OSIAS COLLEGES INC.

F. Tanedo St., San Nicolas, Tarlac City

Tel. No. 045-982-02-45

SUBJECT: Teaching English in Elementary Grades Through Literature

MODULE: 2
TOPIC: General Types of Children’s Literature
 Traditional Literature
 Poetry
 Fiction
 Informational Books
 Biography
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the discussion, the students are expected to:
1. Compare the general types of children’s literature
2. Classify children’s literature according to types and subtypes

LESSON PROPER
Read

Children’s literature is the good-quality written work with the purpose of entertainment
and information intended primarily for children from birth to adolescence, covering topics of
relevance and interests to children that appropriately reflect the experiences and the realms of
childhood, through prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

General Types of Children’s Literature

1. Traditional Literature

 Refers to those that have been handed down from generation to generation by word of
mouth before the invention of printing.
 They are a product of a race (e.g. The Teutonic or The Malay) and their features
usually identify the people who put them together
 The body of traditional literature is sometimes referred to as folk literature.

The Most Common Types are:

 Folktales
o Folk Tales have no known creator.
o Passed down verbally
o Sometimes based on real people but the story is fictional.
o Include: Fairy Tales, Tall Tales and Fables
 Fairy Tales
o Fairy Tales are folk tales about heroic deeds.
 o They are stories created to teach children how to behave in a way they find
amusing.
o Typically include magic and happy ending
o Tall tales are folk tales but usually bigger than life
Examples: Picos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed
 Parables
 Fables
o Fables are Folk Tales
o It’s a story that tries to teach the reader a lesson.
o Usually have animal characters that act human.
 Myths
o Usually explains how the world started
o Gods and supernatural beings are involved in these stories
 Riddles
 Catches
 Jingles
 Folk songs

2. Poetry

 Written in verse in a way that makes the reader feel emotions.

 May or may not rhyme.
 May be fictional or based on facts.

 Is not exactly the type of literature that most people get readil excited about. That is
sad because, as children are first acquaintance with children’s literature was generally
made through the little rhyming songs and jingles that we love to repeat as we went
about motion songs and choral recitation. Who has not sung “Little Sally Water,”
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Or “penpen, Leron, Leron Sinta”? Those were our first
poems.

 Then you were taught “The Owl” and “All things Bright and Beautiful.” Some of us
were lucky to get introduced to the so called Mother Goose Rhymes. They are
nursery rhymes put together by Charles Perrult, a Frenchman who also wrote down
the most popular Cinderella variant. When his collection was published, the book
featured on its cover a picture of a big goose wearing “motherly” clothes and
surrounded by listening young animals and children. Mother Goose introduced us to
Mary and her lost lamb, Little Jack, Horner, and “ Twinkle, twinkle little star”.

 The way you took to reciting and memorizing nur sey rhymes in your childhood is
similar to the way a two-year-old today would readily sing or recite the latest jingle.

 Children also respond to simple lyrics that describe a familiar flower, the experience
of hearing the rain on the roof, the aroma wafting from the kitchen when Nanay cooks
 ginataan and the feeling one gets when Tatay comes home and being lost in his
embrace.

 There are nonsense poems that make children giggle, like the rhyme
“Monumeento/Konting Bato//konting semento/Monimento.” When they are a little
older, children are fascinated by the measured limericks, funny and witty verses that
follow the aabba scheme, and its distinctive rhyme. For example:
There once was a lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on the Tiger
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger
 There’s another that has a bit sophistication in it;
There was a young lady named Bright
Whose steed was far faster than light
She went out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night
 Edward Lear is the most well-known of the writers in limericks. In the centennial of
his birth a few years ago, England released several stamps featuring the famous lines
and drawings.
 Other poems are narrative in mode rather than descriptive. They are easier to read, the
narrative being an easier discourse for any type of reader to deal with. Your own or
young parents recollection of narrative poems would probably include”Evangeline, A
Tale of Acadie” and “Hiawatha” both by Henry Longfellow, and Florante at Laura by
Francisco Balagtas. For younger children, there’s”Winker, Blinken and Nod”
and”The Duel” by Eugene Field. Also, most of you probably still sing “Apat na
Pulubi” to your children or the children of other relatives.

 Didactive poems are the openly “preachy” once that we rarely see nowadays.
Didactic mean “teaching.”An example of this kind of poem is “ A Psalm of Life” by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It begins with;
Tell me not in mournful numbers
Life is but an empty dream
For the soul is dead that slumbers
And things are not what they seem.

