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ENGL 3440 Children’s Literature in English
Books to Begin OnPresented by
Prof. T. Méndez
Developing Initial Literacy
The language development of children during the first years is phenomenal.
Preoccupation with words and the sounds of language is characteristic of the very young child.
Books help to fulfill this insatiable desire to hear and learn new words.
Hearing literature of good quality helps children to develop to their full language potential.
Developing Initial Literacy
Children cannot be introduced to books too soon.
Talk is essential at the beginning in order to develop comprehension skills as children attach meaning to the sounds.
The young child who has the opportunity to hear and enjoy many stories is also beginning to learn to read.
Developing Initial Literacy
Children begin to acquire simultaneously some of the attitudes, concepts and skills needed to become literate.
They also acquire a positive attitude towards books, an understanding about the sense making aspect of stories, and the form and structure of written language itself.
All of this learning occurs at the pre-reading stage and is essential for later success in reading.
Developing Initial Literacy
Watch the following videos and identify the different characteristics or actions related to literature interaction.
Developing Initial Literacy
Early exposure to books and plenty of time for talk and enjoyment of the story are key factors in the child’s acquisition of literacy.
Babies’ First Books
First books for young children are frequently identification books, “naming books,” or books with simple narrative lines.
These books allow the child to point to pictures demanding to know what it is.
This type of sharing between the child and the adult is extremely important during the pre-reading stage.
Babies’ First Books
The growth of good books for babies and toddlers was a publishing phenomenon of the 1980s and 1990s.
Books for this age group need to be well constructed, with heavy laminated cardboard, cloth, or plastic pages that will withstand teeth or sticky fingers.
Illustrations should be simple, uncluttered, and easily identifiable. (Tana Hoban, What is that?)
Toy Books
Some books have a “built-in participation” s part of their design.
These books have flaps to lift up and peek under, soft flannel to touch, or holes to poke fingers through.
Such books can serve as the transition between toys and real books.
Finger Rhymes and Nursery Songs
Finger rhymes are one traditional way to provide for young children’s participation as they play.
Rhymes such as “Five little pigs” and “Eensy Weensy Spider” provide participation in a playful way.
Finger plays date back to the time of Freidrich Froebel, the father of the kindergarten movement.
Finger Rhymes and Nursery Songs
Friedrich collected the finger plays and games that the peasant mothers in the German countryside were using with their children.
Babies and toddlers often first respond to the sounds of music and singing.
Many authors and illustrators have created new and innovative interpretations for familiar songs.
Finger Rhymes and Nursery Songs
All children need to hear songs, from the time they are babies right through school.
Many emergent readers’ first books are shared nursery rhymes and songs or chants.
Children “read” the familiar words as they sing the songs.
Classes should have favorite songs to start the day or to sing while waiting for an activity.
Mother Goose
Mother Goose is most children’s first introduction to the world of literature.
These folk rhymes are passed down from generation to generation and are found across many cultures.
Language games such as “Pat-a-Cake! Pat-a-Cake!” or “This Little Pig Went to Market” appeal to young children well up until they are 5 years old.
Mother Goose
Much of the language in these rhymes is obscure; for example, modern-day children have no idea what curds and whey are, yet they delight in Little Miss Muffet.
Nothing in current literature has replaced the venerable Mother Goose for the nursery-school age.
The Appeal of Mother Goose
Much of the appeal of Mother Goose lies in the musical quality of the varied language patterns, and the rhythm and rhyme of the verses.
Researchers have now linked children’s experience with nursery rhymes and speech play to the development of sensitivity to the sounds within words, an ability called “phonemic awareness”.
The Appeal of Mother Goose
Children’s ability to manipulate the sounds of words as they sing and chant nursery rhymes is a necessary foundation for understanding relationships between letters and sounds and contributes to their emergent literacy development.
Mother Goose rhymes also offer young children many opportunities for active participation and response.
The Appeal of Mother Goose
Many of the Mother Goose rhymes narrative quality is extremely attractive to children.
