Teacher Strategies for Teaching Literature - Essay Example

Teaching Literature Strategies to Children Introduction Young children are always fascinated with books and all they entail. They enjoy looking at picture books and making up their own stores. This is a natural aspect of what they do and teachers can help children develop this natural curiosity for literature as they continue to grow and move through various grades. The young child is a prime candidate for understanding literature on a deeper level. Perry Nodelman and Mavis Reimer, authors of the class textbook, state that children must be taught to have a relationship with literature. Although there is some natural ability to be happy with what they read, children should be introduced to the pleasures of literature at an early age so they can develop a joy of reading for the duration of their lives. Nodelman and Mavis also state that there are many strategies that can be used in order to help children become aware of good literature. According to these authors, the children are helped even more if they also enjoy literature; if they do, they are able to teach their students better. 1.1 What to Teach Nodelman and Reimer suggest that teachers must teach their students the techniques that people who read literature on a regular basis use (34). This basically means that children must learn how to interact with literature by making good choices of what to read and by being motivated to read, because what they read is interesting. As an example, in this author’s opinion, one of the reasons the Harry Potter books became so popular was because children of all ages (including adults) could read and enjoy the books. Readers were motivated to read each book as it came out because J.K. Rowling left something for readers to wonder about at the end of each book. The books are fun, interesting, and they make the reader want to go to the land of Hogwarts. For some children and adults, Harry Potter may have created an interest in other book series like the Hobbit or Narnia books because they were also interesting and able to take the reader into these far away lands. The research done by Nodelman and Reimer provide several ideas for teaching literary strategies that they learned from observing children and teachers in Britain. Some of these were: Children need to have a variety of literature to read in their homes and parents need to love and read literature also to set the example. Children need to be able to read a variety of literature from comic books to nonfiction and fiction. Teachers should allow students to choose from a variety of literature in their classrooms and children should have a say in the books they want to discuss in class. Parents can encourage their children by becoming familiar with the books their children are reading and talking to them about the books. These are a few of the many tips that are available to help teach a love of literature to children. The rest of this research paper will discuss a variety of strategies that have been used to teach this topic. 2 Teacher Strategies for Teaching Literature Helping children learn is a major reason to promote the teaching of literature. The reason literature is important is because it can be used to teach across the curriculum. This discussion begins with Gail Goss, a teacher who combines children’s literature and her students’ interests to help them learn easier. Goss suggests an interdisciplinary approach because it: 1. Increases the student’s curiosity in a subject and makes them want to read. 2. By using several content areas, students make a connection between any of their subjects. 3. This allows the teacher to provide “real world” activities like “researching, collecting and synthesizing data … narrative reports, and it helps to connect students with real world situations” (Goss 4). Goss uses the theme of cats to work with her students and uses a variety of literature about cats. As an example, she uses the books Puss ad Boots and Cats of Myth to teach grammar. Children are provided with a graphic image of steps that they can fill in the various parts of grammar as they red the story. An example is shown here (Chart taken from Goss 7): From this type of activity, teachers can build on other activities that promote student learning in other areas. Some of the key points that Goss made about using this approach are: 1. Students learn better when new knowledge is tied to what they already know. 2. Teachers should focus on a broad topic like appeal, traits and values or lifecycles. 3. Teachers should make sure that students have a large selection of materials to choose from including electronic sources and many genres (Goss suggests 50-75 books). 4. A variety of hands-on lessons of different types should be used (e.g. charts, videos, small group work) to give students a variety of ways to learn. 5. The topic should be used as an outline to “study, research, [for] organization and [for] presentation activities” (Goss 8). The topic should also be based on student interests and teachers should create meaningful content. These techniques coincide with what Nodelman and Reimer state in terms of keeping children interested in literature and making sure they stay engaged in the reading of it. Kevin Costley, Associate Professor of Early Childhood education at Arkansas Tech University, gives insight into how children think in order to help teachers understand that they should gain insight into the age level they are teaching. Costley suggests that understanding the developmental states of these children will insure that the teacher can keep them engaged in the less. As an example, young children have short attention spans, have difficulty scanning and tuning out unnecessary information, are sometimes impulsive, and being impulsive can affect their perception (Costley 5). With this knowledge, the teacher can create activities that work with the children’s’ natural interactions instead of trying to make them conform to a traditional classroom. The knowledge of how different age groups think can also promote an understanding of the types of literature that can be used. As an example, picture books can work very well for young children because the stories are short with lots of pictures. In this author’s experience, picture books allow children to make up their own stories and gain more opportunity with early literature. Shutta Crum suggests that picture books can also be used to teach literature for any age group because they are “quick reads lots of fun and often gems of characterization, mood and dialogue” (1). Crum uses literature to teach specific literary techniques. As an example, she teaches allusion by using titles like Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini (Crum 2). This book is used because it gives strong allusions through the various illustration and texts. She uses several Palatini titles because they provide a chance to discuss this concept. The repetition of sound or alliteration is taught through books that repeat many different sounds. As an example, she chose Raccoon Time by Nancy Shaw because the author has a strong sense of “word choice, meter and rhythm” (Crum 3). Crum also teaches imagery because she enjoys helping