Have you ever taken a children's literature class?

[jld]

I saw Chris in Va's mention of this on the college board, and I'm thinking probably a lot of people here have taken such a class. Has it helped you pick out books for your kids? Has it just been helpful to you in general with homeschooling? What kinds of things did you learn?

 

jld, intrigued and really wishing she had taken that class

[Closeacademy]

I took one but it was more of a upper elementary/jr. high level of books. And it showed me what books to avoid because the books used in the class were mostly ones that were troubling. Lots of death.:001_smile:

[Lolly]

I saw Chris in Va's mention of this on the college board, and I'm thinking probably a lot of people here have taken such a class. Has it helped you pick out books for your kids? Has it just been helpful to you in general with homeschooling? What kinds of things did you learn?

 

jld, intrigued and really wishing she had taken that class

 

I took one in college. Total waste of time.

[Lizzie in Ma]

The TA taught most of the classes and he was a Freudian.

He drove me absolutely bananas. I got an A for arguing against his viewpoint in every paper. My favorite was entitled, "Why Cinderella's Glass Slipper was NOT Actually a Vagina Metaphor". :tongue_smilie:

[Old Dominion Heather]

I did mine as an independant study in college. I worked at a children's library in highschool and college and the prof agreed with me that the class would be a complete waste of time for me to come and sit on the lectures. I read the publishing periodicals for fun. She and I worked out a course of research and goals and I just did that. The only thing that I remember doing was a timeline of the development of children's books as a market. The only reason I remember it is that I used gold ink and a quill to make the timeline.

 

My point is that you could certainly do a study on your own if you feel you would like to learn more.

[Chris in VA]

The TA taught most of the classes and he was a Freudian.

He drove me absolutely bananas. I got an A for arguing against his viewpoint in every paper. My favorite was entitled, "Why Cinderella's Glass Slipper was NOT Actually a Vagina Metaphor". :tongue_smilie:

 

:smilielol5::smilielol5:

 

Now THAT was pretty funny!

 

I actually loved my class. It introduced me to books (newer at that time, since this was 1983-ish) like Sing Down The Moon, Tuck Everlasting, and My Brother Sam is Dead. We went thru picture books, and made notecards with book annotations for our classrooms that listed the book title/author, genre, and short summary, as well as activities we felt would be good extentions. Very, very useful.

 

Most of what Dr. Daniel recommended has become classic lit today! Charlotte Huck wrote our textbook, and I kept mine as long as I could--had to sell it later, but I re-bought it on Amazon some years later.

 

Kitty Lit (he hated when we called it that! lol) also taught me to use picture books with older kids, and introduced me to genres I wouldn't have given the time of day to otherwise.

 

For me, it was a very useful, interesting, and important class.

 

You can still buy Charlotte Huck's book--and it's wonderful!

[Dmmetler]

I had one in grad school. Mostly I remember being exhausted, because it was a 3 week summer session, and I swear we had to read at least 10 books a day and write up these silly index cards on them listing summaries, suggested grade level, and so on. Not too hard when you're working on books for preschoolers, but a real pain when you're dealing with Gordon Korman or even Beverly Cleary. If I'd had it in a long semester, and it had been 10 books a week, I might actually have enjoyed the class, since I love children's literature.

 

As far as avoiding depressing books, I swear the best way to win the Newberry is to have your character's sibling, friend, grandparent who raised them, or pet die!

[ereks mom]

I actually loved my class. It introduced me to books (newer at that time, since this was 1983-ish) like Sing Down The Moon, Tuck Everlasting, and My Brother Sam is Dead. We went thru picture books, and made notecards with book annotations for our classrooms that listed the book title/author, genre, and short summary, as well as activities we felt would be good extentions. Very, very useful.

 

 

:iagree:

 

We also used the Charlotte Huck book (3rd edition, updated). I still have mine. I also still have my notecards, and I actually still use them from time to time!

[dangermom]

I'm a librarian, and I took two in library school--one on upper elem. lit and one on YA. I didn't take a picture books class. They were very good--I especially learned a lot in the first class, but a lot of it was about marketing books to kids in a library. I also read a lot of children's lit analysis/history for fun.

[In the Rain]

I did have a class in college. The textbook is one that I see often at Goodwill. I think the author's name was long and started with an A. I don't remember much about the class other than reading lots of books and making note cards.

