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Introduction to the Critical Pedagogy of Children's Literature
Requirements

Spring 2007

Class Participation: Class participation is, of course, more than showing up, but that's where it begins. You are expected to attend every class for the full three hours.

As to the quality of your participation, you are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that day. As you read, think about questions, points of agreement, points of disagreement, or points where you might not fully understand what the author's point is, or with what or whom she or he is arguing. Write these questions down and be prepared to bring them up when you get to class. Our goal is to locate the conflicts that exist in the study of children's literature, position ourselves (provisionally) with regard to those conflicts, and figure out where we might enter the conversation.

There are two warnings I have to offer with regard to class discussion. First, this is not a place to complain about your students, past or present. This is a common and to my mind time-wasting practice that has no place in the professional discourse of pedagogy. As teachers, we will be frustrated, annoyed, and sometimes awed in good and bad ways by individual students that we come into contact with, and as professional talkers and communicators, we need to process those experiences verbally. I understand that, and I encourage you to find a safe and supportive place to do that - just know that it won't be during class time.

Second, this is not a place for untheorized storytelling. I am an inveterate storyteller; in fact, it is my chief pedagogical strategy. But I do not tell stories without having a detachable theoretical point that the story illustrates. If you want to tell a story, make sure that you have located that detachable theoretical interpretation (by detachable, I mean that you have processed what happened and that you can apply what you have learned in other situations) and that it is clearly evident in your anecdote.

Portfolio: The primary goal of this course is to equip you to teach children's literature at the university level. For many of you, your careers will involve syllabus preparation and assignment design; for some, it will even involve the creation of courses and course proposals. In order to conceive of teaching children's literature intelligently, you need to know what theoretical models have defined and sustained inquiry into children's literature and what historical configurations of childhood have informed the creation of texts for them, and, most importantly, you need to know a lot about a lot of children's books.

For your portfolio, you need to develop the following materials:

--a theoretically informed position paper on issues of canonicity with regard to children's literature
--an assignment menu, which includes both stand-alone assignments and assignment sequences
--annotated genre lists (that is, lists of primary texts organized by genre), with discussion questions and assignment possibilities
--at least two complete syllabi - one for an introductory survey course that corresponds to the 170 catalog description, and one for a themed course of some kind at an advanced undergraduate level (PhD students should also develop a graduate level syllabus)
--a bibliography of Useful Articles, with annotations that remind you of what they are useful for
--outlines of orienting lectures on the history of childhood, folk and fairy tales, and at least one genre
--a list of available textbooks with notes on their utility and their limitations
--other cool things that we will think of together

All of this material should be assembled in a format that insures that it is infinitely expandable and readily retrievable. Since I have never personally achieved that level of organization, I leave it to your own cleverness to design a system that works for you.

Another point to consider: no one teaches in a vacuum. We all appropriate and improve on each other's ideas. Please practice the virtue of integrity by giving credit where it is due. For instance, if you include your version of an assignment someone else came up with, say (adapted from an assignment by Flunky Gigglefanny), or if you just lift it whole, say (this assignment was designed by Pinky Lizardchunks). And give as generously as you have received.