Keep on posting!

It's December 15 and I'm finishing up with course grades. It's been a wonderful semester. Please do stay in touch!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Break!

We won't be meeting in class this week.

Enjoy the time off.

Work hard on your final projects :)

For Week 13 - Questions to guide your reading

Read:

* Boy Meets Boy
* McLean (1997): What is McLean's rationale for considering GLB(TQ) literature as "multicultural"? What stereotypes and inaccuracies does she suggest we watch out for? This article was written in 1997. Are you familiar with any books that you think do a "better" job of representing GLBTQ characters?
* Levithan (2004): Although Levithan is directing his words to librarians, they also apply to teachers. What does he mean when he writes, "Being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something you can agree or disagree with."
* Optional: Barnard (1994): (Posted on Angel) Why does the author suggest that heterosexuals not identify themselves as such in these discussions? What do we mean by "heterosexual privilege" in a teaching context?

Info on blogging and citing what you post

Last year's 448 instructor (Valerie) posted a really helpful post on this subject.
I've cut and pasted it below:

* If you use a direct quote you need to put it in quotation marks or off-set it and give the source.
* If you paraphrase someone else's idea, you need to indicate that you've done so.

In most cases I think that doing this informally is fine. (Meaning you don't have to do a reference list like you might in a course paper.) For example, indicating the author's name and year of publication when you are drawing from a course reading or including the web address of where you drew a quote or big idea.

Here's where things get a little fuzzier, since a lot of our work is collaborative.

* If you are summarizing ideas formed in group discussion or sharing an idea that one of your classmates developed, you need to indicate that.

For example, if your analysis of a book is the product of a whole group discussion that helped you think of the book in new ways, say so. For example, "Class discussion helped me see..." or "One of my group members helped me understand..." or "Our debriefing after the such-and-such activity made me realize..." Or maybe leading with, "One of my group members wrote a questioning the text paper that made me look at the book in a different way".

Several positive things come out of acknowledging sources: it allows readers to track down written sources, it reminds us of the value of talking through ideas and hearing multiple interpretations of text and it keeps us "honest" in terms of sharing the credit for ideas.

Info about final project presentation (Dec 10)

For your final presentations, I'd like you to do the following:

Booktalk books
Share a key quote, poem, etc.
Talk about the commonalities you noticed across the literature representing your focus group
Talk about the diversity you noticed across the literature
Talk about the key professional resources did you found
Share your questions and what you still want to learn/find.

For Week 12 - Jewish American literature

* Confessions of a Closet Catholic
* Silver (2002): What criteria does Silver suggest for evaluating books?
* Kimmel (2003): How does Kimmel understand the "Jewish content" of his stories?
* Group C members write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the dropbox by 6 pm the evening before your class was scheduled.

For Week 11 - Questions to guide your reading AND details about yet another field trip!

Read:

* Project Mulberry
* Siu-Runyan (2002): This article focuses on "Books that teach about the Asian and Pacific Island peoples of Hawaii". What does it add to your understanding of that population? Of the purposes and need for multicultural literature in general?
* Yamate (1997): As of 1997, what was the state of publishing for Asian American texts? What type of research might you do to explore whether anything has changed over the last 10 years? What themes might you find in Asian Pacific American literature?

Write (Group B):

* Write a questioning the text paper

Field trip to....the library (Nov 05)!

Since we had such fun at the museum last week, I decided to schedule another field trip. Next week we're going to the library and getting our very own private lecture on finding/using library resources. Very exciting. Honestly.

For Week 10 - Details

Thanks for yet another great class session last night! I always have so much to think about on my drive home.

For this next week, there are 2 scholarly articles (in coursepack) and the novel: Becoming Naomi Leon.

Group A is doing a Questioning the Text paper.

AND, we all will be meeting at the MSU museum (front entrance) next week Wednesday at 3pm. DO NOT MEET AT OUR ERICKSON CLASSROOM FIRST.

We'll be spending approximately 45 minutes touring the exhibit: Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement exhibit.

After our tour, we'll walk back to our classroom together (as promised, I'll be bringing along a rope for us to hold as we walk so we don't lose anyone!).

