Syllabus
Course Prefix/Number: LAE 5468
Course Title: Literature for Children and Young Adults
Course Credit Hours: 3
Lead Instructor Name and Contact Information: Dr. Carol B. Tanksley, Associate
Professor, Building 85/177. ctanksle@uwf.edu
Course Section Instructor: Dr. Carol B. Tanksley
Prerequisites/Corequisites: None
Course Description: Refer to the UWF Catalog at the http://uwf.edu/catalog/
This course is a comprehensive survey of literature for children and young adults. Critical
analysis and review of the writings of authors and illustrators and the effective use of their
materials based upon the biological, socio-cultural, psychological and developmental
characteristics of children and young adults; guidance in their use, emphasizing attitudes,
interests, problems and opportunities of children and young adults in contemporary society. The
course addresses bibliotherapy, print and non-print censorship issues; impact of mass media on
children and young adults in our society; analysis of attitudes, issues and values reflected in these
forms of media and their use in educational settings.
Purpose of the Course:
Reading is a critical content area and the use of literature with children and young adults is an
important approach to reading instruction. This is the first course at the graduate level in the
reading education program to deal with print and non-print trade books and media used in the
schools. The course will instruct graduate level students on using specific criteria in evaluating
the works of authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult literature. This course will
prepare teachers to choose trade materials for the classroom. The reading content, class
activities, and skill development were selected to assist in personal growth in the following
Empowered Professional Taking Action characteristics: a) critical thinker, b) lifelong learner, c)
counselor/mentor, d) decision maker, e) problem solver, and f) ethical/moral professional. This
course also prepares candidates to use appropriate Next Generation Sunshine State Standards to
raise K-12 student achievement.
The State of Florida has responded to national and state initiatives in education reform and
accountability by creating legislative policies relative to the preparation of educators. Florida's
Uniform Core Curricula outline the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that candidates require to
be successful in Florida's educational system.
To monitor your progress in this teacher preparation program, Key Assignments are required in
selected courses. Key Assignments are specific learning activities that directly relate to the
course and program learning outcomes. A passing grade (70% or higher) is required on each of
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the student learning outcomes identified on the assignment in order to receive a grade for the
course and advance in the teacher education program.
Program Student Learning Outcomes:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Explore the current literature related to problem solving and critical thinking and design
activities that will enable students to improve their creative thinking abilities;
Communicate research findings accurately and effectively through the written word to share
research results so that others can replicate ideas and deliver high quality education;
Create educational climates that foster openness, inquiry and concern for others;
Engage in self-reflection regarding research-based performance and pursue opportunities for
feedback to demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement in effective goal-setting;
Adhere to the Code of Ethics and Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession;
Use emergent instructional technology hardware and software to manage, evaluate, and
improve instruction.
Course Student Learning Outcomes:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
Identify user characteristics and information needs, including developmental , psychology and
learning theories related to reading, cross-cultural, ethnic, and other special needs;
Identify research relating to children and young adult literature;
Identify historical issues relating to children and young adult literature;
Identify various genres of compositional forms and the characteristics of each as they relate to
children’s and young adult literature;
Identify illustrative techniques and their effectiveness in relation to particular texts;
Identify criteria for evaluating various types of non-fiction materials suitable for children and
young adults;
Identify various elements of compositional forms and the use of these elements in fiction and
non-fiction compositions;
Recognize professional materials about children and young adult-print and non-print;
Recognize ways to meet challenges to materials, policies, programs (Intellectual Freedom);
Recognize professional materials about children and young adult print and non-print ;
Demonstrate skill in the interpretation and evaluation of research relating to children and young
adult literature.
Student Outcomes are determined by:
1.) Testing on the required readings;
2.) Activities;
3.) Discussions.
