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

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."

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

For Week 10 - Questions to guide your reading

This week we'll focus on Latino/a children's and adolescent literature.

Read:

* Becoming Naomi Leon

* Ada (2003): This chapter is from the book A Magical Encounter: Latino Children's Literature in the Classroom. Why does Ada use the term "Latina" to identify herself? How is this connected to her understanding of self and history? What does she add to our understanding of the insider/outsider debate? To our understanding of the Pura Belpre award?

* Barrera and Quiroa (2003): This chapter is from the book Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature. Why is it important to consider the use of Spanish in texts? When does it enhance the text? When does it detract from the text? How might audiences of Spanish/English and English speakers be accommodated?

Write (Group A):

* Write a questioning the text paper and submit it by the morning before class.

Information about class on Mar 18

I just sent everyone an ANGEL email with some specifics about how to best prepare for our class after Spring Break. Be sure to read it.

On the 18th, we'll be talking about critical literacy issues in the classroom, a topic that many of you are eager and excited to start talking about. We'll be spending about half of our time together discussing this and then will be walking over to the library for a tutorial on how to locate scholarly articles for your final projects.

For Week 8 - Questions to guide your reading

Read:

* Al Capone Does my Shirts
* Linton (1998): What does Linton say about the power of language? What terminology do you prefer when discussing this topic? Why? What would it mean to read Al Capone Does my Shirts from a "disability studies framework? What types of questions would you ask about the representations in the text? How would you analyze those questions?
* Tal (2001) and Williams, et. al. (2005): In what range of ways have people with disabilities been portrayed in text? What criteria might one use to evaluate books that include people with disabilities? Is there anything you question about the criteria presented?
* Optional: Check out Gennifer Choldenko's website. (I suggest you read the book first.) What do you learn about her? What don't you learn?

Write (Everyone):

* Write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the Angel dropbox by 6 pm the evening before class.

In class we'll watch part of a documentary in which a woman who is autistic shares a little about her experience and talk about how the film may raise new questions about Al Capone Does my Shirts.

For Week 7 - Questions to guide your reading and details about your awards assignment

The co-themes of session 7 will be "practicing close readings of text" and analyzing awards for diverse literature. You'll only need to prepare for the second!

Everyone:
Read the Aronson and Pinkney articles. Be ready to discuss the following:
What are the arguments for and against honoring books in specific cultural/social categories?
What assumptions does each position rely on?
Where do you stand in terms of the debate?

Award jigsaw: Research the following information for your assigned award. 

Is there an official website for the award? Are there other resources that provide information about the award? (Sometimes libraries or author blogs feature information not available on the official sites.)

Why and when was this award created? What is the rationale for the award?
Selection criteria: What books, authors, illustrators are eligible? How are the books judged?

Who sponsors the award?

Selection committee: Who chooses the winners? How do you get on the committee? How transparent is the process?

Bring in books that have won or have been honored by the award. This will mean a trip to the library--you can coordinate this within your group. How easy was it to find the books? Do they have seals or other indications that they are award winners?

It would be helpful if one person in the group could bring in a computer.

In class we'll teach each other about the awards, share books, and talk about the questions that our research raises.

Group 1 - Coretta Scott King
Group 2 - Sydney Taylor Award
Group 3 - Asian Pacific American Award
Group 4 - Lambda Literary Foundation Award
Group 5 - Schneider Family Book Award
Group 6 - The Middle East Book Award
Group 7 - Pura Belpre

(group members are listed on our ANGEL site)

For Week 6 - Questions to guide your reading

Everyone:

* Read Martin (2004): What does she mean by the "double voicedness" of text? How is this "double voicedness" connected to the historical position of African Americans? Do any of the modes of discourse seem familiar? (You might draw on popular culture for examples or written texts.)
* Read Woodson (1998): What does Woodson add to our "insider-outsider "debate?
* Read Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. This books is written in a combination of verse and prose. Try reading (and maybe rereading) the poems aloud to explore how they sound. Mark 1-2 poems that you would like to share and discuss.

