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Introduction to Children's Literature: Traditions

NEN52601

                                                       104a  Assignments

Folk Tale Presentations

Read three versions of a folk story on the Sur la Lune website: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/

• Take some time to look through this website and choose one story that seems interesting to you. You may like to spend some time with several stories before you decide.
• Read each story and look at various illustrations or paintings associated with the story you chose. Read the introduction or background to each story, if it is available.
• You can also find versions in other places if you want, but this site makes it very convenient.
• Look for similarities and differences between the stories.
• Which are the most essential story elements?
• Which are the most interesting details in one story that aren't in the others?

Prepare a 5-7 minute presentation (to be given in groups of four).

• Tell the basic story in 1-2 minutes. (Time yourself in order to get the story down to the time limit.)
• Tell something special about each of the three versions (again you have one to two minutes for each of these parts).
• Talk about the picture on the handout.
• It is very important to prepare well for this presentation. You have absolutely no more than seven minutes to do all of this. Make sure you practice beforehand and time yourself.
• Prepare 5 handouts, one for each person in your group and one for me. You will give these to the people in your group, but you should not read directly from the handout. The handout may have more details, or slightly different information than what you actually share orally.

The Hand out

• This must be on one side of one A4 size paper, neatly formatted, and with a normal size font.
• Include your 1-2 minute summary
• Compare and contrast the three stories. You can do this in chart form, in columns, or any way you like. You don't need to use sentences. You want to give the most information you can in the space you have.
• Include one or more pictures.
• Of course, at the top you should write your name and student number as well as the story you are writing about.
• Also, make sure that you make very clear where each version of the story you are telling comes from. You can do this at the top of your page, or in the section where you compare the stories.

After the presentations

• You will have time in your small group to compare the stories that people in your group told.
• You will try to identify similarities (even very small similarities) between some or all of the stories in your group.
• You will hand in your handout to me.

Grading

• Organization. The handout should look neat and be easy to understand. It should also draw the attention and interest of viewers. It's fine to have bulleted lists, charts, word maps, or other visual ways to convey information. In general, you should use your space well.
• Depth of thought. It should look like you put a lot of thought into this small handout, that you understood and pulled out important similarities and differences.

Papers  

For this class, you have a choice of writing either the Alice Paper (paper 1) or the Comparison Paper (paper 2), or both papers (for extra credit). Your "Papers" grade will be the grade of whichever paper you write or, if you write both papers, your grade will be the average of both papers +10 points

Alice Paper: "Who is Alice?"   (due 11/19)

About 2-3 pages (700-1,000 words).

Alice is constantly facing questions about her identity throughout the novel. She questions who she is, how she should act, and what she can do. We see this in her changing body size, conversations with others, and her own conversations with herself.

Who do YOU think she is? Look closely at one or two sections and say what you think this tells us about Alice. Consider one or more of the following questions to help you develop your paper.

Why do you think she behaves or speaks the way she does? What does this say about her personality and concerns? What does it tell us about her life outside of Wonderland or pressures she faces in her waking world. If you were her in the same situation, how might you speak or act differently? Why? And how might that change the story.

You can relate her story to something from your own life or the life of someone you know, but keep the focus on Alice. Be sure to use specific examples and give the page number whenever you quote something from the book directly.

Purpose: This paper should help you better issues of identity in books for young people and how this important story helped to usher in the first golden age of children''s literature.

There are many ways to write this paper. I hope you will be creative and find a completely unique angle.

Some things to keep in mind

• Make sure you write about the ideas presented in the literature and you make your ideas about those ideas very clear.
• Make sure your paper has one main clear main idea and that your title alludes to this point.
• I suggest that you work with a classmate or your study group. Share your rough drafts with each other.
• Make sure you write at least two drafts.
• This paper should be very well written with very few or now grammar errors or misspellings. You should plan lots of time for proofreading.

Be sure to give your paper a good title and follow the guidelines for writing assignments.

Please ask questions about any ideas or uncertainties you have. Check back here for further instructions as the time for the paper comes due

Grading

• Originality. I want to see your own ideas, not simply repetition of ideas expressed in class. For this reason it is better to choose your own ideas and apply them in ways that go beyond or in a different direction from what we have discussed in class.
• Neatness. Your paper should have a proper heading and title and be as free as possible from spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
• Organization. Your paper should have a clear thesis and well developed main points.
• On Topic . Make sure you are really following the directions and don't go off on a tangent.
• Do NOT, for any reason copy from the internet or other sources. This is a kind of lying and theft. If you do, the paper will recieve a grade of zero and you must rewrite it for half credit.