Course Alignments by Assessments, Outcomes, and Standards:
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Project
Name and
Assessment
Tool
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
A,B,C
NCATE
FEAPs
(preStandard
professional)
1
Indicator
1b
A,B,C
1b
Rdgs/Test
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
Rdgs/Test
Activity 3
(Rubric)
Activities
1,3
(Rubric)
Activities
8,9
(Rubric)
D
A
1b
1b
2.3
4.1
F
1b
4.2
B,E
1b
7.1
G
1b
7.2
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
Activities
4,5,6,7
F,H,J,K
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
K
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
Readings
(Test)
Discussions
H,I,J
Readings
(Test)
Discussions
F
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
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Conceptual
Framework
Outcomes
(Characteristics)
Critical Thinker
Decision Maker
Ethical/Moral
Professional
Critical Thinker
Ethical/Moral
Professional
Course
SLOs
Subject Area
Competencies
and Skills
IRA
NBPTS
Propositions
1
1.2
10.1
10.2
Readings
(Test)
A,B
Readings
(Test)
F
Readings
(Test)
Activity 3
(Rubric)
F
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
B
Article
Critique
(Rubric)
K
Topics Covered:
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History of children’s and young adult literature
Characteristics of children’s and young adult literature
Artistry techniques used in children’s literature
Genres in children’s and young adult literature
Issues and themes in children’s and young adult literature
Pop Culture and its influence on literature and media for children and young adults
Reading guidance programs
Bibliotherapy
Censorship of children’s and young adult literature
Tentative Schedule:
Required Texts and Readings:
Tanksley, C., Zhou, Yunfang, and Heineken, Kathy. A Handbook for Teachers of Young Adult
literature. (2006). Pearson Custom Publishing.
Russell, David. Literature for Children: A Short Introduction 5th or 6th edition. Addison Wesley
and Longman. 2005/2009.
Bushman, J. and Hass, K.P. (2001). Using Young Adult Literature in the English Classroom.
(2001). 4th edition. Merrill Prentice-Hall.
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TRADE BOOKS:
If You Come Softly, Jacqueline Woodson
Maus 1, Art Spiegelman
SHORT STORIES:
Rappaccini’s Daughter, Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is available on the Internet.
Metamorphosis, Kafka. This is available on the Internet.
The Fall of the House of Usher. Edgar A. Poe. This is available on the internet.
OTHER:
English Journal, Volume 90 Number 3, January 2001. This periodical is available through the
John Pace Library collection. You will access this journal for one article.
FIVE ARTICLES:
1/A Not Censorship but Selection, by Lester Asheim. (Available in your Tanksley, Zhou &
Heineken textbook.)
2/B Selection and Censorship: A Reappraisal , by Lester Asheim. (Available in your
Tanksley, Zhou & Heineken textbook.)
3/C The All White-World of Children’s Books, by Nancy Larrick. (Available in your
Tanksley, Zhou & Heineken textbook.
4/D One article from the January 2001 issue of English Journal (Vol. 90 No. 3).
5/E One article of your choosing on the topic: Bibliotherapy.
A Glossary of Literary Terms. This is available on the Internet. (for reference only).
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm
For this course you must be able to have access to and read numerous children’s literature and
young adult literature titles. The UWF Curriculum Library, the John Pace Library, and your
local public libraries should have most of the trade books mentioned in all of your textbooks.
LAE 5468 Activities
You must submit all work through elearning using Microsoft Word.
Use APA format for all book and article citations.
Activity
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Fairy Tales/Folk Tales
25 points
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Read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 in the Russell text
Choose a fairy tale, folk tale or a universal event. Examples are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty,
Little Red Riding Hood, The Creation and Noah’s Flood.
You will find examples of these stories in most cultures, all with a different slant.
Read and report on at least four stories with the same.
If you choose Cinderella, then you will choose four or more Cinderella stories from four
different cultures.
The original Cinderella was first gathered and published by Charles Perrault (France).
Include the following information for EACH story.
A. Title/Author/Illustrator/Culture (setting)
B. Compare and contrast the protagonist in each story, along with the major protagonists
(remember a protagonist can be a situation, event, etc.) see an extended literary definition
of this term).
C. Discuss how the stories differ from culture to culture and specifically mention if the
culture changes anything in the plot (storyline), tone, setting, events, and resolution.
Please use APA citation format and submit in one Microsoft Word Document.
Activity
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Illustrators
25 points
Read chapter 7 in the Russell text.
Read information on the Caldecott Award on page 270 Russell textbook.
This activity will have you choosing, reviewing and critiquing the works of one the best
illustrators of children’s literature.
Many illustrators use only one medium to express an author’s story. Other illustrators such
as Marcia Brown, winner of three Caldecott Awards has used several art forms in creating
illustrations for children’s books.
