Assignments for Week 1

Assignment for Week 1 (3/28-4/1)

This week's assignment will ask many of you to stretch yourselves technologically.  Since much of what we will do this term is sharing information with each other it is important that we feel comfortable in this electronic environment.  This is the week to experiment! Browse around and find out where everything is located.  Make sure you check out all sections of the course. 

You each will be setting up a blog so first go to Google and set up a gmail account.  Next go to blogger.com to set up your blog.  Follow the directions there.  Then, before you do anything else, email me your new blog address.  Of course, if you already have a blog, just send me the blog address.  Thanks!

Thanks to my friend, Denvy Saxwosky, a technology guru we have a link to a blog tutorial that will help you .  

Text:

 Cole, Pam B.  2009  Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century.  McGraw Hill.

 

 

Important information

- When choosing books to read for this class, look for books that have original publishing dates from 2000 to the present.  With hundreds of new books published each year, you will have no trouble finding good ones from the past ten years.  YAL has changed as times change so you always have to keep current.  This may mean stretching a bit by having to go to the library rather than talking about an older book you have read or one that is a favorite of your kids.  This, however, is one of the goals of the course.  You need to become aware of what is out there for your students to read.  

Remember, NEVER read a book to your class, as in shared reading, or ask them to read a particular book, unless you have read that book from cover to cover.  This is where censorship issues occur.  You must know what is in that book!  More later on censorship.  Please read the link from the Statesman Journal from 3/4/10 about a controversial book at Auburn Elementary School, Salem Oregon.

- A quick note – the Table of Literacy Appreciation is on p. 36.  It's rather confusing in this book.  Be sure to read and understand this table.  I'm sure that you will have memories of these stages and of what books you were reading at the time.  This table might also help you with your literacy autobiography by jogging your mind about early reading and writing experiences.

A note from Sue

I realize that for some of you this is the first online course you have taken.  That is why we are devoting some of the first week of the course to learn how to get around.  Please take advantage of this opportunity.  I encourage you to read each others postings and generally get to know your way around the course environment.  The first couple of weeks you may experience technological frustrations – many of us do when encountering a new technological environment.  However, these can be solved.  You can always reach me by email and I will try to find help for you.  I will try to solve the academic problems, if there are any.  I do not penalize anyone's grade for computer problems that are out of their control.

 

Blogs are a bit different but I will be learning along with you.  It is a less formal atmosphere so we can have fun with it, I hope. 

For those of you who have taken online courses before, please don't ignore that activities associated with this week's computer challenges. I encourage you to offer to mentor those participants who are new to the online environment.  As you know from previous classes, sometimes you each know how to solve a problem much better that the instructor does.   I appreciate your help in creating a fun and interesting online learning community.  In addition, please feel free to respond to each other's questions and comments. 

By the end of this term, you will be amazed at how much we have learned and shared with each other.  It is my hope that we are able to form a caring community within this online environment that assists one another and that is responsible to one another.  I look forward to an exciting and stimulating course.  I hope you are as well.