 

Honestly, I have learned much more about children's books on these forums. :001_smile: I think the collective wisdom here is better than any textbook author or professor. Where else could you describe your child's personality and interests and get a custom tailored list of titles? :D

 

Our librarian regularly thanks me for the the titles I bring to her attention by requesting them from other libraries. She said she always looks through my stack of holds. Those are titles I hear about on these forums.

[Aubrey]

I've had three--children's lit, young adult lit, & multicultural children's lit in grad school. Ok, actually, come to think of it, the YA class was dh's, but I read everything for it, discussed it w/ him, & apparently feel like I should get credit for it, lol.

 

They were all brilliant, perhaps children's lit most of all. The prof for that class could make me crazy mad, & she was SO wrong about some things & SO vocal about everything, so know that I hate saying what a GENIUS she was. Sitting in on one of her lectures would be worth its weight in gold, & I'm so glad (despite her awfulness) to have had a semester w/ her.

 

In the course of those three classes, I've read everything from Tomie de Paulo to The Giver to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Actually, I might have skipped the last one, but I know it was on the list.)

 

I think everybody should get time dedicated to reading & thinking about children's lit. It's like poetry, with its ability to reach into your soul & change you w/ sparse words, only it's often art, too.

 

Does it make me better at choosing children's lit for my dc? Maybe...I don't think I was *bad* at it before, but it did help me as far as an introduction--a broad taste of what's avail, to help you *see* the shelves better. Honestly, though, it just fed the bibliophile & the guilt. My shelves are packed full of great children's lit, but I hardly ever read them to my dc. Thank goodness they're getting big enough to read them themselves. And what a joy to see them reading them--when I was their age, if we didn't go to the library, I didn't have a book. Period. And the gas to get to the library was more than we could afford at times.

[Kate in Arabia]

I took one in college; I also took a science fiction course, and the quality of both really depended on the professor teaching it.

[Chris in VA]

I should clarify and say it wasn't only a picture books class--the notecards were on as many pre-K to 8th grade books as we could read in the quarter-long class; yep, there were a lot of books read for that class! lol

 

I found the notecards to be invaluable--we also shared "webs," which were thematic maps that listed helpful childrens' lit and activities, sort of like unit studies. Everyone did one, and then we took a few hours of the class to share what we had found, showing our web (and handing one out to everyone--so we ended up with about 30-40 lit webs for elementary age), and showing examples of our favorite literature.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't finish my notecards! ;) But I still got a lot out of that class.

[Aubrey]

I should clarify and say it wasn't only a picture books class--the notecards were on as many pre-K to 8th grade books as we could read in the quarter-long class; yep, there were a lot of books read for that class! lol

 

I found the notecards to be invaluable--we also shared "webs," which were thematic maps that listed helpful childrens' lit and activities, sort of like unit studies. Everyone did one, and then we took a few hours of the class to share what we had found, showing our web (and handing one out to everyone--so we ended up with about 30-40 lit webs for elementary age), and showing examples of our favorite literature.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't finish my notecards! ;) But I still got a lot out of that class.

 

I loved the notecards, too. Esp illustrating them w/ pics from the books they were summarizing. *sigh* What I wouldn't give for a friend irl who'd enjoy sitting & chatting & swapping children's lit notecards. :lol:

[TrixieB]

I did. The professor was amazing old guy... I can still hear his voice reading to us, even though I took the class 20+ years ago. We didn't have a textbook. He assigned various classics: Edward Lear, Isaac Bashevis Singer, E.B. White, among others.

[msjones]

I loved my Children's Lit class. I took it just recently as part of my certificate renewal.

 

We had to read a lot of obscure fairy tales that were intriguing. Also, we read the original versions of Peter Pan, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid. I remember those because they were so different from the Disney versions in such interesting and bizarre ways.

 

We didn't 'do' any picture books, but focused on what are often considered 'classics' for children -- Little Women, Heidi, Huck Finn, Alice in Wonderland.

It was a pleasure to read so many great books and discuss them with an enthusiastic class.

