LAE 3005: Children’s Literature Fall 2017, Section 6714, 2G66 University of Florida Lin Deng Office Hours*: Instructor Wednesdays 11:40 am –12:40 p.m. 2216 Norman Hall [email protected] *Office hours are also available by appointment. The instructor will notify students via email and course website if office hours need to be rescheduled for a particular week. Notifications may also be posted on the office door. Class Meetings: Our section meets on Wednesday periods 2 – 4 (8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) in NRNA 2337. Class will begin promptly. There will be a short break at an appropriate time during class activities. *Please note that instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus. Students will be updated of any changes. Latest Syllabus Update: August 2017 Course Description The purpose of this course is to provide you with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience for designing an elementary school curriculum for a classroom focused on social justice themes and where instruction is based in children’s literature. Literature is an authentic resource that can be the foundation of a literacy (reading/writing/speaking/ listening/viewing) program, as well as a major resource for other curriculum areas. In this course, which uses a genre approach to literature study, you will learn how to select high quality children’s literature to serve classrooms with diverse student populations. You will also learn how to plan for a literature studies curriculum, integrate technology into your curriculum, meet the needs of English language learners, and assess your own and children’s critical responses to literature. 1 Fall 2017 Course Objectives 1. To grow in your capability to critically read, analyze, and respond to literature. 2. To demonstrate your ability to select high-quality current, multicultural literature in a wide variety of genres to share with a diverse student population. 3. To demonstrate your understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of a critical reader response approach to analyzing and teaching literature. 4. To use a wide variety of print, Internet, and technological resources to gather information about children’s books, authors, illustrators, and curriculum applications. 5. To demonstrate your mastery of the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices (FEAPs) through the Educator Assessment System (EAS) tasks developed in this course. Required Course Materials Required Texts: o Short, K. G., Lynch-Brown, C., & Tomlinson, C. M. (2013). Essentials of Children’s Literature (8th Ed.). Boston: Pearson. ISBN: 9780133066739 o Two novels for which you will sign up in class. You can purchase hard copies or download copies of these two novels. Additional Required Readings: (These readings will be posted on Canvas.) Burns, E., Kimmel, S., & Garrison, K. L. (2013). How common is common? An analysis of the recommended text exemplars. Teacher Librarian, 41(1), 23-27. Dalton, B., & Grisham, D. L. (2013). Love that book: Multimodal response to literature. The Reading Teacher, 67(3), 220-225. Kovalcik, B., & Certo, J. L. (2007). The poetry café is open! Teaching literary devices of sound in poetry writing. The Reading Teacher, 61(1), 89-93. Schrodt, K., Fain, J. G., & Hasty, M. (2015). Exploring culturally relevant texts with kindergartners and their families. The Reading Teacher, 68(8), 589-598. Course Website Information This course will involve interaction with UF’s Online Learning Management System Canvas. To access this course on Canvas, go to <http://online.education.ufl.edu/>. Click on the button to Log In to Canvas and enter your Gatorlink username and password. Click on the link for “LAE 3005: Children’s Literature (6714) or (2G66), Fall 2017”. You must log into Canvas at least once each week prior to class. Any difficulties related to Canvas should 2 Fall 2017 be directed to the UF Computing Help Desk or the COE technical support staff at <[email protected]>. Class materials, presentation notes, discussion topics, course updates and announcements, assignment materials, and grades will be posted on the site prior to each class meeting. You might need to print items from the Canvas site, so plan accordingly. However, Canvas will not be used for emailing the instructor. Please use the email address provided in the instructor’s contact information. Course Requirements and Evaluation Readings: As you will learn in this and subsequent courses, wide reading builds background knowledge, which contributes to comprehension. Accumulating a deep knowledge base necessary for effective literacy teaching is a serious commitment and expectation of this program. All assigned readings are required to be completed before class and it is recommended to take notes and record questions while reading. Reading guides are provided on Canvas for each reading so that you know on what to focus on in each reading. Class discussion and collaborative learning is dependent upon this requirement; students will be held accountable in various ways, including class discussions, online discussions, quizzes, written responses, and presentations. 1. Attendance and Professionalism: Attendance and conduct of a professional nature is expected of all students for every class session. Attendance in this course is mandatory. Professional conduct includes exhibiting academic honesty, submitting work reflective of professionals, and respecting instructors and classmates. You are required to notify the instructor of any absence for any reason through email and/or voicemail PRIOR to the class meeting time. Failure to do so will affect your grade as well as acquisition of knowledge. Points will be deducted for unexcused absences, tardies, and early departures from class for each occurrence. The instructor deserves the right to deduct 5 points per absence and 2 points per tardy or early departure from your attendance and professionalism grade. The instructor deserves the right to request a doctor’s note for medical appointments. Students should also display professionalism in emails to the instructor and in correspondence with other class members. Attendance and demonstration of professionalism represent 5% of the final grade. 2. UEP Colloquium Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to attend and participate in all sessions of the UEP program colloquium for their semester. Tasks that are completed or submitted in colloquium are included in this grade. Points allocated for this grade will be divided between the two halves of the semester. If all colloquium sessions and tasks are attended and completed in the respective half, students earn the allocated points. If a colloquium session is missed or tasks are not completed, students do not earn the allocated points for that half. A colloquium absence will only be excused in the case of an emergency or severe illness; these cases must have accompanying documentation and will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the program coordinator. If a student misses a colloquium session, associated tasks must be submitted to the program coordinator within three days. Colloquium sessions are not available for make-up. Attendance and participation in colloquium represents 5% of the final grade. 3 Fall 2017 3. Participation: You are expected to participate in all class activities and discussions about readings and content covered in class both during class sessions and on the course website. Active participation will enhance your learning and includes extending ideas presented in class, supporting and elaborating ideas and perspectives, asking questions, making connections between the readings and your knowledge and beliefs, and completing assignments. Participation credit may be awarded for discussion posts on Canvas, task completion during small group activities, quizzes, class discussions, responses to instructor questions, participation in small-group conversations, and other activities at the discretion of the instructor. Your lowest quiz grade of the semester will be dropped. You should bring all required materials to class each period. Please bring a charged laptop to each class meeting. Another aspect of active participation is avoiding inappropriate and unnecessary technology use during the class period. Failure to participate actively in a given class period will result in 2 points being deducted from your overall participation grade. Points based on participation in all class activities and discussions represent 10% of the final grade. 4. Assignments: You will be responsible for completing assignments pertaining to the topic of the week and/or overall objectives for the course for most class sessions. The assignments consist of finding, reading, and bringing books of a particular genre to class and preparing various products. These products and the book genre will vary from week to week and are listed in the course schedule later in this syllabus. You will also create some technological resources (i.e. a Goodreads electronic library with 40 books). You will receive one grade for having at least 20 books in your electronic classroom library at the midterm and another grade for having at least 40 books in your classroom library at the conclusion of the course. You are encouraged to add commentary and rate the books on your Goodreads account. This resource will be valuable as you begin your career as a teacher. You are expected to complete each assignment prior to class and share your books and products in various ways with classmates. These assignments also serve as models for the types of responses to literature students you can ask your students do. Whereas a general rubric provided on Canvas (E-learning) denotes how most assignments will be graded, the instructor will provide assignment- specific rubrics for some assignments. You can access a Google Doc on which models of and resource for weekly assignments are provided on Canvas. For each day an assignment is late, 10 points will be deducted from each assignment's total points. Your assignment grades represent 30% of the final grade. 5. Exams: Two exams will be administered this semester. The first exam will cover what you have learned in the first half of the course.