Issues of Difference and Diversity in Children’s and YA Literature

TE 448: Issues of Difference and Diversity in Children’s and YA Literature
Social Media Project

Through your class sessions and our in-class discussions, you have begun to engage with timely topics in a critical way, reading and looking for ways in which course themes and topics are prevalent across contemporary conversations, (social) media, and news outlets and in movie or TV reviews or clips, news articles or clips, social media posts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, online conversations, etc.), etc.

As an extension of this assignment, you are now required not just to read some conversation but to become a participant in it. Many of the articles we have read this semester have called on us to be critical producers of knowledge — “social activists” — not just consumers of it. For example, the Haddix article refers to teachers as “agents of change” (p. 253) who “provide young people with tools to critique and question the world around them as they make sense of [school, popular, and media] texts” (p. 254).
With these ideas in mind, the following are the parts of this project.

I. A 2-4 page (double-spaced) Word Doc memo to me that details the following:
● Part 1:
○ What conversation did you choose to participate in?
○ What drew you to this conversation and how did you come across it?
○ How did this conversation evolve as you began tracking it?
● Part 2:
○ How did the course make you think about this conversation? What course concepts or issues did you see embedded in this conversation or bring to it? Use specific quotes from YA novels, class PPs and lectures, AND other preferred outside sources
● Part 3:
○ What did you do? How did you enter into it in a meaningful way?
■ We expect “meaningful engagement” for this project. Therefore, we anticipate you will make 4-6 tweets / posts / comments (whatever the case may be in whatever medium) and over a period of time.
○ Provide a link, screenshot, or some evidence of your participation.

II. A brief presentation (7-10 minutes) to your peers and me that SHOWS the above parts. (Due Weeks 15 & 16 via D2L Dropbox)