For Week 9 - Better Late Than Never!

This week we'll be talking about critical literacy.

Your reading assignment is a short piece by Kuhlman: Fifth Graders' Reactions to Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie: Guiding Students' Critical Reading

In the syllabus it also says to do a reading by MacDowell et. al. Disregard this.

For Week 8 - Readings and Research

Read:

* Al Capone Does my Shirts
* Linton (1998): What does Linton say about the power of language? What terminology do you prefer when discussing this topic? Why? What would it mean to read Al Capone Does my Shirts from a "disability studies framework? What types of questions would you ask about the representations in the text? How would you analyze those questions?
* Tal (2001) and Williams, et. al. (2005): In what range of ways have people with disabilities been portrayed in text? What criteria might one use to evaluate books that include people with disabilities? Is there anything you question about the criteria presented?
* Optional: Check out Gennifer Choldenko's website. (I suggest you read the book first.) What do you learn about her? What don't you learn?

Write (Everyone):

* Write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the Angel dropbox by 6 pm the evening before class.

In class we'll watch part of a documentary in which a woman who is autistic shares a little about her experience and talk about how the film may raise new questions about Al Capone Does my Shirts.

MCTE 2008 - Dialects in Children’s and Young Adult Literature – Pedagogical Considerations

Bank Street College Library Site has an excellent list of children's literature containing dialects.

Here's a link to the English Journal (NCTE) article that I wrote with Dr. Marilyn Wilson.

From the EJ article, our recommended picture books (PB) and young adult books (YA) that contain authentic examples of American English dialects

A Washington Post article describing the New York Nappy Hair controversy in 1998

A NY Times article about the incident

For Week 7 - Readings and Research

The co-themes of session 7 will be "practicing close readings of text" and analyzing awards for diverse literature. You'll only need to prepare for the second!

Everyone:
Read the Aronson and Pinkney articles. What are the arguments for and against honoring books in specific cultural/social categories? What assumptions does each position rely on?

Where do you stand in terms of the debate?

Award jigsaw: Research the following information for your assigned award. 

Is there an official website for the award? Are there other resources that provide information about the award? (Sometimes libraries or author blogs feature information not available on the official sites.)

Why and when was this award created? What is the rationale for the award?
Selection criteria: What books, authors, illustrators are eligible? How are the books judged?

Who sponsors the award?

Selection committee: Who chooses the winners? How do you get on the committee? How transparent is the process?

Bring in books that have won or have been honored by the award. This will mean a trip to the library--you can coordinate this within your group. How easy was it to find the books? Do they have seals or other indications that they are award winners?

It would be helpful if one person in the group could bring in a computer.

In class we'll teach each other about the awards, share books, and talk about the questions that our research raises.

Seen and Heard

AAUW book sale in Holland, MI

For those of you interested in seeing book lovers go wild, here's some more information
Sept 26, 27 - Holland Civic Center

week 4 recap

Native American Children's Literature / Insider-Outsider Discussion

A good resource: http://www.oyate.com/

A conclusion to the film we watched in class: Here's a YouTube video showing Chief Illini's last dance (didn't happen until Feb, 2007).

For Week 5 - Readings

Al-Hazza and Lucking (2005)
Al-Hazza (2006)
Staples (1997)
Additional reading (optional): An essay by Peggy McIntosh (1998)
Nye's Habibi
Questioning the Text (paper #2) - Group B

Seen and Heard

Sad but true...

Sex in the City teen novel. Here's a Time article about it: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1842013,00.html

Lauren Conrad is an author...??!!

And, as for politics...
Meghan McCain's children's book

An article about Obama and Clinton books (during the primary race)

Blog post worth checking out

Every now and then, I'll try to highlight a student's blog posting.
For this week, I'd like to highlight ones that Jessica and Colleen made.