[stripe]

I took two. One was a children's lit class, and our professor focused on the award winners, so I read a lot of Newbery/Caldecott winners, especially the oldies. Our text was "Through the Eyes of a Child" by Donna Norton; it may be a useful book to check out if you want to see what sorts of things can be discussed. We also each had a group studying different ethnic group themed literature.

 

The second was a combination children's and YA media class, so we studied books, magazines, videos, music, and some people even attended plays and the like. Our professor very much emphasized NOT just studying the award winners, but rather including what tends to be read by a lot of children (including the sort of "junk" type) so that we would be familiar with it. We also did some longer research papers/projects. I was glad I had both classes; it gave me a better perspective.

 

Both classes required a reading of a number of books (or in the case of the second class, media) and summarizing them (I think about 50 per class, not counting the additional projects). They both included study of illustrators and art techniques, not only the writing.

 

I also have strong memories of some material I read as a child and young adult, which helps.

[Sandy in Indy]

I took two--one for my undergrad degree and one for my Masters. One of the things I remember is reading all the Caldecott and Newberry winners and many of the honor books...

 

Has it helped...well, maybe! I know I gravitate to those older books rather than some of the newer ones. I just looked at the Caldecott and Newberry lists and well...we won't discuss how far back it went before I recognized a title that I had read!

[KristenS]

I took one for my elem. ed. degree. It was a waste of time. She wanted us to read different books and discuss them in groups (to model how to do this in a classroom, which wasn't a totally bad idea) ... and I'd read just about every choice she had to offer. (No one else had read any.) So I was stuck with a book I totally hated (which is why I hadn't already read it!). It was pretty sorry as a class.

 

I worked for the public library, and was 'encouraged' to go for my master's degree (which wasn't an option, as I couldn't afford the tuition or the commute). The bribe? A children's lit class. It was all I could do to be polite when I pointed out I'd been reading children's lit since I was a child, and hadn't stopped yet, and read in a wide variety of genres. It hardly seemed worth getting a whole degree to take one class where I already knew the material. Sigh. (At the time we had great librarians in the children's departments ... now they're mostly new, and though I've been out of the official loop for several years, I still probably read more kids' books than they do. It's sad when they haven't ready any of the classics, new or old.)

[Hen]

I took one in college, it was for younger picture books and a waste of time.

[LibrarianMom]

I took a YA literature class in college and a children's literature grade course 6 years ago. Th YA class was cross-listed as UG/GR credit and had lots of teachers in it since it was during summer school. I found it really helpful as I majored in English ed and then wanted my MLS to work in a school library. It was also helpful as I had kind of skipped from reading high level children's books straight to adult books and hadn't read a lot of YA books while in JH or HS.

 

Later I took the children's literature course as a just for fun because 1) it hadn't fit into my MLS program 2) I needed it just in case I ever decide to go back to school librarianship (not likely) 3) I hoped it would maybe allow me to teach children's lit at my current institution (not happening) and 4) I wanted to become familiar with more recent children's literature. It was a weekend format course for teacher's working on their master's. I found it quite helpful, but there is no substitute for simply reading lots of children's literature.

[Jen in PA]

I took one when I was finishing up my Master's. I remember almost nothing from the class except that it was an easy course that let me spend more time finishing up other things in the last term of a very intensive program:D

[KristineinKS]

I did mine as an independant study in college. I worked at a children's library in highschool and college and the prof agreed with me that the class would be a complete waste of time for me to come and sit on the lectures. I read the publishing periodicals for fun. She and I worked out a course of research and goals and I just did that. The only thing that I remember doing was a timeline of the development of children's books as a market. The only reason I remember it is that I used gold ink and a quill to make the timeline.

 

My point is that you could certainly do a study on your own if you feel you would like to learn more.

 

I did this as an independent study in high school also, rather than taking a traditional English class. I wouldn't say that it has helped me, since I remember very little of it! (I do, however, remember that I enjoyed it thoroughly.)

 

Lately I've been considering putting together a British children's literature class for myself. I frequently do this based on whatever it is I'm interested in & it's easy enough to do. I generally start by looking for course syllabi online & then compile something from there, though sometimes I also just pull together a reading list & skip the formal plan.

[ladydusk]

Probably the best class I took in my Ed degree was Content Area Literacy. Not exactly a Children's Lit class, but we learned about different ways to bring literature to bear in our content areas (mine was social studies, did I learn any history? No, not really).