Close Reading Children's Literature

In the modern world, children’s literature, fairy tales, and fiction books influence our childhood and early development. In the 1500’s and 1600’s no children’s literature for entertainment existed, they had educational books. As babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, my parents and teachers read us books after books. It is proven that reading to young kids is important for their imagination, vocabulary, and communication skills in early life.

Introduction to reading comes through phonetic reading boxes. The reading boxes are cleverly organized, going from simple to the complex. Reading does not follow the same process of writing, which is taking our own thoughts and symbolizing. When we read, it is not our language with which we are working with, it is the author’s language. Reading is the analysis of the language followed by a synthesis. Story telling and socio-dramatic play in the environment can help the child develop an imagination that fosters a higher capability to understand what is being read to them.

Literature teaches kids to feel empathetic for each other. A story allows the reader to put themselves in the character’s shoes and gives us a different perspective on the character’s life. It also shows the reader not to judge someone by their cover because you never know what outside factors are affecting them. For example, Daphne's book is about a shy girl named Daphne, commonly known to others as Daffy Duck. She was raised by an impoverished, mentally ill grandmother, so the other kids would make fun of her. Instead of sympathizing with her, kids pitied her and called her names. “These are the experiences for a young person in which the sort of commonplace

Children’s literature has existed for as long as there have been stories to be told to children. Stories, books, songs, poems are all made for children. Children’s literature does not have a definite definition of what it is; basically, it is anything a child reads (Lerer, 2008). Children begin to learn what reading and writing are used for before even knowing how the system works. Children recognise the function of written language by seeing examples of written language that are being used around them. Many children know the difference between reading and talking, they are aware that written language is used to do things in this world (Emitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff and Pollock, 2015). Quintilian, John Locke, Saint Augustine and Doctor Seuss speculated on the ways children learn the Australian language and learn about their lives from literature (Lerer, 2008). In fact, Lerer states that “the history of children’s literature is inseparable from the history of childhood, for the child was made through texts and tales he/she studied, heard and told back,” (2008, p.1). Children’s literature nurtures an understanding of narrative structures and visual images played in storytelling, this helps develop

I never understood the point of reading. My parents first introduced my siblings and I to its world at the early age of two. We were familiarized with letters, taught to link sound the visual and formed words with a stuttering start. We became accustomed to the quiet of Tuesday nights when my father would sit huddled on the sofa – my mother curled up in bed – his long nose buried in a novel, a black curtain cascading from her head to the pages, morphing into one with their respective books. As the night drew close the browns of their eyes would light up, while my mother’s red lips would quiver with excitement and my father would flash a lopsided smile. “Reading is an adventure,” they’d

Using nonfiction text requires appropriate implementation strategies. Children need explicit instruction in identifying unique features to nonfiction text, such as print features, table of contents, index, and graphic aides (Moehlman, 2013). Close reading of nonfiction text is an approach to help students critically read increasingly complex texts across the curriculum by exploring deep structures of the text. The Tools Approach is a strategy in which the teacher provides scaffolding to help students advance to the next learning stage and students develop new knowledge about nonfiction texts through interactions with peers and adults (Hall, 2016). Literature circles are excellent for students to explore nonfiction texts. Literature circles are small groups in which students all read the same story and contribute unique information about the story through an assigned responsibility (Barone & Barone, 2016). Teachers can assign students jobs within the group that will be appropriate for each individual student. Even struggling students can contribute to the group and learn from their peers at the same time. The use of graphic

Jack Zipes in his book Relentless Progress : The Reconfiguration of Children 's Literature, Fairy Tales, and Storytelling puts forward a valid perspective that the act of a child reading any form of children’s literature is set up to promote “adult aims and the power of the market” (4). Although this perspective is important to remember when considering how the formation of childhood identity is guided and influenced by children’s literature, it is important to remember that the literature itself is not to blame. Adults, parents, teachers, guardians or other people of influence in a child’s life have the power to provide children with literature that contains many alternative encompassing views of the world to help shape the childs

