Open+Invitation

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Now Open: Learning Through Literature with Young Adults
You’re invited to participate in the open online ECI 521: Learning Through Literature with Young Adults, beginning May 19 and ending June 20.

Open? Yes, open because anyone anywhere can join and there is no fee to participate. It’s an NC State University graduate course with registered NC State students earning credit while anyone interested in young adult literature may join, participate, and contribute. The course will include synchronous (Google Hangouts and Google on Air) and asynchronous (blogs, Twitter, VoiceThread) interaction. You can participate to any degree you’d like. All we ask is that you share generously as you learn.

Essentially, the course works as a sandbox for developing new literacies while exploring vital topic/themes in the teaching of literature for young adults. We’re fortunate to have the award-winning Eva Perry Mock Printz Club (2009 American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for Best Teen Literature Program in the US) share their top picks of the year and join us in the Melinda Awards for Young Adult Literature, a huge Oscars-theme production streamed live on the Web.

Course Description
In ECI 521: Learning Through Literature with Young Adults, we explore the realities of teen life, literature, literacy, and learning in the 21st century. We do this through a partnership with an award-winning teen book club and by learning to integrate new literacies and technologies to engage and inspire students and ourselves. Both preservice and inservice teachers and librarians will benefit from learning how to encourage multiple responses to literature, to think critically about contemporary issues in the teaching of literature for young adults, and to design literature-based projects that encourage interdisciplinary learning through literature.

Standards-Based Outcomes
An educator will demonstrate successful completion of this course by __Professional Self__ integrating learning, literacy, and literary theories to create learning experiences that engage young adults in learning about curriclum, social justice, critical literacy, and creativity through literature __Literate Self__ modeling a fully and actively literate individual through transactions with ltierature for young adutls and responses (both personal and critical) in multiple forms and media __Virtual Self__ developing an effective online and inworld identity by learning to integrate new literacies and technologies into learning and teaching

Ways to Participate
Asynchronously -- keep an eye on our Twitter stream **#bookhenge** to see trending topics as we read, blog, and respond in multiple ways. Join in when you see topics of interest. You'll hopefully be inspired to read, blog, and respond yourself. See the course outline and calendar below for information about the general topics covered. Course participants will create the curriculum.

Synchronously -- join us for our LIVE Classes most Thursdays from 7 to 8:30 pm ET. We meet in a Google Hangout and also stream the session live.

Asynchronously & Synchronously -- Virtual Book Clubs -- we'll begin by selecting books from Eva Perry's winners and the official Printz Award Committee's 2014 winners. For-credit students read these independently and create blog posts, video/audio slide show responses, or bookcasts -- the goal is to have the freedom to respond through artistic expression. Please choose books you'd like to read and enjoy the bookcasts that students create. You may be inspired to try your hand at bookcasting, too. It's great fun to screen these before the class in a Google Hangout. We're also explore the nonfiction and sequential art (graphic novels) plus pedagogical pattern, collaborative critical inquiries, and how we can use these to teach the Common Core and more creatively. We'll also throughout the course focus on compelling questions related to social justice and positive social change. We call this part of the course, The Change Project and we can all contribute in some way

How to Join!
Email me, Cris Crissman, to join or ask questions at decrissm@ncsu.edu