The course proposes to provide students with basic knowledge on the main cultural and historical-literary paths of children's literature, as well as on pedagogical and psycho-pedagogical references regarding the evolutionary lines of early childhood, which specifically concern reading.

The objectives pursued are:

• Knowledge and understanding the complexity of children's literature
• Knowledge and understanding traditional fairy tales and their variants
• Evaluate the literature for children that promotes, generates otherness and empathic relationships
• Apply interpretative tools of the plurality of expressive modes of children's literature
• Knowledge and understanding childhood portraits
• Understanding the importance of adopting an attitude characterized by an attentive gaze and an observational posture in the context of early childhood
• Knowledge and understanding the importance of the care to be devoted to the time (a fundamental pedagogical variable) dedicated to stories / reading
• Knowledge and understanding the importance of the environment as a "third educator" (spaces, structures and furnishings)
• Knowledge and understanding the importance of listening as comfort, safety, acceptance of children's expressions
• To be able to communicate the centrality of storytelling and reading aloud
• Knowledge and knowing how to use the variety of text types that make up the current panorama of narratives aimed at children, including digital ones
• Knowledge resources for children's literature made available on the internet (archives, collections, online libraries, catalogs, websites of children's literature publishing houses, ...), knowing how to evaluate and use them also for their own updating
• Making judgments to critical evaluate the children's editorial productions, including the digital ones.

Detailed information and materials will be indicated and / or made available on the Moodle platform.

The program is divided into three main parts: one part is dedicated to the theoretical and foundational aspects of children's literature, studied in depth during lessons and in the study texts; one part is dedicated to the fairy tale, with reference to the indicated collections; another part is aimed to analize the contemporary children's literature and the reading at daycare and preschool.

The course includes 20 lessons of 2 hours each, according to the following scheme:

1st Literature for children: introductory notes and presentation of materials.
2 ° Complexity of children's literature, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, imaginary and control processes.
3rd, 4th, 5th Focus on the fairy tale genre, on metaphors and themes involving childhood, its history, the icons of childhood identity. Reading and comparison between different versions of traditional fairy tales taken from the following collections: Charles Perrault (1697) Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Tales of Mother Goose); Carlo Collodi (1876) The fairy tales; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812) All fairy tales; Italo Calvino (1956) Italian fairy tales collected from popular tradition during the last hundred years and transcribed into the language of the various dialects.
6th, 7th, 8th The perspective of Gianni Rodari: Folk tales as raw material; Propp's cards; The child as the protagonist; "Taboo" stories; The child who listens to fairy tales.
9th, 10th Children's literature to promote and generate otherness and empathic relationships. Children's literature as an observer of childhood; self-observation; listening to the expressions of the children;
11th, 12th, 13th Fundamental pedagogical variables in the context of early childhood education services: the time to devote to stories, to reading for pleasure; the space / environment as a "third educator". The educational alliance with families to promote reading aloud and the centrality of storytelling.
14th, 15th, 16th Literature for the little ones, reading with the little ones. Panorama of narratives aimed at early childhood: lullabies, spiel, nursery rhymes, poems, stories halfway between fiction and biographical tale, ... through: illustrated books, wordless picturebooks, wimmelbuch, non fiction picturebooks, postmodern picturebook, book apps, audio books, scanned books. Rhymes and onomatopoeias.
17th, 18th Literature for children, multimodality, implications for reading.
19th The compasses of children's literature on the Internet.
20 ° Review of an illustrated book in English: indications. Course summary.

There are no bridging courses.

• Knowledge and understanding of the theoretical and foundational aspects of children's literature and fairy tales according to the reading of classical and contemporary authors
• Applying knowledge and understanding to the preparation of educational paths of literature for children and theoretically motivated reading
• Making judgments as the ability to critically grasp / compare / relate themes and representations of childhood in children's literature; and autonomy of judgment as the ability to evaluate / select quality narrative proposals
• Communication skills as the ability to analize the contents of literature / narration for children and reading, with relevance, clarity, coherence and order; as well as awareness of a specific attention to the quality of communication in the narrative context
• Learning skills such as the ability to independently and critically re-elaborate proposed texts and materials.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching support tools: slides; video interviews; printed books; electronic books; movie; videotutorial.

Teaching

Lesson; critical reading and analysis of printed and digital materials; watching videos, movies.

Attendance

Attendance is not obligatory.

Course books

For all students (attending and non-attending)

Theoretical study texts: 2 course books + 1 course book chapter as indicated below:

Bernardi Milena. 2016. Letteratura per l'infanzia e alterità. Incanti, disincanti, ambiguità, tracce. Milano:Franco Angeli.

Carioli Stefania. 2018. Narrazioni digitali nella letteratura per l'infanzia. Milano:Franco Angeli.

Bernardi Milena. 2016. All’improvviso qualcosa accade! Osservare il racconto, raccontare l’osservazione, contributo in volume, in L. Balduzzi, T. Pironi, (eds.), L'osservazione al nido, una lente a più dimensioni per educare lo sguardo. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Fairy tales taken from the following collections, as per the indications provided on Moodle and during the lessons:

Charles Perrault (1697) Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Racconti di mamma Oca); Carlo Collodi (1876) I racconti delle Fate. 

Jacob e Wilhelm Grimm (1812) Tutte le fiabe.

Italo Calvino (1956) Fiabe italiane raccolte dalla tradizione popolare durante gli ultimi cento anni e trascritte in lingua dai vari dialetti.