They tell a good story with quick action.
Many of the characters in Mother Goose have interesting likable personalities.
The humor in Mother Goose rhymes is also appealing.
Different Editions of Mother Goose
Many Mother Goose editions are available today.
Preschool and primary teachers should have one that can be shared with small groups of children.
Alphabet BooksIn colonial days, children were first taught their ABCs from cautionary rhymes which combined early literacy and religion.
Later, pictures of animals beginning with certain letters were added to hornbooks and early primers for younger children.
Alphabet books today have moved beyond teaching children their alphabet to serving as a format to present detailed information about a particular subject, to showcase an art book, or to create complicated puzzles.
Alphabet Books
In addition to teaching the names and shapes of the letters, ABC books can also be used for identification or naming, as they provide the young child with large, bright pictures of animals or single objects to look at and talk about.
Certain factors need to be considered in selecting alphabet books for the youngest child.
Alphabet Books
Objects should be clearly presented on the page
These should be easily identifiable and meaningful for the intended age level
Only one or two objects should be shown for the very young child
It is best to avoid portraying anything that might have several correct names
Alphabet Books
Since text is necessarily limited, the pictures usually “carry” the story
They should be both clear and consistent with the text, reflecting and creating the mood of the book
Alphabet Books
Alphabet books vary, in both their texts and their pictorial presentation, from very simple to abstract
Authors and illustrators use a variety of organizing structures to create ABC texts
Alphabet Books
There are four types of ABC books:
word-picture formats
simple narratives
riddles or puzzles
topical themes
Alphabet Books
Alphabet Book Activity
Counting Books
Children usually learn to count by using objects such as block, boxes or bottle caps.
Counting books substitute pictures for real objects.
Young children can make the transition from concrete to visual representation if they first experience the use of real objects.
Counting BooksIn Counting books, illustrations must be clear and stand out.
Illustrations and page design must be accurate, uncluttered and not confusing.
Counting books are divided into three categories:
one-to-one correspondence
other mathematical concepts
number stories and puzzles
One-to-One Correspondence
One-to-one correspondence Counting books, usually present numbers one at a time.
Photos, or clear bright pictures of everyday objects are used.
Other Mathematical Concepts
Brightly colored illustrations are used to depict simple mathematical concepts such as subtraction and addition.
Objects are used to represent sets of five or ten.
Photographs of fruits may be used to represent simple fractions.
Number Stories and Puzzles
These Counting books contain stories and informational text with number integration.
Detailed pictures are used with vivid colors.
Concept Books
ABC books and counting books are really concept book.
Books that help children learn spatial relations and patterns and to identify and discriminate colors are examples of concept books.
Some books combine multiple concepts.
Concept Books
Simple text accompanies the picture, and a simple glossary at the end is included in most books.
Many publishers have found the preschool audience a strong market for simple books of nonfiction as well as concepts.
Concept Books
Concept and nonfiction books help the youngest child see relationships between objects.
Children develop awareness of similarities and differences.
Children grasp the various dimensions of an abstract idea.
Concept Books
Information for the younger child should be presented in a clear manner, with one or more examples given.
Where appropriate, the functions of objects should be made clear.
Concepts should be within the developmental scope of the child.
Concept Books
These books can be used to enrich or reinforce an experience, not substitute it.
Children enjoy hearing these books read aloud because of the curiosity it develops and the need to seek for information.
They want to know the names of things, how they work, and why this is so.
Wordless Books
Wordless books are picture books in which the story line is told entirely through pictures.
They are increasingly popular with today’s TV-oriented child.
Many of them are laid out in the same sequential manner as comic books and have wide appeal to different age levels.
Wordless Books
Textless books are surprisingly helpful in developing some of the skills necessary for reading.
Skills such as handling the book, turning the pages, beginning at the left-hand side and moving to the right give the child a sense of direction and the experience of acting like a reader.
Wordless Books
These books are also useful in stimulating language development through encouraging children to take an active part in story telling.