readers “see” the images that literature provides for them. She chooses the books she uses that will support the themes she feels are important to teach. Chirstopher Ringrose, a principle lecturer in English at the University of Northhampton, uses children’s literature to teach history. He uses A&C Black’s Flashbacks series because these books allow students to engage in history in unique ways: they can travel back in time, talk with ghosts of the past, use frame stores and generally learn to care about what happened in history. Ringrose suggests that history comes alive for children when it is made relevant to their present. Morog Styles, faculty of education at the University of Cambridge, UK, studied the Arabian Nights as a way to encourage students to engage in literature that was popular. He tested is theory that said that if children enjoy what they are reading, they will stay with the literature longer. He found that the Arabian Nights was a historical work that many children and teachers have been influenced by in their writing and later work. He sees these talks as a way to keep a child’s interest and spark their imagination. Through the study of these tales, Styles found evidence that children should be allowed to chose the books they read in order to help them learn to take pleasure in reading literature. Melissa Nelson, a school librarian, suggests that various forms of poetry (including popular songs, popular and classical poems) can be used to teach children a love of literature. She suggests that the songs that children enjoy can be a way to begin the process. Some of the strategies she uses are to help learners understand “figurative language elements” (Nelson 20) through the study of poetry. Choosing poems from poets like Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein enhanced the students’ ability to understand elements of literature like rhyme, rhyme scheme, hyperbole, mood, simile and more. The students also learn about the poet or song writher which enhances their understanding of the poet and why they may have written the piece. Nelson also suggests that the class should be encouraged to create a poetry book in which each child puts an original poem. The poetry book should include graphics and examples form the class lessons. When the book is finished, the class teacher can have it bound and put on display in the school library. Jennifer I. Barne and Kathleen F. Clark presented the strategy of using a peer led literature group. In their article, they worked with a fourth grade classroom. Some of the benefits of using a peer led literature group include: 1. Increased oral language development 2. Engagement and enjoyment of literature 3. “Feelings of efficacy about the ability to understand and interpret text” (Bern and Clark 74) The literature groups also help students learn to develop critical thinking and their own processes of comprehension. Also, the groups can be diverse and include students from different grade levels and backgrounds to help further the group’s comprehension skills. Barne and Clark also use an anchor chart to make sure that the groups are productive. A sample of their anchor chart is shown here: Desirable behaviors in the discussion Undesirable behaviors in discussion Asking questions Talking without listening Answering questions and telling why you thought what you thought Giving an answer without telling why you thought that way Listening carefully to other students Being a know-it-all If you disagree, saying why Disrespecting other’s opinion Calling attention to strategies you use Going back and looking at the text. (Barne and Clark 76) The authors also use a lot of strategy prompts to continue the discussion. An example of the strategy prompts is shown here: 1. When I read, I thought … because … 2. This is how I used my prior knowledge to help me … 3. Let’s summarize what we know. 4. What questions did we have as we read along? 5. How did we use inferences to help ourselves understand 6. What connections to other texts do we have? 7. What different perspectives do we have about...? (Barne and Clark 76) Teachers who use these techniques are encouraged to spend time “guiding and scaffolding student participation throughout the course of the group. (Barne and Clark 76). The authors describe several different types of groups that can be used to create a variety of groups. Charline J. Barnes, a teacher at Andrews University, cautions that teachers should also learn how to work with a diverse student body. Barnes worked with preservice teachers and put them into peer led book discussion groups. Teachers chose books to read that appealed to them and the books dealt with reading instruction for diverse students. The books created opportunities for teachers to read, reflect and respond to a diversity of issues. Teachers worked with parents and gained an appreciation of how parents could be a value to teaching their children. Barnes suggests that all teachers learn more about the diversity of students they teach so they can be sure to teach all children well. 3 Conclusion Teaching literature is a very important aspect according to these authors, because it allows children to learn across the curriculum. Many teachers use some form of children’s literature to support specific subjects or to support individual literary learning. The research was interesting in that it gave this author an opportunity to see that children’s literature could be used in any class. It was clear that children learn more when they are allowed to choose the books to discuss in class and when the teacher makes the lesson relevant to the knowledge that the children currently have. This is a very good way to teach children many things. Works Cited Barne, Jennifer I. and Clark, Kathleen F. “Focusing Literature Discussion Groups on Comprehensive Strategies.” Reading Teacher, 62.1 (2008): 74-79. Web. 17 July 2011 doi: 1598/RT.62.1.9 Barnes, Charline J. “Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach in a Culturally Responsive Way. The Negro Education Review. 57.1-2 (2006): 85-93. Web. 17 July 2011. Costley, Kevin C. “Perspectives of Young Children: How Do They Really Think?” Online Submission. 15 June 2010. ERIC database. Web. 17 July 2011. Crum, Shutta. “Using Picture Books to Teach Literary Techniques”. (2006): 1-7. Web 18 July 2011. < shutta.com/littechniqueswithPBs.pdf> Goss, Gail. “Teaching with Cats: Integration of Children’s Interests and Literature to Enhance Reading Comprehension.” Paper presented at the Annual European Conference 1-4 July (2001): 2-12. Web. 18 July 2011. Nelson, Melissa. “Getting Figurative with Poetry.” School Library Monthly, 27.6 (2011): 19- 20. Academic Search Premier database. Web. 18 July 2011. Nodelman, Perry and Reimer, Mavis. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature. NJ: Allyn & Bacon. Print Ringrose, Christopher. “A Journey Backwards: History through Style in Children’s Fiction.” Children’s Literature in Education, 38.3 (2007): 207-218. ERIC database. Web. 18 July 2011. doi: 10.1007/s10583-007-9045-5 Styles, Morag. “Learning through Literature: The Case of The Arabian Nights.” Oxford Review of Education. 36.2 (2010): 157-169. Web. 18 July 2011. doi: 10.1080103054981003696663. Read More