I have to confess that at the beginning I was a little bit scared about it, because during my scholar life I had never been really fond of literature. I loved reading and knowing by myself, but I struggled with the academic aspect. It is true that during the degree, we had other subjects about children’s literature; however, this one has been the key to change my mind completely (imagine how much it affected on me that I am going to take my Final Dissertation about one of its contents! ). Thanks to this subject I have discovered that there are not complex content, but wrong ways to approach or teach them.

Another of the most valuable things that I have learnt from this subject, apart from myriad of resources, materials and great techniques, is that we must teach how to love and enjoy literature instead of how to memorise thousands of data. Doing so, our pupils will achieve a much more meaningful learning.

Maybe this last entry should be devoted to reflect about everything we have learnt along the subject (which is not little) as I was doing a few lines above. However I could not leave without sharing with you one last thing I met a few weeks ago and found it very interesting, especially after what has been occurring recently:  Racist overtones in Disney’s stories.

In words of Rebecca Rabison (2008) “most of the Disney story lines are about people who are white” (p.71). This fact, as Morawski or Harris (cited by Rabison, 2008) explained, has a clear connection with “United states’ political and representational systems that implicate ‘white’ as the national American identity and normalize white people and their behaviour” (pp. 71-72). In fact, taking into account the explanations of Fine (cited by Rabison, 2008) this situation has gone beyond, transmitting as a result a clear connection between the Whiteness concept with others such as objectivity, normality, truth, knowledge, merit…

In the case of the stories which are based just in a “white world” with only white characters, without any choice criminals are also white. That can then lead us to think that “crime is represented as largely unrelated to race” (Rabison, 2008, p. 73).

However, although they are just a few, there are also some exceptions in which non-white characters are included. When it happens, as Rabison (2008) describes, this exceptions to Disney prototypes (people of colour) “are portrayed using racial [and negative] stereotypes” (p. 73); whereas white ones are glorified (2008). Bearing in mind that information, everyone can deduce what it actually ensues: “the criminals in these Disney films are the people from non-white races”, which are commonly chastised by the white ones. (Rabison, 2008, p.73).

Furthermore Giroux (cited by Rabison, 2008) argues that as a result of it, representations and codes which taught that “cultural differences [which differ from] the imprint of white (…) are deviant, inferior, unintelligent, and a threat to be overcome”, are been given to children (p.74). In other words it “suggests to children that people of colour are inherently criminal” (Rabison, 2008, p.78).

Different and clear examples of this situation which are provided by the same author (2008) are the following ones:

In lots of Disney stories, as it happen in Pinocchio (1940), villains are represented with darker skin and hair, as well as with a strong accent (Stromboli, in the previously mentioned story), whereas good characters (Geppetto) are characterised by light skin and hair and softer face features.

http://es.disney.wikia.com

Similarly occurs in Aladdin (1992), in which although all the characters belong to the Arabian culture, Jafar is strongly characterised with Arabic features (almond-shaped and ripped eyes, bulbous noses, long beards, and a strong accent) while Aladdin “appears ‘Americanized’” (Giroux, cited by Rabison, 2008, p.75) with lighter skin, small nose, no accent…

http://www.destructoid.com

Finally another example appeared in the Lady and the Tramp (1955). In this case is the Asian culture the one that is racially portrait through two cruel, sly, greedy and criminal Siamese cats, completely different from the other animals which belong to high class, have good morals, and speak with Western, British and American accents. (Rabison, 2008)

http://www.filmwerk.co.uk

I would like to conclude by saying that my purpose devoting the last entry to this topic, was simply to transmit you the importance and necessity of carrying out an extremely carefully analysis, not only of those stories that have been part of us since our infancy, but of every single story we will offer to our future pupils, paying special attention to those messages related with stereotypes that can have such a big influence on them.

I am sure you will do your best bilingual teachers

Sincerelly,

Azu

P.S: Good luck for all the experiences that we will soon begin to live

Rabison, R. C. (2008). Deviance in Disney: Representations of Crime in Disney Films, A Qualitative Analysis. Honors Theses, 148.

This week I would like to devote my entry to two things I am passionate about, books and films. The idea of doing it came to my mind when Raquel, as my peer Yolanda mentioned in her last post, introduced us to our next literary project through book-based films. So, let’s start!

