LIBR 267-01
LIBR 267-10
Seminar in Services to Children and Young Adults
Topic: Award Winning Titles for Youth
Spring 2014 Greensheet

Dr. Joni Richards Bodart
E-mail
Office location: 418H Clark Hall
Office Hours: By appointment only, in Clark Hall, 418H. You may also ask questions via email or on the ANGEL discussion board. I will answer email on a daily basis or as quickly as I can. I will also be posting to the FAQs section of the discussion board when questions are asked that are of interest to the whole class.
If you need to speak to me by phone, I will do all I can to be available to you, but scheduling that call in advance to make it convenient for both of us, and ensure that I have enough time cleared to respond to your questions or problems.


Greensheet Links
Textbooks
SLOs
Competencies
Prerequisites
Resources
D2L
iSchool eBookstore
 

Students will be automatically enrolled in the D2L site for this course on the first day of instruction.

Course Description

This course will focus on titles that have won national awards from the American Library Association, National Book Awards, Boston Globe-Horn Book, LA Times, and other national awards. Students will investigate authors, illustrators, and various ways to examine and promote award winning books.

Course Requirements

The d2l Site
Please check the site regularly for announcements, discussion board questions, and so on. As soon as you sign up, read my welcome message, then go to the discussion board and introduce yourself, both professionally and personally. I will give you a format for each part of your introduction. Explore the various forums for other information I think might be helpful to you, such as resources and links to sites you will find useful.

Collaborate Sessions
There will be six Collaborate sessions—1/30, which will be an optional introduction to the class, and five other sessions for student presentations. (All from 6:30-9:00pm PST)—The first session is optional, but will be recorded for asynchronous viewing; the latter five are all required, meaning live synchronous attendance. These will be scheduled during the first two weeks of class, using a Doodle poll. The number of class sessions that we actually have will depend on the size of the class. It may decrease, or it may not.

Missing an Esession means you will not be able to ask to have points covered or clarified, or add to the discussion, and give the rest of the class a chance to hear your contributions to the topic at hand. If you don’t participate in a session, you are still required to watch/listen to the tape, since we will be covering information that will be important for all of your assignments. You may miss one of the sessions without penalty, but only one. You must notify me ahead of time that you will not be in class, and explain why you will not be able to attend.

Presentations will be scheduled during the first two weeks of the semester, and a discussion board will be set up to help you do this.

Topics for the Esessions will be:

  1. Optional housekeeping session on 1/30, going over the greensheet and assignments, discussion of presentation dates, and presentation topics. It will probably be about an hour long, unless there are still questions and discussion going on.
  2. Presentations will be done in sessions 1-5. The number of presentations per session is an estimate, and may change depending on the number of students in the class and the number choosing to work together or alone. These sessions will be scheduled using a Doodle poll during the first and second weeks of the course.

Course Assignments
This course requires a variety of assignments designed to introduce students to the concepts covered in class and in the textbooks, as well as practical applications of them. Students will work individually and in groups and participate in group discussions on D2l. Details for the assignments will be given at the first class meeting and requirements for each will be posted under the Course Documents area on D2l.

  1. Read texts and read/listen to lectures and participate in class discussions on discussion boards. Participate is defined as posting 2-4 times weekly. This is an averaged figure—some weeks you will have more to say, some weeks less. DON’T stress out over doing 4 every week, so you stretch out your comments to get to 4. It is an average of 2-4, so some weeks you may post five times, and some only once or twice. Don’t include “attaboy” posts to get you to 4. Be consistent in your postings, making sure you contribute something worth reading every week. That will get you a higher grade than 4 “attaboys” a week. Your posts will be in response to my posts, in response to your colleagues’ comments, or to bring up new topics/questions/ideas of your own for all of us to discuss. Comments should be thoughtful and insightful, adding to our mutual learning process. I will be starting you off with some questions/topics, to start the conversations, but by the third week of class I expect you to be bringing up new information yourselves. Threads will last about two weeks, unless you want to keep them going. I will take them down when I see that participation has dropped off. Participation is also important during the Esessions, which means contributing to your group presentation, working with your partners, doing peer and self evaluations for the presentation, speaking up, asking questions, sharing your opinions, especially to your colleagues’ group and individual presentations. (SLOs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8)
  2. Create a searchable database or blog of award winning titles for children and teens. Use a format that you feel will be most helpful to you in the future, after graduation. If you create a blog or website of some other kind, please make sure I can access it by sending me a link when you have entered 3 books. I will give you feedback on what you have done so far. You also have the option of sharing your work with the rest of the class by posting it to the Sharing Your Database discussion forum. This is not required.

