Select any two readings from the assigned text. Relate your selected readings to your own life and/or to our current social, political, or economic climate.

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Folk Tale Reflection

Most folk and fairy tales have their origins in the oral tradition, with written manuscripts dating as far back as 1250BC with “The Tale of Two Brothers,” an Egyptian tale recorded on papyrus.
Some of the more famous collections include Aesops Fables, The Jataka (Buddist literature), The Panchatantra (India), The Thousand and One Nights, and much later The Brothers Grimm tales for children (have you read them lately–they are horrifying).

Within this genre there are many varieties, beast fables, exemplums, myths, legends, etc.
Here’s a text from GHC’s library collection from Galileo’s Ebook Central:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/highlands/reader.action?docID=491613&ppg=1 that provides a great deal more information. I’m not assigning a specific reading from this text, but it is an excellent resource for English majors who want to know a bit more about this genre.

Reading Assignment:
Read the “Introduction” and select any 2 tales from this modern collection of classic tales: World Folktales.

Instructions
Select any two readings from the assigned text. Relate your selected readings to your own life and/or to our current social, political, or economic climate. This time, you won’t read anyone else’s. I still want you to refer to the readings (Quotes) and connect the work to specific applications.

As always, use MLA style and write well. Try to enjoy this soft landing of the course–the readings are short and easy, and the writing assignment is personal. You’re welcome!

Using the website below, browse the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels as voted on by NPR listeners. Write a reflection about a couple of the books that you have read from the list, telling us about your overall experiences with science fiction and fantasy. Are there any books you think should have made the list that did not?

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Forum on the Theme: Fantasy

Using the website below, browse the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels as voted on by NPR listeners. Then, write a reflection about a couple of the books that you have read from the list (there are a few that I am sure everyone has read or knows about), telling us about your overall experiences with science fiction and fantasy. Are there any books you think should have made the list that did not?

https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

After watching the videos below, write a detailed and thoughtful analysis in which you discuss the ways that teaching fiction and nonfiction differ. Consider how a teacher can promote comprehension with both types of text, and how you can envision yourself using both types of literature in your future classroom.

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Forum on the Theme: Fiction and Nonfiction

After watching the videos below, write a detailed and thoughtful analysis in which you discuss the ways that teaching fiction and nonfiction differ. Consider how a teacher can promote comprehension with both types of text, and how you can envision yourself using both types of literature in your future classroom. Your response should be a minimum of three paragraphs.

After watching the above video, write a half page response in which you describe the author’s writing craft, what age you believe children would be interested in the books, and your personal response to what you watched.

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Author Spotlight: Alma Flor Ada

After watching the above video, write a half page response in which you describe the author’s writing craft, what age you believe children would be interested in the books, and your personal response to what you watched.

Determine the 5 books from your text set that most clearly communicate a common message. List the five texts you have chosen, the theme statement that you have developed through reading the texts, and the reason you felt the books connected thematically in that way.

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Themed Text Sets

In creating your own thematic study, it is important to understand the type of process that will help you to develop your theme. It will take some time looking through children’s books to develop a theme to use with your five lessons, and the only way you will be able to do this is to spend time with texts. To simulate this process as a practice before you begin your own signature assignment, choose one of the five digital text sets that have been created for you and “read” the texts.

Instructions
Review the following document and select one of the five digital text sets for this assignment:

Lit 467 Thematic Digital Text Sets

As you work through the books in this simulation, take some notes about the texts and what stands out to you as important messages from the selected children’s literature. Look for a prominent theme that develops through the texts. Each person that encounters a text can interpret it many ways. As such, there will not be a simply right or wrong answer for your theme. So long as you can determine the common theme clearly, and defend it, much like your theme statement in your literary analysis papers, and write it as a proper theme statement (not a topic), you will be on the right track.

Determine the 5 books from your text set that most clearly communicate a common message. List the five texts you have chosen, the theme statement that you have developed through reading the texts, and the reason you felt the books connected thematically in that way.

Consider that these books are just a sample of the quality children’s literature available to you, both online and at libraries. As such, your own thematic unit should incorporate no more than one or two of the books from these lists. Use these titles as branching off points to find your own quality literature to use with your own signature assignment

When choosing your books for your theme unit, you will look for a message that develops through multiple texts that create an overarching idea for your students to discuss and analyze together.

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Activity: Connecting Literature Through a Theme

When choosing your books for your theme unit, you will look for a message that develops through multiple texts that create an overarching idea for your students to discuss and analyze together. To begin the idea of how these stories can connect around an idea, even with different formats in picture books, you will watch videos from Storyline Online (a wonderful resource for your future classroom).

Looking at two texts written by the same author, Evelyn Coleman, you will use the graphic organizer provided to compare the two texts and analyze for a common theme. As you develop your ideas from the texts, consider the theme statement you would use to link them together. You will receive feedback on this idea of theme statement that has been developing through the course. You may choose to print and write your notes on the attached graphic organizer PDF or create a Word Document to take notes. Upload your resulting notes in the form of your choice in order to receive feedback.

