Pedagogical Implications

Chapter 1
for Teaching Literature
A
Lesson 2
 discuss pedagogical 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 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:
1. express what they think about the text
2. 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.

Definition of Children’s literature:

1. 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.

2. Laffrado (1995) (Introduction to Children…, 2013), children’s literature 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.

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.

Literature offers limitless benefits for young people

- literature provides learners the chance to respond accordingly and appropriately to

literature and to cultivate their own thoughts about the subject matter.

- literature makes it possible for students to develop appreciation of their own culture and
others.

- literature develops in students emotional strength, stability, and steadfastness as well as

resourcefulness and ingenuity.

- 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.

 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).

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:

 Scaffold 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

a.competitive games

b.writing exercises

c.journal entries and

d.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.