Dr. Roberta Seelinger Trites
Office: STV 337
438-3297; seeling@ilstu.edu
Office hours: TR 1-2
Course objective: In
this class we will analyze the literary aspects ©f be©ks
written for children from kindergarten to the third grade.
Required texts:
David & Meek, Twelve Dancing Princesses Dundes, Little Red-Riding Hood: A Casebook Kennedy & Kennedy, Knock at a Star
Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
Say, The Lost Lake
Taylor, Song of the Trees
Reserve readings in Milner
Course requirements:
Policies:
Two exams: 20% each
Paper (appx. 2500 words) : 25%
Final exam: 25%
Daily grade/participation: 10%
* Students are expected to
attend class. Three absences will adversely affect your daily
grade; five will affect your final grade; seven may result in
failure.
* Any assignment that is late
will be penalized one letter grade per day that it is late.
* I expect you to have read
the assignments listed on the syllabus before you come
to class. The number of pop quizzes I give is directly proportional
to my sensing a general lack of preparation.
* Please type the out-of-class
paper double-spaced with one-inch margins on standard typing paper.
(Word processors are OK.) Proofread everything you turn in,
because grammar, organization, and mechanics are a substantial
part of every grade you receive.
* Plagiarism, collusion, or
any act of cheating is intolerable. I will report such incidences
to the Dean's office.
* I will not discuss any evaluation
I have given your work until at least twenty-four hours after
you have received the evaluation.
* You earn your grade by performance,
not by negotiation. Unless I have made an error of computation,
please do not ask me to raise your grade.
August 19: Introduction
August 21: Chambers (2 articles on reserve: "The Role of Literature in
Children's Lives" and
"The Reader in the Book")
August 26: Hollindale, "Ideology and the Children's Book"
August 28: Paul, "Enigma
Variations" and Kertzer "This Quiet Lady" (both
on reserve)
September 2 - 4: Humor
September 9: Knock at a
Star (read the entire intro) September 11: Knock at a Star,
cont'd
September 16: Storytelling and story-Sharing
September 18. Prepare a 5-minute story to share
September 23: Exam I
September 25: Intro to picture
books (bring Wild Things)
September 30: preliminary topics due; Wild Things and directed tension October 2: Moebius, "Intro to Picture Book Codes" and Nodelman
"Chapter 7, The Relationship
of Pictures and Words" from Words About Pictures (both
on reserve)
October 7: Information books
October 9: Arakelian "Minnows
into Whales" (on reserve) and Seuss' Mulberry St. and
McElligot's Pool (both on reserve) READ SEUSS FIRST !
October 14: Neumeyer, "How Picture Books Mean" and Ford, "Resurrection
Twins" (both on reserve),
October 16: Johnson, "I See Me in the Book" (on reserve) and The Lost
Lake
October 21: Exam II
October 23: Twelve Dancing
Princesses 29-36, 50-53, 54-63, 125-135
October 28: Twelve Dancing Princesses 101-110, 211-219, 240-250
October 30: Bottigheimer "Fairy-Tales and Children's Literature," Yolen
November 4: Twelve Dancing Princesses 155-170 and 251-274, 5 sources due November 6: Hanks "Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood: Victim of the
Revisers" and Little
Red-Riding Hood: A Casebook 3-25
November 11: LRRH Casebook 121-58
November 13: LRRH Casebook
159-238
November 18: Writing workshop
November 20: Term papers due
November 25: Make-up class
December 2: Song of the
Trees December 4: Review