English 2F - Children's Lit Purpose: To analyze the messages, hidden and overt, in a child's text; to examine how illustrations and text work together to promote a certain ideology, or view of the world; tonalyze a text as a reflection of cultural attitudes about children and childhood. Directions: 1. Review the material from Module 3 about analysis in general, and picture book analysis in particular. 2. Choose a book to analyze. Go to the bibliographies posted in the resources for this module, or feel free to choose another picture book. Any picture book will do, as long as it features illustrations as prominently as text. You can visit your local library or bookstore for suggestions if you are stumped for a book. Our own reference librarians are excellent resouces for picture books as well. 2. Write at least 4-6 (more is okay) pages discussing your interpretation of the book. For a thesis (the main idea of your essay) you can give your overall impression of the messages revealed in the book. Make sure you give a thorough description of both the text and the illustrations in your analysis.
3. Remember: what the author chooses not to include is sometimes as relevant as what the author does include. The absence of the father figure in many texts is a good illustration of this principle, but you can apply this to other elements. For example, if all the characters in a story are white, with no other races or ethnicities represented, what message does the absence of diversity send to the child and/or adults reading the story? This is just one example, but you get the idea. 4. MLA format counts! Please review the resource on MLA guidelines for basic paper formatting. If you use any resources other than the picture book, you will need to include citations giving credit to the author/s. 4. Submit your response to the assignments chamber as an attachment. 5. Extra Credit Option: Post your response to the extra credit forums. You will receive extra credit if you post your response and/or respond to at least one other student's posting. |