LIS 565
Children's Materials: Evaluation and Use

Introduction

The catalog description of this course reads as follows:

Library materials for children from infancy through elementary grades. Focus on resources in all media that serve the informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs of the young. Attention given to standard bibliographies and other resources designed to meet the informational needs of adults serving children.

To elaborate on that brief description: you will be reading—a lot. Much of your time is spent reading books written for and about children. You also explore electronic resources, video, CD ROM, and Internet opportunities and learn to evaluate and integrate these materials efficiently and effectively. Some lessons are organized around genre (e.g. multicultural, nonfiction, poetry, and so on). Others are organized by length and difficulty of book (e.g., everybody/picture books, beginning readers, chapter books, middle-grade fiction, and so on). You also learn to use:

• review sources in both print and online formats;
• some "tricks of the trade" to make your research more efficient; and
• award book criteria and selection methods.

Implementation in the classroom or library is a major focus of the course; we examine such issues as:

• How does this book or unit fit into the curriculum?
• How do you find the time to evaluate materials to make good choices within budget constraints?
• What's new?
• How can you instill the joy of life-long reading into your students?

Course Goals and Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, you will be familiar with:

• various genres of children's books and the characteristics of each genre;
• readily available resources for evaluating and using children's materials.
• general criteria for evaluating and selecting children's materials with specific knowledge of children's book awards;
• outstanding authors and illustrators of children's books; and
• techniques for sharing these materials with children.

You will be able to:

• evaluate picture books, early readers, beginning and middle-grade novels and electronic resources; and
• use review and selection aids.

About this Course

Each of the nine lessons includes a

• reading assignment;
• a list of key terms and concepts to look for as you read;
• my comments about the subject of your readings; and
• instructions for completing and submitting a written assignment.

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the forum. I will reply there.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

About the Textbook

After looking at a number of potential texts for this course, I decided on Children's Literature in the Elementary School by Charlotte S. Huck et al. for a number of reasons. One is the breadth of information it presents, beginning with the definition and value, and a short history, of children's literature. It describes various genres and age groups and details the process of planning literature programs and evaluating the children's understanding of the literature. At nearly seven hundred pages, however, it is not a book that I ever expect to sit down and read cover to cover. Rather, it is a ready reference book. Highly indexed and full of useful appendices, it provides quick and easy access to ideas for particular situations. The bibliographic lists alone are worth the price. The professional secondary literature recommended in "Related Readings" offers in-depth, comprehensive study opportunities on a broad variety of theories and standard texts within the field of children's literature.

Beyond the Textbook

In addition to the text, you need to be prepared to use your school and public libraries to find books written for and about children as well as professional evaluation and selection guides. You also use the World Wide Web and online databases. No specific books are required, though you have to read and evaluate or use something out of each broad category. To a certain extent you can customize the course to fit your particular needs and interests. It is important, however, to stretch beyond your current situation and comfort zone in order to increase the breadth and depth of your knowledge.

How to Read

In each reading assignment, I note three levels of required reading: Browse, Skim, and Read.

• Browse means to look at each page and read the headings, the captions, and whatever you can't resist.
• Skim is slightly more in-depth. Read the first and last paragraphs of each section and the first sentence of each paragraph. Again, let yourself be caught up in the information that most interests you.
• Read means just that: read. Get out your highlighter or whatever you use to help you commit information to memory. You won't be tested on your knowledge, but you'll be surprised at how much easier the evaluation exercises become when you have this information stored in your brain's RAM.

Course Requirements and Grading Criteria

• This is a survey and practical use course. Therefore, the assignments are not terrifically difficult but they do take time.
• Unless I specifically state that you are to work with publisher "blurbs" or reviews, I expect that you actually read (or listen to or interact with) the materials you are evaluating.
• With each assignment, my expectation is that the books you choose and the units or program ideas you create are newly developed rather than a presentation of tried (tired) and true material. You may have wonderful, exciting books and lessons that you use over and over—but you don't need to practice those in this course.
• All the books you read for various assignments count toward the minimum of forty children's books you must read throughout the course:
  • approximately twenty picture books/beginning readers; and
  • twenty chapter books/middle-grade novels.

Include nonfiction books, poetry, and folklore in either of these two categories according to length and intended audience of the book. You will also interact with a broad variety of electronic media developed for use by children.

