...Running Head: Children's Literature Task 1 1 Children;s Literature Task 1 Arthur Carroll Western Governor's University Children's Literature Task 1 2 Children's Literature Task 1 It is well known that the world is filled to the brim with a rich history in athletics, education, science, politics, and the arts. What is not common knowledge is the history and richness of children's literature and how it eventually became what it is today. Just like most things, what we now know as children's literature is nothing like what it was originally, it has transformed into something else entirely. Nonetheless, it has as colorful a history as it does some of it's own books. Before children's literature was ever even written down it was given to children in a less tangible way; orally. Prior to publishers like Scholastic and Golden Books existence, the technology to write books was long and tedious, especially if the author was trying to make many copies. So instead, children's literature was told out loud where many could hear it at once and the time factor for preparation was at a minimum. Once authors had better technology to help simplify the process of physical writing, oral literature transformed into written literature. It wasn't always computers or even typewriters though, written used to literally mean written. Like the transformation from mouth to pen, pen evolved to computer...
Words: 882 - Pages: 4
...Children’s Literature Philosophy Children’s Literature provides students and educators with a tremendous amount of valuable information. Involving children in a variety of ways with children’s literature is a very important contribution of the development of children’s cognitive and social growth. Children’s Literature educates individuals on how children’s stories can be combined with all domains of the curriculum. This class makes individuals aware of the many types of genre in children’s literature and the variety of ways it can be presented. Through the Children’s Literature class, students and educators will realize how a literacy-based classroom should look and sound like. After this class, educators will be more apt to teach with a literacy-based, child-centered program where children will be read to aloud everyday and sing all throughout the day. Children’s Literature shows how open discussion of a book is more valuable then just reading it and putting it aside. After open discussion, having the student’s color, sing and/or do hands-on activities pertaining to the concept(s) taught from the book is priceless and will provide visuals to teach concept(s). This class has provided the opportunity to create several interesting and eye-catching used visuals to enhance children’s motivation for reading particular books and to introduce/reteach concept(s) found within a particular book. Newbery Award and Cadecott Medal Books were made knowledgeable through the Children’s...
Words: 286 - Pages: 2
...According to the reading Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic, Teare indites about the commercialization, and thus, consumerism of children’s literature and how technology has transmuted the way that younger readers interact with the literature. She withal argues that the Harry Potter novels “attempt to make their own ingenious appropriation of the quandary of consumer goods and media” (inquiry. 548). Teare also explicates how children would rather watch movies or play video games than read books in which these mediums derived from. Teare indites, “Books have lost children’s attention … to other media that present narrative fantasies” (inquiry. 548).Teare utilizes the Harry Potter novels to illustrate how the characters face the same challenges we do when it comes to consumerism. A great example is when she mentioned the scene of the Quidditch cup where the children would spend their mazuma on “schlocky souvenirs” (inquiry. 548), then...
Words: 382 - Pages: 2
...Gender Roles in Disney Movies It is undeniable that the company that is leading to many generations in their child age is Disney. Who does not remember Mickey and Minnie Mouse?, Who has not thrown a tear when Snow White was poisoned by the evil witch?, Who did not want to ever be in the place of handsome John Smith or Pocahontas herself to revive their love story?, that tender these films, is not it, for example the Little Mermaid and Sebastian the crab song, who does not remember that song from "under the sea”? Has anybody ever wondered why the dwarves themselves did not do the housework when they came home once Snow White "moved in" with them? Or why an Indian as Pocahontas, falls for a murderer of thousands of his countrymen as was John Smith? Or why witches are always bad? Or why women are always in the background in these films (Hubka, Hovdestad & Tonmyr, 2009)? The world of Disney Princess began in 1937 when Snow White entered the world with the Seven Dwarfs (McRobbie, 2008). Since then it continued to add princesses in this world and the most recent movie was Tangled (Rapunzel) in 2011. In the past years, due to the lack of portraying ethnicity, Disney movie makers were highly criticized by their audience. Therefore, Pocahontas appeared in 1995 and after three years in 1998 came Mulan, which created a racially diverse collection of Disney princesses. After a decade The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009. It is important to understand that Disney plays an important...
Words: 1544 - Pages: 7
...numbers, a mystery or a family story. * * 3 Have a general idea of plot or set of characters you wish to start with and begin building a storyline. Research any topics you need to learn more about. * 4 Create character sketches. Decide how best to do this for your category. You may find it best to produce note cards or pages devoted to details of your characters: physical description, age, likes and dislikes and his or her role in the story. You must also decide the relationships of the characters as they interact with each other. * 5 Create an outline, a step-by-step account of your story. This should include characters, plots, changes in viewpoint, the climax and the ending. 2. Write * 6 Write the beginning. This is often the most difficult part to write but also the most important. The beginning should introduce the characters and give some insight into the plot of your children's book. * 7 Write the middle, or body of the story. Focus on the challenges the characters face and the choices they make. This section is also where the plot really develops and the main story flows. Anything you introduce in the beginning-such as characters, theme and tense-must follow into and be addressed here. Any deviations from beginning to middle must make sense. * 8 Create a climax. Keep your writing strong throughout the entire story and especially into the climax. This is the most exciting point of the story-everything...
