ELED 122 Chapter 1 Pedagogical

At the end of this n, you are expected

Lesson
lesso to: Implications for Teaching
2 discuss pedagogical
Literature implications
for teaching literature;
 explain children’s literature and
some pedagogical implications; and
 innovate ways to teach and learn literature.

INTRODUCTION

In an environment where change is inevitable, teachers need to prepare themselves for

the phenomenon. The key to this is pedagogy, so teachers need to make corresponding
changes in the emphasis and pedagogy in their teaching to achieve the objectives of both
teachers and learners. The pedagogy adopted by teachers shapes their actions, judgments, and
other teaching strategies while taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of
students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students. This lesson
will focus on the pedagogical implications and considerations that will be helpful for teaching
literature to improve the learners’ capacity to understand, learn from, and above all, enjoy
literary works..
THINK

Long (1986) points out that the teaching of literature can be a dull, uninteresting, and boring
thing unless there is a response or a reaction from the learners., be it positive or negative,
adding that even a negative response can stir life and learning in the classroom where
learners get the feel of challenging the teacher’s often predictable responses.

In an earlier discourse, Rosenblantt (1985) underscored that the reading of a particular

literary work cannot but be the unique experience of a particular reader with a unique range of
emotions over a particular text under a unique a unique reading situation. She labels this as “a
transaction with the literary text”. This being the case, she espoused, along with Long and
Carter and Tudor, that, in
teaching literature, the students should be encouraged to express what they think about the text
and discover for themselves how the text relates to themselves. This, Rosenblantt believes, would
nurture, and develop, in the learner the “continuous love, enjoyment, and appreciation of literary
texts” while at the same time develop in due course both his/her language proficiency and literary
aptitude.

What are the pedagogical implications for teaching literature? The answer to this is to know
what children’s literature is.

Children’s literature, according to Otten (2003( , is the product of the figment of imagination
in the writer’s mind borne out of how one interacts with children and how the writer makes a
construct of childhood. According to Laffrado (1995) (Introduction to Children…, 2013),
children’s lirerature comprises a wide variety of writing for readers whose age range from very
young kids (like toddlers) to adolescents (teenagers) approaching maturity and adulthood. The
main genres include the following:

Picture books appeal to the sense of sight to provide a delightful visual experience to the
reader through pictures to tell a story.

Storybooks tell a story accompanied by pictures and illustrations where there is more text
than pictures.

Traditional literature refers to literature or books that arte passed from one generation to
another like folklore, fables, legends, folktales, and myths. These are referred to as alamat in
the Philippine context and are generally rich in the culture of that place and time.

Historical fiction pertains to literary text where some facts in the story can be traced to
real historical events involving some real historical individuals, allowing children to take a trip back
in time. Some events in the story however are a product of the writer’s inventiveness,
imagination, and creativity.

Modern fantasy refers to tales born out of the writer’s imagination where fantastic elements
such as talking animals, and magical beings like witches and strange creatures are woven in the
story.

Realistic Fiction refers to made-up stories but which can be true in real-life. children paly
as the main characters thereby allowing children to feel or go through an experience as if it were
true.

Nonfiction or Informational books present young readers information to help them develop
more knowledge about the world around them. They can dwell on ant topic or information
(science, travel, life skills, new outlook) about life that would interest young minds.
 Biography pertains to the true life story about another person like heroes or ordinary
people whose lives may serve as an inspiration for children to emulate and follow.

Children’s poetry pertains to artistic literature that seeks to bring out the creativity in children
by enabling them to express their emotions and stir their imagination through verses and the
interplay of rhyme, rhythm, and other literary expressions..

Children’s drama is a genre of literature where the elements of a story are presented
through dialogue and action and makes use of costumes, props, lighting, music, and sound.
This literary presentation develops in children acting abilities, public speaking skills, creative
thinking, and social skills among others.

As the purpose of literature is to entice, motivate, and instruct, it opens opportunities for
learners to see new horizons and have an abundance of fun and delight in reading and learning
literature. This is quite possible for, according to Norton and Norton (1010), literature offers
limitless benefits for young people. For one, literature provides learners the chance to respond
accordingly and appropriately to literature and to cultivate their own thoughts about the subject
matter. Second, literature makes it possible for students to develop appreciation of their own
culture and others. Third, literature develops in students emotional strength, stability, and
steadfastness as well as resourcefulness and ingenuity. Fourth, literature promotes social maturity
and helps develop social development. Finally, literature and its books promote and preserve a
people’s cultural and literacy heritage from generation to generation.

What makes children’s literature apart from adult literature? Children’s literature is a class on
its own, with its own brand of writing style and characteristics that set it apart from
adult literature. Children’s literature is simple, naïve, unsophisticated, natural, and
uncomplicated. It dwells on the present, on here and now of everyday problems and difficulties
that beset man. It echoes the feelings, moods, sensitivities, and experiences of children today
and expresses these from the standpoint and attitude of a child. Children’s literature is adorned
with illustrations such as pictures, graphics, designs, images that appeal to the mind of a child.
Deliberate repetition of words and ideas are used to enable recall and recognition. It avoids and
steers away from adult themes to make it child friendly and appropriate. To dispel boredom, it
is often action-packed and is inclined to dwell on fantasy, fancy, imagination, and castle in the
sky hopes and dreams. Certainly, children’s literature is out to teach a moral or a lesson, making
it instructional and educational. Finally, more of the than not, the ending of the story is happy
(Introduction to children’s Literature).

What then is pedagogy? Pedagogy, according to Peel (Pedagogy. n.d.), is all about the
methods a teacher uses to achieve one’s objectives to ensure that students are engaged in
age-
appropriate learning activities vis-a-vis the teacher’s expertise in using different methods.
Larcher (“What are Literature-Based…n.d.) points out several literature-based teaching
strategies using authors’ original work to serve as the heart of experiences to help children
develop literacy. Teacher general strategies include the following:

 Scafold Instruction – Students are given a lot of structures at the beginning, and
these structures are removed little by little until the students are capable of doing it
themselves.

 Modeling – While reading or discussing a literary work, the teacher thinks out loud
his thoughts related to the text.

 Cooperative Learning – Students work together in small groups and engage in

tasks that involve risks and higher thinking level skills instead of the conventional
questions- answer teaching strategy.

 Independent Reading – This is done to promote reading, writing, and thinking

skills, which are the goals of education.

 Literary Response – Students act in response to what they read.

In addition there are strategies that teach students test comprehension like:

a. Monitoring comprehension

b. Metacognition or having control over their reading before, during, and after reading

c. Graphic and semantic organizers

d. Answering questions

e. Recognizing story structure, and

f. Summarizing

Teachers can engage in

g.competitive games

h.writing exercises

i. journal entries and

j. group activities.
 Teachers also form literature circles (like book clubs), where students gather together
into a small group to discuss a piece of literature, with each student having a specific role.

Choral Readings likewise provide a great opportunity for full-class participation, a venue
that is most welcome for shy and introverted students to participate. Through readers’ theatre,
students are similarly given the chance to perform on stage, complete with dramatic
readings. Costumes, and creativity.

What ever the pedagogy or strategy, it is best to remember to heed however the advice of
our National Artist F. Sionil Jose: “First, don’t make literature difficult. Do not torture your
students with too much mind-bending test, Make literature interesting; enjoyable.”

Hence, if literature, according to Rosenblatt (1978), it is to be experienced as a

transactional process, the interaction between the teacher and the learners should be a
meaningful collaboration toward eliciting response to the text and guiding the learners to a
personal discovery, nurturing in them the continuous love, enjoyment, and appreciation of literary
texts.