Although I can be wrong, among our society exists a commonly shared perspective which tends to see books and films as “enemies”. An unofficial evidence of it could be the statement that all of us have heard, at least once: Oh! Come on! Don’t waste your time with that film, the book is undoubtedly better!. Another confirmation of it was the one provided by Linda Hutcheon (cited by  Malgozata Marciniak, 2007) “adaptions were seen by most critics as inferior to the adapted texts, as ‘minor’, ‘subsidiary’, ‘derivative’ or ‘secondary’ products, lacking the symbolic richness of the books and missing their ‘spirit’”(p.1); quite extremist for my taste.

 The truth is that this perspective is right to a point, and the reason why I partly agree with the first statement, is due to the fact that books have lots of advantages which films missed, as for example:

• Books can include as many details as the author decide, in other words they do not have time limitation as films.
• Although images are powerful, words are even more. Evocative language has the power to awaken in our imagination thousand of sensations.
• Despite books provide some details about characters, they give us much more freedom to imagine how they look like, as well as they offer time for readers to consider what they would do in the character’s shoes.
• And/Finally whereas visual effects are being improved in films, in books everything is possible already.

However in my opinion both, films and books could be understood much better as allies; each one can be an aid to the other one. By the way, according to Cox and Many (cited by Stoodt, 1996) “children’s response to film and literary narrative are related” (pp. 91-92). In the same line Kulleseid and Strickland (also cited by Stoodt, 1996) explained that the fact of experiencing literature through different media expands their background knowledge, deepens students’ response and strengthens their understanding.

Previously mentioned contributions, can be enough for some people to try to use the great support film adaptations can provide. However, for more reluctant readers other benefits that the use of children’s books film adaptations can have are the following:

- Related with reading motivation, which in words of Guthrie (cited by Hendershot, 2007) “is the strongest evidence for reading comprehension” (p.8)

• “The watching of book-based movies can encourage a child, who might not normally be interested in reading, to become intrigued enough to put forth the extra effort to read the book” (Israel, cited by Hendershot, 2007, p.5).
• Another stimulation provided by films take place when pupils want to check-out a particular book once they know that it is going to appear a film based on that book. (Hendershot, 2007, p.23).
• “This external reinforcement can motivate the reader to have the desire to repeat this enjoyable experience with future books and book-based movies”. Motivation that over time will become intrinsic. (Wigfield, cited by Hendershot, 2007, p.6).

 – Related with understanding and contents

• The fact of watching films adaptations of books, can help “struggling readers” to understand better the stories.
• Book based movies “can be very fruitful for further engaging them in the story”: evoke emotions towards characters and engross them in the storyline. They can also be really useful at the time of “developing their critical thinking skills”, for example:
  • Considering if the director interpreted a relationship between characters in the same way they did.
  • Finding similarities or differences between the structure of the film and the structure of the book after they have analyzed both.
  • Comparing the characteristic of the actor/actress that represent the characters, with the ones they imagined while they were reading.

For those who still do not believe the great influence that book-based films can have, one last data: In words of Megan Hendershot (1996) “According to the book-sales figures (…)The Polar Express normally sells approximately 200.000 copies every winter holiday season, but the movie release in November 2004 led to 3.000.000.000.of copies sold during the 2004 holiday season”(p.3).

Image retrieved from Wikipedia

Thank you for your time! I hope you like it and find it useful

 Stoodt, B. (1996). Children’s Literature. Macmillan Education AU.

Megan R. Hendershot. A Study of the Impact of Children’s Book-based Blockbuster. Movies on Library Circulation. A Master’s paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2007. 32 pages. Advisor: Brian W. Sturm.

Marciniak, M. (2007). The appeal of literature-to-film adaptations. Lingua ac Communitas, 17, 59-67.

I hope you are finding the posts that little by little we are uploading interesting and useful!

Actually, I strongly believe that my entry of this week can be accurately defined with those two adjectives. Oh! And I also have to tell you that this week post has another special feature! It is a Collabo-Blog, that I have created with the collaboration of the blogger Alicia López (in fact, it has been uploaded on her wall). So… what are you waiting for reading it?

I came up with the idea during one of the lessons I was involved, in which pupils of 3rd and 4th year (because it was a rural school some years were mixed) were dealing with some reading. I thought that, during the time that I was a primary school pupil, I did not have many chances to know foreign authors or foreign literary works. So I decided to give that chance to who were my pupils at that time, by introducing the Spanish worldwide known Cervantes and its Quixote to them. The teacher was very excited because, as she told me, it was very likely that pupils will have to read it at high-school.  So I putted my shoulders to the wheel.

