Midterm Study Guide and Extra Credit

We will go over the midterm study guide today in class. I will also email the document to you. If you cannot attend class today, please make sure you consult this guide. The midterm is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27, our last meeting before spring break. The midterm cannot be made up, so please make sure you attend!

Also, a note about extra credit: At the end of each chapter in Reading Children's Literature, there are "Suggested Activities." You may complete a total of two of these before Thursday, April 10 for 10 points each. They may be submitted before April 10, but that is the last day I will accept them. I will not accept any more than two Suggested Activities. 20 points is the maximum amount of extra credit you can earn. Simply completing the Suggested Activities does not guarantee the full 20; they must be completed thoughtfully and thoroughly to merit the extra credit.

If your chosen Selected Activities require written responses only, you may submit them to me via email at catherine.e.kyle@wmich.edu. If they require additional components, please bring your work to class or leave it in my mailbox (marked "Bailey Kyle") on the 6th floor of Sprau.

Let me know if you have questions!

Supplementary Readings updated

Be sure to check out the "Supplementary Readings" page for links to the work of Molly Bang and Scott McCloud relevant to our class.

Discussion Questions for February 11

Discussion Questions: “Race, Ethnicity, and Culture,” “Printz Award Winner Speech,” American Born Chinese, and The Snowy Day

Small Group Work/Class Discussion: “Race, Ethnicity, and Culture”

1.     Hintz and Tribunella state that early representations of people of color “bolstered their creator[s’] confidence in the racial hierarchies they embraced” (346). How do visual representations do this? What about other kinds of representations (characters’ personalities, behaviors, etc.)?

2.     What is the difference between “race” and “ethnicity,” as explained by Hintz and Tribunella? Why might cultural studies scholars have differentiated between them?

3.     Hintz and Tribunella state that some works “suggest that the ‘ethnic’ child or family is really just like the unmarked ‘mainstream’ family underneath superficial cultural differences, while other works emphasize the uniqueness of identity and experience” (355). What are the advantages and drawbacks to each of these approaches?

4.     Hintz and Tribunella quote Michael Cart: “Can a writer’s imagination be powerful enough to create a viable work of fiction about a culture the writer has observed only from the outside?” (359). What do you think? Furthermore, what are the implications of believing that imagination is powerful enough to do this?

5.     Hintz and Tribunella observe that perspective greatly affects the impact of a story (364). How do the three perspectives of American Born Chinese affect its representation of race and ethnicity?

6.     To what extent do you think problematic, even racist texts, can be “reclaimed”?

Small Group Work/Class Discussion: “Printz Award Winner Speech”

1.     Yang asks himself, “By going from library to library and school to school, evangelizing librarians and teachers on the virtues of graphic novels, was I robbing comics of their cool?” (11). To what extent do you agree that this might be a concern? What does this imply about the relationship between young adults (particularly intermediate readers, grades 4-8) and adults?

2.     Yang asserts, “In a data-rich society like twenty-first-century America, we need information experts to prevent complex ideas from condensing into polarized, essentially meaningless sound bites” (12). To what extent do you agree that young readers need “information experts” to help them navigate complex texts? To what extent do you think authors have a responsibility to acknowledge the ways in which complex ideas condense into “meaningless sound bites”? Should they adjust their texts accordingly?

3.     Yang states that those who choose to work with young adults “enlisted […] in the frontlines” of the struggle to encourage media literacy and discourage snap judgments in readers. As future teachers, to what extent do you agree? What are some strategies for accomplishing this?

Small Group Work/Class Discussion: The Snowy Day

1.     What are you first impressions of The Snowy Day, in light of our discussions?

2.     Remember that this text was authored and illustrated by a Jewish American man. Does this knowledge change your interpretation of the text? Why or why not?

3.     Consider the opposing arguments about The Snowy Day on pages 374-375 of Hintz and Tribunella. Do you agree with one set more than the other? Why or why not?

4.     To what extent should the author’s intentions be taken into account when evaluating the problematic implications of a text?

Yang's Printz Award speech

Hi class,

I sent out this reading as a PDF. Please check your wmich.edu email to receive it. See you next week!

Discussion Questions for February 6

Discussion Questions: American Born Chinese

Small Group Work for Everyone (using handouts)

1.     In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud points out that “participation is a powerful force in any medium” and that viewers “use their imaginations” when reading comics, especially when filling in the gutters between panels (68-69). Find at least one gutter in American Born Chinese that lends itself to multiple interpretations and discuss some of these potential interpretations.

2.     On pages 70-72 of Understanding Comics, McCloud theorizes six different types of transitions that can occur between panels. See how many of these you can find in what we have read of American Born Chinese so far.

Small Group Work for Individual Groups

1.     How does the Monkey King’s relationship with his subjects change in this section? His relationship with the other deities?

2.     Consider the Monkey King’s interactions with Tze-Yo-Tzuh. What is the Monkey King’s “tragic flaw”? To what extent do you think he got what he deserved?

3.     Jin is now in seventh grade. How do we see his relationship with gender and attraction developing? How does this influence his ideas about himself?

4.     Where do you see instances of racism, either external or internal, in Jin’s storyline for this section?

5.     How does Yang develop Wei-Chen’s character in this section?

6.     Comment on the relationship between Jin and Greg. How does Greg affect Jin?

7.     Consider the behavior of Chin-Kee in this section. How does Yang develop ideas about stereotypes and racism through Chin-Kee’s skills and actions? Take into account both text and image in your reading.

8.     How is Danny’s character developed in this section, especially with regard to attraction and friendship?

9.     Appearance is a theme in all three storylines for today. What commonalities do you see between the Monkey King, Jin, and Danny’s concerns about appearance?

Class Discussion

1.      Anne Shirley, the narrator of A Maze Me, and Jin are all in middle school for some portion of their respective texts. How are their experiences similar? How are they dissimilar?

2.     How do Anne, the narrator of A Maze Me, and the characters in American Born Chinese differ in their attitudes toward authority figures?

3.     Both Anne of Green Gables and American Born Chinese deal with themes of conformity and rebellion. In what ways do protagonists conform? In what ways do they rebel? Do they share any motivations in their acts of rebellion and/or conformity?

An Introduction to Comics Terminology

Please familiarize yourself with these terms for our discussion of American Born Chinese. 

Panel: A single drawing on a page, often contained within a box.

Gutter: The space between panels.

Tier: A row of panels.

Page: A single page.

Spread: Two facing pages and/or an image that spans more than one page.

Braiding: Similar to a motif in literature, this refers to images that are repeated throughout a graphic narrative to create a thematic effect. 

Speech balloon: The words that come out of characters’ mouths, often accompanied by a tail (the part that points to the character’s mouth).

Caption: Words removed from speech balloons, but still often contained in boxes, that often indicate the narrator’s voice.

Sound effects: Words existing outside of speech balloons that indicate noises taking place.

Motion lines: Lines that indicate motion.

Close up: A zoomed-in representation of something.

Long shot: A zoomed-out representation of something.

Also, please find a link to Molly Bang's presentation under Supplemental Readings.