The child I decided to interview is a seven-year-old girl named Chloe. Chloe is an energetic young lady who even at her age makes the people around her feel welcomed. Coming into this interview I had preconceptions about Chloe. I presumed that Chloe is a student who enjoyed books, love to read, and maybe be a collector of books. However, these preconceived ideas stemmed from my interactions and observations of Chloe’s personality and interactions with others and were not necessarily true. The Commission on reading, as cited in Michael C. McKenna and Dennis J. Kear (1990) article, concludes that “ Becoming a skilled reader requires… learning that written material can be interesting.” ( as cited in McKenna and Kear, 1990, p. 1). I agree with

My experiences with children in educational institutions and pursuit of becoming an elementary education teacher have enlightened me in discovering effective ways to read to and with children. When I work with kids, I review and select a book that is developmentally and cognitively appropriate for their age. Before I read the book to the kids, I read it to myself and see the message of the author and I generate potential questions to ask the students. Often, I ask students if they are familiar with a certain vocabulary word or if they have experienced an event that occurred in the story. I like to relate the content in the story to the students, so that they can comprehend better and learn from the story skills that will benefit them in the

The first portion of the article emphasizes that psychosocial development through reading is underestimated. Teaching Young Children Self-regulation through Children’s Books states two reasons for it being underrated. The first reason stated is that we, as a society, focus on how children read, such as vocabulary and comprehension, instead of the actual content of what is being read. The second reason is many childhood educators are not involved in children’s literature in their education program. (Cooper, 2007). Many colleges do not incorporate, or do not have available, some form of a children’s

Children’s books are written to open children’s horizons and broaden their imaginations; instead they close minds to new experiences and peddle stereotypes. Children often look into

The sharing of children’s literature is of vital importance when it comes to the development of children’s language and literacy skills. Carter (2000) says the sharing of children’s literature is the “most important” contribution which is made to both children’s self-knowledge and to their literary development. The National Curriculum (2013) states that by the time children leave Primary school they should be able to read and write “fluently and with confidence”. To allow schools to coincide with these aims the sharing of

Children’s books are usually shorter, they tend to favour an active rather than a passive treatment, with dialogue and incident rather than description and introspection; child protagonist are the rule; conventions are much used; the story develops within a clear-cut moral schematism… children’s books tend to be optimistic rather than depressive; language is child-oriented; plots are of a distinctive order ; probability is often discarded; and one could go endlessly talking of magic, fantasy, simplicity, and adventure (qtd. in Reynolds 26).

The Harry Potter series relates to children and all types of readers, inviting them into the new and different world. The Harry Potter world however parallels the real world much more than many initially think. Students who relate to the world of Harry Potter and have grown up hearing his name along with other favorite characters engage in the story more than with any generic story often used in classrooms. The Harry Potter series engages the students and encourages learning through a subject in which the students have found interest. Keith McPherson in his article “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Motivation” from the journal Teacher Librarian discusses the importance of an engaged child while they read,“Reading-related research finds that reading motivation increases when students are actively engaged with real-world reading materials in real-world interactions (qtd. Brophy, 1998; Csikszentmihalyi, 1991; Yair, 2000).” Children who enjoy the stories they read, develop greater reading comprehension skills and have greater motivation to continue reading and learning. A student who also relates to the characters he or she reads about will discover a connection to reading that only improves the child’s desire to read.

Research suggests that children’s literature plays a vital role in helping “students develop emotional intelligence and creativity; it nurtures growth and development of the student’s personalities and social skills; and it transmits important literature and themes from one generation to the next” (Crippen, 2012, p. 1). Literacy development begins in the home, as early as age zero; it all starts with caregivers reading to their child. The role of literature then becomes more important as children enter the educational setting, where there is an intentional inclusion of literature. From preschool to third grade, early childhood teachers seek to include literary elements to support the seven developmental domains of young children: gross motor, fine motor, self-help adaptive, social/emotional, language, cognitive, and spiritual/moral. A child’s