Courses

Study of various genres of children's literature, from various critical perspectives. Emphasis on role of literature in children's lives.

In this course we will read and discuss the art of picturebook and visual storytelling.  We will attempt to stretch our own repertoire of strategies for reading picturebooks, and we'll be looking at how we can help children find meaning in picturebooks as they deepen their understanding of how visual art regardless of words also tells story.

3 credits

Good fantasy literature can be critical to children's understandings of themselves and the world. This course will examine work by writers of classic fantasies (H. C. Andersen, A. A. Milne, etc.) written for children, as well as the work of some contemporary authors (J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Tomi Adeyemi, Nnedi Okorafor, etc.) and popular comics. We will also look at the role of the imagination in the lives of children and the important ways children may transform their private spaces into spaces of wonder that allow them to flourish and reimagine their possibilities.

A critical study of adolescent literature, its diversity of cultural voices, and designs for its use in secondary school classrooms to foster inclusive communities

An in-depth study of myths and folktales shared with children and how these stories are remade across different modes and disseminated today across multiple communities of practices.

This course addresses the different research approaches for doing research in children's literature.  Specifically, it discusses research methods and topics in a wide range of theoretical and practical fields—including psychoanalysis, literacies, genre studies, critical pedagogies, biographical studies, critical race theory, and reader responses—guiding learners on how to conduct original research around any topic of choice.  It also addresses research methods for doing research on creative writing.