This course was taken in Fall 2020 with Dr. Chris McGee. The purpose of this class was to teach us to look critically at children’s literature. In order to achieve this, my classmates and I had to put aside the notion that children’s media doesn’t have to be good because it is made for kids. During this course, we read many children’s novels from a variety of genres, including horror, mystery, and comedy. Because I was exposed to so many different types of children’s books, I realized that adults tend to view children’s literature as simple, when in reality these books come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some of them good, and some of them really bad.

Overall, I believe this course has fully prepared me to pick out productive literature for my future elementary school students. I have learned that even some children’s authors push their ideologies and/or beliefs into the works they are creating. This is why it is important for adults to be able to recognize when these things appear in children’s media, and encourage children to have critical conversations when they do, no matter their age.

The artifact I have chosen for this course is a presentation I made about the movie Moana. For this assignment, my classmates and I were tasked with finding a productive piece of children’s media. Children’s films or literature are considered to be productive when the children or characters displayed are complex and self reliant. Productive works may also go against ideologies; the movie Moana does this very well.