Children's Literature about Autism

In the past decade more and more school districts are including special education students in classrooms instead of having a separate room for them. It has become important for teacher to educate their students about their new special education peers. For my application assignment I researched how cognitive impairments, specifically autism, are portrayed in children’s literature and if those portrayals are accurate. I analyzed each book using the article “Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children’s Books for Ableism” by Chloe Myers and Hank Bersani to assess their quality of anti-bias information.

I found that although there are many children's books available about Autism, very few of them are accurate representations of the cognitive impairment. Out of all the books I analyzed the best anti-bias book was “Russell’s World: A Story for Kids About Autism” by Charles Amenta III. It is a non-fiction story written by Russell’s parents. The book gives readers an inside look into a family living with sever autism. In the book we see Russell doing regular, familiar, every-day activities with his brothers and parents. The book explains Russell’s behaviors like how he has a hard time learning to talk, he uses sign language and he sometimes has temper tantrums at night. However the book also talks about all the other normal activities he can do it. The real-life photos mixed with the drawings help readers view Russell as a real person.

I think that “Russell’s World” is such a good anti-bias resource because it is Non-fiction therefore it is based on a real child and his real life experiences. The reality of the story makes it easy for children to understand and to relate to. Children with autism struggle to make friends and navigate social situations. However, one child can make a significant difference in the life of a child with autism by offering compassion, understanding and friendship. Therefore, it is important for teachers to educate their students about the specific special needs of the new children in their classrooms.

The Middle School Slump

After my education at Michigan State University, I hope to teach in a middle school setting for at least a little while. I am challenging myself to do this because I think that the age group represents a generation of struggling learners. I have noticed that the love of subjects such as reading, math, and science seems to greatly decrease by the end 8th grade. Why is this? I guarantee if you observe a successful third grade classroom, you will see students enjoying silent reading and having fun solving math problems out of their workbooks. 

Are teachers beating symbolism and no choice of reading over the heads of students in middle school English classes? Is math repetitive and boring in middle school? Is science irrelevant to real life situations in middle school? 

What do you suggest middle school teachers do in order to motivate this upcoming generation of students towards creative and happy learning? What can elementary teachers do to prepare their students for middle school learning? What can high school teachers do to supplement or catch up students that are behind by the time they reach the ninth grade?

Is this disconnect of the love of school subjects and young learners worrying any other future educators? Hello? Does anyone care?! 

Lyrics as Literature

http://unlvrebelyell.com/2011/12/05/lyrics-as-literature/

This article by Camalot Todd was very interesting to read. “Interpreting song lyrics as a literature device can aid in furthering and bettering the understanding of cultures during different time periods and in relations to different groups of individuals.” When you study song lyrics you can get a good image of people who were around when the piece was written and how they were influenced.

This piece focus’s on songs in China during Marco Polo’s time. It is written about a lecture given by Patricia Sieber at Ohio State University. She explains how many of the musical compositions and melodies from this time have been lost over the years but that a good amount of the lyrics survived. Even without the melody we gain a lot of insight into this time period from the words that were written.

Using lyrics from songs as a form of understanding is not limited to this specific case. Music plays a big role in the lifestyle and cultures of the people. Sieber states in this article, “We need to rethink the way we view how these songs play a role in world literature and in world history”. This is true because doing so could help us understand the world and the past outside of just the facts given in textbooks.

Before reading this I never really looked at the lyrics to a song being a form of literature. Now however, I am curious why all through school we never used music as a way to gain a better understanding of cultures and different time periods. I think incorporating songs into a lesson would be a good way to grab the attention of students. It might also help their understanding by helping them look at it as more than just facts to memorize. It might help to put them into the shoes of the people at that time so they can form a better image in their heads.

Native American Cinderella

I did my application project on the Native American Cinderella. The name of the story is the Rough Face Girl. There are many similarities and differences between the two. First they are both similar because they end in "happily ever after." They both end up marrying a man whom they fall in love with. This is teaching young girls that they will only happy if they end up marrying someone. This is not a good message for young girls. This is enforced in the media and other movies. There are also similar because•Native American version of Cinderella. Also they both have evil sisters. Cinderella has evil step sisters who make her do everything and are just lazy. They are mean to her and make fun of her. They don't let her go anywhere. In Rough Face Girl, her sisters make her feed the fire, which cause her ugliness of scars all over herself. They are dressed up when they go to see the invivble Beings sister and the rough face girl looks bad because they took everything from their father already. They are different because Cinderella is loved by the Prince because of her beauty. This is also teaching young girls bad things. They will think that a man will only love her if she is pretty. In Rough Face Girl, she is ugly and the Invisible being still loves her. But, she turns beautiful, showing that you must be pretty to be truly happy, which is not teaching girls anything good.

Positive Experience

I feel TE 348 was an interesting class. It is different then any other class that I have taken. It involves more analyzing, which I was not expecting. First, I liked looking at the different children's books. It is different to really look at them and find deeper meaning in the text, without this class I would not of given. this much thought. The chapter books were also interesting to read. I think that. There was a good selection of books. I really enjoyed reading Hunger Games. This book was a great read, and I actually enjoyed myself, which is rare when reading for class. Bud Not Buddy was a good read also. I liked to story line of it. At first, it was difficult for me to figure out the different reading roles. It is a different way to look at the text, each person having a certain role that is different. This concept took me a little bit to grasp.