Book Responses

You will write a brief response (around 200 words) to three of our four class texts. You can choose which three books you wish to respond to. Each response is due in class on the second/last day we discuss the book. Your response should contain and explain two or three ideas about the book from your own point of view.

Keep in mind:

• Print out the response on A4 size paper and format it properly with correct heading.
• Give your response a meaningful title.
• Generally, each idea will be one paragraph with several sentences that support/explain your idea.
• Consider quoting from the book or even using a picture from the book.
• You can think about what you gained from your own reading and/or what we talked about in class, but don't repeat too much of what was said in class.

Here are some ideas you can consider writing about in your response

• How easy or difficult was this book to read?
• How much did you enjoy or not enjoy reading this book?
• Which part was your favorite?
• Was there a part you really didn't understand?
• What new idea or insight did you get from this book?
• Who would you like to share this book with?
• Share this book or part of it with someone and tell about his/her response.

Grading

• 9-10: Excellent. Insightful, meaningful points that are explained clearly.
• 8: Good. Good ideas with explanations that show individual thought.
• 7: OK. Typical ideas with explanations, but little individuality. Possibly too many points without sufficient explanation for each one.
• 6: Barely OK. Seems very rushed. Unclear points or explanations.
• -1 point if poorly formatted.
• -1 point if there are serious proofreading problems

Comparison Paper : Compare the Childhoods of two Child Characters (due 12/21)

About 2-3 pages (700-1,000 words).

Compare childhood as represented in two books we read this semester.

Write about the lives of two child characters, one from the book you read for the final presentation and one from one of the books we read together as a class. How are these children and their lives similar and different?

Make sure your paper has a main idea that you state at the beginning and then you support that idea in your paper. You can choose a specific aspect of childhood, such as relationship with parents, friendship, gender identity, growth, or any other topic that can help you focus. Please think about your paper early, so you can ask any necessary questions for clarification.

Does the portrayal seem realistic? To what extent does it feel like the author is trying to teach child readers how they should or shouldn't act and to what extent does it seem more like the child characters accurate reflect real children? How optimistically do the stories present life? How serious are the consequences of one's actions?

Purpose: This paper should help you think about ways some adult authors depict child characters in their stories. Also, you should grow in your understanding about how stories convey ideas about children and childhood.

Be sure to give your paper a good title and follow the guidelines for writing assignments.

Grading

• Originality. I want to see your own ideas, not simply repetition of ideas expressed in class. For this reason it is better to choose your own ideas and apply them in ways that go beyond or in a different direction from what we have discussed in class.
• Neatness. Your paper should have a proper heading and title and your paper should be as free as possible from spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
• Organization. Your paper should have a clear thesis and well developed main points.
• On Topic . Make sure you are really following the directions and don't go off on a tangent.
• Do NOT, for any reason copy from the internet or other sources. This is a kind of lying and theft. If you do, the paper will not be graded.

Book Presentations: Why is it a classic?

You will prepare this presentation together with your group, but you will each give the presentation individually to a new small group of classmates similar, in fashion, to the folk tale presentations.

After the midterm, your group will read a work of classic children's literature to read and discuss together. You can choose your group book at any time, but please make your choice carefully, after checking the length, reading level, plot, and other general information about the book. Please choose a book from the list below. If you have another idea, please talk to the teacher to get his approval before proceeding.

You are responsible to read the entire book, in its original English version, outside of class and discuss it with your group members. You should use this book for your Paper 2 (above) as well as for the final book presentation.

To prepare for the presentation, you will work with discuss the book with your group and prepare a common handout about why this book has earned its status as a classic. You should give a short summary, and talk about what makes this books special. Consider such topics as the author, society and reception at the time of publication, the plot and characters, illustrations (if any), target audience, etc. Also, consider criticisms of the book and your own ideas and feelings about the book. Each group member will use the same handout and give more or less the same presentation to a different small group.

Like the handout for your folktales presentation, this handout should be one page and useful for supporting your main points. A picture is helpful, as well as points that show you have a deep understanding about the book.

Purpose

Reading a common book with your group will help to expand your ideas about children's literature and help you to apply ideas you learn in class to another situation. By considering the questions about why this book is considered a classic, you will better understand issues and controversies related to literary canons of all sorts. This gives you the chance to learn deeply about another important work of children's literature and, through the presentations of others, you can glimpse a few more.

Grading

• Organization. The handout should look neat and be easy to understand. It should also draw the attention and interest of viewers. It's fine to have bulleted lists, charts, word maps, or other visual ways to convey information. In general, you should use your space well.
• Depth of thought. It should look like you put a lot of thought into this small handout, that you understood and pulled out important similarities and differences.