Syllabus | Schedule | Tronclass
BEN52602 Traditions in Children’s Literature
Th 1:10-3:00, Rm R0402
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Folk Tale Presentations
Purpose: To understand archetypes, to see how people change and adapt stories, to know a few folk stories in depth.
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 choose. 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.
- Make sure to clearly tell the name and source of each story.
- 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.
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.
- You don’t want to write too much, but you do need some explanation to show your ideas and understanding. Don’t just write key words.
Book Responses
Purpose: To encourage critical reading, to encourage students to develop their own ideas, to practice for the Term Paper
Write a brief response (around 200 words) to three of our six class texts (after the folk stories). You can choose which three stories you wish to respond to. Each response is due in class on the day we discuss (or finish discussing) the book. Your response should contain and explain (use examples and details from the text) one or two interesting 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 (include page number if you can)
- You can write about an illustration from the book. (Do not include any picture you don’t write about.)
- 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.
- Do not copy from the Internet or attempt to use ChatGPT for this assignment. The ideas must be your own.
Helpful hints:
- Do not write book summaries. Demonstrate your understanding of the text by using details from the text to support your ideas.
- Keep quotes short and explain them
- Make only one or two main points and go into some depth. Don’t make lots of points without explanation.
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?
- Was there a character you particularly liked (or didn’t like)?
- 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 rushed. Unclear points or explanations.
- -1 point if poorly or improperly formatted.
- -1 point if there are serious proofreading problems.
- 0: if any part of your response is plagiarized (copied from another source without giving proper credit).
Term Paper
Purpose: To demonstrate your ability to think critically about children’s literature, to show that you understand and can use the ideas presented in class, and to express yourself clearly and professionally in written English.
Compare a character’s childhood with your own childhood (due 12/21 & 12/28)
About 3 pages (around 1,000-1,200 words).
Important: When handing in this paper, make sure to include three things, 1. your first draft with comments from others, 2. your final draft, and 3. The Review Checklist.
Compare one child character from one of the books we read this semester. If you wish to write about a character from another children’s book you have read, please get my permission first.
How is the childhood of the character in the story (and his/her life and ideas) similar and different from your own experience?
Make sure your paper has a main idea that you state at the beginning and then you support and defend in the rest of 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 accurately reflect a real childhood? How optimistically do the stories present life? How serious are the consequences of one’s actions?
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 formatting and writing better.
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, but you will have the option to redo the paper for half credit.
Final Presentation: What I learned
Purpose: to review the semester and consolidate what you want to remember, to learn from each other, to demonstrate understanding of an important idea from the class.
(5-7 min.) Individual presentations given in new small groups. (This will be done in the same way as the folktale presentations.)
- The most useful thing I have learned in this class. (focus on something practical that relates to your life or language learning or other classes.) OR
- The most interesting thing I have learning in this class. (Focus on something you liked, but you are not sure how to apply it practically.)
Use your 5-7 minutes to explain one main point using details and examples to make it clear and easy to understand for your classmates. If possible, use examples from other stories (whether children’s stories, popular stories, or other literature.)
Make a 1-page handout like you did for the folktale presentation.
- You can have a combination of sentences, paragraphs, poetry, charts, pictures, graphic organizers or anything else to make your points clear to your peers and to me (who won’t be able to hear your presentation).
- Remember that this can be no more than one page, but it can be creatively organized and you do not need to follow MLA format for this.