Home

About Language & Literacy Education

Department History

Academic Programs

Information for Students

Research, Centers & Projects

News & Events

People

ELAN 5318/7318: Culturally Diverse Children's Literature

Course Novels:
Brink, C.: Caddie Woodlawn
Bruchac's Heart of a Chief
Curtis, C.P: The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963
Rockwood,J.: To Spoil the Sun
Sebestyen, O.: Words by Heart
Rowlings, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone.:
Soto, G.: Baseball in April and other stories
Spinelli, J.: Maniac McGee
Taylor, M.: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Woodson, J. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
Yates, Amos Fortune: Free Man
Yep, L: Child of the Owl

Additional Course Readings

Additional readings will be available for copying in OIT on the second floor of Aderhold Hall.

Course Ojectives

1. Students will become aware of currently available literature about, and resources related to, culturally diverse groups in the United States.
2. Students will gain a more precise understanding of themselves as readers as they read and respond to a variety of culturally diverse children's literature.
3. Students will explore some of the literary, aesthetic, sociopolitical, and cultural issues and controversies related to culturally diverse children's literature.
4. Students will explore strategies for reading and responding to culturally diverse children's literature in K-8 classrooms.

Undergraduate/Graduate Status

The Graduate School requires that undergraduate and graduate students have clearly distinguished expectations and assignments in split level courses such as ours. These distinctions will largely be in terms of an extra written assignment and additional readings for graduate students. These readings are designated by the ** symbol.

Course Requirements:

I. Attendance and Participation

Attendance and active participation are required. You need to be in class in order to learn from classmates, and for them to learn from you. While I do understand that health, work, and family responsibilities at times may preclude attendance, you must make every effort to be in class. If it is necessary for you to miss class, I would appreciate it if you would let me know in advance

This class is built around discussion of the assigned material, both literary and professional. The success of the class depends on what each of us brings to class and the manner in which we bring it. It is essential, therefore, that you have read, thought, and written about assigned reading prior to class. Active participation is defined as: 1) providing evidence that you have read the assigned material; 2) engaging in thoughtful and reflective oral and written response to the reading; 3) demonstrating respect for the ideas of others; 4) working productively in small groups.

II. Reactions Log/Journal

Response journals always have been an integral part of the courses I teach. We will utilize a class Listserve so that we can more fully share our reactions to literary works and the professional chapters prior to class and thus deepen and enrich our discussions of them. You will be expected to post your responses to assigned readings to your discussion group no later than 8 PM the Tuesday prior to class.

A distinction must be made between reaction papers and response papers. Reaction papers contain your immediate/initial reactions to the course novels and to the professional articles we read. Reaction papers may be impressionistic and should not attempt to cover all aspects of the book in question. I am interested in things that pique your interest and emotions. Please don't summarize the books, or the arguments in the articles. Comments about novels might include thoughts about the memories and feelings the work evokes; the author's construction and development of the plot, or the setting, or the theme[s], or the characters (including their racial and or gender identities); the book's perspective on social relations, life and living, etc. (please do not try to cover all of these!). Your reactions might be a series of quotes from the book/article that you found especially interesting, provocative, or annoying and your explanation of why you selected them. They might be a number of bullets that raise a series of thoughts and impressions. In other words, reactions need not be in the form of an integrated essay. Because, I am interested in your reactions, please do not spend time trying to anticipate or predict the responses of children to these books, or discussing the ways the books might be used to teach a particular subject or content area.

In reacting to the assigned chapters and articles, you may choose to react to them as a group, focusing on matters that you find interesting or provocative. On the other hand, you may choose to react to one of the articles/chapters that is of particular interest to you, or even to an idea or two in the article[s]/chapter[s] that caught your attention. Please be specific in reference to the material you are discussing. Reactions also can include questions that the articles raise for you. These questions may relate to the theoretical underpinnings of the piece, the issues it discusses, its methodology, the relation between the article and your experiences in classrooms, etc.

My intent is to make the journal a vehicle for us to reflect on important and difficult ideas and issues raised by our reading and to set the stage for our class discussions. What I don't want is for the log/journal to become overwhelming or to be perceived as busy work. If this occurs, we will need to discuss and negotiate mutually acceptable alternatives.

Please begin by recording the complete bibliographic information for the book or article at the top of the page.

Use of the WWW

I very much want you to begin utilizing some of the many wonderful children's literature resources on the WWW. These include a variety of links that contain biographical information, essays on critical issues related to her work, lesson plans etc.

I would like you to incorporate WWW resources in your reactions (at least 5 for undergraduates, 10 for graduates). For example, you might look up Mildred Taylor prior to writing your response to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. For example:

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/taylor.htm
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/curry/centers/multicultural/

Please save all of your responses. Completed responses should be placed in your journal.
Please be prepared to turn in your journal each week. The Response Journal is worth 40 points, due 12/5

III. Reading Biography: This assignment is intended to encourage you to reflect on your growth and development as a reader, especially as a reader of culturally diverse children's literature.

