Reference no: EM132311112

Childrens Literature for Literacy

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Bachelor of Education Primary and Early Childhood course is a professional program that requires development of particular attributes for accreditation purposes. These are also included in the Learning Outcomes.

On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to:
1. analyse the corpus of children's literature, (GA8; APST 3.4)
2. explore the contexts and strategies for responding to, thinking about and critiquing children's literature within a basis of literacy, semiotic and language theories (GA4, GA5; APST 2.1, 2.2; ACECQA A2, B4)
3. examine the constructs of quality children's literature, ranging from traditional tales to post- modern picture books, e-books and poetry and (GA4; APST 2.1; ACECQA B4)
4. demonstrate an understanding of historical, socio-cultural and post-structural perspectives of children's literature, (including multicultural and Indigenous literature), that inform awareness of justice and equity issues (GA2, GA3, GA4; APST 1.4, 2.4; ACECQA D2, D3, D4, D5)
5. demonstrate an understanding of the role of literature in developing reading (GA5; APST 2.5, 3.3; ACECQA B4)
6. establish criteria for evaluating children's literature that assists in the selection of appropriate reading materials for children and adolescents (GA8; APST 3.4; ACECQA B4, C1, C4).

This unit covers the graduate standards listed below.

1.4 Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence

Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages
Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.

Include a range of teaching strategies
Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning

Assignment 1

Assessment 1: The Essay
Read the novel: The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey AND one of the other Bad Guys books in the series (you must read TWO of the books in the series including the FIRST BOOK)

Using two The Bad Guys books by Aaron Blabey as an example, demonstrate how pictures and words can be used to tell a sophisticated story. Explicitly refer to techniques and tools the author and illustrator have used to create this novel. Use academic sources where appropriate to support your discussion. These must be properly referenced in APA format, both in-text and in the list of references at the end of your essay.

You must use a minimum of three quality professional resources (for example, children's literature journals) to support your ideas.

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to read and evaluate children's novels as well as make connections with professional resources.

Assignment 2: The Brochure

Select an Australian author or illustrator. Choose three picture books (or novels) for years 2-5 by the chosen author/illustrator and create a brochure featuring these books and the author/illustrator.

- Give description of the reasons why you have chosen these particular books
- A justification of how the books could be used in the classroom.
- Provide 2 or 3 questions, which give an indication of the type of discussion that would be encouraged after reading the books with a class.
- Present in class one of your examples of teaching activities that would follow the reading of the specific books.
- Provide each member of the tutorial with a copy of your brochure.
- Please provide your tutor with a cover sheet, a copy of your brochure and the criteria sheet.
- Your brochure must reflect your knowledge of unit content and not be a recount of the story.

Assessment 3 The Big Read Aloud Project

Choose 9 picture books published within the past 5 years. Eight of these picture books can be any books you decide following the required genres listed in the Appendix. One needs to be a book with a science/nature theme.
Part I: Use the nine books to write a brief summary for each book as well as justifying why you chose this book for the specific category according to what we have talked about in Children's Literature for Literacy. For the Science book, what value does it have related to Science? There entries are limited to 165 words, so you'll want to make sure you are brief with your summary and focus on how the books connect to what we have learned in class.
Part II: Find a group of children who are of the appropriate age (this MUST be a school or kinder setting). Read the book you chose for the big read aloud category out loud to a group of children.

Make sure to bring back and include the signed letter from the teacher, librarian, etc... of the person supervising the children.
Part III: Reflect on your reading of the book: How did it go? Discuss key points you noticed related to
reading aloud, your book selection, or the children's responses. This is your chance to connect your own experiences with what we have talked about and read about in class. This should be 500 words.

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to discover new and exciting titles in children's literature as well as experience reading aloud to a group of children. It is also meant to serve as a synthesis of all you have learned from the semester.