Defining Children’s Literature

Literature is thought, experience and imagination shaped into oral or written language that may include visual images.
There are different forms of literature, such as stories, ballads, family narratives, jokes, jump-rope jingles, street rhymes,
videos, paintings, drawings, film, recorded books, and computer programs, Literature entertains listeners and readers, at
the same time giving them access to the accumulated experience and wisdom of the ages.
Children’s Literature
Children’s literature is a part of the mainstream of all literature. It explores, orders, evaluates and illuminates the human
experience—its heights and depths, its pains and pleasures.
Like adults, children learn about the breadth and depth of life from literature. Memorable children’s authors skilfully
engage readers with the information, language, unique plots, and many-faceted characters create. “By allowing your
readers into the soul of a character we are letting them know more than life will ever divulge about another
human being”
Children’s literature is a literature to which children respond; it relates to their range of experience and is told in
language they understand. The primary contrast between children’s literature and adult literature takes into account the
more limited life experience of the audience, which is significant since readers use experience to understand text.
Fine children’s literature has the qualities of the clear true notes of a flute solo; its beauty and truth are not complicated by
experiences that go beyond the reader’s ability to understand.
Response to Literature
Readers make books come alive. What they bring to literature is as important as the literary work itself. Readers relate the
text they read to life as they know it in order to construct meaning within the text, using the author’s as meaning cues and
constructing meaning for the words based on their personal knowledge, associations and feelings.
Because the meaning of a text depends on the reader’s experience, the same reader may construct different meanings
for the same text in separate readings of that text. “Each time we talk about a book we discover our sense of it, our
ideas about it, our understanding of what it is and means, even the details we remember have changed and
shifted and come to us in different arrangements, different patterns” (Chambers, 1983).
Literary Response Continuum: BOOK READER
INTERESTED, DOES NOT FINISH THE BOOK >> SOMEWHAT INTERESTED >> ENJOYS THE BOOK, FINDS IT
INTERESTING >> EXCITED, WANT TO SHARE THE FEELING ABT THE BOOK >> FINDS THE BOOK TOTALLY
ABSORBING
The Importance of Literature in Early Grades Classroom
Books enrich, broaden, and bring joy to children’s lives
Literature motivates readers to think, enhances language and cognitive development, and stimulates thinking.
It takes children beyond everyday experiences, broadening their background, developing their imagination and sense of
humor, and enabling them to grow in humanity and understanding.
Literature can provide pleasure, relaxation, and opportunities for aesthetic responses
Providing Enjoyment: Good books give readers pleasure. Some readers respond to an enjoyable book through total immersion,
concentrating to the exclusion of all else, laughing or crying as the mood of the story shifts.

Perceiving Aesthetics: Aesthetics pertain to the beauty readers perceive in a literary work. Literature is verbal art that leads readers
to appreciate the beauty of language. It adds aesthetic dimensions to readers’ lives, leading them to view their personal experiences,
events and people.
Providing Enjoyment: Good books give readers pleasure. Some readers respond to an enjoyable book through total
immersion, concentrating to the exclusion of all else, laughing or crying as the mood of the story shifts. Others find literary
enjoyment form acquiring new, fascinating information from nonfiction.
Enhancing Understanding (Understanding Self and Others): Books stimulate readers’ emotional responses. Readers
chuckle over the antics of characters in stories, gain insights into different roles in life and learn about the feelings
associated with various experiences.
Enhancing Understanding (Understanding Cultures): Through identifying with children in other cultures, readers learn
about the ties that unite people everywhere. Children who come to understand and appreciate various cultures are more
likely to realize that people throughout the world share the same emotions, experiences, and problems.
Developing Imagination: Imagination is a creative constructive power. Every aspect of a daily life involves imagination. Creative
thought and imagination are intimately related to higher-order thinking skills. Creative thinkers strive to develop or invent novel,
aesthetic, constructive ideas.

Increasing Information and Knowledge: Reading enables children to participate in experiences that go far beyond mere facts.

Stimulating Cognition: Literature is a way of thinking. It serves as a source of knowledge and sounding board for children’s
reasoning.

Providing Language Model: Literature assumes greater importance when considered as a model of language and the interactive
language process.

Characteristics of Exemplary Children’s Literature

1. An exemplary children’s literature has a simple idea and theme.

2. An exemplary children’s literature has characters that are real.

4. An exemplary children’s literature comes with big or readable text and captivating illustrations.

Literary Elements of Children’s Literature

1. Characters - In children’s literature, character is used to mean a person or personified animal or object.

Characters could be categorized as:  round (a character who has a variety of traits);  flat (less well developed and has usually a
single trait);  static (does not change in the course of the story); and  dynamic (a well-developed character who changes).