Many times the author and the illustrator are the same.
Choose one of the illustrators from the following list and four to five of their books.
Jack Kent
James Marshall
Tommie de Paola
Allen Say
John Steptoe
Paul O. Zelinsky
David Wiesner
Marcia Brown
Jerry Pinkney
Maurice Sendak
Lane Smith
Jon Scieszka
Barbara Cooney
Chris Van Allsburg Leo & Diane Dillon
Paul Goble
Donald Crews
Molly Bank
Susan Jeffers
David Macaulay
Vera Williams
Peter Spiers
Ezra Jack Keats
Trina Schart Hyman
Gerald McDermott William Steig
Analyze their works based on the information in chapter seven. In addition, numerous
reference works and many Internet sites discuss each book and the lifework of these
illustrators.
Make sure that you identify the medium for each title and how it may enhance the setting,
tone, allegory, imagination etc. in the story.
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Specifically address the following: line, space, shape, color, texture, composition and
perspective, rhythm and movement, tension and page layout. (All of these terms are
discussed in chapter 7.) Search the Internet for more information.
In addition, address the artistic style for each title. See pages 138-141 Russell text.
Use APA citation format and submit in one Microsoft Word Document
Activity
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Non-Fiction Children’s Books
25 points
Read chapter 12 in the Russell textbook
Read one biography and four non-fiction children’s books. Use the lists in chapter 12 for
book selection. In addition, you may use the works of the following authors for your nonfiction titles. Please use ONLY the authors mentioned in your Russell textbook. These books
are very short. Visit the local library or your child’s school library for many of these titles.
Or you may want to visit a bookstore one day. Most of these books should be approximately
twenty-four pages in length.
For the biography critique the book based on the information in Chapter 12 and address each
of the ten statements in Figure 12.2
For each of the other four non-fiction titles, critique the books based on the information in
Chapter 12 using Figure 12.3 as your guide.
Please use APA for citations and submit in one Microsoft Word Document.
Reading Activities (Here are the two books and two short stories for this semester).
If You Come Softly, Maus 1, Rappaccini’s Daughter and Metamorphosis. 10 POINTS
EACH
Directions:
 For each of the above write a 250-400 word summary
 In the summary you must include and identify six of the seven basic literary terms. These
terms are: character(s) protagonist and or antagonists, setting, plot, theme, style, point of
view (identify which one) and climax. Feel free to also use others. But I will specifically
look for six I mentioned.
 Use the following format. I am using the first paragraph from my favorite short story as an
illustration. (See next page.). However, you are to write approximately a 250 word
SUMMARY of the entire novel.
 Again I repeat. After each statement in your summary, identify the information as
referencing a literary term/element. Do not limit yourselves to only the basic six/seven
literary terms. See the short example from, The Fall of the House of Usher.
Fall of the House of Usher
By
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Edgar Allan Poe
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the
clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a
singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew
on, within view of the melancholy House Of Usher. (setting).
……I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled
luster by the dwelling and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—
upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the
vacant and eye-like windows, (style—descriptive imagery). …Although, as boys, we had been
even associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and
habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been noted,…(Point of view—
first person narrative).
Activity IDIOMATIC PHRASES 20 POINTS
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Find/locate 5 idiomatic phrases from within the required four reading titles for this course.
Create a phrase dictionary
List three definitions per phrase
Definition one should be from contextual information (from the text)
Definition two should be a definition that is commonly known
Definition three should be one that you make up yourself
Two examples of idiomatic phrases are: To be “stuck in the mud” and to have “something up
your sleeve”. These two examples are from the Amelia Bedelia books, which is a popular
children series.
 Identify chapter and page location of the idiomatic phrase in book that you are using.
 Lastly, create a one page idiom activity for middle school/high school students.
Activity
LITERARY TERM PROJECT 20 POINTS
 Choose and define very specifically one of the following literary terms and show how each
of the authors that we have discussed this semester uses the term to further the plot, develop a
character and change the mood of the story. Use actual words and phrases from each story.
End your 300-500 word paper with a short discussion.
