IRLS 521: Children’s and Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural Society
Prerequisite: IRLS 504 or consent of the instructor.
Instructor: Judy Moreillon
Survey of a wide variety of children's and young adult literature with emphasis on bilingual/multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic literature. Using children's and young adult literature to develop literacy, particularly for English language learners will also be studied. (3 credit hours)
General Overview
The preschool- and school-age population of the United States has become increasingly diverse. In this multicultural environment, it is essential that library and information science professionals become knowledgeable about diverse types of literature for youth. To meet the needs of these changing demographics, this course involves reading and critiquing recently published bilingual/multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic books for children and young adults.
Bilingual or multilingual books are written in two or more languages. Whether or not you are a speaker of languages other than English, you will read and review these titles in preparation for working with children, young adults, and families who are multilingual. Multiethnic books are those that represent the experiences and perspectives of Asians and Asian Americans, Africans and African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians, people of Middle Eastern descent, and others. The term “multicultural” is used broadly in this course. Although language and ethnicity are central components of culture, we will also consider nationality, socio-economic status or class, gender, sexual orientation, age, family structure, religion, and exceptionalities.
The main purpose of this course is to provide you with a rich experience in reading and critiquing children's and young adult literature. In order to prepare you for selecting titles for use in storytimes and classroom-library lessons, reader’s advisory and collection development, our initial focus in this course will be to examine the issue of cultural authenticity in literature for young people. Once you develop criteria for selecting high-quality titles, you will be prepared to explore how multicultural literature can facilitate a greater understanding between and among diverse cultural groups. You will also examine the use of multicultural literature to develop literacy for English language learners (ELLs). Through service learning (discussed below) you will have an opportunity for a hands-on experience of sharing multicultural literature with youth in a library setting.
In addition to reading the children’s and young adult literature, you will participate in online literature circles and discussions of issues in multicultural literature. You will use tools within and outside of D2L to accomplish these learning experiences. You and a partner will also identify an inquiry project such as an author, illustrator, genre, or other study and present it to the class. All inquiry projects must be approved by the professor before midterm. Your individual or partner service learning project will involve reading, reviewing, and sharing a piece of multicultural literature and eliciting readers’ responses in a school or public library setting. This work will be published on the Southwest Literature Web site: http://southwestlit.com/pages/main.html You will complete the course with an individual final reflection.
A point system will be used to determine your final grade in this course. I will provide an evaluation rubric and examples for each type of assignment or project.
Course Structure/Approach
This course is entirely virtual. It involves individual, partner, small group, and whole class learning. Reading records are an individual project. Students will participate in whole class online dialogues centered on the issues raised in the texts and additional readings/viewings. Students will form small groups for online literature circles and will work with a partner to pursue an inquiry project. The service learning project can be an individual or partner project. The final course reflection is individual work.
Course Goals
1. The overarching goal of this course is to read and review a wide variety of children's and/or young adult bi/multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic books;
2. To become knowledgeable about genres of children's and young adult literature;
3. To become familiar with notable and emerging authors/illustrators/poets;
4. To identify awards presented to authors/illustrators/poets for children's and young adult literature;
5. To critically analyze children’s and young adult literature on diverse topics and themes and written from diverse perspectives;
6. To develop criteria for selecting and evaluating children's and young adult literature for public and school libraries;
7. To read professional literature concerning children and young adult materials and issues, particularly cultural authenticity, in children's and YA literature;
8. To identify professional organizations, groups, and associations interested in children's and young adult literature and the awards presented by these groups;
9. And to develop an understanding of how to develop literacy through children's and young adult literature in school and public library settings.
At the end of this course, students will:
1. Demonstrate the ability to recognize various genres of children's and young adult literature.
2. Recognize and develop an appreciation of notable authors, illustrators, poets, particularly those who contribute to bi/multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic children's and young adult literature.
3. Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate and select cultural authentic children's literature for various age groups and for diverse populations use and inclusion in public library and school library collections.
4. Recognize a variety of awards presented for notable children and young adult literature, authors, illustrators and poets.
5. Understand the role of school and public librarians in the use of children's and young adult literature in the culturally-responsive programming, teaching, and learning.
6. Be able to use Web-based technology tools to record and share their learning.
Fox, D. L. & Short, K. G. (Eds). (2003). Stories matter: The complexity of cultural authenticity in children’s literature. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. ISBN: 0-8141-4744-5
Lynch-Brown, C. & Tomlinson, C. M. (2007). Essentials of children’s literature. (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN: 978-0205520329
Note: This book provides excellent background on genres and bibliographies of children’s and adolescent literature.
Moreillon, J. (1997). Sing down the rain. Walnut, CA: Kiva. ISBN: 978-1885772077
Additional Readings provided by the Professor:Web-based resources and selections from Children & Libraries, Knowledge Quest, Language Arts, School Library Journal, Teacher Librarian, and other professional journals
This is virtual course that is organized by modules. All assignments have due dates and late work will earn half points. Although students can work at their own pace, they are expected to participate in online dialogues according to the posting due dates and times; points are earned for timely participation only. Readings related to the online dialogues must be completed before entering into the discussions. Students’ comments and questions must reflect their engagement with the reading assignments. Students who fail to engage with the course materials and in the online dialogues in a timely manner risk being administratively dropped from the class.
Technology Tools:Web 2.0 tools are integrated into this course. Students are required to use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web-based tools to gather information, to interact, and to share their learning. Students are responsible for having the necessary Internet access and software required to use these tools. Utilizing Web 2.0 tools is critical for children’s and youth services librarians and teacher-librarians who serve as technology stewards in their libraries. If a student is concerned about the quality of his/her Internet access, he/she must communicate with the professor about this within the first two weeks of the course.
Online Dialogues:
You will participate in online dialogues each week. This may be a whole class discussion or a small group literature circle. Each contribution to the dialogue will include a posting and a response to at least two classmates. In addition to dialogues held within D2L, we will use blogs, wikis, ning, or listservs. There will be a total of 15 threads, one each week. For each thread, students will earn 3 points for the original posting and 2 points for up to 2 responses to colleagues (7 possible points each).
Important: The goal of the online dialogues is to build a virtual learning community and to learn with and from one another. In order to facilitate a dialogue, students are expected to participate in discussions according to a schedule. Discussion topics will be posted on Sunday evenings. The initial response is due by 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Responses to our classmates and mentors are due by the following Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m.
Assignments:You will be provided an assignment sheet and a rubric for each of the following assignments. These documents will contain complete information and criteria for assessment.
Reading Records - This is an individual project.You will read and review up to 75 multicultural books for children and young adults and create a detailed reading record for each title. (You will be given a format to follow and multiple examples to guide your records. You will post your reading records to a wiki outside of D2L.) All of these books MUST be new to you, books you have not previous to the summer of 2008. The exact number of books you will read will be dependent on the reader age-range group to which you commit. The professor will provide you with Web links to award-winning multicultural literature and lists focused on particular groups as well as international books. You will read books with a copyright date of 2000 or newer. The content of your reading records must be your original work. In addition, you will keep a reading record tracking sheet on which you will record the diversity in your reading selections. (You will use this sheet in your final reflection.)
Note: To request information related to reading records and literature circle book selections before the D2L site opens, email me at: judithm@email.arizona.edu
Inquiry Project - This is designed to be a partner project. Students may work alone with the professor’s permission ONLY.
This assignment involves selecting a topic and presenting it online. Students may conduct a genre study, an author or illustrator study, an issue study, such as censorship, or other topic or expand the service learning project (as specified below). Teams may also choose to create ten Web 2.0 booktalks. Students MUST have the professor’s approval for any and all inquiry projects before midterm. Each student or partnership will present their learning to the class. This can be accomplished with a PowerPoint presentation, a Web page, or using Web 2.0 tools, such as a wiki or VoiceThread.
Service Learning and Published Review - This is an individual or partner project.
The professor maintains the Southwest Children’s Literature Web site at: http://storytrail.com/SWCL/pages/main.html You will select a Southwest book from a bibliography, or seek approval from the professor for a title that is not on the list. (The book must be one that has not yet been reviewed on the site.) You will read, review, and share the book with youth in a school or public library setting.
Note: You may choose to develop and coteach a collaborative lesson plan or storytime based on the book as your inquiry project. In addition to the above components, you will add a lesson or storytime plan and K-12 students’ work or public library youth patrons’ responses to the Web site.
You will use your reading record diversity tracking sheet as a basis for your final guided reflection. You will submit your final to the course facilitator via D2L. The final reflection is individual, not collaborative, work.
Academic Code of Integrity
Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity. 'The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work must be the student's own.' If you have any questions regarding what is acceptable practice under this Code, please ask an Instructor.
Accommodating Disabilities
The University has a Disability Resource Center. If you anticipate the need for reasonable accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you must register with the Disability Resource Center and request that the DRC send me, the Instructor, official notification of your accommodation needs as soon as possible. Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate.Course Policies
- Assignments submitted as a requirement for another class cannot be submitted for this class.
- If unable to complete an exam by the scheduled date and time, the student must make arrangements with the professor prior to the exam date. As a general policy, missed tests may not routinely be made up.
- Assignments should be submitted on the due date to receive full credit. Any assignment may be turned in earlier than the due date.
- Assignments cannot be redone for additional credit, nor may additional assignments be done for extra credit.
- Unless prior arrangements are made, late work will earn half the points.
- All assignments must be submitted electronically. Writing errors, such as spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, will be taken into consideration and may lower the grade. All assignments should be professional in appearance, such as you would submit to a principal or other employer.
- Students are permitted and encouraged to proofread each other's assignments.
- Make a copy of every assignment before submitting it to the professor.
- In the event of an unusual final point distribution, the final point requirements may be lowered. This is solely at the professor’s discretion.
- No grades of “incomplete” will be given in this course.
All students are expected to engage in high quality learning processes and produce high quality products. All assignments must be original work composed for this course. Students must cite their sources. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. A rubric will be developed for each course assignment. The course grade is based on a point system.
Online Dialogues (15 @ 7 points each – Individual Work)....... 105 points
Reading Records (Individual Work)......................................... 125 points
Inquiry Project (Individual or Partner Work)............................ 50 points
Service Learning (Individual or Partner Work)...........................75 points
Final Reflection (Individual Work).............................................. 25 points
Total Possible Points:............................................................. 380 points
Final Grades:
92% – 100% = 350 – 380 points = A
82% – 91% = 312 – 349 points = B
73% – 81% = 277 – 311 = C
Failure to engage in any assignment will lower the final grade by one letter grade per skipped assignment.
Rubrics:
A rubric is provided for every assignment. Rubrics set specific criteria for assessment. The purpose of a rubric is to provide students with clear expectations for success. In addition, rubrics result in more objective assessment of the students’ work. Students can and should use the rubrics to self-assess their work before submitting it for the professor’s evaluation.
Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Please contact me via email. I am “in the office” (at my computer) every day. Use the D2L course internal email. This is best for me as it keeps material related to this course in one place. Failing that, use ordinary email to reach me: judithm@email.arizona.edu. I will respond to your email within 24 hours unless I am traveling and lack regular Internet access. In that case, I will let the class know my “out of office” dates in advance. Thank you.
Tel: 520.621.3565