Questions you might want to address in your biography include:

What are your earliest recollections of books and reading (e. g., Did a parent, sibling, grandparent, etc. read to you?). What books, if any do you remember from your childhood? If a particular book stands out in your mind, specifically what do you remember about it? What do you recall about learning to read in school? Do you remember when you learned to read independently, do you recall the books your teacher[s] read, a teacher who particularly influenced you as a reader, an author you especially liked? Were you a reader during elementary, middle school, high school, and college? What are some of the books you recall from these school experiences? I am especially interested in your recollection of experiences with culturally diverse literature. What do you read now? (e.g., books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) Do you have a favorite type or genre of book, a favorite author? Do you tend to focus your reading on plot, character, setting, style, etc.? How do your personal values (e.g., political or religious beliefs) influence your choice of books and the way you read? What is the relation between your reading and your professional life? Why did you choose to enroll in the course?

Your reading biography should be approximately 6 to 8 (1.5-spaced) pages in length. This assignment is worth 10 points (due 8/29).

V. Response Papers: Novel Extensions

In this assignment, I would like you to deepen your understanding and appreciation of one of our assigned novels. You can do this in any one of several ways.

One way would be to extend your initial response by rereading the book and then extending your comments to reflect your thinking since that first reading. In writing this paper, you can incorporate issues and points raised in our class discussions and readings, material found on the WWW, etc. This paper should be more fully developed than was your first response, and should be broader, more in-depth, and reflect greater attention to the paper's design and coherence.

Another possibility might be to read another book, or books, that in some way compliment one of the assigned novels. For example, Katherine Lasky's novel Beyond the Divide, like Caddie Woodlawn, is about the western settlement but is dramatically different in many respects. Similarly, you might read another of Joyce Rockwood's books about pre-Columbian Indians such as Long Man's Song. Another possibility might be to compare contrasting novels about slavery such as Amos Fortune and Anthony Burns (Hamilton) or The Slave Dancer (Fox) to Feelings's The Middle Passage.

GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO WRITE TWO OF THESE PAPERS; UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO WRITE ONE.

Paper I due on or before October 3.
Paper II due on or before November 14. (Undergraduates must turn in papers no later than this date. You may turn it in earlier if you wish). This paper should be approximately 6 to 8 (1.5-spaced) pages in length.

Each paper is worth 10 points each for graduate students, 20 points for undergraduate students.

I really am open to your ideas for this assignment and suggest that you share them with me before you proceed.

VI. Final Course Reflections

In lieu of a final exam, please provide an overview of your reactions to the course. Although this paper will be personal and subjective, I expect that you will make specific references to readings (both professional and literary), class discussions, key course ideas, etc., which stand out in your mind. You are encouraged to draw freely on your reaction and response papers as well as to our class discussions. Among the things you may wish to reflect on are: how the course has influenced your thinking about the nature of culturally diverse children's literature, culturally diverse literature's importance in our lives (and those of children); the implications of the course for reading and teaching culturally diverse children's literature, for those who write, edit, and publish books for children, for classroom teachers, media specialists, and parents; the relation between aesthetic/literary factors and sociopolitical factors in the evaluation and selection of culturally diverse literature, etc.

This paper must include a list of references, and should be approximately 10 to12 pages (1.5-spaced) in length. The paper is worth 30 points and is due no later than 4 PM on 12/13.

Academic Honesty

Our class will strictly adhere to UGA's guidelines for academic honesty. If you are unfamiliar with them, I strongly urge you to read about the policy, especially section 5 (see: http://www.uga.edu/vpaa/polproc/ahpol/sect05.html It is your responsibility to seek explanations concerning issues of academic honesty, including the proper attribution and quotation of source material from journals and the WWW. Penalties for dishonesty range from deductions and failure on an assignment, failure of the course, to dismissal from the university.

The criteria I utilize in evaluating all assignments are:

• Evidence of thought and reflection
• Inclusion of specific details to substantiate claims
• Attention to specific issues in chapters/articles and details in literary works
• Thoroughness
• Completeness
• Promptness (i. e., responses submitted in a timely fashion)
• Carefully proofread
  

Language & Literacy Education • 125 Aderhold • The University of Georgia • Athens, GA 30602
Phone: (706) 583-8130 • Fax: (706) 542-4509 • lle@uga.edu • Web Feedback

About the COE | Academic Programs | Admissions | Departments & Directories | News & Events | Research & External Affairs | Resources & Services
COE Home | UGA Home | Sitemap | Contact | UGAMail | Give to the COE
TEXT-ONLY VERSION