Return to Cameron Roberts

 

Final Draft of Historical Overview and Annotations-3/1/17

 

Cameron Roberts

3/1/17

Regional and Ethnic Literature

Annotations

Chaudhri, Amina, and William H. Teale. "Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14." Children's Literature in Education 44.4 (2013): 359-76. Web. 

            In this article researcher took 90 realistic contemporary and historical fiction novels, which featured multiracial characters and carefully looked at specific things to which they applied Critical Race Theory to place the novels with paradigms about multiracial identity. They did this to prove the diversity that is evolving in children's literature.  By doing this there were able to locate three major groups in how the multiracial characters were represented. The three major groups are Mixed Race In/Visibility, Mixed Race Blending, and Mixed Race Awareness.

            This article will definitely be of help to me. This article is also extremely reliable in the way that the researcher took 90 of these multiracial novels and examined them to give a more reliable conclusion. I feel by splitting the novels up into three major categories also gives it more credibility and keeps it from being a biased experiment; if the researcher tried to compare all 90 novels and put them in the same category then it would be very hard to examine the findings.

            I can draw the category of “Mixed Race Blending” from the article and use it as a comparison of how Zero is portrayed and treated in the book Holes. However, I could use the other two categories as well as a way to represent, that if Zero’s perspective is changed in the book to portray one of the other two categories our view of Zero would also change.  

Glasgow, Jacqueline N. “Teaching Social Justice through Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 90, no. 6, 2001, pp. 54–61. www.jstor.org/stable/822056

     In this article Galsgow talks about how we need to form a democratic work area for students to experiment with viewpoints and ideas that will challenge their own views and beliefs. Galsgow uses Young Adult Literature as a way to expose those students to such diversity. Galsgow says by exposing students to diversity earlier will make for a more socially and diverse accepting society.

     In this article Galsgow talks about how she does an experiment to measure social identity development from high school age students to college age students. The experiment started out as a Young Adult Literature college course, then she invited students from a high school to participate by choosing one of the young adult literature books from a designated list. The high school students were to read the books and then put together a PowerPoint that told their reactions and responses to the social issues in the book.

     This article will definitely be useful for my research, even though its main focus is on young adult literature and my focus is on children’s literature, because it is still based upon measuring social identity development. By looking at what the high school students found interesting could help me understand along with other research perhaps, how social justice is taught in the earlier school years.

Talley, Lee A. “Young Adult.” Keywords for Childrens Literature, Edited by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul, NYU Press, 2011, pp. 228–232, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg46g.53.

This article describes what “Young Adult Literature” actually is specifically. The article specifically says that the term “young-adult”, is simply a reflection of the change in perceptions one will go through from childhood to adult-hood. The article also talks about how most people usually see young-adult literature as something that goes against the societies norm.

I feel this article will be extremely beneficial to my research, because it will provide a common ground of what young-adult literature actually is and what people generally expect of it. This will help ensure that nobody is getting puzzled or confused during my paper and will allow them to focus on more important issues that I will talk about.

I really liked how this article tells about what people expect out of young-adult literature and how it is defined. I also liked when Talley talked about how the history of the phrase “young-adult literature” actually has a more serious and complex meaning that opens up a whole other world of texts what the “young-adult enthusiasts” tries to shield us from.  

 

Wolk, Steven. “Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas That Matter with Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 103, no. 2, 2013, pp. 45–51. www.jstor.org/stable/24484192.

In this article the author talks about how school is supposed to prepare students to be caretakers of our democratic society. He mentions how a man named John Dewey, once said that the most important parts of our government is not our three branches of government, but the people’s ability to engage in everyday discussions and debates about controversial and significant issues that would impact our everyday lives. I feel that this sets the tone and the ground work for the entire article.

The article goes into deeper detail by taking Dewey’s quote a bit further, by talking about how our school curriculum should be “life-centered, student-centered, democracy-centered, community-centered, and world-centered.” This is not to contradict the current economy-centered and work-centered classrooms of today, but perhaps modify the emphasis of the curriculum. I also liked how the author talks how he never read much in high school, because the adult-narratives had no meaning  or connection to him and how young-adult narratives is the perfect mixture of interest for the students, while also challenging their own thoughts.

