THE EDUCATIVE POWER OF LITERATURE

It is my last post, it is about the educative aspects of literature; we can use it to work on culture and values. But, first we have to know about literature, children´s literature and its main characteristics which are very important to keep children feel motivated, help them to understand the tales and achieve a meaningful learning.

The literature is the art (works made up by the humans with an aesthetic or communicative aim; it is used to express ideas and feelings) that use the word as an instrument in its oral and written form. There are three types: poetry, drama and fiction and nonfiction narrative.

Children´s literature is the literature focused in children. Therefore, there are few characters and they used to be animals or children in order to motivate them because they feel indentified, it has a lineal storyline, many images and pictures and it has always the same structure. All these things help the children to follow the story.

During ages, literature has been use to manifest a situation. In some cases, as happened with nursery rhythms, stories have been focused into adult population but these stories have been developed and adapted to infant population. Because of that we can learn about culture such as values, appearance (dress up), costumes, places and sometimes real events that happen in a determinate context. But we can also use literature to work in values such as respect, share, cooperation, friendship, freedom or help the others through the morals that tales have.

After reading a book you should make them reflect about it because we can read to enjoy but also to learn. You can guide it asking them about the context; the main characters, the secondary characters and their physical aspects; the event that is been developed, the objects that appear and the moral. 

An example:

We can use the tale “The three little pigs” in order to work on the effort.

First: the read the tale

Second: we can make the following questions:

·      Who are the characters? The three pigs and a wolf

·       What are the elements that appear in the story? There are three houses. The first one is made up of straw, the second one is made up of wood and the third one is made up of brick.

·         What happens in the story? In the story the pig that built the straw house finish very quickly and it have a lot of time to play, the one that built the wood house has a lot of time too, and the one that built the brick house spent a lot of time building it. But the wolf arrived; the three little pigs were not eaten by the wolf thanks to the last pig and its effort.

·         What is the moral of this tale?  The moral of this tale is that we have to make an effort in order to achieve our goals.

My proposal is to start the lessons with your students with a little tale and a reflection as warming-up to work feelings and values but you can also use them to introduce a topic or to work on a specific context. As we have seen in class, stories have been changing because of the mentality of the people, the place and context of each time. So, we must take this into account when we read a story to children.

LIBRARY PROYECT: "Cinema library"

Our proposal of a library project is called “cinema library” because the library will be contextualize as a cinema. We have decided to do that because children usually watch movies in the cinema and for them it is a very enjoyable experience. Therefore, we are trying to get reading close to them through things of their daily life. We want them to understand that when they read, they are creating a movie in their minds as when they go to the cinema.

The library is going to be placed in a corner of the classroom in order to create a comfortable place where children can read, choose books and do activities.

To develop our project we are going to need: the materials, a cheaper budget, how we are going to use the library, the assessment and the motivation.

MATERIALS AND BUDGET

-   Books: each child has to bring between 3 and 5 English book, so if there are around 25 students we will have 60 books for free = 0  €

- Bookshelf: we need two bookshelves 105 x 80 x 16 cm.->2 Bookshelves  29’95 € x 2 =59’90 €

-    Curtains: the teacher will bring them= 0  €

-    Pop-corn cup: the teacher will bring it= 0  €

-    Soft carpet: 80 x 80 cm.= 5.99 €

-    Pillows : 50 x 50 cm ->2’99€ x 4 = 11’96 €

-    Cardboard and continuous paper = around 3  €

         ____________________________________________

 total                                             80€

HOW ARE WE GOING TO USE THE LIBRARY?

First, children have to write the name of each book they have brought in a different paper, wrinkle them creating a pop and throw their pops in the pop-corn.Then, they have to stick in the cover´s back a sheet as the one is presented below and organize the books in alphabetical order in the bookshelf.

 

The first time they have to choose a book, they have to pick up a pop of the pop-corn. But, the following times they can read the post-it of the chart we have also created and chose the book they want.

During the term they are going to develop 3 activities:

1.       DRAWING

Children have to draw a picture of the best part of the book they have read. Then, these pictures will be stuck in the walls around the library cinema.

