Objectives FROM PREVIOUS ITERATION -- subject to moderate changes! Spiritual Journeys in Young Adult Literature has a number of learning objectives: Some focus on tangible knowledge and skills while others are more abstract and long-term. All learning activities in the course rely and/or build upon one or more of these objectives. After looking them over, we encourage you to reflect on how these learning objectives coincide or differ from your personal goals for the course. Why should you care about this course? This class challenges you to: reflect on different attitudes to spirituality and adolescence; investigate your own spiritual journey; explore your relationship to your childhood and adolescence; reflect on the role of reading in your life; understand how and why others think and belief differently; examine what others' beliefs teach you about your place in the world; consider what you would want to give your child to read and why. What knowledge can you obtain in this course? You should learn to: identify basic socio-historical conditions that shape our thinking about spirituality and young adult literature; know different approaches to literature and their limitations; understand how children's studies draws from other disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, history, women's studies); understand motivations behind critical writing and academic debates. What skills can you acquire in this course? Critical thinking and writing In this course, you will have the opportunity to develop and practice critical thinking and writing skills. It helps you to improve your ability to: analyze moral and social values that underlie young adult fiction evaluate critical approaches to spirituality and young adult fiction challenge your assumptions and beliefs; explore new ways of thinking; develop your own ideas about young adult literature productively engage the ideas of fellow students. The writing assignments will help you develop the technical competencies necessary to communicate the results of your thinking effectively, such as these: defining strong thesis statements; composing strong and clear arguments in support of the thesis; considering challenges and counterarguments; editing your paper. Manage team projects Most workplaces require you to work with others. The team project will give you a chance to develop skills necessary for planning and executing a successful project including: define goals; identify resources; develop project execution plan; distribute work fairly; co-author a proposal and a presentation. IHow will this course help me see connections? This course encourages you to: connect your believes and academic interests; make connections between different academic disciplines; integrate knowledge from other fields; relate the material to your own life. How can this course help me be a better learner? This course give you an opportunity to: identify and cultivate what really interests you; develop your strengths and improve your weaknesses; experience how a continuous writing practice can be very productive and fun.