Words: 509 - Pages: 3
...The History of Children’s Literature EDP1: Task 1 Janet Blake Western Governors University Children’s literature is defined many different ways. It can be simply defined as a book that a child reads, or as Kiefer defined it “as the imaginative shaping of life and thought into the forms and structures of language.” (Kiefer, 2010, p.5) Literature has been around for hundreds of years, although not in the form that we are used to seeing now. There have always been stories to be told for as long as one can remember. Before the days of bound books and magazines, there were stories that were told by people in the village around the campfires, or the bards and traveling entertainers telling stories to the court in the castles. This form of literature is labeled as oral literature. Oral literature has been around as long as there has been a language to speak. It is the stories that have been passed on from generation to generation. These stories included folklore, fables, stories about animals, or stories about brave heroes who performed a majestic deed to win the hand of his true love. They were told to both children and adults alike, because children and adults were all treated similarly during this time. In the early years of the fifth century through the fifteenth century this was the avenue for entertainment and to teach many of the lessons that they needed. Children would listen to the stories that the adults would listen to. These stories were often kept or preserved...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...Learning English through children's literature Submitted by admin on 18 December, 2002 - 12:00 This article is about the British Council's Young Learners Centre in Paris and how they use children's literature in their teaching of English * The role of stories and storytelling in language teaching * Selecting story books * Pupil responses * Personal and professional development of teachers * Other support materials * Books referred to in this article The role of stories and storytelling in language teaching Once upon a time and not so very long ago in the capital city of France, a teaching centre for little children and not so little children was opened. One little child and then two and then three and then many, many more came along. And so our story unfolds ….. There was a little red hen, a meerkat in trouble, a brown bear, a black elephant and a white elephant, a very hungry caterpillar, Spot the dog, a clever tortoise, a big, roaring, yellow, whiskery lion, a kangaroo from Woolloomooloo and many more. These are just some of the colourful characters from children's literature who have helped children aged 5 - 10 attending holiday classes at the British Council's Young Learners Centre in Paris learn English. These weekly courses take place each afternoon for two hours. The educational value of using stories and the technique of storytelling has always been undisputed throughout the world. Now more and more English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers of...
Words: 9557 - Pages: 39
...Running Head: CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY Children's Literature in a Pluralistic Society Children's Literature in a Pluralistic Society One benefit to reading and listening to books is they can stretch the attention spans of children. Children’s literature has not always been so extensive and colorful as it is today. At the beginning children’s books read like instruction manuals rather than escapism or a fun educational tool. Even though Children's literature can misconstrue a Childs point of view, Children’s literature is needed to ensure a future because each milestone of children’s literature develops social functions within a pluralistic society. There are five specific key milestones/events/developments of children’s literature that includes social functions within the trends. Puritanism The books from this period were basically “Goodly Godly" books. They were focused on religion and how to obtain passage into heaven. These books did not have rhymes or pictures, but reinforced the way to the Lord and how to remain moral. Even though the books were the same type of books that are known today, they were written specifically for children and teaching. These are the some of the first type of children’s books. The books could be extreme in theme, for example James Janeway's A Token for Children: Being an Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children (1672) The book consisted of multiple deathbed...
Words: 958 - Pages: 4
...A history of Western children’s literature begins with oral tradition in which spoken stories, commonly described as “folklore,” “folk literature,” or “mythology,” are spoken aloud. This oral tradition predates written history and prior to the 1700’s there was little evidence of a childhood culture. The stories of oral tradition shared during those times were told to both children and adults (Kiefer, 2010, p.65). These oral stories such as Beowulf, King Arthur, and other ballads were often told by minstrels, adjusted to suit the audience (Kiefer, 2010, p.66). Some early books, such as Elucidarium, were written to provide children with general knowledge. Many children adopted fanciful tales and books for entertainment, such as Gulliver’s Travels and The Arabian Nights, but as these stories were written for adults, they contained adult content beyond the understanding of children readers (Kiefer, 2010, p.67). In 1744, John Newberry, an English publisher, printed Little Pretty Pocket-Book, which is recognized as the first book categorized as children’s literature. This book remains a stark contrast to the early folklore and tragic myths that have been told over the ages because it has easily read games and rhymes to help with the memorization of the alphabet (Kiefer, 2010, p.69). The successful publishing of the first children’s literature brought about a new era of children’s books during the time of Colonial America. These early writings were inspired by John Locke,...