The following chapters taken from Grammatica della fantasia (1973) by Gianni Rodari:

15. Le fiabe popolari come materia prima
22. Le carte di Propp
33. Il bambino come protagonista
34. Storie «tabù»
38. Il bambino che ascolta le fiabe

1 picturebook in English chosen among the following *:

1) Little Bear  
2) Where the wild things are 
3) My mom  
4) Zoo
5) Little blue and little yellow: a story for Pippo and Ann and other children
6) Fish Is Fish
7) Frederick
8) The biggest house in the world
 9) Theodore and the talking mushroom
10) The girl in red
11) Erika's story
12) Rose Blanche
13) Each peach pear 
14) Guess how much I love you 
15) Bark, George

* On the Moodle platform will be made available the URL to directly obtain the digitized versions to borrow and consult. Only the title in English appears in the list because authors, illustrators, year of publication, publishing house, in English and Italian will be the subject of research, as specified in the assessment procedures.

Assessment

Written exam with 2 open-ended questions and 1 cloze on the texts in the program and on the fairy tale genre starting from the collections and perspectives examined.

In addition, the creation of an activity on 1 English picturebook among those indicated in the list will be required. Precise indications will be included in the outline made available on the Moodle platform and will be provided during the lessons. The activity must be delivered on Moodle platform (task function) by the date of the test.

The aspects which will be verified and evaluated are:
- knowledge, understanding and application of the theoretical references of children's literature;
- accrued critical and methodological skills;
- acquisition of interpretative tools that allow a problematic and non-mnemonic approach to the complexity of the discipline seen also from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective;
- ability to apply (contextualize) their knowledge to the specific framework of early childhood services;
- expressive mastery and properties of specific language.

The assessment will be expressed out of thirty. The assessment criteria and relative scores will be determined according to the following scale:
30 and 30 cum laude: in the case of an excellent level of competence of the expected learning outcomes
27-29: in the case of a very good level of the expected learning outcomes
24-26: in the case of a good level of the expected learning outcomes
21-23: in the case of a fully sufficient level of the expected learning outcomes
18-20: in case of sufficient level of expected learning outcomes
less than 18: in the case of insufficient level of the expected learning outcomes

Duration of the test: 40 minutes.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

There are no differences compared to what is expected for attending students. For non-attending students it is particularly recommended to consult the detailed information and materials that will be indicated and / or made available on the Moodle platform.

Attendance

Attendance is not obligatory.

Course books

There are no differences compared to what is expected for attending students. For non-attending students it is particularly recommended to consult the detailed information and materials that will be indicated and / or made available on the Moodle platform.

Theoretical study texts: 2 course books + 1 course book chapter as indicated below:

Bernardi Milena. 2016. Letteratura per l'infanzia e alterità. Incanti, disincanti, ambiguità, tracce. Milano:Franco Angeli.

Carioli Stefania. 2018. Narrazioni digitali nella letteratura per l'infanzia. Milano:Franco Angeli.

Bernardi Milena. 2016. All’improvviso qualcosa accade! Osservare il racconto, raccontare l’osservazione, contributo in volume, in L. Balduzzi, T. Pironi, (eds.), L'osservazione al nido, una lente a più dimensioni per educare lo sguardo. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Fairy tales taken from the following collections, as per the indications provided on Moodle and during the lessons:

Charles Perrault (1697) Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Racconti di mamma Oca); Carlo Collodi (1876) I racconti delle Fate. 

Jacob e Wilhelm Grimm (1812) Tutte le fiabe.

Italo Calvino (1956) Fiabe italiane raccolte dalla tradizione popolare durante gli ultimi cento anni e trascritte in lingua dai vari dialetti.

The following chapters taken from Grammatica della fantasia (1973) by Gianni Rodari:

15. Le fiabe popolari come materia prima
22. Le carte di Propp
33. Il bambino come protagonista
34. Storie «tabù»
38. Il bambino che ascolta le fiabe

1 picturebook in English chosen among the following *:

1) Little Bear  
2) Where the wild things are 
3) My mom  
4) Zoo
5) Little blue and little yellow: a story for Pippo and Ann and other children
6) Fish Is Fish
7) Frederick
8) The biggest house in the world
 9) Theodore and the talking mushroom
10) The girl in red
11) Erika's story
12) Rose Blanche
13) Each peach pear 
14) Guess how much I love you 
15) Bark, George

* On the Moodle platform will be made available the URL to directly obtain the digitized versions to borrow and consult. Only the title in English appears in the list because authors, illustrators, year of publication, publishing house, in English and Italian will be the subject of research, as specified in the assessment procedures.

Assessment

There are no differences compared to what is expected for attending students.

Written exam with 2 open-ended with 2 open-ended questions and 1 cloze on the texts in the program and on the fairy tale genre starting from the collections and perspectives examined.

In addition, the creation of an activity on 1 English picturebook among those indicated in the list will be required. Precise indications will be included in the outline made available on the Moodle platform and will be provided during the lessons. The activity must be delivered on Moodle platform (task function) by the date of the test.

The aspects which will be verified and evaluated are:
- knowledge, understanding and application of the theoretical references of children's literature;
- accrued critical and methodological skills;
- acquisition of interpretative tools that allow a problematic and non-mnemonic approach to the complexity of the discipline seen also from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective;
- ability to apply (contextualize) their knowledge to the specific framework of early childhood services;
- expressive mastery and properties of specific language.

The assessment will be expressed out of thirty. The assessment criteria and relative scores will be determined according to the following scale:
30 and 30 cum laude: in the case of an excellent level of competence of the expected learning outcomes
27-29: in the case of a very good level of the expected learning outcomes
24-26: in the case of a good level of the expected learning outcomes
21-23: in the case of a fully sufficient level of the expected learning outcomes
18-20: in case of sufficient level of expected learning outcomes
less than 18: in the case of insufficient level of the expected learning outcomes

Duration of the test: 40 minutes.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.