3. Transformational Books

 Are those that allow young readers to accumulate as much factual knowledge as they
might be interested in.
 The selection include the very basic informational biiks such as alphabet books,
numeracy books and concept books including those that introduce children to shapes
and colors, and how-to-do-it books that teach them how to makepaper boats or how to
assemble a toy or how to bake angel cake.
 The most common are the content area books, i.e., books that are read for the
different subject areas: history, mathematics, science, social studies, health, etc.
 Informational books on science conepts for early graders may be presented in the
form of stories, as in Jose Aruego and Arianne Dewey’s We Hide, You
Seek( camouflage), Adarna’s Munting Patak-Ulan ( the concepts of evaporation and
condensation) and Si Duglit ang Dugong Makulit (circulation of the blood) by
pediatrician-writer Luis P. Garmaitan.
 Informational books would also include first dictionaries, encyclopedias and atlases.

4. Biography/Autobiography

 There are times when the biography and its related types are classified as
informational books. The latter focuses on things, places, and concepts while the
former targets personalities.
 A story of one’s life written by oneself as you know is called autobiography.
 No Filipino writer of note has written an autobiography yet except Bienvenido Santos
who gathered the letters he had sent his friends in his lifetime. From these, his life
emerges, to beput together by the reader.
 A biography may be a straight biography, a fictionalized biography or biographical
fiction.
 A straight biography takes pain to share only documented facts about a particular
individual. In style, it resembles history textbooks.
 May HillArbuthnot, the expert on children and books, differentiate the two other
subtypes of biography (Zena Sutherland 1991).
o Fictionalized biographies are also based on research but known facts are often
presented in dramatic episodes complete with conversation.
o Biographical function, there are more authorial liberties taken especially in the
inclusion of several imaginary characters.
 An example of straight biography would be the Tahanan series on Filipino heroes
including Jose Rizal and his mother, Teodora Alonzo, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario
Mabini, Emilio Aguinaldo and Gabriela Silang.

5. Fiction
 Always have elements that are made
 May be based on actual events or people.
 May be totally made-up or fictional

There are many different types or different genres of fiction...

1. Historical Fiction
o Historical fiction books take place during a certain time in the past
o Often the setting is real, and the characters are made-up or fictional
o Sometimes the setting is fictional and the characters are real
2. Mystery fiction
o Usually realistic
 o About a crime or unsolved event
o Not solved until the end of the book
o Maybe scary or suspenseful
3. Horror fiction
o A story with elements that maybe scary
4. Humor – a funny story or book
5. Fantasy
o Fantasy is completely made-up such as talking animals and magical powers
o Contains no realistic elements
6. Science fiction
o Futuristic technology
o Scientific facts
o Fictional elements
Non-fiction
 All proven facts
 Nothing is made-up
 Can be about any subject

Reflect
What have you learned about the lesson?

Response

Accomplish the activity sheet attached herewith and send it to me via OCI Drop-box. For
those who have internet or gadgets send it through your MOODLE ACCOUNT

References

https://slideplayer.com/slide/5256879/
https://www.slideserve.com/tyanne/genres-in-children-s-literature
https://www.scuc.txed.net/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=4856&data
id=27154&FileName=genres%20powerpoint.pdf
 OSIAS COLLEGES INC.
F. Tanedo St. San Nicolas, Tarlac City
Tel. No. 045-982-02-45

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

Module 2

Name: Glaiza M. Orpiano. Date: _08/25/21_

Degree/Program: BEED-3rd Faculty: ______

1. In your point of view, how can you determine the types of children’s literature ?
(10 pts)
There are different types of children’s literature and their genres such Biographies.
Biography, Children's poetry, Children's stories, Fables, Fairy tales, Fantasy fiction, Fiction. The
body of traditional literature is sometimes referred to as folk literature. For me, there are many
knowledge that we gain about the different types of children’s literature that can helps us to enhance
our own skills.

2. What are the sub-types of fiction? Compare each from the other (10 pts)
 There are 5 sub-types of fiction such fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, mystery,
and science fiction. Fantasy contains no realistic elements. historical fiction are books take place
during a certain time in the past. Contemporary fiction it is realistic fiction
creates imaginary characters and situations that depict our world and society. Mystery about a
crime or unsolved event and science fiction are Futuristic technology scientific facts.