Dr. Roberta Seelinger Trites 438-4572Office: STV 207; Office hours: TR 8:30-9 and by appt. seeling@ilstu.edu

ENG 272: Literature for Middle Grades

Course objective: In this class we will define concepts of childhood and children’s literature. We will also discuss what makes the literature for students in fourth to eight grades unique. We will analyze literature written for this audience in terms of literary criticism and use various theoretical models to analyze texts for this age range. This course is designed to help you develop your critical thinking skills in terms of both critical reading and critical writing.

Required Texts:

Alexander, The Book of ThreeBaum, The Wonderful Wizard of OzCurtis, The Watsons Go to BirminghamDahl, MatildaDiCamillo, Flora and UlyssesFrank (Anne), The Diary of a Young GirlHoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward JusticeLindgren, Pippi LongstockingL’Engle, A Wrinkle in TimePark, Project MulberryPilkey, Captain Underpants (Book 1)Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

NOTE: You are responsible for ensuring you are reading the complete and correct edition of every book!

Course requirements:

Class participation and daily work: 10% Midterm: 25%Short paper (3-4 pages): 15%Term paper (8-12 pages): 25%Final exam: 25%

Policies:

Students are expected to attend class. Three absences will adversely affect your daily grade; five will affect your final grade; seven may result in failure.

Papers that are turned in late will be penalized one letter grade per day that they are late. I expect you to have read the assignments listed on the syllabus before you come to class.

(All novels need to be read entirely on the day for which they are first assigned.) Theoretical articles from Milner’s electronic course reserves, which are listed on

the reading schedule by author’s last name, must also be read before class the day they will be discussed.

Please word process out-of-class papers double-spaced with one-inch margins on standard white paper. Proofread everything you turn in, because grammar, organization, and mechanics are a substantial part of every grade you receive.

Plagiarism, collusion, or any act of cheating is intolerable. I will not discuss any evaluation I have given your work until at least twenty-four hours

after you have received the evaluation. Do not even begin to think about texting or receiving calls during class. TURN YOUR

PHONES OFF. You do NOT want to see me irritated by what I consider to be the extraordinarily rude behavior of paying more attention to your phone than class.

You earn your grade by performance, not by negotiation. Unless I have made an error of computation, please do not ask me to raise your grade.

Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 309 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TTY), or visit the website at disabilityconcerns.Illinoisstate.edu.

Communication:I consider communication between the student and the instructor a key factor in

maximizing students’ learning. Please feel free to email me at the address above; I find email exchanges with students very fruitful.

I also encourage you to drop by my office during office hours or to contact me by email (seeling@ilstu.edu) to set up a more formal appointment. Students are my top priority; don’t be afraid to contact me!

Webpage: http://english.illinoisstate.edu/seeling/index.htm

Assessment:

Daily grades include written work in class, writing prompts, quizzes, “tickets in,” and discussion.

Author papers and bibliography

By the end of the semester, each student will write an 8-12 page term paper analyzing 3-5 works by one author of children’s novels. A “literary analysis” is a paper that supports a thesis (your argument) about ONE topic using specific examples and quotations from the novel(s) to support the argument. YOU MUST GET PERMISSION FROM ME BEFORE YOU CHOOSE YOUR AUTHOR! I will provide you with suggestions, and I will discourage people from duplicating one another's topics. You may not count any book we are reading in class as one of the 3-5 novels you analyze for your paper. (The goal is to write about books we have not discussed in class.)

On October 2 you will turn in the first stage of your paper: a 3-4 page literary analysis of ONE novel by your author AND a thorough bibliography of criticism about your author. (You may revise and include this shorter paper as part of your final term paper, if you wish to do so.) Effectively, this is two different assignments to be turned in on the same day: 1) a paper on ONE topic of your choice that does not need to include any citations to published literary criticism

AND 2) a separate bibliography listing all the published literary criticism available on your author. You need not incorporate any literary criticism or any of the sources you have found into your paper, but you do need to compile separately a thorough list of the resources that will be available to you when you write your final term paper. You can find bibliographic information in the MLA online index, in ERIC, and among the Teaching Materials Center's reference books (6th floor Milner). I recommend that you begin with two encyclopedias: Something About the Author and Children's Literature Review. Your bibliography MUST follow MLA style. (Bibliographies that do not follow MLA style will automatically have ten points deducted from them.)

Your final term paper, due November 20, will be an 8-12 page literary analysis of three to five novels by one author. You will write on one aspect of the author’s writing that applies to all of these novels. You may write on any of a number of the topics that are typical for a literary analysis, including such things as analyzing recurring motifs, recurring themes, OR recurring (or shifting) ideologies. You may also choose to analyze the novels in light of one of our critical readings. (Pick one of these topics; do not attempt to do them all. Well-focused papers are better than shallow papers that attempt to cover too much material.) I AM NOT INTERESTED IN BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS! We will discuss the paper throughout the course of the semester, but PLEASE do not hesitate to ask me your questions about it, either before class or during office hours. Please plan to have approximately 50% of the final paper written for our in-class writing workshop on November 18. (Your participation in the workshop counts as two daily grades: one grade for having a draft and another grade for your peer review.)

Examinations

The midterm and the final exam will be essay examinations. The final will be comprehensive. Please purchase two examination “blue books” and bring one to each exam. DO NOT MARK YOUR NAME ON YOUR BLUE BOOK as blue books will be collected and redistributed the day of the test.

Reading and assignment calendar for ENG 272: ( SCHEDULE TO CHANGE UNTIL 8/18! )

Week 1: August 18 and 20Tuesday: Introduction Thursday: Read Jack Zipes “The Cultural Homogenization of American Children” (on reserve at Milner—NOT the English department’s website or Reggienet....MILNER’S website!)*

Week 2: August 25 and 27Tuesday and Thursday: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Week 3: September 1 and 3Tuesday and Thursday: The Wonderful Wizard of OzThursday: Oz and Lissa Paul, “Enigma Variations” (on reserve at Milner)*

Week 4: September 8 and 10 Tuesday: The Wizard of OzThursday: Chaston, “The Ozification of American Children’s Films” (on reserve at Milner)*

Week 5: September 15 and 17 Tuesday and Thursday: Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)

Week 6: September 22 and 224 Tuesday: Pippi LongstockingThursday: Pippi and Maria Nikolajeva reading (to be distributed in class)

Week 7: September 29 and October 1Tuesday and Thursday: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward JusticeThursday, October 2: SHORT PAPER + BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

Week 8: October 6 and 8 Tuesday, October 6: MIDTERMThursday, October 8: Begin work on final project with individual work (no formal class)

Week 9: October 13 and 15Tuesday: The Book of ThreeThursday: Gooderham, “Children’s Fantasy Literature” (on reserve at Milner)*

Week 10: October 20 and 22Tuesday and Thursday: Wrinkle in Time

Week 11: October 27 and 29Tuesday: Matilda Thursday: Matilda and Griswold, “Introduction” (on reserve at Milner)*

Week 12: November 4 and 6 Tuesday: Watsons Go to BirminghamThursday: Watsons and Chambers, “The Reader in the Book” (on reserve at Milner)*

Week 13: November 10 and 12Tuesday and Thursday: Project Mulberry

Week 14: November 17 and 19Tuesday: Writing workshop (bring 50% of draft of paper for peer review)Thursday: TERM PAPER DUE and Captain Underpants

Week 15: December 1 and 3Tuesday: Flora and Ulysses Thursday: REVIEW

FINAL EXAM AS DICTATED BY UNIVERSITY’S SCHEDULE

* = Electronic reserves for students, available on the Milner homepage under “Find a Reserve”