Group C:

* Write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the Angel dropbox by midnight the night before class
* Bring a hard copy of your paper to class

Optional:

* What can you learn about Nikki Grimes through internet research? Post any interesting resources in a blog entry.
* Contribute a response to "How is blogging going?" before our class next week

For Week 5 - Questions to guide your reading

For Week 5 - Readings

Al-Hazza and Lucking (2005)
Al-Hazza (2006)
Staples (1997)
Additional reading (optional): An essay by Peggy McIntosh (1998)

Nye's Habibi

Questioning the Text (paper #2) - Group B

In conversation with Dr. Debbie Reese

I just had to make a post about this because I simply can't wait to tell you about this!

I emailed Debbie Reese to ask her our class question about descriptors/terms/names to use (e.g. Native American or American Indian). She emailed me back right away and pointed me to a spot on her blog that reads: American Indian? Or, Native American? There is no agreement among Native peoples. Both are used. It is best to be specific. Example: Instead of "Debbie Reese, a Native American," say "Debbie Reese, a Nambe Pueblo Indian woman."

She also said, and this is the really exciting part, that she'd be more than willing to be in conversation with us about the topic of American Indians in Children's/YA Lit. Super cool eh?!

She welcomes responses to her chapter (1997) that we read for this past week and/or any other questions we might have for her. I know that some of you said you really enjoyed reading her chapter; others of you wrote down questions/concerns. Please do take her up on this offer - her email is: debreese@illinois.edu. What a wonderful opportunity for all of us!

For Week 4 - Questions to guide your reading

Our topic next week will be:

The Insider/Outsider Debate & Expanding the Definition of Multiculturalism

Please read (all in course pack AND be sure to read in order):
Shannon (1994)
Sims Bishop (1994)
Harris (1994)
Cai (1998)

Suggestion for what to post on your blog this week:
-Initial thoughts on debate of who is "qualified" to write for a particular group/population of people (be concise and specific!)
-I encourage you to find quotes from the readings and post them on your blogs
-And, I encourage you to check out the blog and website I talked about it class (you can find a link to them on the right side of this blog).

Come prepared to debate whether authors should be “insiders” to the culture about which they write!

For Week 3 - Questions to guide your reading

o Cortes (2001)
· Examines the nature of stereotypes. What is the difference between a stereotype and a generalization? How are stereotypes created in the media?

o Reese (1997)
· Chapter in Harris text
· Covers a number of topics: background on Native American nations, key authors, stereotypes, problematic texts, teaching ideas, criteria.
· You should identify several key ideas, quotes, etc. that intrigue you. We will not review the whole text in class!

o Smith (2005)
· Cynthia Leitich Smith is an author we will feature next week. This article is a reflection on the critical response to her work.
· She also outlines some criteria to consider when choosing NA literature (or thinking about multicultural literature in general)

o Heart of a Chief
-What did you come away “knowing” about Penacook culture, based on your reading of this book? What was new or surprised you?
-Did you see evidence of stereotypes or generalizations in the text? Where? What were your thoughts around those passages?
-Does this book seem to be an authentic portrayal of a Penacook family? What questions might you ask about authenticity? What evidence would you use to back up your claims?
-Does this book seem accurate in its portrayal of a Penacook family? What questions might you ask about accuracy? What evidence would you use to back up your claims about its accuracy (or lack of accuracy)?
-Would you consider this book a piece of quality literature? Why or why not?

o “Questioning the Text” paper #1
· Submit the paper to our ANGEL dropbox by midnight on Tuesday
· Bring hard copy to class on Wednesday

For Week 2 - Questions to guide your reading

As you do the readings for this week, I encourage you to take notes, mark passages, pose questions, etc.

Bishop (1997) (Harris Text, Chapter #1)
+ What is multicultural literature?
+ Why use it?
+ What issues might one consider?

Yenika-Agbaw (1997)
+ What is the relationship between reader-text-context?
+ What does it mean to read critically?

Tatum (2000)
+ What are our social identities? Why consider them?
+ This article should help you start thinking about the autobiographical poem.