LIBR 263-01
LIBR 263-10
Materials for Children Ages 5-8 
Summer 2010 Greensheet

Shirley Lukenbill, Lecturer
E-mail
Phone: I will send my telephone contact information to students enrolled in the class.
Location: This course is an online course, so all class interactions are conducted via ANGEL.

You should be able to self-enroll on June 7, 2010.  A message will be available on the MYSJSU messaging system with directions for self-enrolling. You must be enrolled on MYSJSU to receive the email message with the enrollment code. The course begins on June 7, 2010 and ends on August 12, 2010.

Course Description

Survey of materials in a variety of formats including picture books, nonfiction, beginning chapter books, fictional genres, series and electronic resources, and how they can help meet developmental and learning needs of children ages 5-8.

This course is a children’s materials collection development course in which students will learn to select and build library collections for children ages 5-8, including materials for this age group in a variety of formats such as nonfiction, picture books, transitional and beginning chapter books in a variety of genres, and non-print materials such as games and electronic resources, and how these resources can help meet the developmental and learning needs or this age group. The course will also include the use of collection development tools and strategies for this material, as well as professional and parenting resources that provide support for librarians, teachers, and parents who serve children in this age group.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the external (societal) and internal (developmental) forces which influence children’s choices of recreational and informational sources and materials
• Evaluate selection tools, and demonstrate the ability to use appropriate resources to develop a collection of materials for the elementary school-aged child (ages 5-8), including all appropriate formats
• Critically examine representative materials designed for the elementary school-aged child (ages 5-8), including but not limited to books, television, movies, and the internet, and apply criteria to evaluate them in relation to child development, multicultural concerns, and meeting the informational and recreational needs of this age group
• Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of learning to read and how to work with parents, caregivers, and teachers in the teaching of reading
• Create an appropriate materials collection for this age group (ages 5-8), including print and non-print materials
• Assist parents and caregivers with questions about appropriate materials for their children.

This course supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:

• A. articulate the ethics, values and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom;
• B. compare the environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice;
• C. recognize the social, cultural and economic dimensions of information use;
• D. apply the fundamental principles of planning, management and marketing/advocacy;
• F. use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation and organization of specific items or collections of information;
• G. understand the system of standards and methods used to control and create information structures and apply basic principles involved in the organization and representation of knowledge;
• J. describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors;
• L. understand the nature of research, research methods and research findings; retrieve, evaluate and synthesize scholarly and professional literature for informed decision-making by specific client groups;
• M. demonstrate oral and written communication skills necessary for group work, collaborations and professional level presentations;
• N. evaluate programs and services on specified criteria; and
• O. contribute to the cultural, economic, educational and social well-being of our communities.

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Course Requirements

Communicating with the Instructor
I live in Austin, Texas (Central Time Zone). My preference is that students communicate with me first by email. If the student requests a follow-up phone call, the student should provide the following information for me: time zone, preferred time for contact, complete 10-digit phone number. The best time for students to reach me by telephone is between 6:00-9:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. I will respond to an email message or phone call within 24 hours of the contact.

Important note:
The communication part of this course will be conducted via a distance education program entitled “ANGEL.” You must register (no fee) before the course start date of June 7, 2010. You should be able to self-enroll on June 7, 2010. You should make sure to self-enroll no later than June 9, 2010, as you will have assigned discussion forums the very first week of class! I will send students a message via the MYSJSU messaging system with directions for self-enrolling. You must be a member of MYSJSU to receive the email message with the enrollment code.

E-mail messages
It is best that you use Angel’s “Communicate” to email me so that you and I can both have a record of the communication. If for any reason I will be away from Internet access, I will send a message to the class to let you know of my absence. In every email message to me, please include the following information in the subject line of the message: LIBR 263  and a Brief topic statement

I am teaching for the SLIS, but also for the University of Texas at Austin. Therefore, it is safer for you to use Angel for your email messages because in that way, you and I both have a record of your communication. Click the box beneath the message text box to send to my email box.
 
E-mail Response Time
I check email on a regular basis throughout the day and evenings. In general, I will answer your email within 24 hours. It is best that you use Angel’s “Communicate” to email me so that you and I can both have a record of the communication. If for any reason I will be away from Internet access, I will send a message to the class to let you know of my absence.