This article will work great with my paper; it fits all the aspects of my research question. This article expresses how our classroom curriculums are based versus how they should be conducted in the opinion of the writer. This also shows the significance of young-adult literature, by the author giving a personal account of how young-adult literature affected him versus adult-literature.

Pantaleo, Sylvia. “Children's Literature across the Curriculum: An Ontario Survey.” Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne De l'Éducation, vol. 27, no. 2/3, 2002, pp. 211–230. www.jstor.org/stable/1602221.

This article presents findings from a survey where high-school teachers and librarians where polled to see what was the most used genre of young-adult literature. Their findings were the most used genres were non-fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy. However, it also talks about the benefits and attributes that young-adult literature brings.

I could possibly use some of the information in my paper. However, the survey was only conducted in Ontario, Canada therefore, I feel like if a survey was conducted on multiple states throughout Canada or even the U.S. results may have been a little different. In addition to that Pantaleo talks about how one of the limitations in survey research is that some of those schools who were surveyed not returning their survey. I feel this just leads to the survey becoming less credible.

 GUBAR, MARAH. “On Not Defining Children's Literature.” PMLA, vol. 126, no. 1, 2011, pp. 209–216. www.jstor.org/stable/41414094.

Defining children’s literature has been a controversial topic for many years. Gubar breaks those who try to define children’s literature into two groups, the definers and the anti-definers.  Gubar says that her argument rests on the middle-ground between these two extreme groups; such as the “anti-definers” saying it’s impossible to define children’s literature and the “definers” trying to say that it is possible detect key ingredients of children’s literature, which would help define children’s literature as its own genre.

Gubar talks about how ever defining trait one may think they find for children’s literature, there is a counterexample as well. I think that the middle-ground that she is trying to reach is seeing children’s literature as a category. She states that both extremes agree that by not having somewhat of a definition for children’s literature undermines its validity as a category in literature.

            This article is very helpful toward my research. The author uses multiple samples and references many people which gives credibility to the article. Also, I feel that this article will help sturdy the foundation of my paper, in the way that it will ensure that we all have a common understanding of how children’s literature is looked at.

 Kutzer, M. Daphne. “Children's Literature in the College Classroom.” College English, vol. 43, no. 7, 1981, pp. 716–723. www.jstor.org/stable/376901.

This article is how children’s literature is taught to be looked at in the college classroom. She talks about how before she can emphasize the literary aspects of children’s literature she must first look at the two audiences, the students of the class and the readers or buyers of children’s literature. The students in the class consist of those interested in things such as English, literature, or those who are interested in working with kids. She then leads us to the point that she also needs to have somewhat of a definition for a common understanding of what is meant when the word children’s literature comes up.

Kutzer goes on an gives us a definition of children’s literature that can mutually be agreed upon. She says that “Children’s literature is that primarily read by children, although not necessarily meant for children.” However, she adds that this definition also requires an understanding of what is meant by children and what is meant by literature. Kutzer says that society usually associate the end of childhood with the age of 14 and literature is to be considered of those things such as jingles, rhythms and rhymes, chants, and jump rope rhymes.

This article could possibly be the most helpful article in my research. So far it is the only article to actually even make an attempt to define what children’s literature is. I lve how it defines children’s literature as a whole, then goes back and defines what they are referring to as children and what they mean by literature.

King-O’Riain, Rebecca Chiyoko. “Multiracial.” Keywords for Asian American Studies, Edited by Cathy J. Schlund-Vials et al., NYU Press, 2015, pp. 174–177, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15r3zv2.48. 

            This article gives Oxford English Dictionary of multiracial which states, made up of or relating to people of many races. This article also gives other terms that are commonly used to describe those people of a mixed race. Among those are biracial, hapa, Amerasian, etc.

            Most specifically, I would like to just focus on the word multiracial. In the article it talks about how it has drastically changed over the past twenty years. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s multiracial most commonly referred to those who had a mixed racial and ethnic descents as individuals. 

            This article will also be very helpful in my research in the way that it will provide a foundation for my paper so that when multiracial is used everyone will know what exactly it’s referring to. I know I may be listing a lot of articles that use definitions as the topic, but I feel it is essential to include these to keep the reader from developing unintended meanings.

