Final Discussions for Children's Literature: Thread One
Threads will remain open until midnight Sunday, July 31.
Here you have the final examination for Children's Literature from a few terms ago in the face-to-face class; use this document as a point of departure for your discussion over poetry; and do not try to deal with all the material in a single posting. And, of course, you need not write an essay.
Listen to the poetry videos on the Week Eight posting on the class blog.
Instead, use the following prompt as a point of departure to discuss poems you read this week--feel free as well to share other poems.
Begin your essay with a effective introduction in which you state your beliefs, using strong assertions; you will support your convictions in the remainder of the essay, using the poems of your choice--and you can mention others, by way of examples, in addition to those assigned--to illustrate you points.
Begin with the premise that children's poetry holds the keys to the kingdom of children's experience.
Consider, for example, the following quotations about nonsense poetry:
"For children, then, nonsense is not no sense; rather, it is a confirmation of experience and expansion of experience" (68).
"The sounds of words and the taste of them on the tongue are major sources of nonsense."
And take into consideration, too, the following quotations about children's poetry:
"Not a nostalgic reminiscence about childhood for adults, it is rather a celebration of childhood--as gritty and stimulating as it is--for all children."
"Traditional subject matter is still treated, but now with a recognition of the social concerns and sophistication of today's children. For example, the blithe interpreters of nature have been displaced by those who explore their subject with greater seriousness, even probing the darker side of existence" (92).
Write an essay, using as well ideas from the introductory material from our text, discussing one poem in each of the following sections for a total of four poems. I will pick one or the other, so you must prepare all eight for class. You can use your book:
Either on "Baby, Baby, Naughty Baby " (1134) or "The Little Orphan" (1136)
Either on "My Bed is a Boat" (1189) or "The Swing" (1189)
Either on "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" (1155) or "Jabberwocky" (1158-9)
Either on "Saturday Night Late" (1269) or "I'm a Parrot" (1290)
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