Characters may be analyzed through the following:  Physical traits  Inner qualities  Revelation of the character  Relationship to
other characters  Types of character

2. Setting - The setting is the time and place in which the story occurs.

There are two types of setting:

 Backdrop Setting: setting is of secondary importance; story focus is likely to be on characters, character confrontation, dialogue,
action and the development of conflict

 Time and place influence action, character and/or theme. Characters behave in a given way because of time and place

3. Plot - The plot of a story is the sequence of events showing characters in action.

Plot has three elements:

 Narrative Order – the way or the order in which the writer chooses to unfold the story to the reader

o Chronological: Events are related in the order of their happening

o Flashbacks: Writer disrupts normal time sequence to recount some past event

 Conflict – the struggles the protagonist of the story faces

o Person vs. Self o Person vs. Person o Person vs. Society o Person vs, Nature

 Pattern of Action – the pattern that the action of the story takes place

o Exposition o Rising Action o Climax o Falling Action o Denouement or Resolution

4. Point of View - is the side of the story the reader sees as revealed by the author through the characters.

There are four types of point of view:

 First Person o Story told through first-person narrator “I” whose actions and feelings influence story

 Objective o Author lets actions speak for themselves

 Omniscient o Story is told in the third person with author talking about “they, he, or she”

 Limited Omniscient o Combination of first-person and omniscient

Theme Theme is the idea that holds the story together or the author’s message to the reader. It is the main idea or the central
meaning of the story.

5. Theme - is the idea that holds the story together or the author’s message to the reader. It is the main idea or the central meaning
of the story.

There are four types of themes:

 Primary – the central theme which is of more importance than the rest

 Secondary – themes which seem of lesser importance than the primary one

 Explicit – a theme stated openly and clearly

 Implicit – a theme not stated openly but derived from the characters and action of story

6. Style - is the author’s choice and arrangement of words in order to create plot, characterizations, setting, and theme.

common devices of style:

 Connotation – associative or emotional meaning of a word; usually used to describe a character or situation

 Imagery – the appeal of the senses; helps to create setting, establish mood and character

 Figurative Language – words used in a non-literal way, giving meaning beyond the usual sense. Ex) personification, simile, or
metaphor

 Hyperbole – exaggeration used for humor or to make a point

 Understatement – opposite of exaggeration; used to play down a happening or situation

 Allusion – tends to have more meaning for mature readers; relies on a reference to something in our common understanding, our
past, or our literature

 Symbol – something that operates on two levels of meaning, the literal and the figurative levels

examples of devices of sound:

 Onomatopoeia – words that sounds like their meaning

 Alliteration – repetition of a similar vowel sound within a phrase

 Consonance – close repetition of a consonant sound within a phrase but not in the initial position

7. Tone - tells us how the author feels about their subject. It cannot be isolated from the words of a story and it also influences
meaning.

three types of tone:

 Condescension – when someone looks down upon us, treating us as though we are unintelligent or immature

 Sentimentality – the overuse of a statement

 Didacticism – points to a moral lesson

important tones in children’s literature:

 Humor – usually comes from a situation or happenings that make children laugh

 Parody – usually a device for older readers since it relies on the reader’s memory of a known piece of writing or of a way of talking

Children's Literature and Child Development

Age/Cognitive Development Stage Children’s Literature

 Ages 0-2 (Sensorimotor Period)  nursery rhymes for reading aloud
 brief, plotless, concept books with brightly
colored pictures
Ages 2-4 (Operational Period: Pre-conceptual Stage)  simple-plot picture storybooks and folktales
for reading aloud
 nursery rhymes for them to memorize
Ages 4-7 Beginning Readers (Operational Period:  easy-to-read picture storybooks, folktales,
Intuitive Stage) and rhymes for reading aloud, storytelling,
and “playreading”
 informational books for beginning readers
that help
Ages 7-9 Transitional Readers (Period of Concrete  longer picture books and short chapter books
Operations) with simple, straightforward plots and writing
styles
Ages 9-12 Competent Readers (Period of Formal  sophisticated picture storybooks and novels
Operations) (chapter books) with more complicated plots,
including realistic fiction (survival stories,
peer stories, animal stories, mysteries, and
romances), historical fiction, and science
fiction
Trends in Children’s Literature

Increased numbers of adults reading children’s books.

Increasing dominance of illustration in children’s books.

Fewer full-length novels and more short, high-interest, low-reading-level novels begins written for 10- to 12

Rapid growth of technology in all areas of publishing.

An increase in the publication of bilingual books to accommodate the rapid increase in second language learner students.