Words: 756 - Pages: 4
...get a haircut every Saturday so I wouldn't miss any of these comic books. I had no hair at all when I was a kid!" The first book he ever wrote was called The Giggle Book, which he wrote when he was nine years old. In the sixth grade, Stine decided he wanted to be a writer after finding an old type writer in his parents attack. He began to write stories and joke books in high school and would take them to school and hand them out to his class mates. He liked the reaction of the other students when they read his work and, of course, the added attention he was getting didn’t hurt either. This set off a chain reaction and Stine has been writing ever since. After high school, Stine attended Ohio State University. In 1965, he graduated with a Batchlor of Arts degree in education and began teaching social studies at a New York high school. On June 22, 1969, he married his wife Jane and their son, Matt Daniel Stine, was born on June 7, 1980. During this time, Stine was heavily into writing because that was his job. Stine, who at the time called himself “Jovial Bob Stine”, worked for many years with Nickelodeon and created the children’s commedy magizine Bananas. He soon after began working for the Junior Scholastic Magazine and on books like 101 Silly Monster Jokes and Bozos on Patrol. In 1985 he began writing for the New Yorker....
Words: 884 - Pages: 4
...Every childhood can be viewed in a positive or negative way. What is one way a writer can make a story interesting to read? Some authors choose to create a strong connection between the reader and a character in order for the reader to be invested into the story. Every one of my favorite stories that I have read are all easily relatable. A story that relates best to me through the connection of characters is “Oliver’s Evolution” written by John Updike. Oliver and I both went through struggles when we were younger such as having parental issues and having poor characteristics. Having all of these qualities can destroy or make someone into a new individual. These struggles morph him from a neglected, problematic young boy to a determined, responsible...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This is important for kids to grasp because a great deal of messages can be interpreted inaccurately in the books they read. Children’s literature doesn’t always send the right message when it comes to self-esteem, which is a crucial factor when kids are becoming comfortable with being themselves. The way that body image, self-acceptance, and popularity are portrayed can lead to false beliefs in adolescents and affect their self-esteem. When it comes to weight and body image, kids tend to be very insecure if they stand out from their peers. It is crucial for kids to know that their size and appearance...
Words: 1110 - Pages: 5
...the consequences of her decision learning that not all bicycles are actually the same. There were many reasons why I used to love this story when I was a child. My mother used to gather all my three siblings in one bed and starts reading the story for us. It wasn’t only my mother’s calm, tender voice that used to make me feel comfortable but it was something in that book. The story of Laila and her little adventure was very interesting and pleasurable to me; the beautiful illustrations and pictures in the book used to make me very interested and I remember I couldn’t wait for my other to finish reading one page and turn to the other so I could delve through the remarkable colors. Everything in that story seemed real to me when I was a child. I too wanted my parents to get me a bike in my birthday just like Laila. I really thought that Laila existed somewhere. Once the story reaches the end, my mother used to talk to us for quite some time about the ending of the story and how Laila learns from her own mistake. She used to tell us that it’s okay for one to make mistakes as long as he/she learns from them and never to repeat it again, because it’s the only way you can learn sometimes. It also made me learn that sometimes if you can’t get what you want, you have to go get it yourself. What was even more pleasurable and memorable to me in this story was how things and events were described realistically. Everything seemed real; it didn’t have any supernatural elements or any unreal...
Words: 506 - Pages: 3
...The Importance of Fantasy in The Cat In The Hat By Sabrina Lee Xin Ru (21257819) The Cat in The Hat was a children’s book written and creatively illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Suess. It was first published in 1957 and has since made a deep impression in the hearts of children and adults alike. The story centers around an eccentric anthropomorphic cat that comes in to the house of two children while the adults are away, attempting to entertain them while they are stuck at home on a rainy day. The element of fantasy that was implemented throughout the story, which includes a talking pet goldfish and a talking cat that performs all sorts of tricks, became an immediate success and was praised as an exciting alternative compared to the ineffective traditional primers such as those featuring Dick and Jane. This essay will discuss on the importance of fantasy in popular children’s literature such as The Cat in The Hat. Firstly, fantasy is vital for the human mind. Fantasy in children’s literature such as in The Cat in The Hat is important as it is a slow and mediated way for children to come to terms with the reality of life as they grow up. It begins as the psychological process by which a child learns to fill the gaps between knowledge, reality and experience, and becomes a vital coping mechanism. For example, when a young child is frightened by the unknown, like the spooky creaks of a floorboard in the middle of the night. For them, the only way...
Words: 1480 - Pages: 6
...Wilson ECE335 Children’s Literature Instructor: Jamie Worthington December 12, 2011 The primary goal of a literature program is to create the love of literature. It is said that children who enjoy literature will become life-long readers and learners. I will define the criteria for selecting literature titles, identify developmental goals that support the, and describe activities and teaching strategies that support at least one developmental goal for each area of development. There are several things you would look at when evaluating fiction. You would look at the following; strengths and weaknesses in plot, setting, characterization, theme, and style of writing (Giorgis & Glazer, 2009). The plot of a story is what happens in the story. A good plot is interesting and logical (2009). When accessing the plot and during the evaluation you should chose books where things in the story happen logically. The setting in a story is where and when the story takes place (2009). The setting is a very important part of the story that affects the whole story if it were to be changed. Setting may be either specific to a certain time or place or more general in nature such as far, far, away. Characterization is how the author portrays the characters in the story (2009). Character takes on a lifelike appearance to small children if the author is creative enough, and this is done in the correctly. Theme is usually the moral of the story. Some stories will more...
Words: 889 - Pages: 4