Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What Can Literature Do for You?

As adults, we all have a memory in which we read a short story, a poem, a simple quote, or any other form of literature that produced an intense emotional reaction that stuck with us. For me, I connect most with poetry and its ability to combine beautiful words to create beautiful sentences. This disposition that I have towards literature is a positive one that has been created through carefully selected literature over the years by my parents and teachers. We want to do this same thing for our children as we create positive dispositions for them and encourage their development of a sense of what literature can do for them.


Literature can send powerful messages, and the selections that children read will determine what message a child gets. Further more, the disposition, or attitude, that a child develops towards literature in general will determine if they will grow and retain a love for reading for the rest of his or her life. Enjoyable experiences with literature will help to develop this positive outlook. The ways to do this are the following;

-Bring stories of all children including special needs, talents, and interests, varieties of family structures and socioeconomic statuses, and multiple races and languages
- Having plots that are socially relevant

- Including a wide variety of topics and genres so that
all children can find appeal.

Among these ways, the most important indicator that children are developing the appropriate dispositions are checking for
listening and understanding. Choose what is important for your child to know and empower them to realize what literature can do!

5 comments:

  1. I think it is great that you focused on the attitude of the child. It is so true that if they have a bad attitude towards literature then they will most likely stop reading. It will be so important for us as educators to foster a true love for reading in hopes that this will carry with the child all through school.

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  2. I like how you talked about poetry and you connection to it. Not many think of poetry as something that would interest children, but if you incorporate different types of literature including poetry a child might develop a love for it. Also finding literature that children can relate to and are interested in is so important. If children are not interested in the books and stories you present, they may develop a dislike for reading because they find it boring.

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  3. Selecting a wide variety of books for the classroom is definitely something that should be done. With group read-alouds of each book chosen, the teacher can get a feel about what excites the children and what just doesn't interest them. With consistent observation of their interests and skill levels, it should be easy to foster that love for reading.

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  4. This post focuses on not only providing what the children need through a story but also giving the children what they are interested in. The content may be important but if the students are not engaged then the point of reading time was to no avail. For example the a core moral of "The Tortoise and the Hare" is that over confidence and haste can lead to a person's own detriment. However if a child may not realize that if the characters are a tortoise and a hare. Maybe they might get the message more if the characters were actual people. The "Suzy" and the "Lucy" for example.

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  5. Your text to self, text to others, and text to a bigger picture was a great approach in conveying the readers just how important literacy is. It's true, literature can send powerful messages to its reader--as long as we find the right book. Just as you mentioned the beautiful genre of poetry, there are many genres out there than will be suit each individual...you just have to explore!

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