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.

For the activity that we designed we were all dressed-up as characters from Aladdin’s film. And the plot of our activity begins by the time the Genie comes back from his trip around the world. Then in the activity the Genie appears with loads of presents that he took for Aladdin and Jasmine. During the activity children have to classify all the presents that the Genie bring for them depending on the country that the presents came from and by the time they finish it they have to define the route that the Genie follow during his holidays around the world.

It was a really fun and interesting project in which all of us learnt and had a great time, although it would be hard to say who enjoyed it more; the children or us.

Secondly I´m going to talk about the THEATRE activity that we did this week, which personally I think that it has loads of possibilities.

As I’ve just said, during this week we used the theatre as a tool for bringing English to students in a motivational way. Now I’m going to explain some of them.

For the first activity there need to be at least two pairs of people. The members of each pair have to be sitting in a single line and the one that is behind has to pretend that his arms are his partner´s arms. So once the two pairs are prepared, they will have to play a role such as pretending to be in a job interview, while the audience (the rest of the class) asks them questions.

In addition, in the next activity the students will form groups of four to six people. Then, two of them will be playing a role in which they are friends and for example, they are talking about the last holidays of one of them. While they are speaking the rest of the group members have to perform what the others are saying.

In conclusion, I think that these two activities can easily be done with primary students and also, they can be used as a cross-curricular activity, in order to review and learn almost every topic that they study at class in any other subject.

Is the first time that we have the chance to work with pupils in the university, we sometimes see other groups of mates working with pupils and I have to say that I felt a little bit jealous but now we are the ones that have this challenge.

In class we were deciding which film we were going to deal with and we have had very good options as “The lord of the rings”, “The book of the jungle”, “Mary Poppins”, “Aladdin” and others. So we have to vote the ones that we liked the most and the thing was so equal between “the book of the jungle” and “Aladdin” however “Aladdin” wins. At first sight was a little bit difficult to find the didactic porpoise of this film but as the time goes by every group was thinking on the different things we could teach with this incredible film. After that we presented our topics to the rest of the mates and they told as some advices about where to place the different groups and also other topics that we can relate with the one we have chosen.

Moreover I didn´t remember the film very well so that day in the afternoon I was watching the film to see all the scenes and how funny the Gini was, the next day in my group we were all singing the songs that are displayed in the film, how anybody can remember the songs that well, but my mates did it; now I´m all the time singing it.

I would never imagine doing this at the university, but in my opinion is a very good way to practice for our future jobs, and also for being more prepared and being more involved in the task. I´m so enthusiastic, I count the days to do it and to see all of as dress up like all the characters in the film and also how you we all decorate the university. I hope you are also enjoying with this task. I would like to know what do you think about it and how do you feel?

Do you think we could adapt Disney films to explain science and other subjects to our students?

As you may have noticed because of the topics the majority of the last posts were about, these two last weeks we have been working on one of the most important elements and resources in Children’s Literature: tales.

According to Wikipedia, tales are “generally short stories based on real or imaginary situations, inspired or not in previous writings or legends, with a simple plot protagonised by a reduced group of characters […] and that have been passed from generation to generation, both in an oral or written way”

In my previous post, I shared with you The original stories behind the tales we know, like the real Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears or The Lion King; and, as this past Monday we learnt about the characters that usually make up tale stories, in this post I would like to go deeply on this topic. So, here I present you the different types of characters we may find in every tale story:

-   Hero/Heroine: The character that protagonises the story, and, although in most of the stories it is a male character, due to the historic tradition of giving the man the power and strength, there are also female characters as heroines. Some examples are the Superheroes, such as Spiderman or Superman; Peter Pan, or the Disney Princesses, like Mulan or Belle.

Furthermore, one of the main characteristics of heroes is that they often move vertically, and we can notice that in the way the Superheroes climb or fly.

         Shrek (Shrek)         Source: Wikipedia

-    True Love: The character that the hero/heroine is in love with, and for whose true love he/she fights. As an example, we have Fiona, in Shrek; and, although it can be not considered a fairy tale (although I believe that every story can be transformed into a fairy tale for kids), I think that Dulcinea, the True love of Don Quixote, perfectly fits to this definition.

     Esmeralda (The Hunchback                of Notre Dame).              Source: Galleryhip

-    Villain: The character that opposes the hero, related to evil powers and wicked actions. The best examples are Disney Villains, such as Scar, Ursula or Jafar; but also there are evil prototypes in traditional tales, like the wolves, witches and stepmothers.

            Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)                Source: Wikipedia

-     Elder: The character, usually a king or a father, who normally remains at home (sometimes disabled) or does not change so much along the story. Examples of elders are Mufasa, Rafiki , Papa Smurf or Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother.

                 Mufasa (The Lion King)                    Source: Fanpop

-    Helper: The powerful or magical character who gives advice or valuable gift to the hero/heroine and often tests them; like, for example, Tinkerbell, Cinderella fairies and Jiminy Cricket.

                 Jiminy Cricket (Pinocchio)                   Source: Wikipedia

-     Friend: The character that accompanies the hero, often belonging to lower class. In this case, I would like to emphasise that it is usually my favourite character in every tale story, and I think that also for many kids; as it is fun, loyal and a little bit crazy. Some examples are the amusing Timon and Pumba in the Lion King, or the charming Donkey in Shrek.

                 Dory (Finding Nemo)                 Source:  Pixar Wikia

-     Messenger: The character, human or not, that brings news. In case of Disney, it could be Sebastian or Hermes; and in traditional tales, the birds or royal postmen.

       Sebastian (The Little Mermaid)    Source: allfreevectors

Now, that we have learnt the character motifs, their characteristics and some examples for each one; Raquel has told us that it is our turn to create a new example for one of the motifs. I am working on this activity now, and it is really amazing, as there are plenty of possibilities to take and it could lead to crazy stories.

And, I am sure that it would be great if you also join us in this journey of being character creators, and you also make up an interesting character for a new and surprising story!! We would be glad and excited to know about them!!

Finally, I hope you all liked this post!!

Thank you for visiting! See you next week!

Those horrific stories were originally passed on orally from generation to generation until some writers, such as Perrault, Brothers Grimm or Walt Disney decided to convert the tales into books and films, making some changes until the stories evolved to the current happy tales we all know.

This is what we were learning during the last week’s medium group session, when we read two versions of Cinderella, Perrault’s and Grimm Brothers’, and compared them with the one we have watched in the Disney film. I was really impressed about the evolution of the story and the big differences among the versions; and, as I really liked discovering this, I would like to share with you the real cruel stories of some beautiful tales that we all know (I wish I do not ruin your childhood… :P).

Firstly, we can start with the innocent Little Red Riding Hood. In our version, she disobeys the advice of her mother in her way to visit her grandmother and walks slowly and entertains through the dangerous forest. Then, as the wolf is faster, he arrives earlier to grandmother’s house. He eats her, dresses up with grandma’s clothes, waits for the girl and eats her too. But a hunter discovers what happened and takes a knife to open the wolf’s abdomen; so, Caperucita and her grandmother go out of the wolf, they fill his abdomen with stones and finally the thirsty wolf goes to drink water to a lake, falls down and sinks because of his weight. However, the original version is more sadistic, as the wolf makes Little Red Riding Hood drink her grandmother’s blood before carving up and eating her. (You can find the different versions of Little Red Riding Hood here).

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of the most changed stories. We think that Goldilocks is a curious little girl who discovers the three bears’ house and touches some furniture and eat some soup before she sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears come, they get angry because someone has been in their house, but when they find Goldilocks in the bed, she is faster that the bears and escapes through the window before they kill or eat her; or, in other more recent versions, the bears behave well and even help her. Contrary to that, in the original version, Goldilocks was an old and hungry woman that was tortured by the bears and impaled in the spire of the bell tower. (You can find other versions of Goldilocks and The Three Bears here and here).

In case of The Lion King, the king is killed by his jealous brother and his son wants revenge. Although Rosencrantz (Timon) and Guildenstem (Pumba) try to distract him, he finally kills the jealous brother. And actually, in some versions, everyone dies.

Finally, I would like to share with you some interesting links where you can find more information about this topic: all versions of one tale, the history of the evolution of some stories; the reasons why each version was like it was depending on the social, economic, political and cultural circumstances, etc.:

• The real stories behind these Disney Movies will ruin your childhood
• The real stories behind 9 Disney Movies
• Top 10 gruesome fairy tale origins
• Children tales as they used to be (in Spanish)
• When children literature was for adults (in Spanish)
• The Real Snow white: Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal in Carmen’s post in this blog.