O n l i n e . L e a r n i n g . S u p p o r t
Department of Information and Library Science
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515
Fax: 1.203.392-5780 / Phone: 1.203.392-5781
Toll Free: 1-888-500-SCSU, then press 4

You cannot open a book without learning something.
Chinese proverb

A room without books is like a body without the soul.
Cicero

"A long, long time ago, the Creator -- and who knows how many Great Beings -- gave the People language. At this time stories were born...
...Stories mirror our world, at the same time they are like rays of sunlight illuminating the dark places so that we can see more clearly...
...Without our stories...we would be lost."
-Georgiana Valoyce Sanchez
(Chumash/Tohono-O'Odham)

Welcome to ILS 300L:
Literature for Children

Welcome to ILS 300L: Literature for Children; it is one of two L-courses (ILS 244 Use of Information Sources being the other) offered by the Department of Information and Library Science.

The materials you will need for this course include:

1. The 104-page course handbook (mailed to your home address and available at Tyco on campus)
2. Butler, F. (1989). Sharing Literature with Children (reissue of 1977.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. ISBN: 0-88133-463-4. [This book is available through the University Bookstore. It contains both a variety of children's literature you will need to read as well as essays about children's literature, which you will also need to read. If you want to get an early start on the course, just pick up a copy of the book and begin reading. If you read the essays before the course begins, you may want to take notes or highlight key points in the text.]
3. Access to MySCSU and Southernšs WebCT (see directions on the cover of this handbook). Accounts for both are automatically set up for you. If you are not familiar with how to access MySCSU or Southernšs WebCT and need more help than provided by the directions on the cover, contact the Academic Computing group at Southern. If your username and password do not admit you to MySCSU or Southernšs WebCT, call the HelpDesk at (203) 392-5123.

During this term you will explore the following topics:

• child development
• history of children in society
• reading aloud and storytelling
• genres of children's literature
• selection of children's books

This term you will also be writing a great deal. This is an L-course and L-courses have a writing requirement that must equal or exceed the equivalent of 25 pages. During the term you will be given five different types of writing assignments. Some assignments are designed to help you get your ideas on paper or to discover what you already know about a topic. These assignments are called Type One assignments and are evaluated very simply--did you do it or not? Type One assignments are not designed to be compositions or essays. They are simply ways to guarantee that you are thinking about a topic. Type Two assignments require that you provide the correct information in response to a specific question. Type One and Two writing assignments are designed to be completed quickly and to promote thought. In Type One or Two writing, you are not judged on the quality of the writing--just the content.

Type Three and Type Four writing assignments are designed to produce ideas and to develop writing skills. Type Three and Four writing assignments use a concept called focus correcting. Focus correcting is based on the belief that student writing improves more quickly when the student works to improve a few writing problems at a time. For Type Three and Four assignments, the instructor will be indicating errors on each paper in only one, two, or three areas. These areas will be explained and announced in advance so that you can focus your energies on them. The focus correction areas are to be listed on the top left-hand side of each Type Three or Type Four writing assignment.

Type Five writing assignments are the most difficult because they require you to produce publishable work, that is, work, that is as free as possible from all errors. In some cases you will do a Type One assignment, edit and revise it so that it becomes a Type Three, and finally polish it so that it becomes a Type Five.

Readings, explorations, and assignments have been carefully spaced and timed over the term. It is important that you keep up with the schedule and not fall behind.