 

Text 1: White Socks Only: https://storylineonline.net/books/white-socks-only/ or https://youtu.be/fRuOdTqxBPU
Text 2: To Be A Drum: https://storylineonline.net/books/to-be-a-drum/ or https://youtu.be/7BVBBe56MUg

After watching the above video, write a half page response in which you describe the author’s writing craft, what age you believe children would be interested in the books, and your personal response to what you watched.

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Author Spotlight: Jon Scieszka

After watching the above video, write a half page response in which you describe the author’s writing craft, what age you believe children would be interested in the books, and your personal response to what you watched.

Indicate at least five major talking points. Briefly discuss each. Might include: Why is it significant to you? Do you agree or disagree? How might you apply?

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QQTP Reading Response: Children’s Literature, Briefly- Chapters 8, 9, and 10

Read the following chapters in Children’s Literature, Briefly (7th ed.):

* Chapter 8: Picture Books
* Chapter 9: Poetry
* Chapter 10: Traditional Literature

After reading the assigned chapters, please post to the forum using the QQTP method:

* Quotation that you feel is significant and memorable. Let us know why you chose it, what is significant for you. You could be agreeing or disagreeing with the statement.
* Questions about the data used, arguments made, information provided.
* Talking Points. Indicate at least five major talking points. Briefly discuss each. Might include: Why is it significant to you? Do you agree or disagree? How might you apply?

What have researchers said about your research topic? What research approaches and methodologies were used? Why? What aspects of your research topic seem to have been studied the most? What aspects seem to have been studied the least? Provide one to two research questions and up to three research objectives that arise from your review of the literature. In particular, identify potential “gaps” in the studies you found that may lead to a problem or question you might investigate. Clearly delineate how studying your problem may help advance practice in the field.

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Literature Review

This is the second section of the assignment below are the topic and intervention for part one. Then you have the instructions for this week’s discussion.

Topic: Obesity among children

Intervention: The suggested research is the Family-based intervention. Early data indicates that family-based programs to reduce childhood obesity are beneficial in promoting short- and long-term weight loss (Berge & Everts, 2011). As I previously stated, children’s dietary preferences are greatly influenced by the meals they are exposed to at home. The program will strongly emphasize informing parents about the effects of obesity and their part in addressing this public health concern. Also, the intervention will provide the parents with the needed information and tools to build a healthy environment that promotes kids to make better dietary choices, explore new foods, and get the recommended amount of daily physical exercise. Moreover, parents will be educated on the best food-related parenting practices that make eating from kids enjoyable and peaceful instead of stressful for both children and parents.

  • Instructions for this assignment: In this discussion, you will provide a critical review of the literature on your chosen topic. A good literature review is not simply a descriptive list or set of summaries of the available research. The literature review should provide a coherent, well-organized analysis. A meaningful review of the literature should do the following:
  • Be organized around and related directly to your research topic.
  • Synthesize results into a critical review of what is and is not known or believed about the topic.
  • Identify a gap in the literature.
  • Identify areas of controversy in the literature.
  • Formulate questions that need further research.
  • Remember that reading research literature is important in identifying a problem that is academically credible. If the problem in which you are interested is not discussed in the academic literature, there is a strong possibility that you are not defining the problem in a manner that will allow you to connect it to previous studies. Knowing how to access the existing literature is, therefore, a critical early step in research.

Step 1

Review the assigned readings and search the literature databases of the University of Arizona and other sources. Identify at least five peer-reviewed articles on public health interventions published in the past five years that relate to your chosen topic.

In your discussion post, include the following:

  • In approximately 500 words, write a literature review that summarizes the five most relevant articles on public health interventions that you found on your topic. This section should address the following:
    • Include a brief statement of how each of your articles relates to your chosen topic. Discuss how each article helps you to refine or clarify your topic.
    • What have researchers said about your research topic?
    • What research approaches and methodologies were used? Why?
    • What aspects of your research topic seem to have been studied the most? What aspects seem to have been studied the least?
    • Provide one to two research questions and up to three research objectives that arise from your review of the literature. In particular, identify potential “gaps” in the studies you found that may lead to a problem or question you might investigate. Clearly delineate how studying your problem may help advance practice in the field.
  • Include a review of methods and methodological approaches used to study the topic, in which you should:
    • Examine the theoretical perspectives, paradigms, and study populations in the research literature you reviewed.
    • Critically analyze the methodological approaches used in previous research on your chosen topic.

Hint: Your literature review will form the background for your research proposal. See here for a research article with a great literature review/background section on overweight/obesity intervention. The article is for illustration purposes only. I expect you to come up with an innovative research topic and intervention based on your interest and robust literature search.

Include references to all sources in APA format.

 

What stands out to you as an important piece of what she has to say? In what ways have your experiences with reading shaped who you are?

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For Justice Sotomayor, Books Unlocked Imagination

Listen to the audio recording below and then respond to the following prompt:

What stands out to you as an important piece of what she has to say? In what ways have your experiences with reading shaped who you are?

Complete a reflection about this reading and your own experiences that may mirror or differ from Justice Sotomayor

https://www.npr.org/2013/01/19/169772287/for-justice-sotomayor-books-unlocked-imagination