As the child relates the story, he/she will become aware of beginnings, endings, the sequence of the story, the climax, and the actions of the characters.
Wordless Books
“Reading”, or telling what is happening in the pictures in a wordless book, also requires specific comprehension skills.
To help children tell the story, pictures must show action and sequence clearly so children will not be confused in their tellings.
Children should be given the opportunity to examen the book and look through it completely.
Books about the Common Experiences of Young Children
Increasingly, publishers are producing books that mirror the common everyday experiences and feelings of preschoolers.
In these books for 2 through 5 year olds the illustrations are simple and clear.
The young child’s activities and concerns are at the center of the action, but frequently the humor is directed at the parent reader.
Books about the Common Experiences of Young Children
These books develop themes related to children’s personal experiences such as fear of the dark, fear of staying alone, getting lost and assurance of being needed.
Although young children need books that mirror their own feelings and experiences, they also need books to take them beyond those experiences and to help their imaginations soar.
Books for the Beginning Reader
Learning to read begins at home with children hearing stories on their parents’ laps and seeing loved ones value books.
Children lucky enough to have had such a wide exposure to books will usually learn to read easily and fluently.
The importance of reading aloud to young children, if they are to be successful in learning to read, has been consistently proven by researchers.
Books for the Beginning Reader
Theories of reading emphasize the importance of reading for meaning and enjoyment from the very start of learning to read.
Stories that children love and have heard over and over again have natural language and satisfying plots that encourage reading.
Many of these books utilize repetitious language and story patterns that help children learn to read naturally as they join in on the refrains or predict the action of the story.
Books for the Beginning Reader
Some books can also be an instructional scaffold or a temporary help in the child’s first attempts to read.
Such books include familiar texts like Mother Goose rhymes or songs that children know by heart and can easily “read”.
As children explore a variety of texts, they learn how books work.
Repeated readings are extremely important because each time a book is revisited, new understandings are gained.
Books for the Beginning Reader
Beginning readers are able to read and learn from challenging, difficult texts.
It is unnecessary to provide specialized texts with severely limited controlled vocabulary for beginning readers.
There are three categories of books that support children in gaining reading fluency...
Predictable Books
Books that can help emergent readers can be identified by such characteristics as repetitive language patterns or story patterns or the use of familiar sequences like numbers, the days of the week, or hierarchical patterns.
Frequently, texts combine several of these characteristics in a single story.
Predictable Books
Many stories include repetitive words, phrases, or questions that invite children to share in the reading.
These visually appealing books offer children interesting vocabulary within the context of the predictable text.
Sound play in the text, makes children more aware of the internal sounds of words and the fact that language is made up of individual sounds.
Predictable Books
This understanding - phonemic awareness - seems to be crucial to emergent reading strategies.
A certain level of phonemic awareness is necessary for children to benefit from more-formal reading instruction.
Repetitive story patterns also help the child predict the action in the story.
Easy-Reading Books
Easy reading books used to contain stilted and unnatural language, such as the Dick and Jane series.
A new genre of books was created when Dr. Seuss published The Cat in the Hat in 1957.
Good books for emergent readers are written with a controlled vocabulary (deriving from the Dolch vocabulary list of 220 words) for the young child to read independently.
Easy-Reading Books
Research has shown that the meaning of the story is far more important for ease of reading than limiting vocabulary.
We should not accept a book just because it has a beginning-to-read label.
Each book must be evaluated for literary qualities, child appeal, and difficulty of reading.
Easy-Reading Books
Helping children choose the right book at the right time is an important aspect of literacy instruction.
We need not limit the emergent reader’s book exposure to just predictable books.
Look rather for imaginative trade books with natural language, a creative plot, and real child appeal.
Big Books
Big books can be created in the classroom by children with the help of teachers.
Commercial big books are expensive and do not provide the same sense of ownership that comes with the class-made book.
With today’s technology, programs can be used to scan trade books and present them on a screen for children to see and read along.