Cochran‐Smith, Marilyn, et al. “Good and Just Teaching: The Case for Social Justice in Teacher Education.” American Journal of Education, vol. 115, no. 3, 2009, pp. 347–377. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/597493.

            This article talks about the emphasis that is being put on teachers to incorporate and teach social justice in their classroom. This article shows how a class better understood the concept of social justice and how they was able to better apply it, by having a classroom whose central focus is social justice. By use of observations and interviews the researchers also found that those who were more focused on their students just learning the material, than helping their students better understand political ideologies and help build their confidence, were also against the idea of putting social justice on the classroom agenda.

            This essay basically describes how that if we are seen to have democratic classrooms, whose ultimate goal is to produce  contributors to society, then why are we so against implementing social justice into the classroom. This article proves the success of the better understanding of the concept of social justice and the ability to better apply it, with those students who were in classrooms where social justice was on the agenda.

            I can definitely use this in my article, because if I can see how social justice is taught in the classrooms, then I could make the connection to how children’s literature may be looked at as well.

 Silverman, Sarah K. “What Is Diversity? An Inquiry Into Preservice Teacher Beliefs.” American Educational Research Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2010, pp. 292–329. www.jstor.org/stable/40645442.

          This article starts out by talking about how there are so many uses for the term diversity and depending upon which term the teacher uses determines how the teacher teaches it to the class as well as how the teacher looks at it in their own class. This article surveys a number of teachers, where they gave their responses of things associated with terms such diversity and multicultural.

            Since, there is not much research done on this type of thing the teachers responses were hard to measure. The results I found were hard to follow. They kind of measured the responses in groups concerning efficacy, responsibility, and advocacy. This article used many references which made it very credible, but I had a hard time following the article, therefore it would not be much of a help to me in my research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is Children’s Literature? (Historical Overview)

            Children’s literature is a topic that is tough for even the most experienced teachers to teach. Defining it I found to possibly be even tougher. While trying to search for articles I found that, because of this sort of uncertainty on what children’s literature exactly is there is very little research talking about it. In fact, I could only find one article that actually gave a solid definition of what children’s literature is.  

            In 1981, there was actually a solid definition gave for children’s literature. It was, considered to be literature that is primarily read by children, although not necessarily meant for children. It is also added that one must understand what is meant by children and what is also meant by literature. Children was considered those fourteen and under; this was not some concrete, physician backed age, but one that society generally associated with the end of childhood.  However, literature was to be considered things such as jingles, rhymes, chants, etc. (Kutzer, 1981)

            Sure enough, as years pass they wouldn’t allow children’s literature to just be defined as it was.  In 2011 Marah Gubar breaks those who have been trying to re-define children’s literature into two groups, the definers and the anti-definers. The anti-definers try to go to the extreme of saying that children’s literature is impossible to define, while the definers try to go to the extreme of making children’s literature its own genre. However, I agree with Gubar’s argument, which is an appropriate middle ground would be to view children’s literature as a category. (Gubar, 2011)

            In 2013, to help better understand exactly what children’s literature is one researcher examines ninety children’s literature novels and divides them up into three categories to help give us a better understanding.  The novels were divided up into Mixed Race In/Visibility, Mixed Race Blending, and Mixed Race Awareness.  One may ask, why they divided the novels up into these groups; it was to simply express how diversity is evolving in children’s literature. (Chaudhri, 2013)

             One may think that looking at how children’s literature is evolving may not be significant, however, I feel it is extremely important in a way that it may begin to grab people’s attention to solve once and for all what children’s literature exactly is. I know defining children’s literature may seem irrelevant, but if we do not define what it is, then the view of children’s literature as a whole may be seen entirely, as an insignificant part of a literature course.