The main aim of this activity is:

·         To know if they have understood the main idea of the book.

2.       ALTERNATIVE ENDING

Each child has to create an alternative ending of the book that he /she has liked the most.

The aims of this activity are:

·         To check if they have understood the story because the need to know about the characters and the actions that happen during the story to create an ending for it.

·         To motivate children´s creativity.

3.       REPRESENTATION

The winner ending will be represented the 23th of April because is the Books Day.

The main aim of this activity is:

·         To tell a story using kinaesthetic because they have to use body language and move around the space.

ASSESSMENT

To assess children we are going to create a chart with two columns in the vertical one will be the children´s names and in the horizontal one will be the books that they have read. 

In each space children have to stick a post-it which contains the title of the book, the genre, the characters and a summary. In this way, we will know if they are able to take out the main information and if they have understood the book. To create this post-it, we will give them scaffolding and an example as modelling.   

Scaffolding sheet

REWARDS

We are going to give them rewards in order to motivate students to read, use their creativity and be organized.

We will give two Oscars.

·    Best book ever: it is going to be given to the book that children have liked the most and we will know it because of the happy faces that children have to paint.

·     Best end of a story: it is going to be given to the best alternative ending.

Both of them will be located in the bookshelf, they are going to be group prizes.

We will also give two medals:

·    The book “hunter”: it is going to be given to the child that more has read books.

·    The most organize student: it is going to be given to the student that has maintain the bookshel clean and organized the books in alphabetical order.

The cinema library should have this appearance:

CONTENTS THROUGH POEMS FOR A MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Poems can be used in order to learn contents in a meaningful way; involving children in the process and making them to fell motivate using riddles and letters. First of all, I am going to explain you what is a riddle and a letter poem and how can we mixture both of them to teach a specific content. Then I am going to reflect on how can we use it in a classroom and the things that are behind it.

A riddle poem is a type of poetry that describes something without actually naming what it is, involving the readers through leaving them to guess. Riddles can be about anything. There are no rules on how to structure a riddle poem, a riddle can be funny or it can rhyme, it depends on the person writing the riddle.

A letter poem is a type of poetry that tells something to someone or something. Probably the main qualities of letter poems come from who the letter is addressed to and who signs it. Therefore, it follows the structure of a letter so it should start with “Dear_____”, the body should have what the writer wants to tell and finally, it should finished with the sign of the person that write it.

Let´s enjoy with poetry!

I have create the following poem in order to work the water, the water cycle, its states and where can we find it in a science lesson in a different and motivating way, I hope you like it! =)

RIDDLE/LETTER POEM: THE WATER.

Dear friend,

I need your help,

I cannot remember what I am.

I am in the surface, sleeping somewhere…

When it is hot, I am in oceans, rivers and lakes.

When it is cold, I am in the glaciers and high mountains and plains.

What is happening? I am in the air; I am going up to condense myself!

I am in the sky, waiting for the time…

When it is hot, I fall down as drops,

When it is cold, I fall down as scoops and rocks/stones.

This is my life, dear friend

I need your help,

I cannot remember what I am.

We can use this riddle/letter poem as a warming – up, to introduce the topic of the water and the water cycle and also as an activity to make the children create their own knowledge giving them this poem as a resource to take out the content. On the other hand, it is a strongly cross curricular activity because we are explaining science contents through a poem and it will keep the children´s attention because of the rhythms and the rhymes and also they will fell something special because it is a letter and they have seen a lot of them in their houses but they were directed to their parents and now they are going to receive one; they will recognize in a poem something of their reality with simple words and they will feel motivating; it is not a simple text.

Moreover, through this poem we are working on the 4Cs. First there is Content because from this poem we discover where we can find the water in its different states (liquid, gaseous and solid); we can work in metaphors such as drops and rocks and relate these ones to the rain, snow and hailstones; we can work the melting, evaporation, condensation. It is also Culture because we are learning about something that happens in our daily life and we can observe and experiment it, so when we read this poem we can recognize what is happening and the comparisons. Whereas, there is Cognition because children have to read and reflect in order to take out the main characteristics, recognize the metaphors link it with the real elements and finally guess what is writing the letter. Finally, it promotes Communication because this poem is telling you something and it is also asking about what it is; therefore you have to answer creating a communication.

