. And the answers to these questions

speak to our most basic notions of what it is to be human, what it is to be educated. Or, as Jean-Jacques

Rousseau put it in his Confessions: "I do not know how I learned to read. I only remember my first books

and their effect on me; it is from my earliest reading that I date the unbroken consciousness of my own

existence."

OBJECTIVES

* Get in touch with and reflect on your own stories and story experiences through childhood and adolescence.

* Ponder whether there is, in fact, something that can legitimately be called 'children's literature'.

* Learn to survey children's literature through a study of genre; and examine some major genres - e.g., folk &

fairy tale, the picture book, verse & poetry, the novel, etc.

* Learn to look at children's books according to their fit to children's stages and sequences of development.

* Learn to examine children's books through their themes and issues.

* Critically examine why and how children and books should be brought together.

* Learn about story and storytelling.

* Learn about reading and reading aloud.

REQUIREMENTS

The course will comprise a range and variety of learning experiences. These include: individual study,

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Outline

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7/11/05 10:50 AM

research, and field-work with childr n; focused practice of instructional str•gies and procedures, with peer

review and feedback; small group and whole-class discussion, projects, and presentations; workshops and

demonstrations.

Course Requirements comprise the following:

* Regular class attendance and participation

* Completion of readings

* Completion of assignments

* Demonstration of competency in the fulfillment of selected assignments.

REQUIRED READINGS

Trelease, J. The New Read-Aloud Handbook. Penguin Handbooks, 2001. ISBN: 0140469710

Chambers, Aidan. The Reading Environment. Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers, 1996. ISBN:

0903355361

Yolen, Jane. Touch Magic. August House Publisher (2001) ISBN: 0874835917

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Penguin. ISBN: 14131088-X

Other readings will be identified and made available throughout the course.

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