READING STORIES

WHAT IS A GOOD STORY? should alter you in some ways:

~ change your thinking, ~ your feeling,~ your psyche or ~ the way you look at things.

A story is an abstract experience; it's rather like venturing through a maze. When you come out of it, you should feel slightly changed (Allen Say).

WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY LITERATURE?

filled with ideas that need to be explored    

helps us to see our world in new ways~brings us to a deeper understanding of life

presents a vocabulary 

READER-CENTERED APPROACHDefinition: is based on reader-response criticism,

emphasizes the individual as a reader-responder

It argues that reading a literary text is part of a complex process that includes a collaboration between the writer, the text, and the reader.

A text is re-created every time someone new reads it, and it becomes, in the process, increasingly richer. The text is a stimulus that elicits responses from us based on our past experiences, our previous reading, our thoughts, and our feelings.

The reader-response critical theory teaches us that there are no absolutes. It enables us to examine the complexity of human behavior and motivation, the difficulty in ascertaining right and wrong, and the interdependencies involved in any social construct.

OBJECTIVES OF THE READER-CENTERED APPROACH (PURVES, ROGERS, & SOTER,1990)

1.  To encourage individual readers to feel comfortable with their own responses to a literary work.

2.  To encourage the readers to seek out the reasons for their responses and thereby come to understand themselves better.

3.  To encourage the readers to recognize, in the responses of others, the differences among people and to respect those differences.

4.  To encourage readers to recognize, in the response of others, the similarities among people.

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHERThe teacher's responsibilities in effectinga successful reading experience in young people:

i. Bring children and books together.ii. Give them as many different types of literature

as possible.iii. Encourage honest and open responses

iv. Challenge them to explore those responses and learn something about themselves

v. Provide them with the critical language that they might clearly express their responses

vi. Encourage toleration.

vii. Encourage mutual understanding.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIESi Reading Aloud Effective reading aloud can be modeled by

observing the following guidelines.1)  Read stories you enjoy.2)  Choose stories that are suitable to the children's

emotional and social developmental levels. Don't be afraid if the text includes a few challenging words.

3)  Be sure the illustrations in a picture book can be seen easily by everyone.

4)  Keep the reading experience an interactive one.5)  Be sure to pronounce the words correctly.

Rehearse your reading and be sure to use the proper tone and assume different voices if there is a dialogue.

2 StorytellingSuccessful storytelling can be achieved by observing the following guidelines.

1)  Tell the stories you love and be sure your story is appropriate for your audience.

2)  Tell the story in your own words. Make the language easy to understand.

3)  Make sure your story has an attractive beginning and a strong, definitive ending.

4)  Pay attention to the rhythm and intonation. Change your tone as the story requires.

5) Project your voice so that the people in the back can hear you.

6)  Make eye contact with all sections of your audience.

7)  Use gestures and body language that feel natural and support your story.

8)  Use props or visual aids to create the interestingness of your story.

9)  It is a must to practice telling your story in advance.

10)  Be yourself. Develop your own storytelling style.

3 Book DiscussionsQuestions can be posed to elicit varying levels

of response.There are four levels of questions:1)  factual or memory questions

- ask readers to recall facts from the story/poem e.g plot incidents, character identifications, details of the setting, etc

2)  interpretation questions-ask readers to make inferences and draw conclusions from the facts - may require analysis or synthesis

3)  application questions- ask readers to consider the story / poem in a larger context and to focus on further extensions of the theme, style, imagery, symbolism, etc- draw on our own experiences and help us to see

the relationships between literature and life- involve personal response into play.

4)  evaluation questions- ask readers to critically evaluate what they have read and to articulate their reasons- is the beginning of critical taste and judgment.  - there are no clear right /wrong answers, only  answers that are more convincingly supported than others.

PICTURE BOOKS profusely illustrated books in which both

words and illustrations contribute to the story's meaning.

Illustrations in picture books are integral to the story, providing actual plot or concept information as well as clues to character traits, settings, and moods.

written in all genres have illustrations on every page or at least every

other page

general rule, picture books are 32 pages long

Books with occasional illustrations that serve to break up or decorate the text or add interest are not picture books; they are called illustrated books. Illustrations in these books are incidental or nonessential to the content.

(cited in Lynch-Brown, C. & Tomlinson, C. 2005. Essentials of Children’s Literature, 5th edition, p. 76)

 

BIG BOOK APPROACH Big Book is one of the most popular way for teachers

to teach children to read Using big book can help students to understand the

situation and the story better by looking at the pictures

Big book also contains simple words and vocabulary so that children won’t feel bored

The most important features in big book is the COLOR OF THE PICTURES

HOW TO TEACH1. First, teacher needs to introduce the title and the

meaning of the title2. Then, teacher must explain one by one page using

face expression, different voices for different characters and also hand / body movements

3. Teacher can translate the context but need to stress important words

4. Teacher needs to differentiate the syllable of a word using different colors such as; father

5. Teacher need to ask students to follow6. Teacher can also ask one or two students to

read simple sentences7. Then, teacher needs to explain the meaning as a

whole using simple context8. To make the students more understand, teacher

can do some activity for the children