2 Choosing literature to use in the classroom
In the case study that follows, a teacher goes to a book festival and thinks about how to incorporate what she finds there into her classroom language and literacy teaching.
Case Study 1: Mrs Aparajeeta looks for Indian children’s literature to use with her students
Mrs Aparajeeta is a Class VI teacher in Kolkata.
I wanted to bring new books into my classroom. I had to get permission to buy them from Mr Gomes, my head teacher, who agreed that I could spend a portion of the school budget on books that would be made available to the whole school.
I went to the Kolkata Book Fair to search for interesting books. I was totally overwhelmed by the huge range of reading material on sale for children, from comics through to long novels. Many were from overseas. I really had to search for Indian stories amongst all the different copies of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I think that the bigger book publishers were targeting the parents whose children attend English medium schools. Eventually found the Saraswati Press stall full of interesting children’s literature suitable for my classes.
I began by reading the books aloud for my students’ enjoyment. Later, when they were familiar with the stories, I started to plan literacy development activities based on the texts. When a story or a poem is of a high quality, it is quite easy to plan activities around it.
Pause for thought
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In the next activity, you will look closely at the features of high quality children’s literature.
Activity 3: Evaluating literature for children
The range of literature for children is huge. You will now look at two examples: the book Annual Haircut Day (Resource 1) and the story ‘The Girl Who Married a Snake’ (Resource 2).
Read both texts aloud to yourself or a colleague. As you read, think carefully about the following questions:
- What are the differences between the two stories?
- Do you like one better than another?
- What do you think are the positive features of each text?
Look again at Annual Haircut Day and answer the following questions:
- Why does the story not begin with the words ‘Long ago …’ or ‘Once upon a time …’, as many stories do?
- Do you think the pictures are necessary? Why, or why not?
- What do you think your students would like about the story?
Compare your ideas with ours.
Annual Haircut Day is a short, lively picture book. The illustrations show people and places that are contemporary and familiar. Several of them, like the ones of the barber shop and the busy home, contain amusing details that that are appealing to look at talk about.
While the text appears simple and repetitive, it skilfully models complex language structures:
Feeling sad, Sringeri Srinivas went back home…
Feeling a little angry, Sringeri Srinivas went to his friend…
Now a little worried, Sringeri Srinivas went to one more friend…
In tears, he walked off….
Books like Annual Haircut Day are created specifically to help new readers to learn to read independently. They include carefully selected familiar words and phrases. Students can use the pictures as ‘clues’ to understanding the meaning of the text.
As students listen to or read stories like this, they will start to recognise the same words and phrases in other books and will apply this knowledge in their own speech and writing.
Stories of this kind are also useful in encouraging young children to speak and listen as they respond to questions about the pictures and what is happening in the story.
Such stories are child-friendly because they present a world that is recognisable to young readers. The satisfaction of listening to and reading these kinds of stories will inspire children’s interest in other books.
Having listened to or read stories like this, students can be invited to:
- extend the story (by adding new characters or animals, for example)
- create different endings (perhaps Sringeri Srinivas has to wear a wig after his hair falls out, because now his head is cold!)
- act it out
- tell or write their own versions of the story
- create a similar story (for example, a crocodile who has an ‘Annual Tooth-brushing Day’, using the phrase ‘Today I have no time to brush so many teeth!’ repeatedly).
Now read Resource 2, ‘The Girl Who Married a Snake’.
- How is this story different to Annual Haircut Day?
- Why do you think pictures are not necessary in this story?
- Could you retell this story to your students from memory?
- Are there places in the story where you would substitute easier words for difficult words?
- Could the story be extended or improvised, with songs, actions, dialogues or additional characters?
- Do you think your students would enjoy acting out this story?
‘The Girl Who Married a Snake’ is a traditional Panchatantra tale that starts with the phrase ‘Once upon a time …’ – the introduction to all traditional stories and a signal that it is about to begin. It is a magical story of transformation. It is not set in any particular time or place, but it does not feel like our contemporary world.
It is quite an intense, emotional story. It may feel a bit strange and disturbing.
Unlike Annual Haircut Day, the writing in this story is not simple, nor is the language that of everyday conversation.
When students listen to this story, they are exposed to complex sentences and vocabulary that they cannot yet read on their own. They learn about language through a traditional story that is a part of India’s cultural heritage.
Having listened to it, students can:
- retell the story
- invent their own versions of the story
- act out the story
- improvise dialogues between the characters
- draw or paint the scenes
- create a ‘prequel’ (What was the curse that made the son into a snake?)
- extend the story (What happens to the girl and the son? Do they have snake children?)
- perform the story for the school or the community.
Pause for thought
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Neither story is from a school textbook. Both offer interesting situations and language to talk about. Both texts can be extended and adapted, and used for a range of language and literacy activities.
Resource 3 gives guidance on what to look for when selecting literature to use with children. Read Resource 3 now and think about the literature resources in your classroom.
1 Auditing and extending your knowledge of children’s literature