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Requirements

Introduction to the Critical Pedagogy of Children's and Young Adult Literature
Reading Schedule and Calendar

Spring 2007

January 16: Introduction
Understanding Pedagogical Desire – Theirs and Yours
Bracher, Mark, "Identity and Desire in the Classroom," Pedagogical Desire, ed. by jan jagodzinski (file name: bracher_coats)

January 23: Canons and Consequences
Sadler, pp. 1-58
Nodelman, Chapters 1-4
Stevenson, Deborah, “Sentiment and Significance: The Impossibility of Recovery in the Children’s Literature Canon or, The Drowning of The Water Babies” The Lion and the Unicorn 21.1 (1997) 112-130. (Project Muse)
NACL, Table of Contents and Preface

January 30: Myth, Folk Tales, Fairy Tales
Sadler, pp. 89-120
Nodelman, Chapters 8, 9, 12
Egoff, Part II (pages 110-161)
NACL, Introductions to Fairy Tales, Animal Fables, Classical Myths, and Legends, also “read around” in those sections

Cook, Elizabeth. “Myths, Legend, and Fairy Tales in the Lives of Children.” The Ordinary and the Fabulous. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1976, pp. 1-9. (File name: cook_coats)

Tatar, Maria. “Rewritten by Adults: The Inscription of Children’s Literature.” Off With Their Heads? Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton: Princeton UP, pp. 3-21, 241-244. (file name: tatar_coats)

Stephens, John, and Robyn McCallum. "Pre-Texts, Metanarratives, and the Western Metaethic." Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children’s Literature, New York: Garland, 1998. pp. 3-23. (file name: stephens_coats)

Malarte-Feldman, Claire. “Folk Materials, Re-Visions, and Narrative Images: The Intertextual Games They Play.” CLAQ 28.4 (2003-4): 210-219. (file name: malarte_feldman_coats)

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Because of the snow cancellation on February 6 and Feb 13, everything on the calendar has been pushed back two week. We will make up the classes by meeting during finals week, and having a movie night at my house.

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February 27: Histories of Childhood
Sadler, pp. 121-142
Nodelman, chapters 5, 6, 7
Egoff, pp. 74-89

Christensen, Nina. “Childhood Revisited: On the Relationship between Childhood Studies and Children’s Literature.” CLAQ 28.4 (2003-4): 230-239. (file name: christensen_coats)

Metcalf, Eva-Maria. “The Changing Status of Children and Children’s Literature.” Reflections of Change: Children’s Literature Since 1945. Ed. Sandra Beckett. Westport, CN: Greenwood P, 1997. pp. 49-56. (file name: metcalf)

Sims, Eva-Maria. “The Invention of Childhood.” Unpublished manuscript. (file name: invention of childhood)

March 6: Theory in the Tower

Alderson, Brian. “How to Get Your Ph.D. in Children’s Literature.” Horn Book Magazine  (July/August 1997): 437-441. (file name: alderson_coats)

Hunt, Peter. “Childist Criticism: The Subculture of the Child, the Book, and the Critic.” Signal 43: 42-59. (file name hunt2_coats)

“Necessary Misreadings: Directions in Narrative Theory for Children’s Literature.” Studies in the Literary Imagination 18.2 (1985): 107-121. (file name: hunt1_coats)

Ewers, Hans-Heino. “The Limits of Literary Criticism of Children’s and Young Adult Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn 19.1 (1995): 77-94. (Project Muse)

Slemon, Stephen and Jo-Ann Wallace. “Into the Heart of Darkness? Teaching Children’s Literature as a Problem in Theory.” Canadian Children’s Literature 63 (1991): 6-23. (file name: slemon_wallace)

Clark, Beverly Lyon. “Thirteen Ways of Thumbing your Nose at Children’s Literature.” The Lion and the Unicorn 16 (1992): 240-244. (file name: clark_coats)

Griswold, Jerry. “The Future of the Profession.” The Lion and the Unicorn 26 (2002): 236–242. (Project Muse)

Lesnik-Oberstein. “The Psychopathology of Everyday Children's Literature Criticism. Cultural Critique, No. 45, 222-242. Spring, 2000. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0882-4371%28200021%290%3A45%3C%3E1.0.CO%3B2-2

