A Closer Look at Children's Literature

We all have favorite books that we want to share with our students, however, not all of us know what purpose such books serve educationally. Before I took Media for Children last semester the difference between and purposes of different types of literature in the classroom was unclear to me. Here is a break down of different types of literature, some examples of each, reasons for using such literature some ways to attain them (selection aids etc), and various children's book awards.

Picture Book- Pictures and text are equally important (to be read to the child)

Chapter Book- Images are created primarily by text- pictures, if any, have secondary importance (to be read by the child)

Contemporary Fiction- (modern- since 1950) deals with characters who live contemporaneously with the author and the author’s initial readers. Today’s contemporary fiction had relevant themes for today’s young readers, as well as realistic plots, characters, settings, and dialogue which may include the latest slang.

Example- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was contemporary fiction for Alcott’s readers: the events and the language and concerns of the characters were familiar to her readers.

Historical Fiction- Historical fiction is set by the author in a past time. Usually the author has to do research in order to create an authentic setting, with concerns and language which fit the characters of the era depicted. The themes explored in historical fiction are often universal and may deal with the quest for personal identity or deal with questions of honor, loyalty, friendship, and death.

Example- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was historical fiction when it first appeared because Twain set the story thirty years in the past.

Why should children read realistic fiction?

~ Children can try on different roles. Most often the roles they like to try on are those they expect to take on in just a few years, hence the popularity of books which present heroes who are a few years older than the reader.

~ Children learn to understand others (walk in another’s shoes)

~ Children learn about how people deal with life

~ Fiction makes other places/ eras/ historical personages vivid for the reader

Fantasy- Imaginative literature which sets aside the limitations of the natural world to introduce characters, situations, or entire worlds governed by rules of logic imposed by the author. Fantasy may introduce toys or animals that act like humans (Winnie the Pooh). Sometimes the authors may even create entire worlds (often referred to as secondary worlds) where humans interact in a completely different environment with completely different creatures than those encountered in the world as we know it.

Modern Fantasy- Modern fantasy is the work of known authors and is a relatively new genre. (Tuck Everlasting)

Example- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

~ Written for children’s enjoyment rather than instruction

~ The point of view is that of a child

~ The hero is an ordinary girl, much like the reader

~ An adventure in self discovery

~ Mild spoof if Carroll’s own society

Epics- Epics are cycles of long narrative poems relating the exploits of a human hero whose actions serve to help his/her people and who is an embodiment of that culture’s ideals. The epic is told and received as a historic account. Their purpose is to praise and give legitimacy to a people’s leaders and help give focus to a people’s loyalties.

Example- Homer’s epics- The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the best-known epics in Western cultures.

Legends- Legends are folkloric in nature. Legends are told about the lives of saints, and other religious figures, about princes, hunters, and pioneers. Stories that may or may not have really occurred become attached to the legendary hero. Legends may involve brave acts during a historic crisis.

Example- King Arthur & Robin Hood

Why use epic/hero tales in school- Children need ideals and role models and epic/legendary heroes can provide some of these ideals.

Biography- Biographies are accounts of real, not fictional lives. Today’s biographies tend to include no fictional characters and tend to stick to only verifiable information, including only documented, rather than imagined speeches. Today’s biographies tend to be very candid, “warts and all” biographies. These biographies do more to present believable heroes for children that did the idealized biographies of earlier times.

Why use biographies- Extend children’s understanding about a specific person, present role models, and provide models of writing.

Outstanding Writers of Children’s Biographies-

~ David Adler- Bios of Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, Jesse Owens

~ Natalie Bober- Bios of Jefferson, Abigail Adams

~ Gilda Berger

~ Jerri Ferris

Beginning Informational Books- Alphabet, Counting, and Concept Books

Outstanding Informational Book Writers for Children-

~ Caroline Arnold- books dealing with plants and animals

~ Barbara Bash- her books help children become more observant of animals

~ Marc Brown- cartoon style informational books

~ Melvin Berger- physical sciences like electricity and sound waves

A FEW CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS

Newbery Award- Given by the American Library Association for the best written children’s book by a U.S. illustrator- named after publisher John Newbery.

Caldecott Medal- Given by the America Library Association for the best illustrated picture book by a U.S. illustrator.

Coretta Scott King Award- Given by the America Library Association for the author of the best written book by an African American writer & for the illustrator of best picture book by an African American.

Pura Belpre Award- Given by the America Library Association for a latino/a author & illustrator

SELECTION AIDS

~ Adventuring with Books- A Booklist for Pre-K-Grade 6

~ Best Books for Children: Preschool through Grade 6

~ Children’s Catalog

~Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database

MAGAZINES ~ Highlights

~ National Geographic Kids

~ Ranger Rick

Reading For Entertainment

One of my favorite childhood books is “Where the Wild Things Are”, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Not only did I have my mom read this book to me, practically every day of my childhood, but I also enjoyed reading it myself. “Where the Wild Things Are” is one of the reasons I love to read. Because of my love for the book, I recently watched the new movie by Spike Jonze, adapted from the book. Not only do I feel that the movie did not do the book justice, but it also completely strayed away from the book’s plot. This movie made me think about what would have happened had this movie been available when I was a child- would I have read the book at all?

