Purpose

This semester you have spent time learning and thinking about many different aspects of children’s literature. You have experienced many children’s literary writers and you have grown your thinking about children’s literature and have broadened the way you think about yourself as a learner and as a thinker through analysis and the critical thinking you have done. In preparation for the final exam, you will write a sentence outline for the essay you will write for the final exam.

Directions

1. In preparation for the final exam, read the article titled “Why Study Children’s Literature (Links to an external site.)”  https://www.childlitassn.org/why-study-children-s-literature by Michael Joseph and published by Children’s Literature Association.
2. After reflecting on the article, write a well-delineated structured OUTLINE for the essay you will write for the final exam. Your final exam essay will need to be a focused, well-organized, well-developed, and well-written analysis of ONE of the following prompt ideas from the article, so plan your OUTLINE accordingly. You may select the prompt you would like to write about. Your outline should express specific ideas and utilize examples from authors and/or literature studied this semester to support your points. Your outline should include in text citations as well as a work(s) cited for any source idea referenced. This is not a research essay, so there is no need to conduct additional research for your essay–refer to the learning you did and materials you used this semester through this course; the majority of ideas need to be your analysis and synthesis written in your own words. 
3. Begin your OUTLINE with an MLA heading. Copy the essay prompt you select under the MLA heading before you write your thesis and supporting ideas for your outline. 
   Final Exam Essay Prompt Choices (Choose 1): 
   • In his article, Joseph presents several questions that affect the “heart of human culture” that need to be considered in order to “enhance capacity for informed citizenship and critical thought” in children.  Discuss HOW children’s literature can be used to “equip young people for meaningful lives filled with rewarding experiences, enriching relationships, learning, intellectual and emotional growth and self-understanding.”
   • Joseph states that, “Children’s literature also enables students to read and study texts that rely in part of in whole on pictorial narratives, as well as book design, typography and the blurring of distinctions between textual and paratextual elements, thereby encouraging students to cultivate visual and tactile as well as verbal literacies.” Discuss HOW pictorial narratives cultivate visual, tactile and verbal literacies in young readers. 
   • Joseph states that, “….reading often represents a child’s first opportunity to reflect in a focused way on the means by which symbols are created, how symbolic thought is culturally effectuated and directed. When we study children’s literature, regardless of the discipline in which we are situated, we grasp the many complex avenues through which society reflects on the operations of symbolic thought, and thus perhaps on the origins of being human.” Discuss HOW authors of children’s literature use symbols in their writing to promote hidden political, social, environmental, and/or cultural issues through the literature they write. 
   • https://www.childlitassn.org/why-study-children-s-literature