INSTRUCTOR & COURSE INFORMATION: Dr. Tim Conrad, tconrad@weber.edu, EH 257 (my office); Office Hours: Because our course meets one evening a week, if you need to meet with me, see me after class, or we can make an appointment at another day and time during the week.
REQUIRED BOOKS: 1) Reading Children's Literature: A Critical Introduction, by Hintz & Tribunella
2) Refugee, Alan Gratz, Scholastic Press, 2017
COURSE OBJECTIVES: In this class, we will explore the varied genres of children's literature for an audience of elementary through junior high school children, as well as the many examples of children's books with crossover appeal for readers of any age, such as Refugee (Gratz),The Giving Tree (Silverstein) and The Table Where Rich People Sit (Byrd Baylor). You will learn the long history of children's literature, its unique forms and creative contributions to literature, as well as teaching approaches which will engage children in the full reading experience: literacy, creativity, and critical thinking. Children's books are full of unique moments of insight, both joyful and challenging. But what makes children's literature potentially life-changing and mind-expanding, for both children and adults? Hintz and Tribunella point to one of the most important reasons: "By reading children's literature critically, we can learn about ourselves, our society, and indeed, our culture, past and present . . . the close reading of texts [children's books, films, and other literature] brings our own and others' perspectives and contexts to bear on them."
LEARNING OUTCOMES: English Literary/Textual Studies:
(1) Read, explicate, and analyze texts [children's literature] within their cultural, historical, and critical contexts.
(2) Research using a variety of methods and sources and document sources according to standard guidelines.
(3) Apply relevant critical theories to the interpretation and production of texts.
(4) Write effectively about texts for varied purposes and audiences across multiple genres and media.
(5) Demonstrate knowledge of major writers, works, genres, periods, and literary histories of texts.
English Departmental:
(6) Read, interpret, and analyze language and texts. (Departmental Learning Outcome)
(7) Compose, revise, and edit your writing. (Departmental Learning Outcome)
WORKLOAD EXPECTATIONS: You should expect to be doing about 3-4 hours of work outside class for each hour in class. Please communicate with me if course requirements are overloading you beyond these expectations. I realize that you have other classwork, family, and work responsibilities competing for your time.
HOMEWORK & GRADES:
This semester I am using an online tool called Wikispaces for you to see the course syllabus and content, so you will not be completing your work on Canvas. Instead, you will use Canvas to check your current grade at any point in the semester for all your course work that you will be completing in two assignment areas: (1) Attendance & Coursework and (2) Course Project: Drafts 1, 2, and Final Draft. For course project suggestions, see the sidebar page on this wikispaces. These assignments and class interaction are directly tied to the English Department Learning Outcomes outlined above. You will find the schedule and due dates on Canvas. *If you happen to be late with an assignment or miss a class because of a sickness or other reason, please contact me right away at tconrad@weber.edu so we can work out how you can make things up within a week after missing--I won't be able to change/update Canvas grades more than a week after their due dates.
*Final Letter Grades: 95-100% = A; 90-94% = A-; 85-89% = B+, etc.
OTHER UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS: See below for WSU student responsibilities, protections, and resources:
Cancelled Class or Emergency Closure: If I am sick or if for any reason the university is forced to close for an extended period of time, we will conduct our class via our course website.
Academic Dishonesty: As specified in PPM 6-22 IV D, cheating and plagiarism violate the Student Code. Plagiarism is “the unacknowledged (uncited) use of any other person’s or group’s ideas or work.” Students found guilty of cheating or plagiarism are subject to failure of a specific assignment, or, in more serious cases, failure of the entire course.
Core Beliefs: According to PPM 6-22 IV, students are to “[d]etermine, before the last day to drop courses without penalty, when course requirements conflict with a student's core beliefs. If there is such a conflict, the student should consider dropping the class. A student who finds this solution impracticable may request a resolution from the instructor. [Talk to me about working out alternative assignments].This policy does not oblige the instructor to grant the request, except in those cases when a denial would be arbitrary and capricious or illegal. This request must be made to the instructor in writing and the student must deliver a copy of the request to the office of the department head. The student's request must articulate the burden the requirement would place on the student's beliefs.”
Disability Accommodation: PPM 3-34 notes: “When students seek accommodation in a regularly scheduled course, they have the responsibility to make such requests at the Center for Students with Disabilities before the beginning of the semester in which the accommodation is being requested. When a student fails to make such arrangements, interim accommodations can be made by the instructor, pending the determination of the request for a permanent accommodation.”