With the increasing popularity of video games and other media, it is getting harder and harder to get children to open a book. When I was a kid, after school and on weekends, I either spent my time playing outside getting exercise or reading/doing something educational. Now it seems as though children rarely look at books as means of entertainment. Now that many children’s books are being made into movies, I fear that there are very few children still reading classics, such as “Where the Wild Things Are.”

As educators, we need to promote reading as much as possible while our students are young. The love for reading is something that stays with and becomes a part of a person over the course of their lifetime. If we encourage our students to read when they are young, more children will be able to experience the love for reading earlier in life.

In addition, I believe that if children’s books are made into movies, they should follow the plot to a T. Weston Woods does an amazing job of taking children’s books and adapting them into videos without straying away from the original plot. An example of a great Weston Woods video is “Happy Birthday Moon” by Frank Asch.

Happy Birthday Moon

VR Grade: Pre-k/2nd

Asch, Frank. Happy Birthday Moon. Weston Woods, 1985. 6:51 min.

Summary: Bear looked up at the moon and thought about how nice it would be to give it a birthday present. So, bear climbs a tree to get closer to the moon to try to ask it when its birthday was but the moon did not answer. Then Bear decides to cross a pond and climb a hill to get closer to the moon, but all he could hear was his own echo. Not knowing that the voice he was hearing was his own, the Bear thinks that the moon told him that they both have the same birthday. Bear told the moon that he wanted a hat for his birthday and the moon echoed back that he wanted a hat as well. Bear was very excited that he knew what to get the moon. Bear bought a hat for the moon and put it in a tree where the moon could find it. As the moon moved through the sky it looked as though he was wearing the hat that Bear had bought him. During the night the hat blew out of the tree and landed outside Bear’s house, when he awoke he discovered the hat and thought that the moon had given him a hat too. After he put it on though, the hat flew away. When she tells the moon she lost the hat, the moon tells her “I still love you.”

Evaluation: “Happy Birthday Moon” is a story of friendship and love, and while the moon isn’t really speaking to Bear, Bear still loves the moon and cares about it.

The visuals of this video truly helped my understanding of the story. If I had only listened to the video I would not have seen the journey Bear took to get close to the moon or the things he did to buy the moon its birthday present.

I like this video because it exemplifies children’s wonderful imaginations.

Uses: a) Friendship, birthdays, and love b) What kinds of presents do you like to give your best friends?

Review of: Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports

Review of: Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports

Selecting broad, memorable, and school-wide expectations allows students to not have to wonder what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in each classroom environment. Because the rules are the same school-wide each student knows what is expected of them and only requires them to remember one set of rules. Monroe School, in the video, expects three things of its students, and if students forget it they can remember its acronym, CAR. Be a caring person, to care for others, to be academically involved, and to be able to be respectful towards each other. Only a few expectations are needed because these expectations are broad and envelop many things. Expectations are better than rules because rather than saying you can’t do this and you can’t do that you are giving each student and idea of what they should do and that way when they meet expectations they will be praised for it. Non classroom environments are the parts of each school that are not considered classrooms, such as the cafeteria and the hallways. Before these expectations were implemented many schools had issues with children pushing, shoving and writing on walls. Typically, non classroom settings are problematic because schools have unclear expectations, inadequate procedures, lack of acknowledgement of positive behaviors, inadequate supervision, and the expectations have not been taught. PBS changed the environments in the halls in the morning by putting lines down on the floor to show children where to sit and changed students to hallways closer to the breakfast hall and then taught the expectations. After identifying expectations and procedures, PBS schools teach those skills and expectations to students the first few days of school. The students are rewarded for meeting expectations which reinforces their positive behavior. The majority of students from years past immediately did what was expected of them on the first day of the new school year at Monroe. Also, the teachers develop teaching plans for each part of the school building, such as the cafeteria. These teaching plans are then implemented through guided practices, ongoing supervision and positive feedback. Using seniors to talk to some of the younger kids can be very helpful. Many PBS schools use the seniors that are very active in the school setting, such as students on the student council and captains of various school teams. Older students come into classrooms and demonstrate how to act appropriately in class and the inappropriate ways to act in class. Positive recognition is a very important part of the PBS program. When students perform well they are given tokens to put on their backpacks. Some schools have a raffle every Friday and the student who wins gets a dragon and dragon paw in their classroom for the week. This lets the other students know that that particular classroom has performed exceptionally well that week. PBS schools have saved hundreds of hours in referrals as well as saving valuable class time because students are not being sent out of class. There is a very steady decline in the number of office interventions each month. As the number of office interventions has decreased so has the number of students being identified for special education. Through helping the whole schools behavior problems, the school was able to help students learn and be supported in the classroom without needing extra supports in the classroom.

Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports. Dir. Gray Olsen and Paula Baumann. Creating the Culture. PBS. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .

School House. Digital image. Free Clipart Pictures. 2008. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. .