Explore the World of Literature, Media, and Text for Children and Young Adults this SUMMER 2017 at JSC

From Picture Books to Graphic Novels, From Paper to the Internet, From Fairy Tales to Informational Texts - Our World Is Powered By Story and Image; Our Culture Is Electric!

Support Engaged Learning &
Exploring With Well Chosen Books!

Earn Three Grad Credits on Four Mondays In July!

Great For Teachers and Future Teachers towards your degree, license renewal, or professional development 

Dates:  July 10^th, July 17^th, July 24^th, July 31^st 

Class Time: 8:30 am -5:00 pm

CLICK HERE for a link to the JSC Summer 2017 Course Catalog!

PLEASE REGISTER SOON FOR THIS CLASS!!!   EDU-5015-JH01 - Lit, Media and Text for Children and Young Adults -  The link to the course catalog above will tell you many ways to register for this class, or you can call 802-635-1677 to speak with Ashley Cormier at JSC's Registrar's Office!  REGISTRATION ENDS BY JUNE 26!

Instructor:

Morna Flaum

My name is Morna Flaum.  I am part time faculty at Johnson State College, where I have been teaching about Literature and Media for Children and Youth since 2009.
Click here to see comments that my previous students posted on the bottom of this post linked here.
I want this class to help you teach at your best in the years to come.  During the course you will develop a text set that will be core to what you teach, who you teach, where you teach.

Some Topics We Will Explore This July:

Literary Genres and Awards
How Stories Work, Tale Origins, and Cultural Contexts of Retellings 
Surface Features and Internal Structures of Informational Text 
How To Find, Choose, and Use Media for Teaching
How to Engage Students with Visual Thinking Strategies
Evaluating Texts for their Qualitative & Quantitative Complexity
Surfacing Hidden Assumptions: Critical Multicultural and Equity Issues
Overview & Exploration of Critical Academic Journals

Study Children's Literature Summer 2015

Summer Inspiration!
Course Numbers:
EDU-3110-JH01 Lit for Children (undergrad)
EDU-5020-JH01 Lit for Children (graduate)
Johnson State College
Registrar 802-635-1677

REGISTRATION OPEN NOW, but registration closes May 29th!!!

Who Should Take This Class?  This class is perfect for both graduate students and undergraduates.   EDP students are very welcome!   This class is also great for professionals who are already teaching but would like an inspirational way to explore and refresh while earning continuing education credit for certification renewal! 

Hybrid Class Format allows great flexibility and plenty of time for independent work.  

Hybrid Format:   We will meet on campus a total of 24 hours (four 6-hour sessions) at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont.  The campus sessions run 10am-4pm on four Saturdays (June 13, June 20, June 27 and August 1). 

Then, during July we will not meet in person, but there will be several online discussions to help us maintain our connection and share insights into some of the readings.  I've designed the course so that you have plenty of time during July to complete all the coursework and the main project.  If you want to squeeze in your family vacation there should be plenty of time for that too!

Why A Hybrid Format?  The first three class meetings in June will allow a great deal of hands-on exploration of children's literature to establish broad understandings and context.  Then, in July, we'll have a few online discussions about shared readings, but mostly you will have the whole month to complete your project work on your own.  I can support your work via email and phone check-ins for one-on-one advice as needed.  Our final meeting, on August 1, is to share our work with each other and to finish up our discussions in person.

Teacher?  My name is Morna Flaum. I am an adjunct professor at Johnson State College, where I've been teaching Children's Literature since 2009. I am also writing a dragonbook myself!  Through the years I have taught a variety of courses at Johnson State College at the undergraduate and graduate level.  See some comments from my previous students of Children's Literature here.

Course Content:  This course will help you learn how to choose, use and combine picture books, informational books, and all levels and genres of children's and young adult literature throughout the curriculum and across all content areas. We'll examine new genres, multicultural literature, peritextual design elements, postmodern picturebooks, new media, scholarly articles and aesthetic criticism.  This field is truly exhilarating and you absolutely always have fun with it!  Send me an email and I'll answer all your questions: morna.flaum@jsc.edu. 



Personalized Assignments:   I want this class to be very useful to you.  The  assignments of the course are geared to helping you find the literature you need to teach your best in the year to come.  During the course you will develop a text set that will be core to what you teach, who you teach, where you teach. 

Registration is through Johnson State College.  Call JSC Johnson State College Registrar's Office - 802-635-1677.

Summer 2014

Earn three elective credits towards your master's degree and/or as continuing education towards renewing your teacher certification.  

Who?  Morna Flaum is an adjunct professor at Johnson State College since 2009.   Morna is a writer and teaches a variety of courses at Johnson State College at the undergraduate and graduate level.  

