INFO 267-10 International Youth Literature
Seminar in Services to Children and Young Adults
Semester 2021 Syllabus

Dr. Leah Phillips
Email

Office location: Zoom
Office Hours: By Appointment
Class Meetings: Online/Asynchronous 

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning Tuesday, June 1st unless you are taking an intensive or a one-unit or two-unit class that starts on a different day. In that case, the class will open on the first day that the class meets. 

This course runs from June 1st - July 27th, and will be available on Canvas June 1st.

You will be enrolled in the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

This course will focus on global children’s and young adult literature taking into account pluricultural perspectives, the current state of global children’s literature, issues related to transmission between languages and cultures, and tools for developing awareness of current international youth literature, and pedagogical approaches to diverse literature.

Throughout the course, we will hear from a number of youth literature specialists from around the world, including the US and UK, Argentina, India, Ireland, Greece, Lebanon, Australia and maybe a few others. 

Course Requirements

Assignments

As the aim of the course is to increase our awareness of global youth literature, the assignments are designed to help us organize and examine the children's and young adult (YA) literature we encounter, develop the skills to appraise it, and, finally, to use it in our library spaces. Alongside weekly readings and lectures, there are three main assignments: 

• Assignment 1 (50 points) (CLO#1, CLO#2, CLO#3)
  • Students will maintain a blog that responds to and reflects on course content. Weekly prompts will be provided. Overall, there will be 5 posts worth 5 points each. Students will also be expected to comment on each other's blog posts. 10 comments worth 2.5 points each.
     
• Assignment 2 (100 points) (CLO#1, CLO#2)
  • Students will curate a collection of 25 titles from a geographic/cultural region other than their own. Titles should include items for youth across the age range (0-18) and diverse in format (picture and chapter books, graphic novels, novels in verse. These are just some examples). Students will also develop a list of sources that provide information on the quality of the item (reviews, awards, etc) and purchasing options). 80 points are available for developing the list; 20 for the information pack. 
     
• Assignment 3 (50 points) (CLO#1, CLO#3)
  • Students will develop an instructional program or lesson plan with learning outcomes utilizing one or more of the titles from Assignment 2.

Course Calendar

Week 1 - Welcome and What is Adolescence?
(2 Jun - 8 Jun)

We'll be hearing from Adolescent Identities, a project focusing on representation (or lack thereof) in youth literature in the UK.

Reading:

• https://worldkidlit.wordpress.com/
• Ramdarshan-Bold, M. & Phillips, L. (2019). “Adolescent Identities the Untapped Power of YA”
• “Schlegel, A. (2012). Perspectives on Adolescent Identity”
• Barone, F. (2015) “A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Childhood”

Due: Blog Post #1 - Tuesday (8 June) @11.59 PM PT

Week 2 - Case Study: South America (Argentina)
(9 Jun - 15 Jun)

In the first of our unit on Defining International Youth Literature, we're hearing from Argentina. 

Reading:

• Bishop, R.S. (1990) “Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors”
• Corbett, E. & Phillips L. (2020) “Ploughing the Field: A Discussion About YA Studies”

Due: Blog Post #2 due Tuesday (15 June) @11.59 PM PT

Week 3 - Case Study: India
(16 Jun - 22 Jun)

Reading: 

• Adichie, C. (2009) “The Dangers of a Single Story”
• Short, K. (2019) “The Dangers of Reading Globally”

Due: Blog Post #3 due Tuesday (22 June) @11.59 PM PT

Week 4 Case Study: Europe (Ireland and Greece)
(23 Jun - 29 Jun)

Reading: 

• Enriquez, G. & et. al. (2021) “Shattered Stereotypes, Multiple identities, and Vibrant intersections: Books That Explore and Celebrate Complex Characters”
• Thomas, E.L. (2020) “Young Ault Literature for Black Lives: Critical Storytelling Traditions from the African Diaspora”

Due: Blog Post #4 due Tuesday (29 June) @11.59 PM PT

Week 5 Case Studies: The Arab World and Australia 
(30 Jun - 6 Jul)

Reading: 

• Sleiman, T. (2020) “Picturing Arab Youth and Societies at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century”
• McGraw, A. & Mason M. (2020) “Finding Passion and Purpose in the Teaching and Reading in Secondary School English through Critical Readings of Practice: A Huge Kind of Spider Web”

Due: Blog Post #5 due Tuesday (6 July) @11.59 PM PT

Week 6  YA in Translation 
(7 Jul - 13 Jul)

Reading: 

• Kerchy, A. (2018). “Translation and Transmedia in Children's Literature”

Week 7 - Reading When the World is on Fire 
(14 Jul - 20 Jul)

Reading: 

• Panaou, P. & Mathis, J. (2019). “Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominees” Bookbird (57:4)
• Useful resource: https://simmons.libguides.com/c.php?g=372018&p=2515012

Due: Assignment 2 - Tuesday (20 July) at 11:59 pm PT

Week 8  Guest Lecture - Dr Marianne Martens  
(21 Jul - 27 Jul)

Reading:

• TBD

Due: Assignment 3 - Tuesday (27 July) at 11:59 pm PT

All readings will be supplied through Canvas. 

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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

INFO 200, INFO 204, INFO 260A, or INFO 261A. 

Course Learning Outcomes

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

1. Understand the differences in youth literature development and intent across the world.
2. Develop the skills to evaluate children’s literature from geographical regions other than your country of work.
3. Develop the skills to include international children's literature in instruction and programming.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 267 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

No Textbooks For This Course.

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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 or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — 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 if you wish to stay in the program. 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.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

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