 Possible terms: SUSPENSE, FLASHBACK, FORESHADOWING, PERSONIFICATION,
METAPHOR, HYPERBOLE, ATMOSPHERE
Possible format:
Term
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Definition (cite sources)
Title/Author
Words and phrases
Discussion
FORMAT FOR THE FIVE ARTICLES
USE MUST USE A SENTENCE OUTLINE.
USE MUST LIMIT YOUR SENTENCE OUTLINE TO TWO PAGES DOUBLE-SPACE.
YOU MUST USE THE FORMAT THAT I SEND YOU.
THE FORMAT INCLUDES: CITATION, SUMMARY, SENTENCE OUTLINE, AND
PERSONAL REFLECTION (HOW IT AFFECTS YOU AS A TEACHER, SUPERVISOR OR
WHATEVER YOUR PRESENT PROFESSIONAL POSITION).
TESTS
Test #1
Comprehensive Test on Russell book.
Test will close on Dec. 6, 11:59 p.m.
You can take the test as soon as it is posted.
50 points
Test #2
25points
Comprehensive Test on the Bushman book.
Test will close on Dec.6 at 11:59 p.m.
You can take the test as soon as it is posted.
Grading/Evaluation System:
DISCUSSIONS
5 @ 4 points each
20 points
1 examination on Russell Textbook
1 examination on Bushman Textbook
50 points
25 points
Activity #1
Activity #2
Activity #3
Activity #4
Activity #5
Activity #6
Activity #7
Activity #8
Activity #9
25 points
25 points
25 points
10 points
10 points
10 points
10 points
20 points
20 points
Fairy Tales/Folk Tales
Illustrators Key Assignment
Non-Fiction Child. Bks.
If You Come Softly
Maus 1
Rappaccini’s Daughter
Metamorphosis Key Assignment
Idioms Key Assignment
Literary Term Key Assignment
ARTICLES:
Article 1/A Asheim
Article 2/B Asheim
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10 points
10 points
Article 3/C Larrick
Article 4/D English Journal
Article 5/E Bibliotherapy
10 points
10 points
10 points
TOTAL POINTS
300 POINTS
Grading Criteria:
A= 94-100
A-= 93-90
B+ =89-87
B = 86-84
B- = 83-80
C+ = 79-77
C = 76-74
C- = 73-70
D+ = 67-69
D= 66-64
D- = 63-60
F = 59 and below
Special Technology Utilized by Students:
Each UWF Student is expected to:
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activate a UWF ArgoNet email account
access email two to three times weekly
have basic word processing knowledge
access elearning (D2L) course at least three times a week
Plagiarism Policy: (Word Format) | (PDF Format) | (RTF Format)
Student Handbook: (PDF Format)
Statement of the University Policy on Academic Conduct: The Student Code of Conduct sets
forth the rules, regulations and expected behavior of students enrolled at the University of West
Florida. Violations of any rules, regulations, or behavioral expectations may result in a charge of
violating the Student Code of Conduct. It is the student’s responsibility to read the Student Code
of Conduct and conduct themselves accordingly. You may access the current Student Code of
Conduct at http://www.uwf.edu/judicialaffairs.
Expectations for Academic Conduct/Plagiarism Policy: Academic Conduct Policy: (Web
Format) | (PDF Format) (RTF Format)
Assistance: The Student Disability Resource Center SDRC at the University of West Florida
supports an inclusive learning environment for all students. If there are aspects of the instruction
or design of this course that hinder your full participation, such as time limited exams,
inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos and podcasts, please notify the
instructor or the SDRC as soon as possible. You may contact the SDRC office by e-mail at
sdrc@uwf.edu or by phone at (850) 474-2387. Appropriate academic accommodations will be
determined based on the documented needs of the individual.
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UWF TurnItIn notice: UWF maintains a university license agreement for an online text
matching service called TurnItIn. At my discretion I will use the TurnItIn service to determine
the originality of student papers. If I submit your paper to TurnItIn, it will be stored in a
TurnItIn database for as long as the service remains in existence. If you object to this storage of
your paper:
1. You must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class.
2. I will utilize other services and techniques to evaluate your work for evidence of
appropriate authorship practices.
Syllabus Notice of Change: Although this syllabus is intended for multiple audiences and
incorporates the minimum course criteria, the content of this syllabus may change based on
individual instructor’s specifications. Any modifications to this syllabus will be announced
during the first week of the semester.
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