The American Hero in Childrens Literature: A Standards-Based Approach
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How this connection informs education is the focus of this discussion. As Peter Hunt , p.
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The subject matter is limitless and its object of study includes both literary and extra-literary media such as films and games. I then consider the long-standing debates over censorship versus the freedom to read when the reading audience is children.
The American Hero in Children's Literature
A problem with simple definitions, however, is that, invariably, they are proven to be inadequate. This crossover phenomenon also works in the other direction—books originally intended for adult readers often find an appreciative child or young adult readership e. Reid-Walsh considers how the design of early movable books afforded a set of implied interactions for the child reader. These models of possibility are often not so far from the lived realities that children experience. In writing for children, adult writers either attempt to perpetuate certain socio-cultural values that a society deems desirable, or they present alternative viewpoints to dominant values and ideologies.
By contrast, the picture book Odd Bird Out Bansch, offers young readers a more implicit ideology about marginalization based on difference. In this story, a raven called Robert likes to dress up, wear bright colors, dance, tell jokes, and sing, all of which sets him apart from the other black-clad, somber ravens in his community.
Salem Press, 2 vols. Why Literature Matters to Girls. Libraries Unlimited by Nancy J. Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. We no longer think of children as tabulae rasae blank or empty slates.
The story values inclusion, acceptance, tolerance, family, and community. This does not mean that readers will always accept these ideologies values, worldviews, positions , as they may actively resist them while still enjoying the way a text is written or illustrated. This is not just the artistic expression of the author, but something for the greater good of the child reader. That reader must be Educated! Peter Hunt considers a similar paradox: However, a counter-argument could ask: Hunt asks the question: How censorship is carried out depends on the gatekeepers professional and lay and their capacity to influence decisions.
What Every Educator Should Know. Their explanation is that censors want to protect children from what they consider to be offensive or inappropriate books—their ideas, images, language, and content—because children are innocent, pure, and easily influenced. As he explains, prizing makes a positive judgment about the quality of a text, and censoring makes a negative judgment.
A Standards-Based Approach
In an inverted way to the role of awards panels, censors individuals, groups similarly select books that they argue should be banned or removed from libraries and classrooms because of certain subjective criteria of their own devising. In their busy professional lives, teachers need to rely on books awards, best books blogs, and other endorsements to select texts for classroom use.
However, they may also have to defend their decisions if certain books meet with objection from the school community or school administration. Thus, as Graff points out: To shield children from reading about these issues is to deny them their status as social actors in these realities. We no longer think of children as tabulae rasae blank or empty slates.
Rather, we acknowledge that readers bring their own experiences, values, languages, and cultures to the dialogic act of reading that characterizes the relationship between a reader and a text and the meaning making that is negotiated between the two. While the question— What is this text about? For instance, reception theory draws attention to the way readers engage with texts.
A Theory of Aesthetic Response , reception theorist, Wolfgang Iser , explains the strategies a text uses and the many activities or repertoires that readers undertake to make sense of a text. In her own analysis of The Red Tree , Pantaleo can be seen as answering the question Stephens poses— What is this text about? In these opening sentences, Pantaleo gives her sense of the story and what it is about, the theme of depression, and the significance of visual symbols as a way of communicating in allegorical terms a real-life experience or mental condition.
Furthermore, she makes an educated guess about the metonymic function of the red leaf and what it comes to stand for: Pantaleo complements her own analysis of The Red Tree with explicit teaching about the ways the words and visuals work in picture books. However, both accounts demonstrate a deep understanding of literacy and reading and the research that contributes to these processes.
Many children would have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. Some would know about it through family members who survived or who had relatives who did not. The formalist also examines the language, paying special attention to its figurative meaning as it contributes to the artistic whole.
It helps us to read the literature carefully and thoughtfully and provides a common vocabulary for the discussion of literature.
The American Hero in Children's Literature: A Standards-Based Approach
Archetypal criticism depends heavily on symbols and patterns operating on a universal scale. Jung identified certain archetypes , which are simply r epeated patterns and images of human experience found in literature, such as the changing seasons; the cycle of birth, death, rebirth; the hero and the heroic quest; the beautiful temptress. The basis of archetypal criticism is that all literature consists of variations on a great mythic cycle within the following pattern: The hero begins life in a paradise such as a garden.
The hero is displaced from paradise alienation.
Children’s Literature in Education
The hero endures time of trial and tribulation, usually a wandering a journey. The hero achieves self-discovery as a result of the struggles on that journey. The hero returns to paradise either the original or a new and improved one. The hero moves away from home, encounters adventures, and finds a new home better than the first. The hero moves away from home, encounters adventures, and returns home a better person. About the Author Carol M.
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