Required Readings

• Plot twist: The Newbery may dampen kids' reading
• Bishop, pp. 50-51
  

Standards

• 1.2A Awareness of major trends in reading material for children and youth

Discussion Points

• Bulk of what you need to know here is covered in one or more standard Children's Literature courses.
• Quoting from the SLM Certification Checklist:
• (a)Most Children's Literature courses may substitute for ELAN 6310 provided that the course is graduate level and taken within the past 5 years. The list of acceptable substitutes includes ELAN 7312, 7318, 7016, 7310, and 7410.

  (b) Sometimes students feel that they already have a thorough knowledge of Children' Literature. Specifically, we expect students to have three competencies in this area:

• breadth of knowledge over the range of children's literature (age levels, authors, titles);
• currency (knowledgeable about recent developments in the field); and
• critical perspective (knows how to judge quality in children's literature from a variety of perspectives).
• In this course, we will come across many tools for selecting among children's literature titles.  For starters, see Selection Tools.
• We must also bear in mind the critical perspective embodied in the Washington Post article - adult opinions are not always the best recommendation for young points of view.  This would make an interesting class discussion.  You might review the Newbery winners list as interesting background.
• Booktalking Resources
         www.thebooktalker.com
         nancykeane.com/booktalks

Supplemental Reading

• MAF's bookmarks: reading
  

Application

• Instructional Materials Exhibition
  

References

• Bishop, K. (2007). The collection program in schools: Concepts, practices, and information scources (4th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
  
• Logo by CoolText
• Strauss, V. (2008, December 16). Plot twist: The Newbery may dampen kids' reading. Washington Post. Retrieved December 19, 2008, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121503293_pf.html.