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ADLA108 Children's Literature for Literacy

10 cp

Children's literature is an essential part of literacy education. Therefore, this unit will introduce preservice early childhood and primary educators to the corpus of children's literature that encompasses the variety of literary genres, contemporary melded genres, traditional tales, picture books, post-modern picture books, screen based literature and e-books as well as poetry. These will be considered from historical, socio-cultural and post-structural perspectives and will include multicultural literature. This unit is designed to develop and deepen preservice early childhood and primary educators' knowledge of children's literature. The approaches to learning in this unit will include individual and multiple perspectives on learning about children's literature, and a consideration of student difference and interests, and the significance this has for their learning. Preservice early childhood and primary educators will consider contexts and strategies for responding to, thinking about and critiquing children’s literature within a basis of literary, semiotic and language theories. The unit will also consider Indigenous literature, enabling preservice educators to acknowledge Indigenous Australians' deep spiritual relationship with the land, and value and respect Indigenous cultures. It will offer opportunities for preservice early childhood and primary educators to read widely, develop critical habits of mind, consider what constructs quality children’s literature, and participate in discussions with deep understanding, within a framework that engages the social and ethical dimensions of study and research.