EDUC08004 2016 Children's Literature
This module aims to give students an insight into the role of literature in the early years of children's development. The importance of reading and the role of children's literature in the affective, imaginative, cognitive and linguistic development of children is explored, as are the influences of different models of care and education. Students will be introduced to a critical assessment of children's literature. …both text and illustration, from fairytales through to contemporary children’s books and they will develop their story-reading and story-telling skills.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module the learner will/should be able to;
Discuss the role of storytelling and children's literature in the development of language, imagination, intelligence and literacy in children.
Analyze a range of children's literature looking at both text and illustrations
Use a variety of sources to locate relevant readings which promote the development of equality, intercultural understanding and anti-bias skills in children in line with Aistear
Distinguish the dominant discourses operating within children's literature and the enduring forms of children's stories.
Demonstrate key skills in story telling aloud for children.
explain how books can promote cognitive and linguistic development
Discuss and critique the uses of illustrations as primary or supplementrary and supportive devises for advancing the readers engagement with story developments
Teaching and Learning Strategies
lectures and tutorials in which core concepts and issues and modes of story telling and listening skills are presented and analysed in ongoing group discussions
Module Assessment Strategies
Formative and summative assessment designed to assess the students' knowledge of children's literature - both texts and illustrations, their ability to display a knowledge of the role of story telling and reading in the development of language imagination intelligence and literacy in children and to demonstrate key skills in story telling aloud for children.
Repeat Assessments
as above
Indicative Syllabus
Syllabus content:
- Stories - what are they? enduring forms of children's stories, elements of a good story
- books and literature in early childhood: babies and books, folk and fairy tales, myths and legends, nursery rhymes, picture books
- nursery rhymes, sources, printed ballads, song books, folk songs, early stage productions, riddles, lullabies
- children's literature: sources, classification, pioneers
- distinguishing good books and good publishers
- books promoting equal opportunity, diversity and equality
- discourse ananlysis and children's books, dominant discourses and alternative challenges
- language as communication, play, imagination, emotional expression
- reading stories for children, key skills, props, puppets
Coursework & Assessment Breakdown
Coursework Assessment
Title | Type | Form | Percent | Week | Learning Outcomes Assessed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Formative and Summative Assessment Critical assessment of a children's book recently short-listed for one of the children's book awards (Whitbread, Bisto, Smarites etc) . | Continuous Assessment | Individual Project | 50 % | Week 7 | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
2 | Project The student will design, write and produce a children's book of their own for a target age-group and audience. | Continuous Assessment | UNKNOWN | 50 % | Week 12 | 2,3,6,7 |
Full Time Mode Workload
Type | Location | Description | Hours | Frequency | Avg Workload |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Group Learning | Flat Classroom | Group discussion and analysis with practice story-telling | 3 | Weekly | 3.00 |
Required & Recommended Book List
2006 Why Fairy Tales Stick : The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre Routledge
book
2009 Children's Literture:Approaches and Territories Palgrave Macmillian, Open University
book
2010 The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature Routledge
book
2002 The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World Palgrave Macmillan
book
Module Resources
Bettelheim, B. (1976) The Uses of Enchantment: The meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, London, Thames & Hudson
Carpenter H. and Pritchard, M. (1999) The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, Oxford U.P.
Cleary A. et al (eds) (2001) Understanding Children Vol. 1, Dublin, Oak Tree
Coats, Karen (2004) Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire and Subjectivity in Children's Literature, Iowa City, Univ. of Iowa Press
DES/INTO Reading Recovery Programme, Dublin, DES/INTO
Peter Hunt (ed) (1995) Children's Literature: an Illustrated History, Oxford U.P.
Peter Hunt (1999) Understanding Children's Literature, London, Blackwell
Jackson Rosemary (1981) Fantasy: the Literature of Subversion, London, Methuen
Nodelman, Perry (1988) Words about Pictures: the Narrative Art of Children's Picturebooks, Athens, Univ. of Georgia Press
Nodelman, Perry (2008) The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature, Baltimore, John Hopkins Univ.Press
Nikolajeva M. and Carole Scott (2001) How Picture Books Work, London, Routledge
Opie I. & P. Opie (2001) The Language and Lore of Schoolchildren, New York Review of Books
Opie I and P.Opie (eds) (1955) The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book, Oxford University Press
Perrault, Charles (1867 and 1969) Perrault's Fairy Tales, New York, Dover
Propp Vladimir, Morphology of the Folktale, trans. Lawrence Scott, Austin, Univ. of Texas
Rose Jacqueline (1993) The Case of Peter Pan, or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction, Univ. of Philadelphia Press
Tatar, Maria (2003) The Hard Facts of the Grimms Fairy Tales, 2nd ed. Princeton U.P.
Tatar, Maria (1992) Off with their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, Princeton U.P.
Zipes, Jack (2002) Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, Kentucky U.P.
Materials for making puppets and books.
None