Increased merchandising of book-related paraphernalia

Genre is a French word that means kind or type. Literary genres are classifications of literature based on literary form
and theme, works that share common characteristics or conventions. A literary convention is an element of form, style,
orcontent that is universal throughout the genre (Morner and Rausch, 1991). Each genre of literature has such
conventions or universals associated with its literary form. For instance, a convention of picture books is the interaction
between illustrations and text. It is these universal characteristics that permit readers and viewers to analyze and identify
individual books belonging to a particular genre, a basic step in critically analyzing a book (Frye, 1968).
Picture Books - the books that tell the story predominantly through pictures, with a few lines of supporting text.
Illustrations in picture storybooks are integral to the story, providing actual plot or concept information as well as clues to
character traits, settings, and moods. Picture storybooks, which usually come in the form of 32 pages, are usually
intended to be read by children aged 3-8.
Elements of Picture Books
PLOT- The plot of picture storybooks tends to be simple and fast-paced.
CHARACTERIZATION - The characterization in picture books is simple.
THEME - Picture-book themes tend to be sharply focused—a single theme clearly dominates a book.
STYLE/LANGUAGE - Words (style/language) in picture books are carefully chosen and have to be very concise (picture
books average about 2,000 words).
Types of Picture Books
Wordless Book - Wordless picture books tell the story completely through illustrations, with no words at all or a very few
embedded in the artwork.
Sensory Book - Also known as a “quiet book” or a “busy book,” a sensory book is a homemade book filled with small
items and activities to keep kids stimulated while under “quiet” time.
Pop-up Book - any book with three-dimensional pages, although properly the umbrella term movable book covers pop-
ups, transformations, tunnel books, flaps, pull-tabs, pop-outs, pull-downs, and more, each of which performs in a different
manner.
Folk Literature - These stories have endured because they are entertaining, they embody the culture’s belief system, and
they contain fundamental human truths by which people have lived for centuries. Their brevity, immediate action, easily
understandable characters, recurring features, fantastic elements, and happy endings particularly appeal to children
between the ages of 3 and 8.
1. The need to explain the mysteries of the natural world; 2. The need to articulate our fears and dreams; 3. The need to
impose order on the apparent random, even chaotic, nature of life; 4. The need to entertain ourselves and each other
Elements of Folk Literature
Setting - Most folktale settings remove the tale from the real world, taking us to a time and place where animals talk,
witches and wizards roam, and magic spells are commonplace.
Character - The characters in folk literature are usually flat, simple, and straightforward.
Plot- Plots are generally shorter and simpler than in other genres of literature.
Theme and Conflict - Themes in folk literature are usually quite simple, but serious and powerful.
Style- The language is typically economical, with a minimal amount of description and a heavy reliance on formulaic
patterns (e.g., conventional openings and closings).
Types of Folk Literature
Myth - A myth is a traditional story that may answer life's overarching questions, such as the origins of the world (the
creation myth) or of a people.
Legend - A legend is a story that's purported to be historical in nature but that is without
substantiation.
Epic- is a long narrative poem, which is usually related to heroic deeds of a person of an unusual courage and
unparalleled bravery.
Fables- In prose and verse, a fable is described through plants, animals, forces, of nature, and inanimate objects by
giving them human attributes wherein they demonstrate a moral lesson at the end.
Folktales - is a collection of fictional tales about people or animals. Superstitions and unfounded beliefs are important
elements in the folklore tradition.
Literary Fairytales- Literary fairy tales are original tales written by specific modern authors that have all the flavor of a
traditional folktale.
Poetry - Poetry is often the first literature presented to a child, in the form of nurseryrhymes or lullabies.
Types of Poetry
Nursery Rhymes and Songs - is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of
the term only dates from the late 18th/early 19th century.
Haiku- is a poem that has three lines, where the first and last lines have five syllables, and the middle line has seven.
The pattern in this Japanese genre is 5-7-5.
Diamante- is an unrhymed seven-line poem. The beginning and ending lines are the shortest, while the lines in the
middle are longer, giving diamante poems a diamond shape.
Fantasy - is any story of the impossible, but it is presented as if they were possible. It may includemagic, talking animals,
time travel, the supernatural, adventures in alternative worlds – any feature that is contrary to the laws of nature as we
understand them.
Types of Fantasy
Modern Folktales - They are tales told in a form similar to that of a traditional fairytale with the accompanying typical
elements: little character description, strong conflict, fast-moving plot with a sudden resolution, vague setting, and
sometimes magical elements.
Animal Fantasy - They are stories in which animals behave as human beings in that they experience emotions, talk, and
have the
Toy Fantasy- They are stories in which admired or beloved toys (e.g., teddy bears, puppets, or dolls) are brought to life
and transformed into animated beings who talk, think, live, breathe, and love like humans do. Modern toy fantasies are
most frequently in picture-book format. ability to reason.
Magical Fantasy - The magic itself – whether a magical object or a character with magical powers – becomes the very
subject of the story, rather than simply a means to an end.
Enchanted Journeys and Alternative Worlds - In many fantasies, we see the protagonists undertaking journey to some
fantasy world or alternative world.
Heroic or Quest Fantasy (High Fantasy) - They are adventure stories with a quest, or search, motif. The quest may be
pursuit for a lofty purpose, such as justice or love, or for a rich reward, such as a magical power or a hidden treasure.
Supernatural and Mystery Fantasy - One common form of supernatural fantasy is the ghost story. Ghosts in children’s
books can be fearful threats or helpful protectors.
Science Fiction – is a form of imaginative literature that provides a picture of something that could happen based on real
scientific facts and principles.
Realistic fiction - attempts to portray the world as it is. It contains no fantasy, no supernatural elements, and it usually
depicts ordinary people going about the business of daily living, with all its joys, sorrow, successes, and failures.
In a good realistic fiction: the characters are engaging and believable. the dialogue is believable. the plot is fresh and
original. the setting is true to life. the problems faced by the characters are honestly portrayed. the resolution makes
sense. the theme grows naturally out of the action and characters - the writer does not preach at us.
Types of Realistic Fiction
Family Stories (domestic stories) - Family stories have been around since Victorian days when they were the mainstay
of a girl's reading.
Stories of Social Realism - This type of story deals with friendship, self-identity, racial prejudice, child abuse, sexual
abuse, homosexuality, and other social issues that may involve human growth and development.
Mystery or Detective Stories - The mystery or detective story is a form of romance, escapist fiction creating a world
more exciting, more dangerous, and more beautiful than we imagine our own to be.
Animal Stories - This type of stories hinge on the premise that animal characters share certain human traits - the
capacity for love, loyalty, jealousy, fear, etc.
Sports Stories - originated in the boys' magazines of the 19th century, but they became full-blown books in the 20th
century.
Historical Stories - Historical fiction is set in a time period that is earlier from the time the work was written (at least a
generation - 20 years - earlier).
Biography falls under the category of non-fiction/informational books. It is a vast category which is usually approached in
one of several ways. In the past, biographies were fictionalized because many experts felt that children would not read a
biography unless it read like a good story.
Types of Biography
Picture-book Biographies - Biographies under this category are mainly directed at young children. They may cover a
certain part of the person's life or span the person's whole life.
Simplified Biographies - Created especially for the newly independent or lower skilled readers, simplified biographies
tend to provide straightforward accounts of people's lives.
Partial Biographies - covers only a part of a person's life, usually a dramatic or high interest event.
Complete Biographies - covers the subject's entire life. Complete biographies, although typically long and detailed, can
also be conveyed in other categories, such as in picture-books and even in fictionalized versions.
Collective Biographies - were written to provide a brief explanation about specific groups of people, such as presidents,
sports heroes and scientists.
Autobiographies - Under this category we have stories written by the subject about the subject. The reader can expect
great insight into the subject's life, although biased and subjective.
MODELING STRATEGIES
Storytelling – TELLING A STORY WITHOT USING A STORYBOOK