We can use small poems to work big topics. 

READING STRATEGY: promoting reading comprehension and critical thinking (before, during and after question)

Regarding the schema before, we can define reading strategy as the techniques that a person uses to facilitate the understanding and comprehension of a text in a meaningful way in a motivating and engaged form.

I would like to share with you a method to promote reading comprehension and critical thinking. This method is based in make questions before, during and after reading. Now I am going to explain you this method step by step:

• The teacher has to show the children the materials:

o    A questioning chart divided into three columns. The first one is for before reading questions, the second one is for during reading questions and the last one is for after reading questions.

Before reading	During reading	After reading

o    Sticking notes: Students have sticking notes of three different colours. 

• The teacher has to explain them briefly the strategy

• The teacher has to explain what they are going to do:

o  They have to look the book at the beginning, at the middle and at the end and write in the sticking notes what are they wondering and finally they have to stick them in the chart.

•           The teacher and the children have to put it in practice:

o  First they have to observe the covert of the book and write in a sticking note a question about what do they expect to find. Finally children have to stick their question in the “before reading” column.

o     Second, the teacher has to read the book and during it, she/he has to remind them to write everything they wonder. Finally children have to stick their question in the “during reading” column.

o   Then, children have to write what are they wondering for the end of the story and they have to stick it in the “after reading” column.

o  When the book is finished, the teacher and the children both together try to answer the questions. 

•      The teacher have to explain children the results:

o   If the question is answered then the information is important to understand the main idea of the book.

o   If it is not answered the information it is not so much important to understand the text better.

During all this process the teacher is going to scaffold students guiding them about what they have to look at or pay attention to. It will make them confidents.

Now I am going to show you the application of this method in a classroom with children through a video:

In conclusion, this method is working on reading comprehension through their wonderings because if they have questions mean that they now what has happened at the moment and they want to know more. And critical thinking through knowing about the information that is meaningful for them to understand the main idea of the story because at the end they answer the questions and if they have not answer mean that is not important for the understanding of the story. But also it works reading motivation creating expectation when they are writing their wonderings and they will be interested in what is going to happen to answer these questions; and creativity to create questions from a picture or words. Therefore, in my opinion it is a good reading strategy to be worked in the classroom.

I would like to know about your opinion:

Do you think it is a good reading strategy?

Do you see any disadvantage?

Would you like put it in practice in your future classroom?

MY READING - MAP

My reading map represents me nowadays thinking on the path and the place that literature has had during my life. This path is divided into two parts, the first one when I didn’t know reading but I enjoyed literature and the second one when I started school where I learnt to read and literature started to be boring for me. Now, we are going to discover what happened and take the positive and negative aspects that we can take into account in order to motivate the literature in children.

My first memories are about when I was not able to read. My mother and I used to be sat on a very comfortable sofa and she read me during hours. Some of the books that she read me were “The three little pigs”, “Little Red Riding hood”, “Cinderella” and “The Sleeping Beauty” but my favourite one was about a cat and its kitties, I loved It! And I also loved the way that she read me, she changed the tone of her voice and made a lot of gestures, sometimes I felt I was living it. I also remember that I learnt the books that my mother read me by memory and when I was alone I turned the pages while I was telling what was happening in each page despite I didn’t know reading because the pictures remembered me what happened in each moment.

The following memories are about when I was at school where I learnt to read. I didn’t like reading so much so from that moment I have only read the obligatory books that my teachers have ordered me in each course not only in school but also in high school. Therefore, in school I read books of the collection “Steamboat”; the best one for me was “Amalia, Amelia y Emilia”, I enjoyed with it; the collection “ Altamar” such as “Simón, Simón” or “Carlos Baza Calabaza”. In other way, some of the books that I remember from high school are an adaptation of “El Quijote”, “Around the world in 80 days” and “Rebeldes” for me this was the best one because I felt identified with the characters and I enjoyed reading it. The only books I have read on my own during this period of time were the collection “Los cinco” and some books of “Kika Superbruja”. Finally, in University I have read books about education such as “el valor de educar”.

