Goals, Focus Questions, and Outcomes for
Literacy through Literature for Children - EDU 600

Course Goal

   Page contents
  • Course goals
  • Foucs questions
  • Outcomes

The goal of this class is to continue the professional development of educators for greater understanding of the importance of literature and stories in education and the everyday lives of people. To provide inquiry and reflection opportunities using wisdom of practice and research to increase his or her understanding, skill, and dispositions related to literature, its content, how to use literature to facilitate literacy, and how to communicate professionally to provide educational stewardship and leadership for the public and within the educational profession.

Four Focus Questions

1. What is children's literature and why is it essential to facilitate literacy?

2. How do we evaluate quality children's literature ?

3. What does a person need to know AND do to be literate?
How do people become literate?

Some helpful information to consider for these two questions: Answers will vary according to definitions of literacy and literate? Similarly for the manner in which art and media were included.

4. What are the qualities, skills, theories, and methodologies that a teacher needs to have command of to facilitate student's literacy with quality literature?

Outcomes:

Educators use their answers to these questions when making decisions. Decisions, which can be documented in curriculum documents.
Documents for - planning, implementing, and evaluating, which can include the following information;

  1. Define literacy, literature, media, and children's literature
  2. Create goals and outcomes for a literature curriculum or what students should know about literature within another (literacy, media, language arts, ...). Include
    • story elements - know (concepts) and do (outcomes)
    • genre - - know (concepts) and do (outcomes)
    • analyze and critically evaluate quality literature
    • aesthetic - emotional, attitude, or disposition of a person towards literature to become critical consumes of quality literature and life long learners
  3. Demonstrate planning that
    • assesses student's understanding, interpretation, use, and appreciation of literature as described in the goals and outcomes
    • uses literature in a manner to increase student's appreciation of it (aesthetic - emotional, attitude, or disposition of a person towards literature).
    • increases student's abilities to use literature as a communicative or media event represented in multiple forms of literature
    • integrates of literature into all curricular areas achieved?
  4. Demonstrate faciliation of literacy through literature. Describe through principled procedures, action plan, sequence plans, year plan, or other curriculum document) how a teacher would facilitate learning to achieve the goals and outcomes for literacy through the use of literature?
  5. Reflect on interactions with another person and a piece of literature.

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes