What is a folklore????

Literature and the Child

Eighth Edition

By: Lee Galda, Lawrence Sipe, Lauren Liang, Bernice Cullinan

How to incorporate in the classroom:  I love teaching about folklores to my 1st graders through the ELA domains.  My students love when I read them the different folklores which include: Thumbalina, Tomb Thumb, and The Girl with the Red Slippers.  Students are very engaged when they are reading about follklores. 

Folklores began as stories and poems told across the generations and passed down for centuries.  I learned that folklores help us understand other cultures and how they live. My students love listening to different folklores and comparing them to how people lived back then to how they live now.  This is a great way to introduce a venn diagram.  Students can compare and contrast different folklores. 

Folklores are included in the Common Core for Domain 3.  After reading folklores to students it important to complete a story map with students.  The story map can include the title, author, setting, characters, and solution.  This can be used as a reading comprehension assessment. 

Cullinan, B. (1989). Literature and the child (2nd ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

I just love picture books…..

Literature and the Child

Eighth Edition

By: Lee Galda, Lawrence Sipe, Lauren Liang, Bernice Cullinan

Picture books are great for non readers and students who have a difficult time reading.  I use many picture books for my struggling readers. I tell them that good readers use look at pictures to help them read the words.  They love using the pictures as clues.  Below is plenty of information on how to incorporate picture books in your classroom.

Picture books are the first exposure to fine art for many children.  They enrich reader’s worlds by providing opportunities for experiences through pictures and print.  Things to consider in choosing picturebooks are the quality of the book, quality of the text, qualify of the art, and quality of the overall design of the book.   These include elements of visual art.  These include materials used in making the art such as watercolors, oils, acrylics, ink, pencil, charcoal, pastels tissue paper, construction paper, fabric, etc.  Illustrators use line.  Line is a mark on paper or place where colors meeting.  Lines focus the viewer and keep their eye in a particular direction.    Artists use color to convey warmth and coolness and also personality trait.   Texture conveys a sense of reality.  Interesting patterns or contrasts suggest movement and action, roughness or delicacy.  Design expresses the artist’s unique visions.  Artists make choices about the media and techniques they use to create their art.  Many artists develop a characteristic way of presenting ideas visually.  Picturebooks educate our student’s imagination.  

Wordless storybooks tell a story through illustrations alone.  Its title often contains clues as to what the story is about.  Picture storybooks and graphic novels for older readers entice visually sophisticated student.  They also help struggling readers lean more easily using boos with more pictures and less text.  Picturebooks of poetry and song present an artist’s visual interpretation of a story.  The artist arranges the text across the pages, often with only one or two lines per page and then illuminates each thought expressed by the text.  Nonfiction picturebooks contain text that is accurate, organized in a manner appropriate to both the information presented and the intended audience, designed in an attractive and appropriate fashion, and written and illustrated with verse and style.

Topics presented in nonfiction picture books are may, the language is clear, and the illustrations work with the text to convey information that young readers want and need to know.  Many nonfiction picturebooks offer a way to read about and see the lives of others.  Many nonfiction picturebooks are biographies.  These are stories of real people.  Alphabet books serve many useful purposes.  Children ages two to four point to pictures and label objects on the page.  Five year olds may say the letter names and words that start with each letter.  Six year olds may read the letters, words or text to confirm their knowledge of let-sounds.  Alphabet books help children develop an awareness of words on the page.  They increase language learning and serve as a pleasurable activity for children.

Board books are a format that appeals to adults as well as infants, toddlers, and children in preschool.  The books are often six to twelve pages log and made of cardboard.  There are also cloth booths, shape books, pudgy books, lift-the-flap books, toy books and plastic bathtub books.  Books of this style are appropriate for children in the picture identification stage.   Predictable or patterned books are structured using strong language patterns, such as repeated phrases, rhyme and rhythm; cumulative story structures that add, or accumulate, information; and familiar concepts, illustrations reinforce the language patterns and provide a visual reproduction of the text.  These attributes help children anticipate hat s going to happen next and predict the next word to come.  Beginning to read books are those that children who have just become independent readers can enjoy on their own.  They combine controlled vocabulary with creative storytelling and engaging illustrations.  Their sentences are simple with few embedded clauses, and the language is often direct dialogue.  Sentence breaks occur according to natural phrases. 

Students who encounter excellent picturebooks learn how to read not only the worlds but also the pictures.  They pay close attention to what they see, often noticing things in the illustrations that most adults would miss.  Students notice the artist’s craft and discuss it. 

Cullinan, B. (1989). Literature and the child (2nd ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Children's literature is great...