    You will be reading or listening to at least 15 children’s books, 15 picture books, and 15 YA titles. (Since I started with 25 titles for each category, and reduced the numbers as I created the other assignments, these are minimal numbers, which will not be reduced further.)

    You may select your books from any of the award lists in your textbooks or online sources. Each entry will include: complete bibliographic information (author, title, publisher, year, price, page number), summary, evaluation, award won, significance of the title, genre or subject, readers’ 1-2 sentence annotation (15 words or less), and other information you think might be useful, now or in the future. You may include up to 5 of the titles mentioned in your presentations and research papers.

    You will be turning in this assignment in two sections, each with each with at least 22 books in it. You are encouraged, but not required, to read books at all three age levels for each half of this assignment. Leaving all the longer, more complex YA titles for the end of the semester will increase your end-of-semester-stress.

    This assignment is designed to take a full semester to complete. Begin working on it now. I have divided it into two sections to make sure you do get started right away. Due March 16 and May 11 (SLOs 1, 2, 4)
  3. Class presentations: This is a seminar class, which means that you will contribute a large amount of the content. You will be working with a partner for both presentations, and may have different partners for each presentation or work with the same person for both presentations. I expect graduate level research level content for both of them, of a publishable quality (after editing to change it from a presentation to an article.) After each presentation you will submit to the appropriate dropbox your script of your presentation, your visual presentation, your handouts and other materials, your self evaluation and your peer evaluation. I NEED TO APPROVE THE CONTENT OF BOTH PRESENTATIONS BEFORE YOU START WORKING ON THEM. This is because I would like all of the presentations to overlap as little as possible. There will be a discussion forum for each presentation so you can discuss what you would like to do and with whom you’d like to do it.

    If you choose to analyze an award, please feel free to be critical—all these awards have their fans and detractors, and presenting both sides will make your presentation more interesting. Also consider this feedback from a student in the class the last time I taught this: “while I am a super huge fan and supporter of the ALA, I felt like we were not able to look at the ALA awards critically enough as a group to really understand them. Our class as a whole seemed hesitate to critique or be critical of the ALA, two things that I personally find are necessary to ensure that the American Library Association continues to be as strong and as relevant as it can.”

    Examples of excellent presentations are given on the website.

    The first presentation will be an author or illustrator biocritical study. This will combine a biography of the person, including how he or she came to children’s or YA lit, and in-depth analysis of his or her work, and how it changed and developed over time, and what his or her most significant titles are and why they are significant. You will need to illustrate your presentation with a PowerPoint slideshow or some other method of presenting visual information to the class. You should also have a handout which will include an annotated list of the person’s significant titles, information of significant milestones in that person’s life, and any other information you believe the class would find useful both now and in the future. This presentation should be no longer than 40 minutes, including Q&A. There will be four presentations per class. My Eassistant will start a timer when you begin your presentation, and just like on Iron Chef and Chopped, when your time runs out, you must put down your tools and step away, finished or not. Practice will be very valuable here to ensure a smoothly choreographed and on time presentation. There will be a discussion forum for you to post your ideas about who you would like to research, so you can get paired off. Of course, if you know someone in class you’d like to work with, you can do this privately, and then just post that the two of you will work together and who you will be investigating.

    When you have finished your presentation, you will post the visual presentation and the handouts to the appropriate discussion forum AND put them in the assignment drop box for this assignment.

    The second presentation will be a 15 minute lecture on some aspect of class content, after which you will lead a 15-20 minute class discussion, timed as described above. You will need to illustrate your lecture with some kind of visual presentation, and you should have a number of questions prepared, so that when you finish your lecture, you can use them to get the discussion going. You will want to have a handout, but the content of it will depend on the content of your lecture. When deciding what the content of this presentation should be, think about what you want to learn from this class, what questions you would like answered, what topics are most important and why, and so on. Then decide how you would like to approach question or idea. You could trace a genre or topic across all the awards or just some of them, you could examine programming ideas for either school or public libraries, do an analysis of a specific award, talk to committee chairs about process and requirements, history of the award, criteria for nomination, voting process, and some typical winners and their commonalities (if any), value of the award, usefulness of the award and how to promote it to either children or teens, and so on, or look at circulation and usage stats for specific titles (or awards) over time, to determine how long their influence lasts. Or look at something else entirely. It’s up to you—be as creative as you like. When you have a good idea of what you’d like to investigate—it doesn’t have to be a final one, since that final adjustment of content may come later in the semester, send me an email. I will keep a running list on one of the discussion board forums, so everyone will know who is going to do what.

    After you have completed your presentation, please post your visual presentation and handouts or other information to the appropriate discussion forum, and put the materials as detailed above in the appropriate dropbox.