Although I would have preferred pupils to be the ones who look for the information about the concrete author and his works, due to the fact that I did not have much time to develop the activity, I felt somehow a little bit forced to be the one who presented them that information. For doing it, with the help of the Ministry of Education and Universities of the Principality of Asturias’ webpage, I designed two highly visual presentations. In the first one, I included representative and noteworthy data about the author: the city where he was born, the fact that he participated in a war, or that he was in prison.

The second one was about The Quixote: the main characters, the main idea about the different adventures the Quixote lives throughout the whole story, as well as an activity to teach them some words in Spanish.

After that, I showed them a concrete adventure: “The adventure of the windmill” through a video. Because the story was originally narrated in Spanish I previously took out the sound, created a script, and then two of the pupils act as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They have lot of fun.

I wished to end the lesson with a meaningful activity for the pupils, so I proposed them the creation of their own Quixote book, by writing, illustrating or both, other adventures that he could have had. They seemed delighted with the idea, and it works much better than what I would have never expected! The interest, creativity and effort that the children demonstrated were spectacular, and the outcome was simply amazing. I was really proud of them

Cover that I created for their book

Some examples of their stories/illustrations are the following ones:

They were really engaged with the activities of the whole lesson and, according with what they told me, they enjoyed so much the experience.

Do you think it was a good idea? Are there any changes you will apply? Does it wake up some ideas for your future activities? I’m looking forward to your answers. Thanks a million!

However, in order to understand its multiple benefits and utility, I consider that it would be appropriate to deal with another issue before: the connection between music and our brain, or the importance that music has at the time of learning.

Image from: jonlieffmd.com/blog/unique-effects-of-music-on-the-brain

There are lots of studies and neurologists which have argued and demonstrated that there is, indeed, a real and direct relationship between these two elements: music and our memory. For instance the neurologist Petr Janata, as Hsu (2009) said, developed the first study using music to look at autobiographical memory. He carried out a brain-scan study to discover the most active part of the brain when we heard a familiar piece of music. He found that it is the prefrontal cortex, and he also found that it is the same region that lighted up in other of his studies, in “response to self-reflection and recall of autobiographical details” (Hsu, 2009). So he discovered the music-memory link. Related to it, he pointed out the benefits of music for people suffering from Alzheimer adding that “the prefrontal cortex is among the last brain regions to atrophy” (Janata cited by Hsu, 2008). In the same line, according to Oliver Sacks (2008) “the past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity…”.

Moving away from scientific studies, and focusing on the educational field, the effectiveness of music at the time of learning is something that most of us have experienced by ourselves. Especially in foreign language lessons, because songs are fantastic tools to learn vocabulary and grammar structures.

However, as I said before, I discovered a tool which is even better than songs! It is Jazz Chants. They were created by Carolyn Graham 30 years ago, when she discovered that the rhythm, intonation and stress of natural spoken English language, are the same than the ones of a concrete type of music, Jazz. Due to that fact, apart from reinforcing vocabulary and grammar, with Jazz Chants you also practice something that in words of the BBC (2006) is “crucial for communication”: intonation and stress of natural English spoken language.

Other advantages that Jazz Chants have, are that the possibilities with them are endless (you can make a Jazz chant about almost anything!), and that everyone is able to do one! In fact Carolyn Graham offered the “magic recipe” for creating them:

• Choose a topic of interest to your students
• Write 3 words about that topic
• Separate words by sounds (even with grammar chants)
• Organise the words following a “magic rule”: 2 sounds word, 3 sounds word and 1 sound word, and add a little bit of repetition. You can also add grammar pattern between that words. And that’s it! You have it!

Finally, one of my peers and me reached to the conclusion that an example of a content that can be surely and successfully learnt through Jazz Chants, are the grammar structures of the Trinity exam that nowadays bilingual pupils have to be tested on.

If you want to learn more about this fantastic tool and its creator, you can visit the following links:

• Official website: http://jazzchants.net/home,
• Interview with Carolyn Graham: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_nPUuPryCs,
• Other projects in which Carolyn Graham is involved: http://www.childrenspicturedictionary.com/
• Examples of Jazz Chants of another author: http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/listening/jazz-chants/mp3-files-and-recording-scripts/

Hsu, J. (2009, 24 February). Music-Memory Connection Found in Brain. Live Science. Recovered from: http://www.livescience.com/5327-music-memory-connection-brain.html

Sacks, O. (2008). Musicophilia – Alzheimer’s/The Power of Music [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdYplKQ4JBc

BBC (2006, 16 March). Intonation. British Council. Teaching English. Recovered from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/intonation

Jazz Chants official website: http://jazzchants.net/

Graham, C. (2010) Teaching Jazz Chants – Carolyn Graham [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_nPUuPryCs

Hi everyone! Welcome again!

