The University of Winnipeg:
Final Examination

STARTING TIME: April 5, 2000 at 6:00 p.m. DURATION: 3 HRS

DEPARTMENT, COURSE NO. & SEC. NO.: English 17: 2116/3-050

COURSE TITLE: Canadian Children's Literature

EXAMINER: Perry Nodelman

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

This examination consists of four sequential parts:

1. Discussion, 1 hour
2. Writing, 45 minutes
3. Small group discussion, about 45 minutes
4. Writing, about half an hour

The exam will be evaluated as a whole--no specific portion of the grade is assigned to the individual questions. The evaluation will take into account your mastery of the skills and strategies encouraged throughout the course:

• your knowledge of the material
• your willingness and ability to think analytically about literature and ideas about literature
• the persuasiveness of your opinions--your ability to present appropriate evidence and logical arguments to support them

You may bring texts and notes with you into the test room.

1: DISCUSSION (one hour)

1. You have been asked to read Tim Wynne Jones's The Maestro. The class will divide into groups, ideally of four people each. Within your group, explore ways in which The Maestro might be seen to be expressing the characteristics whose recurrence we have been noticing in "mainstream" texts of Canadian children's literature. You should also explore ways in which the novel might be seen to be diverging from those characteristics. Your discussion should focus on specific details in both The Maestro and other texts we have read during the course.

2: WRITING (forty-five minutes)

2. Consider the significance of what you explored in the discussion. How might your perception of shared characteristics or their absence in The Maestro influence your understanding of one or more of the following:

• the text itself--its meaning and its value.
• the distinctive features of literature intended for audiences of children and/or young adults.
• the distinctive features of the Canadian identity and/or writing produced in Canada.
• the distinctive nature of Canadian children's literature.
• the place of Canadian books in the lives of Canadian children.
• the significance in literary education for children and/or adults of developing schema of shared characteristics of groups of texts.

It's not necessarily a wise choice to attempt to cover all these topics. The most valuable answers are likely to be the ones that discuss specific matters as specifically as possible. Concentrate on the topics that interest or perplex you most, and explore them as thoroughly as you can by means of detailed descriptions of thoughts and experiences.

3: DISCUSSION (approximately forty-five minutes)

Return to your group, and read and discuss what you have written so far to each other. The object of the discussion is for everyone to enrich everyone else's understanding--so make sure that you have enough time for a consideration of all four of your answers. Your goal is to provide each other with feedback: express responses to each other's ideas, suggest gaps that might be filled, explore disagreements and their implications, suggest further paths that might be followed.

4: WRITING (approximately half an hour)

Discuss how you might use each other's responses to what you have written in order to deepen your understanding of The Maestro and/or reading and responding to Canadian children's literature in general. You might either further develop the matters you discussed before or further consider the other aspects suggested by your colleagues. If you believe that nothing said in the discussion suggested any worthwhile paths for you to follow, explain why, through discussion of the specific comments made and issues raised by your colleagues.

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