 

 

 

 

Reviewer 1: _________________________________________________

Reviewer 2: _________________________________________________

Name: _________________________________________________________________________

Annotated Bibliography and Historic Overview Rubric

Full participation in Rough Draft Workshop and Conferences (Yes) (No – loss of 10%): ______________

 

	A	B – C	C- – F	Comments
Bibliography (10 pts)	Complete Accurate citation	Inaccurate citation	Incomplete (less than 15 sources)
Research Question (10 pts)	Present Question that could be answered with a research project	Present In question formation	Incomplete or absent
Historic Overview (40)	Announces the topic Statement of purpose (summaries historical overview in 1-2 sentences) Supports statement of purpose in 1-2 pages Smooth, chronological discussion of topic’s evolution and continuity in scholarship	Announces the topic Statement of purpose (summaries historical overview in 1-2 sentences) Supports statement of purpose in 1-2 pages Attempts chronological discussion of topic’s evolution in scholarship	Lacks topic or clear statement of purpose Fails to fully describe the chronological evolution of topic in scholarship
Annotations (40 total)	Complete (15- 20 sources) Includes 1-2 sources from 1980s or 1990s Includes 3-5 sources from 2010 and later Includes complete summary & assessment (1-2 paragraphs) Uses the diction and syntax of an annotated bibliography	Complete (at least 15 sources) Includes 1-2 sources from 1980s or 1990s Includes 3-5 sources from 2010 and later Includes summary and assessment Attempts diction and syntax of annotated bibliography	Incomplete (less than 15 sources) Does not include sources from all required date ranges. Lacks either summary or assessment Improper diction and/or syntax
Summary (20)	1-2 paragraphs Uses appropriated diction and syntax (brief and professional) Addresses all important aspects of research article	At least one paragraph Attempts appropriate style and tone	Less than one paragraph Inappropriate style and tone
Assessment (20)	Assess the value of the research/article (positive and negative) Recognizes the context of the research Comments on method, or theory (demonstrates student’s understanding of the research)	Assess the value of the research/article as positive or negative	Lacks assessment (or assessment not apparent)
Total

 

 

Rough Draft Annotated Bib.-2/23/17

 

Chaudhri, Amina, and William H. Teale. "Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14." Children's Literature in Education 44.4 (2013): 359-76. Web.

 

            In this article researcher took 90 realistic contemporary and historical fiction novels, which featured multiracial characters and carefully looked at specific things to which they applied Critical Race Theory to place the novels with paradigms about multiracial identity. They did this to prove the diversity that is evolving in children's literature.  By doing this there were able to locate three major groups in how the multiracial characters were represented. The three major groups are Mixed Race In/Visibility, Mixed Race Blending, and Mixed Race Awareness.

            This article will definitely be of help to me. This article is also extremely reliable in the way that the researcher took 90 of these multiracial novels and examined them to give a more reliable conclusion. I feel by splitting the novels up into three major categories also gives it more credibility and keeps it from being a biased experiment; if the researcher tried to compare all 90 novels and put them in the same category then it would be very hard to examine the findings.

            I can draw the category of “Mixed Race Blending” from the article and use it as a comparison of how Zero is portrayed and treated in the book Holes. However, I could use the other two categories as well as a way to represent, that if Zero’s perspective is changed in the book to portray one of the other two categories our view of Zero would also change.

 

 

 

Glasgow, Jacqueline N. “Teaching Social Justice through Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 90, no. 6, 2001, pp. 54–61. www.jstor.org/stable/822056

 

     In this article Galsgow talks about how we need to form a democratic work area for students to experiment with viewpoints and ideas that will challenge their own views and beliefs. Galsgow uses Young Adult Literature as a way to expose those students to such diversity. Galsgow says by exposing students to diversity earlier will make for a more socially and diverse accepting society.

 

     In this article Galsgow talks about how she does an experiment to measure social identity development from high school age students to college age students. The experiment started out as a Young Adult Literature college course, then she invited students from a high school to participate by choosing one of the young adult literature books from a designated list. The high school students were to read the books and then put together a PowerPoint that told their reactions and responses to the social issues in the book.

 

     This article will definitely be useful for my research, even though its main focus is on young adult literature and my focus is on children’s literature, because it is still based upon measuring social identity development. By looking at what the high school students found interesting could help me understand along with other research perhaps, how social justice is taught in the earlier school years.

 

 

 

 

Revised Research Question-2/21/17

How is race taught to be looked at in Children's Literature for elementary aged children?

 

Sample Annotation-2/16/17

Chaudhri, Amina, and William H. Teale. "Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14." Children's Literature in Education 44.4 (2013): 359-76. Web.

