Children's Literature

Introduction

Before we start this unit, let's think about the following questions.

Question 1: Should we teach children how to read literature?

a. Think about your own experiences of reading literature. Have educational

experiences increased your enjoyment of specific texts? If so, how? If not,
why not?
b. Read the following statements and see if you agree or not.
1. Children are naturally capable of taking pleasure in what they read.
2. Readers are made, not born (Chambers, 1983, p. 30).
3. Literature is more experienced than taught (Glazer, 1986, p. 51).
4. Critical analysis of literature somehow destroys pleasure in it.
5. Many people don’t focus their teaching of literature on the enhancement of pleasure because
they believe that pleasure is private, too dependent on individual tastes and feelings to be taught
(Nodelman & Reimer, 2003, p. 32).
6. Literature must be discussed. It is only by discussing with others who have experienced a
book that new meaning can be effectively constructed (Bicknell, p. 45).
7. Children need teachers to demonstrate how to enter into and explore the world of literature, just
as children learning language need adults who show them how the language functions in the
everyday world (Peterson & Eeds, 1990, p. 12).

Question 2: What should teachers do to help children read literature?

a. Think about your own experiences of reading literature. Did any of your
teachers teach you how to read literature when you were a child? If so,
how?
b. Read the following statements and see if you agree or not.
 Ask children to understand every word written in a text.
 Ask children to derive meaning from context as they read,
 Ask children to always read closely and analytically.
 Allow children to feel free to read against a text.
 Encourage children to see their reading of literature as a source of questions to think about
rather than answers to accept.
 Ask children to parrot the responses or interpretations of other people, particularly those with
authority over them, to prove that they understood the “right” things about a book they read.
  Encourage children to have their own ideas about what they read.
 Encourage children to exchange their viewpoints with others and respect the differences.
 Provide children with diverse experiences of literature.
 Help children to read with an awareness of ideological implications, that is, of the ways in which
texts represent or misrepresent reality and work to manipulate readers.
Reader-centered approach to literature

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested.” ~ Francis Bacon
"Readers return to books because of the way they feel about the reading, their response to the
text." ~ Martha Combs
Definition: What is the reader-centered approach to literature?
 The reader-centered approach, based on reader-response criticism, emphasizes the individual as
a reader-responder. It argues that reading a literary text is part of a complex process that includes a
collaboration between the writer, the text, and the reader.
 A text is re-created every time someone new reads it, and it becomes, in the process,
increasingly richer. The text is a stimulus that elicits responses from us based on our past
experiences, our previous reading, our thoughts, and our feelings.
 In this reader-response approach, the text acts on the reader and the reader interacts with the text;
therefore, this analytical method is often referred to as transactional analysis.
 The reader-response critical theory teaches us that there are no absolutes. It enables us to examine
the complexity of human behavior and motivation, the difficulty in ascertaining right and wrong,
and the interdependencies involved in any social construct.

Objectives of the reader-centered approach (Purves, Rogers, & Soter,1990):

1. To encourage individual readers to feel comfortable with their own responses to a literary work.
2. To encourage the readers to seek out the reasons for their responses and thereby come to understand
themselves better.
3. To encourage the readers to recognize, in the responses of others, the differences among people and to
respect those differences.
4. To encourage readers to recognize, in the response of others, the similarities among people.

The Role of the teacher:

 The teacher's responsibilities in effecting a successful reading experience in young people:
1. Bring children and books together.
2. Give them as many different types of literature as possible.
3. Encourage honest and open responses
4. Challenge them to explore those responses and learn something about themselves
5. Provide them with the critical language that they might clearly express their responses
6. Encourage toleration.
 7. Encourage mutual understanding.

Suggested activities:
1. Reading Aloud
Effective reading aloud can be modeled by observing the following guidelines.
1) Read stories you enjoy.
2) Choose stories that are suitable to the children's emotional and social developmental levels. Don't be afraid if
the text includes a few challenging words.
3) Be sure the illustrations in a picture book can be seen easily by everyone.
4) Keep the reading experience an interactive one.
5) Be sure to pronounce the words correctly. Rehearse your reading and be sure to use the proper tone and
assume different voices if there is a dialogue.