“FAQ: Ask Any Question” Discussion Forum
I will create an “FAQ Ask Any Question” discussion forum on Angel so that you can post your course concerns. When you post a question to this discussion forum, all class members can see your question and my response. Often, if one student has a question, other students have the same question, so in this way, everyone has a chance to know my responses. For this forum, any class member may also step in to answer the question to help a colleague.

Expectations for Success:

• All work will be of graduate quality, which means that:
  • Students will take care to edit and proofread their writing for spelling, 
    punctuation, and grammar;
  • Students will prepare the assignments according to the expectations for the course and the directions provided by the instructor, including accurate citations according to the directions for the assignments;
  • Students will perform according to professional standards of work and take personal responsibility for submitting high quality work.
  • Summer Warning: We only have 10 weeks for the entire semester. You must observe all course deadlines!
    
• Penalty for Late Work, LIBR 263: I will accept late work on Projects (but not on the discussion forums), but you will lose 2 points for each day the assignment is late. Therefore, if your project is submitted to me by email 7 days late, I will subtract 14 points from your total percentage grade for the project. Students must submit assignments to the ANGEL "Drop Box" by the deadline for each assignment in order to get full credit. NOTE ABOUT PARTIAL SUBMISSIONS OF WORK: If you post an unfinished assignment to the drop-box by the deadline and then send a revision to me later, I will consider the last date of submission as the date of the revision of the assignment, not the date of the original partial submission. Therefore, to avoid penalties for late submission, students should plan their work in order to post their finished products to the ANGEL "Drop Box" by the Assignment's due date. Students need to communicate with me about personal or other issues that might affect completion of the work on time. I will not excuse late projects because of personal or family travel or lack of Internet access while traveling. I reserve the right to request that documentation be sent to me for personal or family illness or other issues which result in late work.
   
• Project Standards:
  • Title pages: All course assignments must have a title page with the course number, course title, and your official SJSU name.
  • Prepare all assignments in MS Word 2003/Word 2007.
  • All pages must have a header with your name and the page number 
    (assignment pages must be consecutively numbered);
  • NEW ANGEL REQUIREMENT FOR TITLES OF FILES YOU ATTACH TO THE DROP-BOXES: Use the following file name convention when you attach your work to the assignment drop-boxes:
    • Your file name cannot be more than 30 characters in length with no spaces between characters. If you need to indicate a space, use an underscore (_) or a hyphen (-). Do not use parentheses or plus signs ( ) in the file name.
    • When you attach your file to the dropbox, be sure to include 
      YOURLASTNAME unless your last name is longer than 30 characters.
  • Students should use the Manual of the American Psychological 
    Association (APA), (6th ed.) as the standard for bibliographic citations for specified portions of projects in this course.
     
  • Special Cautions: As this is a course in selection of materials for children, I expect that my students will use only reviews of materials retrieved from full-text databases available from San Jose State University Library's databases which also have Persistent URLs cited for retrieval of those reviews. Not acceptable as sources of reviews are databases such as Children's Literature Comprehensive Database, Children's Books in Print, Book Review Digest Plus, and other tertiary databases that do not provide complete citations to reviews in journals or do not provide Persistent (retrievable) URLs for the reviews. Also not acceptable is your listing as a “review” any article that simply lists the books that have won a certain award or a bibliography of resources with brief book descriptions instead  of individual reviews. Such bibliographies do not review items, but just annotate them. That is not a review. I require that you locate the actual reviews in the professional journals and cite the complete bibliographical information for the sources in APA (6th ed.) format. You must learn to cite the complete bibliographic information for items and for acceptable reviews, the database in which you found the review, and the Persistent URLs for the reviews or articles of in-print, recommended materials you locate in the SJSU Library databases (not in your local public library or school library databases) on the books and materials you include in your assignments or discussion forum postings. All review citations for items in the project bibliographies must come from the SJSU Library databases and not from your local library or from personal/your library’s subscriptions to journals. 
     