Today I would like to devote this entry to talk about a topic which I consider is quite interesting, “Subversive messages hidden under infant literature”. It came up a few days ago, in our lesson focused on Nursery rhymes. The lesson was divided into three stages. The first one was a kind of introductory stage. Raquel made us builders of our own knowledge using different techniques to discover what Nursery Rhymes are, its origin and which elements characterise it. Some of those techniques were: analysing typical nursery rhymes, such as Humpty Dumpty, and carrying out a “dictogloss”. Throughout the last stage we had so much fun dramatizing different types of choral reading with Nursery rhymes as the “Solo lines” (one by one).

Dramatizing “Little Jack Horner”

Although during the introductory stage, we dealt with the topic a little bit (Nursery rhymes were originally created to hide political subversive messages), it was at the 2^nd stage when we could be fully aware of what hidden subversive messages meant, through real examples. In other words, real Nursery Rhymes and the concrete hidden message that was under each of them.  One example of it was the Nursery Rhyme named “Mary, Mary, quite contrary”. Its main character, although children don’t know it and most of us either, is the daughter of Henry the 8th, and some of the objects which appear refer to instruments of torture.

Nursery Rhymes and the concrete hidden message that was under each of them.

It piques my curiosity, so I decided to investigate which was the situation of the topic nowadays. Understanding subversive books as those which awaken our rebel side, something that surprises me, was the number of authors that are in favour of these kinds of infant literary books.

A staunch supporter of them, and detractor of those which she considers “contain what adults have decided [children] have to know” (1998) is Alison Lurie. Her opinion is faithfully reflected in the title of her work Don’t tell the grown-ups. According to the writer Lucy Fuchs (1984), the appeal of these works lies in the fact that “they discuss problems that are foremost in many children’s minds and that they often feel they cannot discuss with their parents”. There are also Spanish writers who support this kind of books, as the Mexican Jaime Alfonso Sandoval. He argues that subversive books are necessary due to the fact that they “allow children in a way to expose their thoughts or fears in a symbolic way” as well as to know “the real world they will have to face” (Sandoval cited by Wences, 2008).

What do you think about it? If you don’t know it, I think it would be appropriate to devote a little bit of time to reflect on it, due to the fact that as teachers we will be one of the most influential person in our pupil’s literary life.

Some of the titles that the previously mentioned authors present as “subversives”

Lurie, A. (1998). Don’t tell the grown-ups: the subversive power of children’s literature. Little, Brown.

Fuchs, L. (1984). The Hidden Messages in Children’s Books.

Wences, M. (2008, 15 June). Los libros infantiles deben ser subversivos, asegura Jaime Alfonso Sandoval. La Jornada Guerrero. Recovered from: http://www.lajornadaguerrero.com.mx/2008/06/15/index.php?section=cultura&article=013n2cul

My name is Azucena Rodríguez. Nowadays I am a student of the double degree named Bilingual Teacher Training in Primary and Infant education. Hopefully, this will be the last year! J

This blog, as you may know, belongs to the subject “Exploring children’s literature in English” lectured by Prof.Dr. Raquel Fernández at Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros. During this term I will collaborate creating different entries about topics, resources, materials…related with the subject. I hope it will be useful for you, or at least that you enjoy it. However, I thought that it could be nice if I devote this 1^st entry to let you know a little bit more about me.

What a better form to introduce myself than by talking about what I like most to do? Apart from aspects related to education, I love going to the Cinema. Nevertheless, I would not say no either to afternoons of popcorns, blanket, good company and a good movie at home. Theatre is also something that I enjoy, especially if it is a Comedy or Monologs. (laughter is the best medicine). Reading and music are also some of my favourite pastime.

Although sometimes it is difficult, I always try to find time to practice some of the sports I like most such as dancing, yoga and running. Related with the last one, comes up one of my favourites hobbies which is animals in general, and my dog in particular. I love to run with him. Finally I would like to mention the hobby which I consider has the greatest capacity to enrich a person, travel.

On the other hand, taking up again my studies I will mention some of the reasons why I chose to study this degree. Firstly, I have to highlight the figure of my brother. The fact of having a difference of 11 years between us, allowed me to clearly observe how he has been evolving and growing up (emphasizing the educational aspect) which was something that apart from touching me, raised my curiosity about how to teach children. And finally, another experience that was extremely significant for me was the time I lived in Ireland before starting to study, when I discovered my passion for English, as well as my training period there during the degree.

That’s all Folks! See you in the next entry!