Angela's Thoughts 21/10/2008

Reflective Diary 21/10/2008

The recital of chapters from all our favourite children’s stories proved to be a lovely, reminiscent way to start the day. It was heart warming to hear the childlike excitement in the voices of those who, for a moment, would be drawn back into that magical land of fairies, witches, giants and wonder. Looking at the ‘Roald Dhal club’ which immerged from the session, it is truly amazing to think that the insane imaginations of two men (along with the help of good marketing of course) were able to entrance a whole generation of children and onwards for years to come.

As discussed during previous evaluations of children’s literature, one of the defining features of the genre seems to be the portrayal of a clear divide between the adult world and the world of a child. This observation was one which became particularly apparent to me during this session. The obvious example being Peter Pan where the children are literary transported to another world. Others include the Witches, Matilda, Northern lights and the list continues to modern literature such as Harry Potter and stories by Benjamin Zephaniah.

Other attributes of children’s literature also seemed to include the personification of animal characters, such as those in Fantastic Mr Fox and Wind in the Willows. In connection with the often strong element of fantasy within children’s literature, this personification of animal characters acts to separate the reader from the ordinary, providing escapism from the adult world which commands them.

Following on from this, the beginnings of our investigations into picture books have really captured my interest in particular the fact the children read pictures better than adults. A picture really can paint a thousand words and can play huge role in child development. This is a subject of particular interest to me and one of which I will certainly look into further throughout my career. The task of describing The mouse that was trapped in a book to a partner was defiantly entertaining and much more difficult than I could have anticipated! The only criticism I would have in regards to the task would be that, because of the number of people trying to speak at the same time, it was difficult to listen to one individual. In delivering the task to group of young children they could become frustrated and thereby distracted. Perhaps another approach would be to divide the class in two, one half listens whilst the other half each takes it in turns to describe the slides one at a time. After this is done the group take part in a discussion of what it was to be the one listening and in turn what it was like to be the one describing the picture. This can still be carried out at a fast pace, maintaining the flow of the story as well as keeping the children engaged, yet maintaining clarity within the task.

During the above task, it was interesting how voices would change as one entered the role of a story teller. This is perhaps due to the childhood memories of story telling that we all as a group share. It would be interesting to see how this may vary between people with different backgrounds to those in the group. As has been mentioned before, all members of the class are successful cases within education. It is not only this that we share. Regardless of family background, we are all accustomed to British tradition and English literature. How would an individual approach the same task if they were perhaps from a different culture? If they where of an ‘under privileged’ background or have had little access to education? If their parents had had little to no education and therefore they did not have stories read to them as a child? When working within a school pupils will derive from all walks of life. This is one of the aspects of teaching which has really attracted me to a career in education. Many of the tasks we have put into practice over the last few weeks give great insight into the character of an individual. The ability to really know each pupil I feel is crucial to becoming a good teacher. As well as developing knowledge of literature these tasks are an insight into how this can be achieved.