2. Defining children’s literature
• Reading materials such as
storybooks, poems, and short stories which
have been chosen by adults and classified as
suitable for young readers.
• Characteristics of children’s literature:
– Simplistic
– Straightforward
– Repetitious
– Happy ending
3. Exploiting different genres in children’s
literature
Fictions (narrative literacy works whose Non-fictions (texts which deal with
content is produced by the imagination actual, real-life subject)
and is not based on facts)
Drama Narrative
Poetry Essays
Fantasy Biography
Humor Autobiography
Fable Speech
Fairy tales
Science fiction
Short story
Realistic fiction
Folklore
Historical fiction
Horror
Tall tale (story with blatant exaggeration)
Legend
Mystery
Mythology
4. Experiencing literature as a
transactional process
• The shaping of the reader’s
experiences, ideas, thoughts by the text by
limiting, selecting and ordering the ideas to conform
the text is known as transactional experience.
– When someone reads a text, the text will stimulate the
reader’s mind to extract past experiences, thoughts, and
ideas.
– The text serves as an outline to select the thoughts or
ideas derived by the reader to match with the text itself.
– The overall event where the reader’s mind is being
stimulated by the text to get ideas, thoughts or
experiences is called transactional experience.
5. • According to Louise Rosenblatt, the
transaction will only occur when the text is
read as aesthetic (read the text for pleasure
and full with emotions) rather than efferent
(focus on the information written by the
authors).
6. Experiencing literature as a transitional
process
• Transition is the movement and adaptation to
change, rather than a return to pre-existing state.
• “every transition begins with an ending” – people
have to let go of familiar ways of being in the
world that defines who they are.
• Students change their interest in different genres
when their language skills are more developed.
(change to more sophisticated and complex
structure)
7. Personal and academic value of
literature to children
• Learn how the personalities of different
characters deal with situations and
intermingle with each other
• Broaden our understanding of human nature
and human condition
• Encourages open-minded and flexible thinking
• Stimulates the mind, imagination and
creativity
• Increases vocabulary and language skills
