Children′s Literature in Primary Schools

David Waugh, Sally Neaum, Rosemary Waugh

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473993945
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

How can you help children to develop a love of reading and books?Which books are the best ones to use in primary teaching?How do you make the most of children?s literature in teaching across the curriculum? Trainee and experienced primary school teachers need an advanced knowledge of children?s literature. This is your guide to the range of and scope of children?s literature for the primary classroom. Through the exploration of different genres it covers a wide range of literature and helps you to consider what we mean by literature. Case studies that model good practice are included with suggestions for practical activities using literature to enhance teaching across the curriculum. Throughout, book recommendations show how specific texts can be used for teaching in exciting and innovative ways. What?s new to this edition?
- updated in line with the new Primary National Curriculum
- includes new content on supporting children for whom English is an Additional Language
- anextensive list of book recommendationsfor primary teaching
- how to get more out of classic texts
- introduces new texts and new children?s authors

1 Developing a Love of Reading

Learning Outcomes

By reading this chapter you will have considered:

• how you can make reading an appealing activity;
• why it is important for teachers to be active readers with a wide knowledge of texts;
• strategies for developing children's enthusiasm for and engagement with reading;
• gender issues in reading.

Introduction

The best teachers of literature are those for whom reading is important in their own lives, and who read more than the texts they teach …. Being a reader of literature gives a teacher the confidence to teach powerfully.

(Martin, 2003, p.6)

Why is it Important to Develop a Love of Reading?

For many people, like the ‘best teachers of literature’ Martin describes, reading is as much a part of life as eating and watching television. They always have at least one novel on the go and they buy books regularly, either in hard copy or electronically. Look around a bus or train and you will see that many people are reading novels, newspapers and magazines, or are reading from an electronic device. Some may be texting or sending e-mails, while others may be solving word puzzles. In fact, anyone new to a place like Britain would probably assume that it is a nation of readers, and enthusiastic readers at that.

However, many people are not so enthusiastic about reading and while most may engage in reading activities at a functional level by texting, e-mailing, etc., they may not read novels and poems. They may struggle with reading and find it challenging, but more likely they lost whatever enthusiasm they may once have had for literature while still at school. Does this matter? After all, if people have reading skills which are adequate for their daily lives and their reading preferences do not include fiction and poetry, shouldn't we simply respect their choices? Are they actually missing anything if they choose not to read novels and poems? Is there anything which these genres can offer which cannot be found in other media, including theatre, films and television?

Research Focus

Fiction and Non-Fiction

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, conducted a study of 94 people and measured the extent to which they read fiction and non-fiction. Through conducting tests which included showing participants video clips of people interacting and then asking them questions, they discovered that people who read predominantly fiction had greater social abilities, for example in guessing the mental states of people in photographs and in matching children in videos to their parents. The researchers argued that while non-fiction increases expertise in topics such as cookery, genetics or whatever the subject matter of the books was, fiction develops expertise in empathising and socialising.

(Oatley, 2009)

So perhaps there are sound reasons why teachers should foster a love of reading in children. Apart from providing entertainment, information, pleasure and relaxation, stories and poems can help us to look at the world around us in a more reflective way, and be better able to consider people's motives for actions. Indeed, DiYanni (1997) argued that besides entertaining and enlightening us and engaging our imaginations, stories enlarge our understanding of ourselves and deepen our appreciation of life (p.27).

As you will see in Chapter 8 on issue fiction, sometimes authors set out to address a current issue or scenario with the specific aim of getting readers to explore their views. Often authors set up moral dilemmas which force readers to consider how they would react to situations and to compare their own solutions to problems with those of fictional characters. Indeed, it has been argued that most fiction can be viewed in terms of ‘facts’ about characters. Peha (2003) maintains there are five facts of fiction:

Fact 1: Fiction is all about a character. Who is your main character? What does he or she look like? Can you describe your character's personality? How did this character get to be this way?

