A literature companion for teachers 2nd edition

Lorraine McDonald

• Publisher: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781925132397
• eBook ISBN: 9781925132403
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The enriched revision and update of Lorraine McDonald's best selling title includes up-to-date Australian Curriculum links and coverage along with new research, a new chapter on evaluating literary texts, and much more.Nonfiction texts have been added as examples of quality mentor texts, along with updated examples where appropriate of narratives and picture books.

PART ONE

THE ART AND CRAFT OF LITERARY TEXTS

CHAPTER 1

Literature for children and young adolescents

The Australian Curriculum: English defines literature this way:

The term ‘literature’ includes literary texts from across a range of historical and cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value. While the nature of what constitutes literary texts is dynamic and evolving, they are seen as having personal, social, cultural and aesthetic value and potential for enriching students’ scope of experience.

The appreciation of literature, Key ideas, Australian Curriculum: English

THE VALUE OF NARRATIVE

Literature and narrative hold privileged positions in our educational culture. That narrative is ‘a primary act of mind’ is a well-known observation (Hardy, 1977). It is through narratives, Hardy argues, that we live our lives: ‘For we dream in narrative, daydream in narrative … we make up stories about ourselves and others, about the personal as well as the social past and future’ (p. 13). Hardy contends that narrative is the core of our lived experience, as our human way of knowing who we are (see also Arizpe, Farrell & McAdam, 2013).

The French literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes affirms the primacy of narrative this way:

Narrative is present in myth, legend, fable, tale, novella, epic, history, tragedy, drama, comedy, mime, painting, … stained glass windows, cinema, comics, news items, conversation … Narrative is present in every age, every place, every society; it begins with the very history of mankind … it is simply there, like life itself …

Barthes, 1977, p. 79

Here, the narrative form is seen to permeate every aspect of our lives, in words, images and speech – and has been part of our nature since the beginning of human history.

Narrative re-imagines the world for young people and, in so doing, suggests ways of thinking about the attitudes, values and beliefs of the culture presented in the text. Clare Bradford, an Australian scholar of international renown, examines what kind of society, behaviours and attitudes our contemporary narratives are imagining for the future. Her studies (2007, 2008) reveal that many stories of race and immigration reproduce Anglocentric, colonial beliefs and attitudes, which become ‘naturalised’ and ‘normal’ ways of thinking in contemporary children’s literature. Narratives have the power to be subtle ‘game-changers’ in how the beliefs and attitudes they espouse contribute to the ways young people form their identities: teaching awareness of how narratives re-imagine the world is crucial to the way literature is approached for Australia’s future citizens.

Other Australian scholars such as Alyson Simpson have highlighted the need for students to be ‘excited about reading’, which encompasses much more than just ‘learning to read’ (2008, p. 6). She states, ‘the effect of … staged learning [as in reading programs] is that it kills enthusiasm for reading’ (2008, p. 6). Students need to choose and read a wide range of quality literary texts. When supported by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable adult, their learning and excitement will merge, as this is ‘how texts teach what readers learn’ (Meek, 1988, p. 1). However, as Maureen Walsh reminds us, today’s digital technologies create ‘the challenge of maintaining students’ motivation to continue to read books and to engage in sustained reading of … literature’ (2011, p. 7).

In Australia, as in other Western nations, the narrative form is one of the text types that students learn to compose from a very early age, despite being the most complex for young people to write. The comparatively simple narrative structure students are asked to follow is intended to support developing writers to use language in imaginative ways. While the simple structure is evident in quality narrative/literary texts, it is somewhat reductive when equated to the nuanced complexities of an award-winning novel or picturebook for young people. When teachers share quality narratives with their students they offer models for what is possible so that together they can consider how the writing techniques and language use offers insights into what counts as a quality ‘story’.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations – something...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Part One: The Art and Craft of Literary Texts
• Part Two: Creating Literary Texts
• Part Three: Extending Literary Knowledge
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Index