In conclusion, following the path of my reading map first the characters of the stories were animals and the princesses and princes that appeared in the videos I saw and the way my mother read made me lived it.  Then, the books that I remember are those that their characters and situations introduced me in the adventures that they lived. Therefore, I can claim that to motivate children to be interested in literature, we have to give them books adapted to their ages and we have also take into account the importance of change the tone of voice, make gestures, use images, characters and situations that makes the children to be identified and involve them. Literature teaches a lot of things and should be shown in different ways not only reading it but also singing, dancing, watching videos and through storytelling among others.

Now, I would like to know about you!

What do you think about the role that literature have had during my life? Have you felt identified with any situation, book etc.?

What do you think about the things that I have suggested you in order to motivate children to be interested in literate? Do you think that there are more things that we should take into account?

NURSERY RYTHMS

Nursery rhymes are songs, chants and games that teach something. In the 14th century, its had a political subversive massage but nowadays are innocent children´s songs.

Press on the following link to watch the video:

-->Nursery rhymes: London Bridge is falling down

(Noelia Barroso, Guiomar Caballero, Clara Vilches, Sandra Anaya, Sara Blanco, Leticia de la Serna)

Last Wednesday we had our first practical lesson of “Exploring Children’s Literature in English”.  We were exhausted after a morning full of classes, but suddenly everything changed… We were victims of a magic spell and, suddenly, we moved backwards to our early childhood and a marvelous feeling involved us. The magic spell was made by warming-up bounding with familiar thoughts and a little of new knowledge, in order to be able to adapt, create and produce the final spell, NURSERY RHYMES.

One of the most important reasons why we moved backwards so easily was that Raquel motivated us to be active and participative, and she made the topic close to us. First, she told us to think if we knew what “Nursery Rhymes” were, and if we could remember any from our childhood. Little by little, we went deeper into the proposed topic, listening typical nursery rhymes and doing different activities and exercises about it. In the last part of the lesson, we learnt different techniques to work with Nursery Rhymes and we showed them in a performance. In groups of 5 or 6 people, we chose one of the Nursery Rhymes worked in class, and we sang them twice in front of the rest of the class.

Nursery Rhymes were the approach to new language since we were only 3 years old, and consequently very important to us, although we didn´t understand what the song was about. Nevertheless, that strange lyrics and hard and old vocabulary, today makes more sense because Nursery Rhymes were not originally created to entertain children but to hide political subversive messages.  Nursery Rhymes are very useful for every year of Primary Education, if we adapt the contents and the activities to the level of each class, and can be done both at the beginning of the class, as warming-up, and at the end of the class. The students learn new vocabulary, practice pronunciation and improve fluency while learning about English culture, historical events, poems and typical places, such as in “LONDON BRIDGE”. The sentences in the Nursery Rhymes are simple and repetitive so are easier to learn and remember. These activities can highly motivate pupils because they have an active role during the lesson.  

In our opinion, the development of the class has been wonderful. We have learnt a lot of new things about the topic and how to apply it as future teachers in the classroom. Also, we have realized the steps that the teacher has followed in order to give us the lesson, in which scaffolding was everywhere.

In our Nursery Rhyme, “London Bridge is falling down”, we have used different types of Choral Speaking techniques, such as ANTIPHON and CUMULATIVE. In the video attached to this post we show the little performance that we made in class. Could you help us to find how we have introduced those techniques?  What do you think about the activities done in class?  What do you think about the methodology Raquel followed? Would you do it in another way? Which types of Choral Speaking techniques have you used and why have you chosen them? What do you think about Nursery Rhymes? Do you think you will use this tool when you become a teacher one day? Did you sing Nursery Rhymes when you were younger?

 We would be very happy if you want to share your thoughts with us!