McGillis, Roderick. “The Delights of Impossibility: No Children, No Books, Only Theory.” CLAQ 23 1998. (file name: mcgillis)

Walsh, Sue. “’Irony? -- But Children Don't Get It, Do They?’  The Idea of Appropriate Language in Narratives for Children” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 28.1 (Spring 2003): 26-36. (File name: walsh_coats)

Chapleau, Sebastian. “A Theory without a Centre: Developing Childist Criticism” Studies in Children’s Literature 1500-2000. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 130-137. (file name: chapleau_coats)

March 13: Theory on the Ground

Crago, Hugh. “The Roots of Response.” ChLAQ 10.3 (1985): 100-104. (file name: crago_coats)

Bull, Geoff. “Children’s Literature: Using Text to Construct Reality” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 18.4 (November 1995): 259-269. (file name: bull_coats)

Tabbert, Reinbert and Kristin Wardetzky. “On the Success of Children’s Books and Fairy Tales: A Comparative View of Theory and Reception Research.” The Lion and the Unicorn 19.1 (1995): 1-19. (Project Muse)

Sipe, Lawrence R. “Children’s Literature, Literacy, and Literary Understanding.” Journal of Children’s Literature 23.2 (Fall 1997):6-19. (file name: sipe_coats)

Anstey, Michele. “’It’s Not All Black and White’: Postmodern Picture Books and New Literacies.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 45.6 (Mar2002): 444-460.

Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. “Taking Children’s Literature Seriously: Reading for Pleasure and Social Change.” Language Arts 74.6 (October 1997): 446-453. (file name: yenika_agbaw_coats)

Nodelman, Perry. “Interpretation and the Apparent Sameness of Children’s Novels.” Studies in the Literary Imagination 18.2 (1985): 5-20. (file name: nodelman_coats)

Hughes, Felicity. “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice.” ELH 45.3 (1978): 542-561. (file name: hughes_coats)

Bottigheimer, Ruth B. “An Important System of its Own: Defining Children’s Literature.” Princeton University Library Chronicle 59.2 (1998): 191-210. (file name: bottigheimer_coats)

March 20: Phew! Let’s Regroup: What Do We Teach and Why?
Sadler, Part II
Textbook Reviews
Syllabus design
Assignment sequencing

The remainder of the semester will focus on the various genre that we teach in a children’s literature course. We will pose the same basic questions for each of the genre under study: What is the history of the genre and how did it develop? What are its essential features? What are the special problems and opportunities it poses for pedagogy? What are the key texts that we should know? You should expect to read and prepare discussion questions for a number (a minimum is specified for each class session) of primary texts for each class period, as well as do ongoing work on your assignment menus in addition to any readings assigned. To prepare for discussion, think about the ways in which the books you choose to read represent the genre’s chief characteristics and preoccupations, and extrapolate from there to a theory of the genre.

March 26: Lois Lenski Lecture

March 27: “Classics"
Read and prepare discussion questions for three of the books from a list we will develop.

April 3: Poetry
NACL, Introduction to Verse Section. Read around. Prepare discussion questions for 3 of the collections or sections.

April 10: Picture Books
For this class period, you will work in pairs to complete the following presentation:
1)      Each pair will read a chapter of Perry Nodelman’s Words about Pictures.
2)      You will design a mini lesson that communicates the information in that chapter to your classmates. You may work from Nodelman’s examples, or expand on those examples.
3)      When we’re finished, you should have a comprehensive vision of the various facets of picture book art and how it works.

Saturday, April 14: Film (at my house)
“Through the Looking Glass” (file name: through the looking glass)(need full citation).

After reading the article, prepare discussion questions for either three one book to one film adaptation or two one book to multiple adaptations.
Babe 

April 17: Graphic Novels
Do three close readings of spreads from graphic novels, paying attention to visual codes, the way the text and graphics interface, the movement of the text, the relationship of that scene to the whole, and the way the theme of the book speaks to its audience in ways traditional novels cannot or don’t. Be prepared to present your favorite. A list of suitable graphic novels can be found here.

April 24: Fantasy
Read and prepare discussion questions for three of the books from the attached list.

May 1: Preadolescent Novels
Read and prepare discussion questions for three of the books from a list we will develop.


May 8: Historical Fiction
Read and prepare discussion questions for three of the books from a list we will develop.