• Each of the reading and writing assignments includes the element of implementation with children, either for literature appreciation or ties to the curriculum or both. In each assignment and book review you should therefore answer the question, "How can I and others use this in the classroom or library?" You will tie them to "must learns" (called Essential Academic Learning Requirements, or EALRs, in Washington State) to help your curriculum development.

About the Lessons

Lesson One: Textbook Familiarity/Concept Books

This multi-leveled lesson introduces techniques and expectations that you use throughout the course. Concept Books (such as ABCs, counting, shapes, and so on) are the first of many genres you evaluate. I give you a standard format for bibliographic presentation that you use for each book. This standard bibliographic format applies to all assignments except Assignment 7. You use the criteria (particularly the guidelines) presented throughout your text for evaluating books and other media.

Lesson Two: A History of Children's Literature/Picture Books

The history of children's literature is fascinating and surprising: you'll find out, for example, that it was not until the last couple of centuries that there were any books written specifically for children, let alone books created for pleasure reading. Moral education was the major motivation. Understanding where children's books come from and how much they have changed increases your appreciation for the abundance and variety we have today. Your written assignment concentrates on picture books, particularly those published in the last decade.

Lesson Three: Folklore/Easy Readers

The folklore and mythology of peoples from all over the world has some amazing similarity as well as joyful diversity. You are asked to choose a theme, a country or people group, or bias within the vast folklore genre (e.g. women heroes, tall tales, moralistic stories, Grimm, Cinderella, "fractured" fairy tales, Russian, African American, Jewish). A short comparison paper plus annotations demonstrates your knowledge of this genre.

Lesson Four: Award Books

The two major American awards for children's books are the Newbery (for writing) and Caldecott (for illustration) Awards. There are also less well-known national awards (such as the Coretta Scott King Award), international awards, and awards for a body of work rather than a specific book. It is important to know about these awards and some of the criteria for selection. For the assignment you examine one of three regional awards: you choose to develop a list of either picture books for the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award, middle-grade novels for the Sasquatch Reading Award, or Young Readers' Choice Award nominees for grades 3-6,7-9, or 9-12. Your nominations are submitted to these committees (with your permission) for consideration for the next year's list.

Lesson Five: Multicultural Books and Media

It is relatively easy to find folklore from a specific region or people group. In this lesson, however, you look at contemporary settings. Your assignment is to choose a people group (e.g., ethnic, religious, and/or geographic) and evaluate literature and media from picture books, novels, poetry, and non-print materials.

Lesson Six: Poetry

Poetry is an incredibly effective method of catching children's interest and inviting their participation. It easily flows to song, chant, and action. When a lesson plan is zapped because the assembly went too long, a good poem or two focuses your students and redeems the session. Poetry combined with engaging illustrations is a match made in heaven. Poems often work well as writing prompts. This assignment asks you to use Huck et al.'s guidelines to evaluate poetry anthologies, single poem picture books, and a non-print presentation of poetry.

Lesson Seven: Nonfiction Books

None of us is an expert on all subjects (though librarians and teachers are often expected to be). For this project, I want you to pick a subject you know little about and-with limited time and a small amount of virtual money-decide what you would buy for a classroom or library collection. For this one, reading the books is not an option; Reviews and publisher "blurbs" must determine your selection.

Lesson Eight: Integrating Electronic Resources

A library collection includes a variety of electronic resources, starting with the catalog. The availability of hardware and software varies greatly from school to school and district to district. But, it is fairly safe to assume, that any school library situation is going to have some electronic access to resources. How do we keep up with the rapidly changing technology? How do we encourage use without glorifying the Web into something is really isn't? How do we teach our students how to make good choices about this vast array of information and non-information available to them? How do we help students to focus on their driving question and not be distracted by impressive presentation?

Lesson Nine: Meet the Author/Illustrator

In this lesson you imagine you can have an author or illustrator spend a day at your school or library. You can pick anyone who is still living. The visit will cost your school or library $1,500. Your principal or library manager wants you to "present your case" and get the rest of the staff to understand why this visit is worth that price. You must convince your staff how important it is to bring a published writer or artist into your workplace to meet and talk with students.

About the Final Project: Use It

Your final project takes you more deeply in the "use" of "Evaluation and Use." Knowledge of the books and media includes knowing how to share them with children effectively and enthusiastically. Throughout the course, you are required to suggest a use for EVERY book/resource you review. In this final project, you take that a step further and create a month-long unit in collaboration with a peer.

You design your Final Project to share. We all depend on professional recommendations from our peers. It's for this reason that I ask you to post your final project to the course discussion forum. That way, other students in this course can benefit from your work. In turn, you have access to their final project as well, even after you have officially completed the course.