INSTRUCTOR & COURSE INFORMATION: Dr. Tim Conrad, tconrad@weber.edu, EH 257 (my office); Office Hours: Because our course meets one evening a week, if you need to meet with me, see me after class, or we can make an appointment at another day and time during the week.
REQUIRED BOOKS: 1) Reading Children's Literature: A Critical Introduction, by Hintz & Tribunella
2) Refugee, Alan Gratz, Scholastic Press, 2017
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
In this class, we will explore the varied genres of children's literature for an audience of elementary through junior high school children, as well as the many examples of children's books with crossover appeal for readers of any age, such as Refugee (Gratz), The Giving Tree (Silverstein) and The Table Where Rich People Sit (Byrd Baylor). You will learn the long history of children's literature, its unique forms and creative contributions to literature, as well as teaching approaches which will engage children in the full reading experience: literacy, creativity, and critical thinking. Children's books are full of unique moments of insight, both joyful and challenging. But what makes children's literature potentially life-changing and mind-expanding, for both children and adults? Hintz and Tribunella point to one of the most important reasons: "By reading children's literature critically, we can learn about ourselves, our society, and indeed, our culture, past and present . . . the close reading of texts [children's books, films, and other literature] brings our own and others' perspectives and contexts to bear on them."
English Literary/Textual Studies:
- (1) Read, explicate, and analyze texts [children's literature] within their cultural, historical, and critical contexts.
- (2) Research using a variety of methods and sources and document sources according to standard guidelines.
- (3) Apply relevant critical theories to the interpretation and production of texts.
- (4) Write effectively about texts for varied purposes and audiences across multiple genres and media.
- (5) Demonstrate knowledge of major writers, works, genres, periods, and literary histories of texts.
- English Departmental:
(6) Read, interpret, and analyze language and texts. (Departmental Learning Outcome)(7) Compose, revise, and edit your writing. (Departmental Learning Outcome)
WORKLOAD EXPECTATIONS: You should expect to be doing about 3-4 hours of work outside class for each hour in class. Please communicate with me if course requirements are overloading you beyond these expectations. I realize that you have other classwork, family, and work responsibilities competing for your time.
HOMEWORK & GRADES:
This semester I am using an online tool called Wikispaces for you to see the course syllabus and content, so you will not be completing your work on Canvas. Instead, you will use Canvas to check your current grade at any point in the semester for all your course work that you will be completing in two assignment areas: (1) Attendance & Coursework and (2) Course Project: Drafts 1, 2, and Final Draft. For course project suggestions, see the sidebar page on this wikispaces. These assignments and class interaction are directly tied to the English Department Learning Outcomes outlined above. You will find the schedule and due dates on Canvas.
*If you happen to be late with an assignment or miss a class because of a sickness or other reason, please contact me right away at tconrad@weber.edu so we can work out how you can make things up within a week after missing--I won't be able to change/update Canvas grades more than a week after their due dates.
*Final Letter Grades: 95-100% = A; 90-94% = A-; 85-89% = B+, etc.
OTHER UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS: See below for WSU student responsibilities, protections, and resources:
Cancelled Class or Emergency Closure: If I am sick or if for any reason the university is forced to close for an extended period of time, we will conduct our class via our course website.
Academic Dishonesty: As specified in PPM 6-22 IV D, cheating and plagiarism violate the Student Code. Plagiarism is “the unacknowledged (uncited) use of any other person’s or group’s ideas or work.” Students found guilty of cheating or plagiarism are subject to failure of a specific assignment, or, in more serious cases, failure of the entire course.
Core Beliefs: According to PPM 6-22 IV, students are to “[d]etermine, before the last day to drop courses without penalty, when course requirements conflict with a student's core beliefs. If there is such a conflict, the student should consider dropping the class. A student who finds this solution impracticable may request a resolution from the instructor. [Talk to me about working out alternative assignments].This policy does not oblige the instructor to grant the request, except in those cases when a denial would be arbitrary and capricious or illegal. This request must be made to the instructor in writing and the student must deliver a copy of the request to the office of the department head. The student's request must articulate the burden the requirement would place on the student's beliefs.”
Disability Accommodation: PPM 3-34 notes: “When students seek accommodation in a regularly scheduled course, they have the responsibility to make such requests at the Center for Students with Disabilities before the beginning of the semester in which the accommodation is being requested. When a student fails to make such arrangements, interim accommodations can be made by the instructor, pending the determination of the request for a permanent accommodation.”