What I like about it is that Jessica took something that her group discussed in class, an issue that was very personal for her, and continued the discussion on her blog.
Post made on Sept 11
http://jessicavereeckeblog.blogspot.com/

Colleen posted information about Michigan Indian Day on Sept 10
http://colleen448.blogspot.com/

For Week 4 - Questions to guide your reading

Our topic next week will be: The Insider/Outsider Debate & Expanding the Definition of Multiculturalism

Read (all in course pack):
Shannon (1994)
Sims Bishop (1994)
Harris (1994)
Cai (1998)

On your blog, post:
-Initial thoughts on debate (be concise and specific!)
-I encourage you to find quotes from the readings and post them on your blogs
-And, I encourage you to check out the blog and website I talked about it class (you can find a link to them on the right side of this blog).

Come prepared to debate whether authors should be “insiders” to the culture about which they write!

Questioning the Text guidelines

A number of you have been emailing me about more clarification on this assignment. Since this is the first time I've taught this course, I'm not quite sure what these papers will look like. So, I've cut and pasted some suggestions/tips/advice that former TE 448 instructors have given to their students. I hope it helps!

The goal of the assignment
-Intended to ask you to question the literature, as a piece of diverse literature. -We’ve been readings from scholars such as Harris, Reese, and Sims-Bishop. We can consider them as participating in an ongoing conversation around issues of diverse literature. These are for you to join in the conversation. How does this particular text fit in to the conversation?

To prepare for coming up with your question:
-Read articles, etc., then read novel with concepts in mind, return to articles OR read novel, read articles w/novel in mind, and then return to novel
-Use post it notes, highlighting, notes in margins to keep track of your thoughts as you read

In writing the paper:
-You should NOT summarize the book.
-You should NOT answer your question.
-You should NOT speculate on how children might respond to the book.
-You should NOT describe how you would use the book.

Reread the assignment guidelines and ask yourself if the question you want to pose can be answered by analyzing the text and engages in a discussion of the work as a piece of diverse literature.

Some sample questions
* In what ways does XXX function as a generalization or stereotype in XXX?
* Who seems to be the implied audience for the text? (i.e. What textual clues signal who the author assumes you'll identify with or what knowledge the reader does or does not bring to the text)
* How does the [genre/style/plot/or any other literary feature] position readers to think about XXXs XXX say about the relationship between XXX and members of the dominant culture?
* How is humor/tragedy/etc. used to...?
* How does XXX and XXX work to unravel the dichotomy of…
* What did [plot twist, particular character/etc.] add to the text?
* How does the text challenge ideas about [choose any dichotomy: modernity/tradition, gender, etc.]
* Using XXX’s framework, how would you characterize XXX?
* What does the title of the book…

Remember this is a conversation! Post your questions, thoughts, etc.

General ideas of how to unpack/elaborate on your question:
-A scene that we could consider in order to discuss this question is… (page number). I’ve chosen this scene because… (Or, this scene is puzzling because…)
-Asking this question is important because it will help us explore the differences between stereotype and generalization.

Seen and Heard

Mandy mentioned this in class. Here's a link to an article about it.
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-sonycloudywithachanceofmeatballs,0,1483855.story

And, here's a link to the teacher rant that I stumbled across on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUYf5Cvb5c8

For Week 3 - Questions to guide your reading

o Cortes (2001)
· Examines the nature of stereotypes. What is the difference between a stereotype and a generalization? How are stereotypes created in the media?

o Reese (1997)
· Chapter in Harris text
· Covers a number of topics: background on Native American nations, key authors, stereotypes, problematic texts, teaching ideas, criteria.
· You should identify several key ideas, quotes, etc. that intrigue you. We will not review the whole text in class!

o Smith (2005)
· Cynthia Leitich Smith is an author we will feature next week. This article is a reflection on the critical response to her work.
· She also outlines some criteria to consider when choosing NA literature (or thinking about multicultural literature in general)

o Heart of a Chief
-What did you come away “knowing” about Penacook culture, based on your reading of this book? What was new or surprised you?
-Did you see evidence of stereotypes or generalizations in the text? Where? What were your thoughts around those passages?
-Does this book seem to be an authentic portrayal of a Penacook family? What questions might you ask about authenticity? What evidence would you use to back up your claims?
-Does this book seem accurate in its portrayal of a Penacook family? What questions might you ask about accuracy? What evidence would you use to back up your claims about its accuracy (or lack of accuracy)?
-Would you consider this book a piece of quality literature? Why or why not?


o “Questioning the Text” paper #1
· Drop off paper by 6pm on Tuesday
· Bring hard copy to class on Wednesday

Week 1 recap

Thank you for a wonderful first class!
I'm very eager to journey through the semester with you, to learn with and from you. You all are an impressive bunch!

