I've just realized that my course selection this summer seemingly defies the stated intention of this blog: "One woman's attempt to read more than picture books." You see, I've gone and signed up for two courses heavy on children's literature. But along with classics ranging from Goodnight Moon to Peter Pan, I'll also be reading some art theory, Romantic poetry, thoughts on early education, and I'll be doing a little creative writing of my own. It should be a very different summer, but highly challenging and enjoyable!
7019 Writing for Children/Ms. Stepto and Mr. Swope/
Stories for children, like stories for adults, come in many colors, from
dark to light, and the best have in common archetypal characters,
resonant plots, and concise, poetic language. Using classic texts as
inspiration, we will try our hands at a variety of forms, such as the fairy
tale, the fable, and fantasy. In the second half of the course, in the light
of critical reading and with an eye to shaping a final project, students
will begin to revise what they have written. Among the critical questions
considered will be: What is a children’s story and what is it for? What
sorts of stories do children themselves tell? What view of the child and
childhood do children’s stories take? How can the children’s story be
made new? Students should come to the first class having read The Light
Princess; they should also bring along a favorite children’s book.
Texts: George MacDonald, The Light Princess (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux); James Barrie, Peter Pan (Puffin); You Read to Me & I’ll Read
to You, ed. Janet Schulman (Random/Knopf); A.A. Milne, The House
at Pooh Corner (Puffin); Aesop, Fables (Dover); William Steig, Sylvester
and the Magic Pebble (Alladin); Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree (Harper
& Row); Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight Moon (HarperCollins);
Molly Bang, The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher (Alladin); Vivian
Paley, Wally’s Stories (Harvard); Jean de Brunhoff, The Story of Babar
(Random); Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night
Kitchen (both HarperCollins); I.B. Singer, Zlateh the Goat and Other
Stories (HarperCollins); Dr. Seuss, Six by Seuss (Random); Nathaniel
Hawthorne, A Wonder Book (Dover/Evergreen); Carlo Collodi, The
Adventures of Pinocchio (Puffin); Natalie Babbitt, The Devil’s Storybook
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux).
7182 Describing the Imagination/Mr. Armstrong
In this course we examine the working of imagination from infancy to
adulthood. Our focus is on the creative work of children and young
adults: their writing, art, music, dance, drama, photography, and film.
We observe, describe, and interpret creative work in many different
ways, both verbally and visually. We study accounts of the imagination
by writers, artists, critics, and philosophers. We examine the place of
imagination in education, and we consider how to promote, support,
and document imaginative achievement, in and out of school. A
guiding text throughout the workshop will be John Dewey’s Art as
Experience. Class members are expected to bring with them examples
of the creative work of their students or of their own children. Of
particular interest is work that combines different art forms. We keep
a class journal in which we document our own imaginative journey
day by day. Class members are expected to contribute regularly to the
journal, to write reflections on class discussions, and to conduct their
own inquiry into some aspect of the class theme.
Texts: John Dewey, Art as Experience (Perigee); Vivian Paley, A Child’s
Work (Chicago); Project Zero and Reggio Children, Making Learning
Visible and Shoe and Meter ; John
Keats, The Complete Poems, ed. John Barnard (Penguin); John Keats,
Selected Letters, ed. Jon Mee (Oxford); Peter de Bolla, Art Matters
(Harvard); Adam Phillips, The Beast in the Nursery (Vintage);
Paul Harris, The Work of the Imagination (Wiley-Blackwell).