• Students and faculty are bound by the U.S. copyright regulations and need to cite the sources of the intellectual property of others, including information, images, or ideas that do not belong to us. Follow the regulations located in the Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials policy at http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm
   
• Because this is an online class, my students must pay particular attention to the Distance Learning (SJSU), Copyright, and Fair Use, and Plagiarism Guidelines at http://www.sjlibrary.org/services/distance/fac_copyright.htm . Students need to pay special attention to the third bullet item at the above website: Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia, Section 6 at
  http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/ccmcguid.htm
   
• If my students submit work with words, images, or ideas that are not their original ideas, words, or images, they must cite the sources of those words, images, or ideas. It is important for students in library science courses to develop a respect for the work of others and to be responsible users of the work of others. Although the work of students does have some fair-use protection, you are never safe in using words, images, or ideas of others in a course in which we share our work with one another. Not only will you need to remember this when you are posting to the discussion forums, you must also practice responsible use of resources in your projects that you will be sharing with your colleagues.
   
• COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: 
  
• Participation in Discussion Forums. (40% of course grade).
  (Meets Course Objectives A, B, C, D, E, F; Meets Related SLIS Competencies: A, B, C, D, F, G, M, N, O). 
  
  See Expectations for Success above.
  
  Students will participate in ANGEL discussion forums (under Content, look for Discussion Forums) in order to practice professional discourse on the course topics and materials. All discussion postings must be of graduate standard writing and content. Students must proofread discussion posts for correct spelling, grammar, and usage. I will provide specific guidelines for participation in the course discussion forums on our Angel course site, as well as proper etiquette and professional behavior in responding to the work of your colleagues in the course. In addition to the textbooks, students will experience various articles, online videos, podcasts, websites, and other resources posted to the Angel course site. I expect that you participate in all discussion forums, that you post your original contribution early in each forum, and that you respond later in the week to at least one of your colleagues in each discussion forum. Therefore, my expectation is that you post a minimum of two (2) times per discussion forum. I will base your grade for participation not only on frequency and timeliness of posting, but also on quality of information in your discussion posts. Discussion forums for the course will include your professional reflections (based on background reading, personal research, and reading of required books and media). As there is a time frame for beginning and ending dates for each forum, late posting of comments will not count toward credit. I will hold students responsible for carefully and respectfully following the SJSU guidelines for academic integrity and following the U.S. copyright regulations.
   
• Projects: ( 60% of final grade.). (Meet Course Objectives A, B, C, D, E, F).
  
  See Expectations for Success above.
  
  All student products (assignments) must be prepared in MS Word and posted to the ANGEL "drop box" by the due date for each assignment. Detailed descriptions of the assignments will be available on ANGEL's Content for each assignment. Certain parts of assignments will specify that bibliographies should be prepared using the Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed
  
   
  • Project 1: Informational/Nonfiction Thematic Project (30% of course grade (Meets Course Objectives A, B, C, D, E; Related competencies: A, C, F, G, J, M, O). (Topic Submission due on June 21, 2010; Final project due July 2, 2010).

    See Expectations for Success above.

    Choose an information topic or subject area (not a literary genre)  to prepare a "collection development" project of 10 in-print books and media which are recommended for children ages 5-8 on the topic I approve for you from the topics you submit to me.  By June 21, 2010, submit three possible topics for approval to the Project 1 Topic Submission drop-box under Angel's Content>Course Projects>Project 1 folder. I must approve all Project 1 topics to avoid duplication of topics, as you will be sharing your projects with class members at the end of the course. Complete directions and a rubric for the project will be posted to the Angel course site in the Project 1 folder under Content. 

  • Project 2: Readers' Advisory Collection: (30% of your course grade).
    (Meets Course Objectives A, B, C, D, E, F; Related core competencies: A, C, F, G, M, O).  (Date due for final project:  July 19, 2010).
    
    See Expectations for Success above.
    
    Prepare an annotated bibliography of 30 in-print recommended books and supporting material about the books; e.g., movie adaptations; audiobooks available; lesson plan websites; websites with programming ideas) appropriate for children ages 5-8. Complete directions and a rubric for the project will be posted to the Angel course site in the Project 2 folder under Content.
     

Textbooks and Readings

Required Textbook:

• Horning, K. T. (1997). From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books. HarperCollins. Available through Amazon: 006446167X.

• Wolf, M. (2008). Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Harper Perennial. (Paperback) Available through Amazon: 0060933844.

Grading Scale

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

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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