Literature Is At The Heart Of The Australia English Curriculum And Literacy

Reading novels is an experience unlike any other. With the crack of a new book, the reader is transported into the pages, into a new land, ready to take on the role of protagonist. Each little girl has the chance to be a pirate-fighting hero, each little boy able to become the doting husband. If that sentence sounds strange, it is because society has socialized individuals to gender any and all activities, reading included. Elizabeth Segel drives this point home in her article “As the Twig is Bent… Gender and Childhood Reading,” which gives an in-depth analysis of gender in children’s book, and the implications it has for readers.

Children’s Literature is a wide range. It is collection of culture, concepts and future values. After reading the introduction” Trade And Plumb-Cake Forever, The Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature), I considered most insightful in reading this section , Children’s literature differs from adult literature, Children’s literature plays a key role in raising children's imaginations, and it plays an important role in the development and creative thinking in children.

This journal article is published by Roger Beard and Andrew Burrell Roger is a professor of Primary Education and Head, School of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the Institute of Education, University of London; Andrew is School of Early Childhood and Primary Education, Institute of Education, University of London. They make a standardised task with repetitive design to study narrative writing by 112 elementary students (60 boys, 52 girls) in England. The test includes a 10-minute description writing task and a 30-minute narrative writing task, and the kids are been teaching by specially trained panels. From the test, the students writing have been increased. The author state, “More specifically, there was greater use of action to develop character and main event, connectives to inject suspense, exclamations for impact, adventurous vocabulary to add interest and verbs to emphasize action, thoughts or feelings.” (90) The result of this study would be beneficial on researching literacy education and children's interest.

Learning provision for literacy development is important for pupils for several reasons. When pupils are developing their language skills they are learning to communicate with others in a variety of ways through speaking reading and writing. The three areas of language interact with each other to promote the child’s self expression and imagination. Children need to be given opportunity’s to use and extend their language in all subject areas so they can develop higher level thinking. [ Louise burnham, Brenda Baker,2010,pg206]

Focusing his purpose on informing the audience of the missed opportunities children face when beginning language, W.H. Auden expresses his opinions by providing information as well as examples of what children experience when entering the world of language. He argues that children are able to grasp more than people realize and the fact that authors undermine children’s mental capacity “is utter nonsense”. Using an informational and persuasive style of writing, Auden achieves his purpose by displaying a sense of pathos, stating that children deserve more than books that contain “a very limited vocabulary… in the most simplest and obvious forms”; by introducing a scenario that is prevalent in the U.S. today - children’s abilities are undermined

Literature is everywhere. No matter where you are, you’re exposed to it. It is on your phone, in the paper, on the McDonald 's receipt in a wad under your car seat, it is even on the billboard signs as you drive down the interstate. With literature getting so much coverage there is no question of where such heated debates come from. It is hard to have an argument or sometimes even a conversation with a person using ONLY literature. Sentences can have the same words, but handed to different people and they may interpret the sentence in two polar opposite directions. Debates take on a huge problem when they are done solely through literature, unfortunately I found that out the hard way.

Many kids complain that classic children’s literature turns them off. They state that the language is old and the lifestyles are old. But the classics are still required in school for a good reason. The lives of children in the past are a source of living history. What better way is there for kids to learn history than through the eyes of another child?

When I was younger my mom use to read me a children 's book every night at bedtime. I remember when I was in Junior Kindergarten she once read me a Disney classic book called “The Jungle Book” and after reading the book for months I had thought if the main character "Mowgli" could talk to animals so could I, that was until I went to the Toronto Zoo. I tried to talk to the Giraffe and the Giraffe wouldn 't talk back to me. I was baffled. That was the first time 3-year-old Monika could distinguish nonfiction to fiction. I never looked at a book the same. Children believe everything you tell them. Writers may be running out of material, But the content needs to be the reality. I also understand the writer 's point of view of running out of ideas, But children need to read real books.

'In children 's literature the notion and construct of 'childhood ' became an influential force...it became associated with freedom...and play; focusing on educating children malleablly. '

There are numerous genre’s in literature, but the level of importance and influence on an individual will differ. Exposure to books and stories is especially important for children because it their chance to acclimate themselves to written language and in turn create their own visuals for the toneless words. “Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the Transformative”, by Maria Tatar contains an ample amount of textual evidence from author’s research into fairytales, as well as writer’s personal experiences with fairytales. Although Tatar supports her claims with evidence, her resources are not concrete, and seems excessive at times. Also, her assertions are weakened by her failure to defend her conclusion against competing beliefs.

Literature if used correctly can enhance a child’s life. It can become a valuable tool in helping children to understand their home, communities and the world in which they live. Through literature children’s vocabulary, imaginations, and self understanding is built. Children should be exposed to literature that is age appropriate and within the context of learning respect for themselves and others by the diversity of the books. My literature plan is based upon multicultural diversity which reinforces reading readiness, read-along that emphasis multicultural songs and rhymes, build self esteem through art, music and movement and responses to literature.

“Literature reflects the interests and concerns of the culture that produces it (Galda, Sipe, Liang, & Cullinan, 2013, pp. 24)”. Contemporary trends in children’s literature are allowing for more influence from throughout the world, they are not just keeping to the society trends in which the work was created. Trends are also allowing for lead female roles and inclusion of diverse cultures. This follows the trends and issues in that society which is now more accepting of females and diversity in our everyday living.

Literature teaches kids to feel empathetic for each other. A story allows the reader to put themselves in the character’s shoes and gives us a different perspective on the character’s life. It also shows the reader not to judge someone by their cover because you never know what outside factors are affecting them. For example, Daphne's book is about a shy girl named Daphne, commonly known to others as Daffy Duck. She was raised by an impoverished, mentally ill grandmother, so the other kids would make fun of her. Instead of sympathizing with her, kids pitied her and called her names. “These are the experiences for a young person in which the sort of commonplace

Since the view of childhood changes in the nineteenth century, the potential of children’s literature becomes evident. With the reference to the sources of children’s literature, they can be traced back to alterations in translation and in the literature for adults, where a child or childhood are essential concepts; moreover folk literature is concerned to be a wide source for this literary genre. According to Peter Hunt

There are several approaches to interpreting literature nowadays: two most important ones are the psychoanalytic and cognitive psychology. The first one draws upon the writings of Freud, stating that fiction allows for the expression of unconscious fantasy to act as a safety valve for the individual: Bruno Bettelheim, in his famous study on the psychoanalysis of fairy tales states that…… cognitive psychology; on the other hand, stresses the challenge children face in their constant need to understand what is happening around them and the major figure studying this was Jean Piaget: His approach is important in explaining the appeal of stories to children, too, though in different terms than Bettelheim and other authors did: Piaget points out