STUDYING FOR CHILDREN LITERATURE...!

 

Here are some elements you need to think about when reading: Keep them in mind for your final examination...Good luck!!! 

·         Character - the people, animals, and background of your story (yes, the background is a character even though it is not alive)

·         Conflict - the elements that work against the main character's goals

·         Plot - what happens in the story

·         Point of View - who is telling the story

·         Setting - the time and location where the story takes place

·         Theme - the controlling idea or central insight that the author is trying to get across

REMEMBER....  Folklore and fairy tales are subcategories of fantasy narrative. Folktales include the stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or “folk” as handed down by word  of mouth. Myths, fairy tales, and fables often fall into this classification.  Fairy  tales  are  stories about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children. Most folk tales have a  a moral or instructional ending. They are told in such a way that children do not hesitate to retell the ending.

Regardless of the difficulties the practitioner can encounter, using literature is motivating to students. They are exposed to different themes which as a rule textbooks do not include. Therefore, it stimulates  the students giving them  the opportunity to be faced with structures and forms to understand cultural aspects.

According to Langer (1997), literature allows students to reflect on their lives, learning, and language. Literature can open "horizons of possibility, allowing students to question, interpret, connect, and explore" (p. 607). Literature among other text types is fertile with ideas to critically look at. Here, the role of the teacher is very significant in developing such higher-order thinking skills.

   

The use of multicultural children’s literature is a key ingredient in the early childhood programs.  Pattanik (2003) stated that designing a literature-based curriculum can help young children develop understanding and respect for other cultures. According to Pattanik Children’s literature is a critical component in an intercultural curriculum. 

                                                      Good luck...I hope you enjoyed this class...
                                                               Thanks very much indeed...!!! 
                                                                            MaryElen !

To my students...

To my students... 

You  are the ones who enlighten this place...! 

Creative Drama

These authors’ ideas represent work that was done for a long time as a defense of theater in an educational environment. Read them carefully and choose one to be developed for you as an English teacher. Be creative and do it in your blog! Good luck!  All of the authors’ ideas are presented in their original form.

"Through the dramatic roles and worlds that are available vicariously in theatre and directly in process drama, we can learn both who we are and what we may be. It is this that makes the essential nature of both theatre and process drama profoundly educational" - Cecily O'Neill-

"Our aims are helping children to understand, so that...they are helped to face facts and to interpret them without prejudice; so that they develop a range and degree of identification with other people; so that they develop a set of principles, a set of consistent principles, by which they are going to live." -Gavin Bolton-

"...meaningful and personally useful theatre activity is the right and prerogative of all people, enabling all to maximize the culture of their race, class, gender, age or ability" - Jonothan Neelands-

Anything you can do to increase communication in your class will reduce your need to impose order by authority, and reduce the student’s need to rebel against that authority.

-John O. Stevens, Awareness-

Check this video from RSA Animate, bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin who investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways it has shaped human development and society.  What kind of civilization are we? Please answer this question in this blog!

Jeremy Rifkin on "the empathic civilization"

Multicultural

Analysis of multicultural elements in a children’s story…

Teachers must provide lessons that reach a culturally diverse population and honor the cultural heritage of all students. School-wide programs enable teachers to work together to create an atmosphere where everyone feels honored and accepted, no matter what their cultural heritage or primary language.

I invite you to watch this video in order to recognize and allow for differences in how each culture expresses respect and relates to others. Use your imagination. 

Then, you have a special worksheet to do in class.