 

            In this article researcher took 90 realistic contemporary and historical fiction novels, which featured multiracial characters and carefully looked at specific things to which they applied Critical Race Theory to place the novels with paradigms about multiracial identity. They did this to prove the diversity that is evolving in children's literature.  By doing this there were able to locate three major groups in how the multiracial characters were represented. The three major groups are Mixed Race In/Visibility, Mixed Race Blending, and Mixed Race Awareness.

            This article will definitely be of help to me. This article is also extremely reliable in the way that the researcher took 90 of these multiracial novels and examined them to give a more reliable conclusion. I feel by splitting the novels up into three major categories also gives it more credibility and keeps it from being a biased experiment; if the researcher tried to compare all 90 novels and put them in the same category then it would be very hard to examine the findings.

            I can draw the category of “Mixed Race Blending” from the article and use it as a comparison of how Zero is portrayed and treated in the book Holes. However, I could use the other two categories as well as a way to represent, that if Zero’s perspective is changed in the book to portray one of the other two categories our view of Zero would also change.

 

 

15 Annotations-2/14/17

1.  Chaudhri, Amina, and William H. Teale. "Stories of Multiracial Experiences in Literature for Children, Ages 9–14." Children's Literature in Education 44.4 (2013): 359-76. Web.
2.  Glasgow, Jacqueline N. “Teaching Social Justice through Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 90, no. 6, 2001, pp. 54–61. www.jstor.org/stable/822056.
3. Talley, Lee A. “Young Adult.” Keywords for Childrens Literature, Edited by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul, NYU Press, 2011, pp. 228–232, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg46g.53. Keyword YA.pdf  
4. Wolk, Steven. “Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas That Matter with Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 103, no. 2, 2013, pp. 45–51. www.jstor.org/stable/24484192.  Reading Democracy.pdf
5.  Pantaleo, Sylvia. “Children's Literature across the Curriculum: An Ontario Survey.” Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne De l'Éducation, vol. 27, no. 2/3, 2002, pp. 211–230. www.jstor.org/stable/1602221.
6.  GUBAR, MARAH. “On Not Defining Children's Literature.” PMLA, vol. 126, no. 1, 2011, pp. 209–216. www.jstor.org/stable/41414094.
7.  Kutzer, M. Daphne. “Children's Literature in the College Classroom.” College English, vol. 43, no. 7, 1981, pp. 716–723. www.jstor.org/stable/376901.
8.  Samuels, Gina Miranda, and Ralph LaRossa. “‘Being Raised by White People’: Navigating Racial Difference among Adopted Multiracial Adults.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 71, no. 1, 2009, pp. 80–94. www.jstor.org/stable/40262860.
9. King-O’Riain, Rebecca Chiyoko. “Multiracial.” Keywords for Asian American Studies, Edited by Cathy J. Schlund-Vials et al., NYU Press, 2015, pp. 174–177, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15r3zv2.48. 
10.  Campbell, Mary E., and Jennifer Eggerling-Boeck. “‘What about the Children?" The Psychological and Social Well-Being of Multiracial Adolescents.” The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 1, 2006, pp. 147–173. www.jstor.org/stable/4121004.
11. Cochran‐Smith, Marilyn, et al. “Good and Just Teaching: The Case for Social Justice in Teacher Education.” American Journal of Education, vol. 115, no. 3, 2009, pp. 347–377. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/597493.
12.  North, Connie E. “The Promise and Perils of Developing Democratic Literacy for Social Justice.” Curriculum Inquiry, vol. 39, no. 4, 2009, pp. 555–579. www.jstor.org/stable/20616449.
13.  Smyth, John. “Social Capital and the 'Socially Just School'.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 25, no. 1, 2004, pp. 19–33. www.jstor.org/stable/4128657
14.  Silverman, Sarah K. “What Is Diversity? An Inquiry Into Preservice Teacher Beliefs.” American Educational Research Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2010, pp. 292–329. www.jstor.org/stable/40645442.
15.  Roberts, Rosemarie A., et al. “Flipping the Script: Analyzing Youth Talk about Race and Racism.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3, 2008, pp. 334–354. www.jstor.org/stable/25166672.