Course: ENGL 105, Children’s Literature

  1. Date of Application: 10/18/12
  2. Name, Department of Proposer: Carol Beran, English
  3. Name of department housing course: English
  4. Name of chair: Carol Beran
  5. How often is course taught: alternate years
  6. Course prerequisites: none
  7. Unit value of course: 1
  8. Normal class size: 24
  9. Number of sections expected to be taught in Fall 2012: 0
  10. Number of sections expected to be taught in Spring 2013: 0
  11. Is the course appropriate for first-year students: no
  12. Relevant Learning Goals: Artistic Understanding
  13. Chair will oversee submission of student work: yes
  14. Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming & assessment exercises: yes

Artistic Understanding

Teaching:

1a. Look at or read works of art:

In this course, students read texts chosen to represent different types of children’s literature (fairy tales, nursery rhymes, picture books, series books, chapter books, fantasy, non-fiction for elementary school children)or texts chosen to explore a particular aspect of children’s literature (early readers, censorship of children’s books, young adult novels, multicultural books for children), or historical periods (modern adaptations of ancient folk tales, the rise of children’s literature). The intersection of literature with issues of race, class, gender, and age may be investigated.

1b. Analyze/interpret form and meaning:

The course analyzes texts with attention to their formal features, such as point of view, plot, character, and imagery. With every text studied, the mode of telling is linked to the story told. For example, in looking at picture books, students might explore whether the pictures tell the same events as the words or fill in gaps to enrich what the words tell. In looking at modern illustrated books of fairy or folk tales, comparisons to multiple older versions of the tales might generate discussion of how the form has changed through time. Chapter books like Anne of Green Gables or Huckleberry Finnmight be studied to see how the lives of children are constructed in books that appeal to older children.

1c. Apply discipline-based vocabulary:

In order to examine the literary features of texts with any precision, students must employ a discipline-based vocabulary. For example, they must be able to distinguish between first- and third-person point of view, omniscient narrators and third person limited narrators, and among literary genres frequently used by those who write for children such as the anecdote, the novel, the tall tale, the nursery rhyme, the fantasy story, and the chapter book.

1d. Explore the artistic piece’s significance within appropriate contexts:

The large context within which texts are studied in this course is the complex and changing definition of children’s literature. Depending on the focus of the course, readings provide students with multiple perspectives on literature written for children from various eras and cultures, written by both men and women. Texts may be considered from the point of view of history, culture, gender, and/or ethnicity in various versions of the course. Issues such as the use of children’s literature in acculturation or the prevalence of censorship may provide entry into the problems those writing or choosing books for children may encounter.

2a, b, c, d. Participation in the creative process: not relevant for this course.

Learning: how coursework will be used to measure student learning of the outcomes:

1a. Look at or read works of art:

The course is conducted as a discussion, and limited to 24 students for that purpose. During each class meeting, students are expected to demonstrate in discussion that they have read carefully, noting relevant details of the text under study. In addition, in some versions of the course, students are expected to submit frequent informal writing assignments (response papers, blogs, journal exercises, and/or in-class writing) that comment on specific features of the texts under study. For example, they may be asked to select a passage and comment on its role in the larger text; or they may be asked to note markers of social class in the day’s reading, or to analyze techniques a writer uses to make a fantasy story seem like it could happen.

1b. Analyze and interpret form and meaning:

Considerations of form and meaning together are essential to literary analysis. English 105 requires a minimum of three formal essays, in which students analyze meaning as it is conveyed through form. For example, they might be expected to examine the way the authors of Alice in Wonderland and Anne of Green Gables construct young girls. A complete answer to such a question would have to take into account not just the girls’ capacity for independent action but how various aspects of the presentation (similes, events, other characters) define the degrees of independence each girl has, and how the fantasy genre of the one book and the realistic mode of the other affect how readers perceive their heroines.

1c. Apply discipline based vocabulary:

This is assessed in informal writing, three formal essays, a project, and a final exam.

1d. Explore the artistic piece’s significance within appropriate contexts:

The final exam will require students to demonstrate an understanding of the context within which all the readings are presented, and also within the more specific context established for the course. For example, they might be asked to compare and contrast texts as realistic fictions; to compare and contrast fictional coming of age stories by the gender of the central character; to compare and contrast how various social, political, and cultural settings affect readers’ responses to stories.

2a, b, c, d: Participation in the creative process:

Not relevant to this course, although some essay assignments or projects may include writing creative pieces in imitation of those on the reading list, and then analyzing how they imitate the original.