Formatting and Annotation Style

Appendix A of this course includes the style guide used in the Edmonds School District, based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. For all assignments except assignment seven, begin with the standard MLA bibliographic entry (see Appendix A of this course for correct format). Also include illustrator in the bibliography as appropriate. Following that, annotate the item concisely (maximum of five sentences). Briefly develop a classroom or library program use for each item (including a grade level and learning objectives that correlate to the EALRs* or other academic learning requirements) or tell why you would not use this book in a small or large group setting (maximum of five sentences). An example annotation.

Grading

Fig. i.1
Concept Books	10%
Everybody Books	10%
Folklore comparison	10%
WCCPBA/Sasquatch/YRCA Awards	10%
Multicultural	10%
Poetry	10%
Nonfiction Books	10%
Integrating Electronic Resources	10%
Meet the Author/Illustrator	10%
Final Project	10%

All assignments must be completed before you get credit for this course. Their grading values are shown in fig. i.1.

Your grade for each assignment is based on the University of Washington system of 0.0-4.0, according to the rubric shown in fig. i.2. Note that the parts of the rubric are not weighted evenly. Content and Instructional Use each receive 40% emphasis, while Style and Conventions receive 10% each.

	4.0 Exceptional and Excellent Work	3.5 Strong Work	3.0 Competent Work	2.0 or Below Substandard Performance
Content (40%)	Thorough understanding, well-reasoned, insightful, well-drawn conclusions, professional quality.	Strong understanding is apparent; good conclusions; demonstrated thought on topics presented.	Understanding is apparent but lacks detail, portions of assignment incomplete or inconclusive.	Understanding is incomplete, assignment requirements unfulfilled.
Instructional Use/Practical Application (40%)	Outstanding curriculum connections. Easy to apply to real library or classroom setting, innovative.	Sound curriculum connections. Requires some additional work to be executed in the library or classroom.	Connections to curriculum present but not clear. Much additional work required for practical execution.	Impractical, use in a real setting unlikely.
Style (10%)	Creative, motivating, and concise.	Easy to understand and apply, written without excess.	Usable with editing, mostly keeps to the point and is understandable.	Confusing, rambling, off task.
Conventions/ Readability (10%)	Error free, word processed with thought given to format and ease of use.	Very few (less than five) errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, easily read word processing, consistent format.	Five to ten errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, typed or word processed with inconsistent formatting.	More than ten errors, handwritten, hard to read.

Submitting Assignments/Contacting Instructor

Please feel free to contact me whenever you have a question or concern. See the About the Instructor page on your course syllabus for my contact information. For e-mailed assignments, designate by number (e.g. LIS 565, Assignment #1) and, preferably, attach as Word documents. I will contact you if I cannot open it and ask you to send it snail mail or by fax. Assignments should be typed/word processed and double spaced.

About the Developer: Sher Smith Ross

Sher Smith Ross credits her dad for inspiring her first love of reading. Each night, her "Popo" read to her, hoping she would fall asleep. Most nights, the strength of story prevailed. He fell asleep first and she would slide the book off his lap and settle down to finish the story on her own. Her stuffed animals and the Alice and Wonderland cutouts hanging on her bedroom wall provided all the audience he needed for her blossoming storytelling skills.

After a short career teaching and coaching, she took a leave of absence from the classroom that extended to sixteen years. From 1980 to 1995, she managed and owned The Secret Garden Children's Bookshop when it was located on Green Lake in Seattle. In 1991, she married the "full-meal deal", a package that included two pre-adolescent, special needs girls. After four years of juggling family with small business ownership, she sold the shop. She continued to consult with children's writers and illustrators and, dusting off her teaching certificate, substituted in libraries in four school districts. That work served as tremendous on-the-job training.

In fall of 1996, she became a school librarian at Terrace Park PreK-8 in the Edmonds School District. She began working on her library endorsement, which led her to the MLIS degree at the University of Washington. She continued to work at Terrace Park as well as "moonlighting" as a reference librarian at King County Library System through the spring of 2001. Currently, she is employed as the Junior/Senior High librarian in the Mount Baker School District. Moving into the Young Adult world was a steep, exciting trip.

She lives in Acme, Washington, which she claims has to be one of the most peaceful, beautiful places in existence. From her home, she looks at the Twin Sisters Mountain and catches the top of Mt. Baker—not a bad view for developing the LIS 565 course for UWEO.

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