Goals, Focus Questions, and Outcomes for
Literacy through Literature for Children - EDU 600
Course Goal
The goal of this class is to continue the professional development of educators for greater understanding of the importance of literature and stories in education and the everyday lives of people. To provide inquiry and reflection opportunities using wisdom of practice and research to increase his or her understanding, skill, and dispositions related to literature, its content, how to use literature to facilitate literacy, and how to communicate professionally to provide educational stewardship and leadership for the public and within the educational profession.
Four Focus Questions
1. What is children's literature and why is it essential to facilitate literacy?
- What is literacy?
- What is literature?
- How does literature and literacy relate to media?
- How does literature and literacy related to art?
- What is children's and adolescent's literature?
- How has and is children's literature evolving?
- How does children's literature within schools change according to changes in the definition of literacy?
- How does children's literature change as the scope of curriculum changes?
- How do different forms of literacy fit into a curriculum?
- How do different forms of literacy prepare students for their future?
- How do curiosity, imagination, creativity, analysis, critical thinking, visualization, and aesthetic appreciation of literature fit with literature and literacy?
- What resources can be used by educators that describe literacy in a manner that will inform them of why it is necessary to consider literature and art as essential to achieve literacy goals and outcomes?
- What should be included in curriculum documents related to literacy, literature, art, and media?
2. How do we evaluate quality children's literature ?
- What are the differences between standards of quality for different forms of literature?
- What are the differences between standards of quality for different uses of story elements and different genres in different communicative media?
- What characteristics do story elements have in quality literature? And how does that cross different genre? (fiction, nonfiction, picture books, realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography, autobiography, poetry/imagery, fantasy/science fiction/ fairy tales...)
- How are different pieces of literature analyzed and critically evaluated for quality?
- What are story elements and how can they be used to analyze and evaluate literature?
- What are different genre and how can their attributes be used to analyze and evaluate quality genres have?
- As children's literature includes other forms of media, how can those different forms be analyzed and evaluated?
- How are all the different attributes combined to analyze and evaluate literature or multimedia (illustrations, art, music, animation, ...)?
3. What does a person need to know AND do to be literate?
How do people become literate?
Some helpful information to consider for these two questions: Answers will vary according to definitions of literacy and literate? Similarly for the manner in which art and media were included.
- How do people interact and respond to literature?
- What are students' responses to literature?
- How do students' responses differ with development?
- How are communicative events critical for literacy?
- How is a love and appreciation of quality literature facilitated? (instruction, book talks..., teaching look like?)
- How do you know children are progressing toward this literacy?
4. What are the qualities, skills, theories, and methodologies that a teacher needs to have command of to facilitate student's literacy with quality literature?
- What makes a productive book talk, literature circle, literary discussion, ... class, unit, curriculum?
- How do curiosity, imagination, creativity, critical thinking, and visual literacy fit with quality children's literature and its literacy?
- How are story elements used to understand, describe, remember, analyze, and appreciate literature?
- How are different genre used to understand, describe, remember, analyze, and appreciate literature?
- How are different media used to expand student's understanding and appreciation of literature across genre, media, and into the world?
- How are students encouraged or guided toward indulging in quality literature?
- How can the idea of a communicative event and its multiple forms of literacy and elements be used in instruction?
- How is assessment important for facilitating students' literacy development?
Outcomes:
Educators use their answers to these questions when making decisions. Decisions, which can be documented in curriculum documents.
Documents for - planning, implementing, and evaluating, which can include the following information;
- Define literacy, literature, media, and children's literature
- Create goals and outcomes for a literature curriculum or what students should know about literature within another (literacy, media, language arts, ...). Include
- story elements - know (concepts) and do (outcomes)
- genre - - know (concepts) and do (outcomes)
- analyze and critically evaluate quality literature
- aesthetic - emotional, attitude, or disposition of a person towards literature to become critical consumes of quality literature and life long learners
- Demonstrate planning that
- assesses student's understanding, interpretation, use, and appreciation of literature as described in the goals and outcomes
- uses literature in a manner to increase student's appreciation of it (aesthetic - emotional, attitude, or disposition of a person towards literature).
- increases student's abilities to use literature as a communicative or media event represented in multiple forms of literature
- integrates of literature into all curricular areas achieved?
- Demonstrate faciliation of literacy through literature. Describe through principled procedures, action plan, sequence plans, year plan, or other curriculum document) how a teacher would facilitate learning to achieve the goals and outcomes for literacy through the use of literature?
- Reflect on interactions with another person and a piece of literature.
Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes