children s literature[1]

8/14/2019 Children s Literature[1]

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Bittenbender, Debbie [email protected]

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What is Literature?

Children’s Literature

Created by

Debbie Bittenbender




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What is literature?

• Literature is thought, experiences and imagination shaped

into oral or written language that may include visual

images.

• Literature entertains at the same time gives access to the

accumulated experiences and wisdom of the ages.

• Literature contributes to the reader/listeners growing

experience--extending their knowledge while stimulating

reflection

• Literature explores, orders, evaluates, and illuminates the

human experience--its heights, depths, pains and pleasures.




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The Power of Literature

• Books:• Enriches knowledge

• Broadens background knowledge

• Enhances language and cognitive

development

• Develops imagination and sense of

humor

• Goes beyond everyday experiences

• Provides aesthetic response

• Plays a significant role inchildren’s developmental journey

• Provides problem-solving

alternatives

• Brings joy to children’s lives.




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“By allowing our readers into the soul of a

character we are letting them know more than

life will ever divulge about another human being.”

• Katherine Patterson,

author of Bridge toTerabithia




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Readers make books come alive!

• They relate the text to their own life in order to construct meaning within the

text using the author’s words as meaning cues and constructing meaning for

words based on personal knowledge, associations, and feelings.

• (Rosenblat1978 Smith 1998)

• A reader must bring something to the text in order to take something away

from the text. Thus reading is a TRANSACTIONAL PROCESS.

• Readers response implies active involvement of the reader • Includes both immediate reactions and later effects

• Cultivated through giving occasions to read, discuss, discover,

consider,represent, and reread to make meaning their own.




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Readers and Books

• Appreciating Aesthetics --the beauty readers perceivein a literary work .

• -beauty of language

• -artistic interpretation of experiences, events and

• people

• Books that portray beauty and truth to many people

become classics.

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

• Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatirx Potter

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle




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• Enhances understanding of ourselvesand others

• Books stimulate emotional responses•

We laugh, cry, empathize, feel outraged, gaininsights, feel compassion .• Through stories children encounter death,

love, loneliness, hard times, making toughdecisions,

• Through stories children come to realizeuniversal principles that we all face.

• Enhances understanding of other cultures

• Through stories children learn how people aremore alike than different

• Through stories they develop tolerance for differences.

• Through stories they learn to appreciate theuniqueness of their own stories, customs andtraditions as well as those of others.




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• Developing Imagination• Imagination is creative, constructive power that is definitively linked to

higher order thinking.• Literature demonstrates the range of human imagination.

• Literature nourishes readers creative processes.

• Literature helps readers envision possibilities• Literature such as fantasy, science fiction etc allows children to experience

new worlds and events that they may not want to face in real life.

• Increases Information and Knowledge• Children fascinated by the world around them• Literature gives children a sense of people, animals, time, place, and events

that they could not experience any other way.

• Provides experiences that young readers have not yet experienced for themselves, but may one day be able to have these same experiences.




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• Stimulating Cognition

• Reading is thinking guided by print.

• Literature serves as a sounding board for children’sattempts at reasoning.

• Provides substance for reflection.

• Literature provokes readers to analyze, synthesize,connect, and respond thoughtfully which facilitates

cognitive development.

• Literature is a forum that offers readers diverse

perspectives on familiar topics by giving readers a safemedium for trying different roles, imagining new

settings and puzzling out unique solutions to problems.




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• Provides a Language Model

• Language and thinking are closely interrelated.

• “The ability to think for one’s self depends upon

one’s mastery of the language.” (Didion 1968)

• Literature furnishes a richer model for language

because authors use elaborate sentences and sumptuous

words.

• Literature uses wonderful, rich playful language that

readers take on and try out.




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Literature and the Curriculum

• Integrating literature into the curriculumenhances learning in all subject areas.

• Children learn best:

• -in social situations

• -when content is meaningful

• -is interrelated

• Balanced Reading Instruction

• combines language and literature-rich

activities that enhance meaning ,

understanding and love of literature withexplicit teaching of proficient reading

strategies. It focuses on both words and

comprehension with meaningful reading,

writing and discussion about what is read

and written (Bear & Templeton 1998)

•




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Experiencing Literature

• Four major approaches to creating effective literaryexperiences:

• -Story approach

• -focus on literary elements and genres

• -Great books/classics approach

• - works of established literary value

• -Author approach

• -in-depth studies of authors

• -Unit approach

• -thematic units incorporating various literary genres




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The Teacher and Children’s Literature

• Teachers make the difference

• foster a love of reading

• share wonderful favorite books

• model thinking processes

•create warm literateenvironments

• build communities of learners

• teach how to read and write by

making their thinking visible.




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• Teachers of reading need to:

• -know a wide variety of books written for children

• - more than 6,000 books published a year

• -help children locate developmentally appropriate books based

• on interest

• -recognize qualities of good literature

• -read widely

• -can make informed choices

• -constantly update their units, author and genre studies

• -familiarize themselves with authors

• -provide time for students to grow as readers everyday in a

variety of ways

• -understand a variety of genres and the characteristics that

make up those genres




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• Teachers need to:

• -encourage children’s response to literature

• -practice read aloud techniques• -need to provide a variety of reading experiences

• -shared reading, independent reading, guided reading

• -whole class, small group and individual

• -develop authentic literary experiences

• -incorporate children’s literature across the curriculum

• -

children s literature[1]

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