Reading Aloud – TELLING A STORY WITH A STORYBOOK

Reading Along - In the read along strategy, teachers provide needed word prompts and cues, as well as fluency in the reading act. As
learners follow along, their pacing is propelled by the fluency of the reader.

Puppetry - Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation

of puppets.

Reader’s Theatre - is a particular type of dramatic pedagogy, which uses scripts and performance to enhance the comprehension of
a text. text. Students work in groups to practice the performance of a script, which has been given to the group or written by the
group. Multiple readings of the text, through rehearsal, offer opportunities to address fluency, phrasing, intonation and voice
production. Reader’s Theatre does not constitute an activity of memorizing but it entails a dramatic oral expression, through reading
aloud. Kindergarten children develop their language and social emotional skills through script reading and expressing emotions.
Children are able to develop their social skills by rehearsing and performing Reader’s Theater in groups.

Chamber Theatre - Its use in the classroom is aimed at helping students to become more aware of the controlling intelligence and
the dynamic relationship between them and the characters in a short story or novel.

Chamber theatre develops various skills among children: Creativity, variety, creation of mood, and vocal interpretation, Use of
sense memory, Use of movement, gesture, posture, and facial expression, Overall clarity and entertainment value of performance

A chamber theatre to be considered as an exemplary should meet the following characteristics:

A good plot. A clearly defined characterization. Enough dialogue. Scenes easy to portray on stage.

Choral Recitation - is the interpretation of poetry by several voices speaking as one. It is the group interpretation of poetry for the
purpose of sharing enjoyment and increasing enjoyment of it. Choral recitation involves the use of a book or script.