I will be making a post like this after each class session together (recapping, reflecting, clarifying, posting links etc). I encourage you to sign up to this blog's feed so that you can be notified when there's a new post (see side gadget for how to do this).

In an effort to help you in your writing of your autobiographical poem, I posted the 5 poems we read in class on our ANGEL site and below, have put in the links to the poems we tried to listen to in class:

George Ella Lyon's reading of "Where I'm From":
http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

Nikki Giovanni's reading of "Nikki Rosa":
http://nikki-giovanni.com/nikkirosa.shtml

On the side of this blog, I'll be posting links to other blogs and websites that focus on children's/YA literature. There's so much great stuff out there! Have fun exploring!

If you have questions about the class/assignments/things posted on the blog that you think others in the class might have and/or be interested in hearing a response to, I encourage you to post a comment on this blog so that others can read it.

For Week 2 - Questions to guide your reading

• Take reading seriously: take notes, mark passages, pose questions, etc.

• Bishop (1997) (Harris Text, Chapter #1)
• What is multicultural literature?
• Why use it?
• What issues might one consider?

• Yenika-Agbaw (1997)
• What is the relationship between reader-text-context?
• What does it mean to read critically?

• Tatum (2000)
• What are our social identities? Why consider them?
• This article should help you start thinking about the autobiographical poem.

Welcome!

Welcome to the class blog for TE 448, Issues of Diversity in Children's and Adolescent Literature, Fall 2008.

In this community blog along with your individual blogs, we will communicate and track your thoughts and perspectives on ideas addressed in this course.

I'm looking forward to getting started and to seeing where we go this semester.

On a different note, below is some advice on using/reading/posting to blogs for this class:

*Audience for blogs and confidentiality concerns.
Remember that your blogs are currently set up so that anyone can read them. This includes prospective employers, family members, and "the public". Never disclose information on your blog that you don't want to be public. This might include controversial positions which might be misread outside the context of the course.

*Consider your audience.
One audience for the blogs will be your classmates with whom you've built relationships and who know the context of the course. Another audience might be potential employers who might be interested in your ideas, your writing skills, and whether you "sound like a teacher". (I can imagine a principal asking herself, "Could I imagine this person creating a classroom blog that students and parents would read?")

* Rules of confidentiality:
Don't mention other classmates by name or with identifying information. Respond to ideas, not to people. If in doubt, choose the more confidential option. We have lots of "spaces" in which to exchange ideas in our class: our face to face meetings, our blogs, the questioning the text papers, and the Angel website. For example,if you want to pose a question that feels more personal or "risky", you might decide not to start that conversation on your blog, but rather start a discussion strand on Angel.

* As professionals, one of your tasks is to develop "professional discretion".
Although I read all posts and will contact you if I have a concern, it is ultimately up to you to make choices that demonstrate good judgment and respect for your classmates.In the future you'll be making the same types of choices with your students, parents, and professional communities!

* In terms of copyrighted material, you need to be aware of what you can and can not post on your blog. Posting the full text of a copyrighted article, for example, is a no-no. Providing a link to that article, a short excerpt, or summary of the article is fine.

Suggestions for posts to fulfill blogging assignment:

* Write a post that summarizes how you are thinking about one of the key questions we explore each week.

* Explore electronic resources connected to diverse literature and share them through your blog. Several of our readings so far have noted blogs you might want to check out--both by authors of articles and authors of children's literature

* Try adding elements to your blog. For example, you might create links to the blogs of people in your discussion group. Or you might create a space for professional resources.

* Explore using Google Reader to manage reading people's posts.