Fact 2: Fiction is all about what your character wants. What does your character want more than anything else? Why does your character want it? Some characters want a lot; some want a little. It doesn't really matter as long as what your character wants is extremely important. The more important it is, the more your character will do to get it, and that's what makes the plot so interesting.

Fact 3: Fiction is all about how your character gets or does not get what he or she wants. Is your character successful? Or does your character's quest end in failure? Either way, it can still be a great story. The trick is to understand how your character succeeds or fails. What obstacles does your character encounter? What solutions does your character craft to meet the challenges of his or her world?

Fact 4: Fiction is all about how your character changes. How does your character change as a result of what happens? What was your character like at the beginning? What is your character like at the end? What has your character learned? What did you learn from reading the story?

Fact 5: Fiction is all about a world an author creates. How did the author create the world of the book? What kinds of people, places, things and ideas did the author include? What successes, disasters and conflicts does this world have? What are the good things in this world? What are the bad things? Complete the following sentence: ‘This is a world where …’ Remember: the story is made up, but it is also true to its world.

Activity

Look at Peha's Five Facts of Fiction and apply them to a character in a story you know well. How well do they work? Is this a model you could use in the classroom? How might you adapt it for different age groups?

What Peha's model achieves is to make us think about the potential of literature for helping us to think more deeply about character and to give us ideas for how we might explore this with children. Through reading and discussing what we read, we can develop an understanding of ways in which problems can be tackled and learn how other people live or used to live. And literature can help us in all sorts of other ways. Through reading, we broaden our knowledge and understanding of language, our vocabularies and our appreciation of different ways of expressing ideas. This helps us when we write as well as when we hold conversations.

As teachers, we can enhance work across the curriculum by introducing children to relevant stories and poems. For example, for history we might look at some of the following to add interest to studies of different periods.

(See Chapter 3 for further ideas and suggestions.)

Given the huge potential of literature, it is worrying that some teachers do not appear to value children's literature or have a wide knowledge of it.

Research Focus

Teachers and Reading

Concerned by evidence from such sources as PIRLS (2006; see Twist, et al., 2007) that children in the UK increasingly found less pleasure in reading than those in other countries, Cremin, et al. (2008) undertook a survey of teachers’ reading habits, preferences and knowledge of children's literature. While they found that most of the 1200 teachers who responded to their questionnaire were regular readers who made use of stories and poems which they had enjoyed as children, the researchers had significant concerns about their findings.

Teachers were asked to name six children's authors, poets and picture book makers. The researchers concluded that:

… it is questionable whether they know a sufficiently diverse range of writers to enable them to foster reader development and make informed recommendations to emerging readers with different needs and interests. The lack of professional knowledge and assurance with children's literature which this research reveals and the minimal knowledge of global literature indicated has potentially serious consequences for all learners, particularly those from linguistic and cultural minority groups who may well be marginalised unless teachers’ own reading repertoires can be expanded. Furthermore, the infrequent mention of poetry in teachers’ personal reading and their lack of knowledge of poets, as well as the relative absence of women poets and poets from other cultures writing in English, is also a concern, as is the dearth of knowledge of picture book creators, and the almost non-existent mention of picture book writers for older readers.

It is debatable therefore whether teachers are familiar with a wide enough range of children's authors in order to plan richly integrated and holistic literacy work. The evidence suggests that if units of work or author studies are undertaken they are likely to be based around the work of writers from the canon, whose writing may already be very well known to children. The wide popularity and teacher reliance on the prolific work of Dahl may...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Developing a Love of Reading
• 2 Sharing Literature with Children
• 3 Literature Across the Curriculum
• 4 Books for Younger Children
• 5 Picture Books
• 6 Stories and Poems from and about Different Cultures
• 7 Traditional Stories and Fairy Tales
• 8 Fiction which Addresses Issues
• 9 Fantasy and Magic
• 10 Classic Fiction
• 11 Everyday Fiction
• 12 Poetry
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix 1 Seventy-Five Books
• Appendix 2 Glossary of Terminology for Poetry
• Appendix 3 Model Answers to the Self-Assessment Questions
• References
• Index