For Week 14 - Questions to guide your reading

* Confessions of a Closet Catholic
* Silver (2002): What criteria does Silver suggest for evaluating books?
* Kimmel (2003): How does Kimmel understand the "Jewish content" of his stories?
* Group C members write a questioning the text paper

Check this article out. It's titled: 10 Great Books For (Traumatizing) Children. It'll give us LOTS to talk about next week!

For Week 14 - Questions to guide your reading

Read:

* Boy Meets Boy

* McLean (1997): What is McLean's rationale for considering GLB(TQ) literature as "multicultural"? What stereotypes and inaccuracies does she suggest we watch out for? This article was written in 1997. Are you familiar with any books that you think do a "better" job of representing GLBTQ characters?

* Levithan (2004): Although Levithan is directing his words to librarians, they also apply to teachers. What does he mean when he writes, "Being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something you can agree or disagree with."

Obama's Special Olympics joke

My husband nicely informed me that Obama's Special Olympics joke was weeks ago.

Sorry for not being on top of things more!

April Fools Day info

In class I mentioned how I thought April Fools Day ended at 12pm.

Here's a link to an article that talk about it. I was partly right. The 12pm thing is a British tradition (and thus probably Canadian as well).

For Week 11 - Questions to guide your reading and details

Read:

* Project Mulberry

* Siu-Runyan (2002): This article focuses on "Books that teach about the Asian and Pacific Island peoples of Hawaii". What does it add to your understanding of that population? Of the purposes and need for multicultural literature in general?

* Yamate (1997): As of 1997, what was the state of publishing for Asian American texts? What type of research might you do to explore whether anything has changed over the last 10 years? What themes might you find in Asian Pacific American literature?

Write (Group B):

* Write a questioning the text paper

Blogging assignment details

Some of you have been asking me about the blogging requirement in this course. Here are a few clarifications and suggestions.

1. Remember to post/comment regularly. To receive full credit for this part of the course grade, the minimum number of posts and/or comments is 15. Generally try to post/comment once a week.

2. Some of you have been struggling with what to post about. Look at other people's blogs to get some inspiration. Feel free to start posting initial thoughts about your final project topic. Post your reaction to what you're reading (trade books, course articles). AND, if you're still stuck, email me and I'll help you out!

3. Remember that the idea behind the blogging part of the course is to help you become more proficient at using technology and to widen the audience for your writing/reflections.