Literature and the Child

Eight Edition

By: Lee Galda, Lawrence Sipe, Lauren Liang, Bernice Cullinan

Books whether picture book, poetry, novel or non-fiction are alive and thriving in classrooms, book stores and libraries.  Those who engage in books from a young age and become avid readers have an academic advantage that continues to support their success, regardless of intelligence or circumstances.  Reading contributes to language growth and development.  Reading encourages the learning of new vocabulary words.  The storehouse of words can then be used when speaking, writing, listening and reading.  Readers can draw on the experiences they have read about giving them an advantage over those who do not read.  The more people read the better they get and the better they read, the more they learn.  The more they learn, the more curious they come and the more curious they become, the more they read.  Literature enables young people to explore and become motivated and engaged readers.  Readers can travel back and forth in time and visit familiar places, meet new friends and discover new ideas. Their knowledge increases as well as their values and their imagination grows.  Literature prompts readers to understand themselves better.  When they explore their own feelings, they understand why others react as they do.  Literature provides insights into the realities and dreams of young people and of the authors and illustrators who depict those dreams and realities.  Literature keeps peoples dreams alive.  It reflects life throughout the course of time and across national boundaries.  It presents a vision of what is possible.  The power of books opens new worlds, causes readers to think in new ways and molds our children into contributing members of society.  The audiences of young readers are from birth through middle school.  Literature has designations.

N = Nursery  (birth to age five)

P = Primary (age five to eight)

I = Intermediate (ages eight to twelve)

A = Advanced (ages twelve to eighteen)

A basic distinction in literature for children is between fiction and nonfiction.  Fiction is something that is made up.  Nonfiction is based on facts and theories and is real and verifiable.  Narratives tell a story that occurs over time.  A narrative is developed throughout a plot. Actions or events lead to the solution of a problem which progresses to a climax and sometimes ends in a resolution.  Texts that are non-narrative or expository do not ell a story or inform. 

Authors and illustrators work to create memorable stories by using literary elements such as setting, characterization, plot and theme.  The setting is the time and place in which story events happen.   Characterization refers to the means by which an author establishes credibility of character.  Plot refers to the sequence of story events.  Theme is a central idea that keeps the story together. 

Authors have their own style of writing.  This may include vocabulary or their structure whether it is a poem of piece of nonfiction.  The style needs to reflect the time, place and characters through dialogue that sounds natural and descriptions that are vivid and fresh. 

Various works of literature are written in and further categorized by genre.  Genres include:

•  Poetry and verse – Expression of thoughts often containing rhythm

•  Folklore – Stories, myths, legends, nursery rhymes

•  Fantasy – Stories set in places that do not exist

•  Science Fiction – Based on scientific principles

•   Contemporary Realistic Fiction – Stories that could happen in he real world.

•  Historical Fiction – Stories reconstructing life in the past using fictional characters and events

•  Biography/Memoir – Account of a person’s life

•  Nonfiction - Informational books that explain, describe or inform about a subject using real facts

Special formatted books also have an impact what today’s children have the opportunity to read.  Picture books contain a unique combination of text and art.  With picturebooks, words tell us tings not in the picture, and the picture tells us things not in the words. 


Cullinan, B. (1989). Literature and the child (2nd ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Fantastical Workshop

On Tuesday, October 7, 2104 the first group lead a workshop about fantastical literature.  Megan, Lindsay, and Alicia did a wonderful job teaching the class and informing us about fantasy literature.  I learned many new things about fantasy literature though the workshop.  Below is what I learned and would like to share with you:

-Fantastical literature has two sub genres, which is fantasy and science fiction.

Features in the plot of fantastical literature:

*not realistic

*logically consistent

*magically driven

Features in the setting of fantastical literature:

*rich details

*reality/world

Features in the theme of fantastical literature:

*good vs. evil

*being human

*consequences of pride

*effects of science

*spiritual

Features in the characters of fantastical literature:

*multidimensional personalities

*grow and change

*typically non human

Below are some fantastical literature books:

After this presentation I am more informed about fantastical literature and how I can incorporate it in my classroom. Many of the books the group presented I didn't even know were in the genre of fantastical literature.   



                          Guest Speaker: Chuck Stead

September 30, 2014

On Setomeber 30, 2014 Chuck Stead visited our reading and literature class to help us as educators become great story tellers just like he is. His story of his life and how he is improving the land in Ramapo is a trull amazing story.  It was very interesting to know about the lead that is in the ground from the Ford car company.  I had never knew about it until that night.  

I also really liked the way he told his story by using a skin hide.  I thought this was a very unique way of showing how the different symbols represented an even in his life.  One of the things that I took from his presentation was that everyone has a story to tell and its important to take your time when telling a story.  I loved how his stories were filled with detail and imagery.  I would love to have him come into my classroom and tell a story to my first graders.  They would really enjoy it.