What We Do: Learn how to choose and use picture books, informational books and all varieties of children's literature and/or young adult literature throughout the curriculum, across all content areas. Learn to choose and use literature to enhance and support student motivation.  Send me an email and I'll answer all your questions: morna.flaum@jsc.edu. 



Personalized Assignments:   I want this class to be very useful to you.  The main assignments of the course are geared to helping you find the literature you need to teach your best in the year to come.  The main assignment is to develop a text set that will be core to your teaching, what you teach, who you teach, where you teach. 

Registration is through Johnson State College.  Call JSC Johnson State College Registrar's Office - 802-635-1677.

More About Me

See the great comments below from my wonderful former students!
Who?  Morna Flaum is an adjunct professor at Johnson State College since 2009.   Morna is a writer and teaches a variety of courses at Johnson State College at the undergraduate and graduate level.  

If you are interested in taking a 3 credit graduate course on Children's Literature & Media with me this summer email me at morna.flaum@jsc.edu to get more information!  I will get right back to you!
   
Registration is through Johnson State College. 

Enjoy your summer! Recharge and fill your imagination with great stories, brave characters, interesting facts and strong teaching ideas! 
More about me: 
My approach allows each person in my class to find books specially tailored to their needs as teachers, readers or parents.  I show my students how to use the many library references and indexes and other resources to comb through children's literature and find "exact fit" books for any topic, any child, any special need.  I embed all the tools I demonstrate into the class projects, and help my students build text sets that truly nurture inquiry learning and the wider imaginative needs of deep learning.  There are no big papers to write for this class, it is all about delving into genre, special children's lit and young adult lit topics, building text sets and examining the professional journals that can enhance and enlighten critical inquiry into children's and adolescent's literature.  There are so many ways to develop text sets to strengthen math, science, history and interdisciplinary teaching. 

I teach as a very hands-on teacher and learner who honors process learning.  I would love to hear from you.  

Let's Hear it for Social Democracy

To me it just makes sense, that many people living together, like say 300 million, need some way of making it OK for human needs to be met at a basic level.  I mean, how often do 300 million cannibalistic lions get along without slicing it all up?   When you have a certain number of old people, little babies, and people who've lived longer than they would on their own in a jungle, you need to make some efforts to ensure that some of the quicksand is paved over.  We're not trying to take your toys away, we're just saying that life doesn't have to be this dirty, low and cruel.  Please find your heart and figure out what it is for.

Book By My Side

In line with my first post -- check out David Sobel's work.  One of his books, paged through but not read yet, Children's Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood.  It is great to be reaffirmed in knowing the nature of our connection to place.  Remember we all started in a small confined secure roundish softish darkish place unless we were bottle babies (need decanting ala Brave New World?).  And remember the urge to be rabbitish (ala Felix Salton and then later Watership Down).  And I'll never forget the autumnal games of gathering piles of leaves and being mama bird in the family nests. 

There will be later posts about maps, and my extensive use of maps in teaching, but I've got to back to my writing now, tucked down into my burrow.

Thanks to my friend Liz who gave me David Sobel's name!

Circus Tents, or Parts Thereof

This spring, as the snow melted, a large black and white striped piece of fabric revealed itself snugged under tons of Vermont winter in the wetlands that parallel the street at the bottom of my driveway.

As the winter thaw progressed . . .

a fragment of circus tent

flapping in the drainage ditch.

Since I know that most stories begin by someone leaving home or a circus or stranger coming to town I spend some time feeling lucky that such an auspicious sign has appeared on the part of my land that signals comings and goings, that connects me to the highway of the world.  Right about now you are probably thinking I am a really cheap date, right?  No, I'm just noticing what strikes me, what stays with me.  I'm picking at those little places that stand out, that feel different.  Is this the call to adventure [hero's journey]?  This little flapping flag that might have been part of a car wash awning, becomes a signal to me from a place of altogether magical otherness.

Here's a bit of story that came from the tent:

* * *

This isn't a book where dumb characters keep waiting for things to happen.  "The holes in the safety net," as my grandma said this morning, "are getting bigger everyday. . . so it's time to find a hole that fits and climb in again."  If I were a circus clown I'd know where to find the net . . . under the tight wire where the gypsy dancers play in the air, but here in my, lets face it, pretty sucky universe, I don't know what it looks like, where they keep it, or even how to begin.

I could start with how this afternoon Ellen just reappeared.  And she's really screwed up, worse than any one I've ever seen.  And I don't know what to do for her.  But she's coming over after dark so I can give her some food.  Grandma will be out with friends, playing cards I bet.  So probably I can let her in.

* * *

I'm thinking how a basic simple metaphor, like safety net, can be such an amorphous concept to a kid who hears grown-ups talk.  But wouldn't it be an absolutely crucial notion for a young person to grasp?  Especially when so many young'uns truly need a safety net.  So, I think like that and wait for stories to come.

What do you think?