    Due as scheduled. (SLOs 1, 2, 6, 7)
  4. Write an informal paper (no references or footnotes, and first person is fine) on your experience in this class, comparing and contrasting who you were at the beginning and at the end of the class. What have you gained? How will you use it? What hints/tips would you have for students taking this class in the future? Due May 11 (SLOs 1, 2, 5, 6, 7)

Grading

  • Participation (discussion boards, Esessions, group eval, final paper)—25%
  • Class presentations—each 25%
  • Database—25%

Assignments and EPortfolios
You are all advanced students, and should have already begun thinking about your EPortfolios. I structured this class so you will be able to use all of the assignments and other work as evidence.

You can use discussion threads you started or to which you contributed significantly, but be sure to capture them before the thread comes down.

Your presentations can be used as oral presentations, training, or evidence of your ability to explore a topic, organize the information, and present it in an organized style.
Your final paper speaks to how you were able to use the class to increase your knowledge base, and your awareness of what you have learned.

Your database shows your ability to create a database, especially if you choose to do a blog or a website, and also your ability to evaluate materials to help you create a collection based on specific criteria.

Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

LIBR 200, LIBR 204, LIBR 260A or LIBR 261A

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 267 supports the following core competencies:

  1. LIBR 267 has no supported core competencies defined in the database.

Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

  • ALSC (2012). The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A guide to the medal and honor books, 2012 edition. ALA Available through Amazon: 0838936016arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain

Recommended Textbooks:

  • Frolund, T. (2008). Official YALSA Awards Guidebook. Neal-Schuman Pub. Available through Amazon: 1555706290. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Koelling, H. (Ed.). (2009). Best Books for Young Adults, (3rd ed.). ALA. Available through Amazon: 0838935699. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Simonetta, K & Hackett, N & Ward-Callaghan, L (2001). Newbery and Caldecott Mock Elections. ALA. Available through Amazon: 0838981615. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain

Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

97 to 100 A
94 to 96 A minus
91 to 93 B plus
88 to 90 B
85 to 87 B minus
82 to 84 C plus
79 to 81 C
76 to 78 C minus
73 to 75 D plus
70 to 72 D
67 to 69 D minus
Below 67 F

 

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

  • C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
  • B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
    For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  • A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

General Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

As members of the academic community, students accept both the rights and responsibilities incumbent upon all members of the institution. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with SJSU's policies and practices pertaining to the procedures to follow if and when questions or concerns about a class arises. See University Policy S90-5 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S90-5.pdf. More detailed information on a variety of related topics is available in the SJSU catalog at http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/LIS.html. In general, it is recommended that students begin by seeking clarification or discussing concerns with their instructor. If such conversation is not possible, or if it does not serve to address the issue, it is recommended that the student contact the Department Chair as a next step.

Dropping and Adding

Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures about add/drop, grade forgiveness, etc. Refer to the current semester's Catalog Policies section at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html. Add/drop deadlines can be found on the current academic year calendars document on the Academic Calendars webpage at http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/services/academic_calendars/. The Late Drop Policy is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/policies/latedrops/policy/. Students should be aware of the current deadlines and penalties for dropping classes.

Information about the latest changes and news is available at the Advising Hub at http://www.sjsu.edu/advising/.

Consent for Recording of Class and Public Sharing of Instructor Material

University Policy S12-7, http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S12-7.pdf, requires students to obtain instructor's permission to record the course and the following items to be included in the syllabus:

  • "Common courtesy and professional behavior dictate that you notify someone when you are recording him/her. You must obtain the instructor's permission to make audio or video recordings in this class. Such permission allows the recordings to be used for your private, study purposes only. The recordings are the intellectual property of the instructor; you have not been given any rights to reproduce or distribute the material."
    • It is suggested that the syllabus include the instructor's process for granting permission, whether in writing or orally and whether for the whole semester or on a class by class basis.
    • In classes where active participation of students or guests may be on the recording, permission of those students or guests should be obtained as well.
  • "Course material developed by the instructor is the intellectual property of the instructor and cannot be shared publicly without his/her approval. You may not publicly share or upload instructor generated material for this course such as exam questions, lecture notes, or homework solutions without instructor consent."

Academic integrity

Your commitment, as a student, to learning is evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University. The University Academic Integrity Policy F15-7 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/F15-7.pdf requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The Student Conduct and Ethical Development website is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/.

Campus Policy in Compliance with the American Disabilities Act

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 at http://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/directives/PD_1997-03.pdf requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at http://www.sjsu.edu/aec to establish a record of their disability.

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