I really liked the idea of having a group discussion. I think that this gave everyone in the group a better understanding of the text and it is always good to hear another person' viewpoint. This helped me personally with questions that I didn't know the answer to that I otherwise would not have known if it wasn't for these discussions.

I thought the final project was a good project to do. It gave everyone in the class an opportunity to write about something that interests us which is good. My group is analyzing Cinderella, this was a fun topic to write about and my group really liked it.

Rainbow Fish Controversy

The author of the Rainbow Fish is Marcus Pfister who mostly writes in a children's fiction kind of style.  With the rainbow fish being one of his most popular books.  The Rainbow Fish may not seem particularly sophisticated when looking at its plot: as many think that he is a self-centered character comes to recognize the value of sharing with others. But there are more complex issues of identity involved.  The rainbow fish herself has to learn to give of herself.  Which she then eventually realizes that her beautiful scales are quite special, and that she indeed is a special creature, but also sees that her external traits are not what will bring friends close to her. This is what leads to her giving out her silvery scales, and causes the giant controversy that continues today.

When it comes to finding the meaning of the book there are many of opinions about whether the rainbow fish is positive or negative.  Those that see this book as being negative find the following ideas to be true; Change yourself to please others, Give away your things (bribe others) to gain friends (This may include things that you have worked very hard for or your own natural beauty).  Other negative ideas are to shed your uniqueness and become like everyone else and then you will be liked, If you are different no one will like you, Bow to peer pressure, change your self image to be liked, and don't be proud of your special gifts that you were born with and your natural beauty.  I can see how these things are true, and how people feel this way, but I on the other hand see the more positive ideas in the book.  I see that sharing with others will make you happier therefore people will enjoy spending time with you making sharing a positive experience.  Being generous to others also shows a sharing side of you and therefore creates happiness all around; there is one more positive quality that I came across by anonymous that talked about not flaunting ones wealth or showing off.

I was wondering how you stand? What are your thoughts? i grew up reading this book and i was always told that it was about sharing so i am interested to see what many of you think of the book called The Rainbow Fish

First Lesson

I had some help from a classmate but other than that it was fairly simple. We Divided the members into two groups so that the average age is the same. From there One group got to use both their visual learning skills and audio learning skills and the other group could only use audio learning. In doing this it helped us see that we cannot focus on one type of learner, we have to try to incorporate as many of these four types as possible. the four different ways that people can learn are Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic (Move while learning), Tactile (Touching things while learning). We learned that children’s literature has many different meaning and the way that you present it can restrict some of those meaning from reaching the children. 
Children can interpret the same thing in many different ways so they need to know that it is on okay to be different and it is our jobs as educators to encourage all of our students whether they have a disability or not to think for themselves and stick to what they believe in. Surprisingly this is what we were hoping to find. All in all, our eyes have been opened into what a teacher has to do to be a great teacher, and that is to include as many different aspects of learning as possible.

My Experience of TE348

Now that this Children's Literature class is coming to the end I have looked back on the whole class: what I have learned, what I liked about the class, and what I did not like about the class. This was a class I took to help me decide my major, either Fashion Apparel and Textile Design or Elementary Education. This class most definitely turned me in the Elementary Education direction and I actually did switch my major to that. This class taught me a lot about what I wanted to do with my career and that is why I personally liked this class so much.

I have learned a lot this semester in this TE348 class, and not only that I wanted to switch majors for sure after only a couple weeks. I have learned so much about different genres, or most importantly what is a genre verse a format. For example, I have no clue that a graphic novel or a picture book was just a format rather than a genre. I also learned a lot about what genres that children would prefer to read and the activities that get them interested in reading.

One of the things I dreaded but ended up really liking once I looked back on it was the group book discussions. Although at the time of trying to do all my other homework and also cram in a book I found it annoying, after I was finished I found myself really enjoying what I just read. I especially liked The Hunger Games, if I did not take this class than I probably would never have picked up that book but now that I had to I loved it and am starting to read the sequels.

I did not really dislike anything a lot to especially be mad and dislike the class, but if I had to pick one thing I was not fond of I would say the point that I would get points marked off for even being absent for one book discussion even though I was extremely sick. This was upsetting but I am grateful for the extra credit opportunities we had in class so take up for my docked points.

Overall I really liked this class and learned a lot. At times, no, I did not like this class but now that I look back on all that our class did and all that we read I really enjoyed it and had fun with it.

Autism in Literature

I did my application project on how autism is portrayed in literature. The results I found were much different than I would have thought. First of all there are so many more children’s books about than I thought. Second I never thought that almost all of the books I found would have been so stereotypically. Most of the characters were portrayed as young boys; I actually could not find one book with a female autistic character. A lot of the characteristics of the autistic characters were similar in many of the books. For example, lack of eye contact, lack of communication skills and frustrating to live with. Also for some reason a lot of the books I found were from the standpoint of someone who had an autistic brother. I think this is because children who are exposed to autism are most often the siblings of children with autism because most of the time children with autism attend separate schools.

Lets Read More!

Now after having been in TE 348, I feel that I read books differently. I appreciate the differences, and the different genres. Before, I was stuck on the same type of book, nothing new, but now I feel that I can venture out and try something new. When I read a book to children, I find myself analyzing the pictures and interpreting the text. This is turn I feel has helped me become better at reading out loud. I know how important it is to encourage children to enjoy reading and the first place to start is by reading aloud. By selecting the age appropriate books, and making the story come alive will encourage them to want to read books on their own eventually. I love to read, and will definitely be using some of the guidelines we talked about to pick books out for my classroom someday. This class has really helped me with children's literature! Happy Reading!

What's Your Humor?

I did my application assignment on how humor in children's literature is interpreted by different age groups. When trying to find relevant books for my research, I noticed how funny children's books are. I don't know what it is about children's books but I have developed a funny bone for them.

Humor in literature is something we're all keen to, even if our senses of humor differ (which I'm sure they do). For us future teachers, it is important to show our students the humor that can be found in literature. Children will not develop their own taste in literature if they never even learn to like it. One simple suggestion in helping children develop a liking for reading is to read funny books!

My study showed that young children prefer visual and situational humor, so books like "The Bear and His Boy" will be particularly enjoyed by young audiences. Teenage audiences' humor is based more on cultural influences, like if something relates to a certain pop culture reference. Young adults and adults prefer humor that is verbal and situational, like the homophone humor found in Amelia Bedelia.

Whoever your audience is, it is important to know that they want to laugh. Purposefully choose humorous books and test out their success in the classroom.

TE 348 Wrap-up

I did not really know what to expect when first enrolling in TE 348. I knew that I would be reading children’s novels but did not know what the rest of the class entailed. I was excited that we spent the majority of the class discussing how social issues play into children’s literature. I feel that social issues are very important, not only in analyzing literature but also in education as a whole. Many concerns with our current school system can be traced to inequalities in race, class, etc. Discussing how these issues were represented in children’s literature gave insight into one of the many reasons that these problems exist.

My roommate is a political theory and social relations double major and a woman’s studies minor. Discussing my readings and findings with her proved very interesting. We talked a lot about the different types of literary theories, especially Feminist literary theory and Marxist literary theory. She would bring up points discussed in her classes and I would bring up topics discussed in this class. A few points that we discussed in depth were the representation of gender, race, and class in children’s literature. She did not know how much of this was important in analyzing literature, especially literature that is being read by children and I did not realize the magnitude of the issues we were discussing. Being able to discuss the class material outside of class with many people, not just my roommate, made many of these people realize what teachers have to consider before assigning a book.

Future of Bookstores and Libraries

I can remember going to the library or bookstore as a kid and grabbing handfuls of books that I wanted to read, only to have my mom tell me to pick 2 or 3 and put the rest back. However, recently I was thinking about the large books stores closing and a library in my hometown closed, what was the future of other bookstores and libraries. Will they all close as more and more books are available online? Will children not get to experience the same libraries as we did? I think if that is the case that these children will be deprived from a great experience. At my library, that would have some authors come talk to kids, or read alouds etc. If they close libraries down, then kids will not get to experience all the things that we did as kids, in terms of reading and exploring books.

I found a piece written on the future of libraries and bookstores online. The author has a positive outlook on their future because he claims that they can be useful in a digital society. For example, they could turn them into community centers where people met to discuss books, listen o authors etc. Without a library, people will be forced to buy more online books instead of having them available to you thorough your community. I do not like this idea, because there are many families in the United States that don’t have much money to spend on books for their kids. Then their kids may not learn to read as well as a child from a wealthier family who owns many books. What do you think about bookstores and libraries closing?

Article: http://bigthink.com/ideas/41150

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hilarious

Today I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up a book to write about for my book review. I ended up picking up “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” because I saw it was a New York Times Bestseller. I really had no background information on it, but thought it might be a good book from is its rather large display at the store. I began reading it tonight, and I could hardly put it down, because I was laughing to myself so much. The book is a collection of “journal entries” from a middle school boy about his life and school. I am really excited to continue reading it later this week. Have you read the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series? If so, did you like it?

I decided to do a little research on the author after I began reading. I came across an interview with the author, Jeff Kinney, on the Scholastic website. He claims that he originally wrote the book for adults, and was very surprised when it because so popular among 10-12 year old children. I think that even though this is popular among children, that adults can still get a kick out of the jokes and middle school references throughout the book. The book is a combination of some of his middle school memories and other events he has witnessed, although none of the characters are based on real people. What I really like about this book are the comic illustrations that accompany the text. Also, I love how real most of the events are in the book, things that would definitely happen in middle school, when everyone is going through their “awkward stage.”

This book is a quick read, so I definitely recommend reading it for some humor if you get a chance. For more of the interview go to this website: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751433

How to choose a good childrens book

Today there are so many different authors and titles to choose from when looking at children’s books. There are actually many factors that can decide what is a “good” and a “bad” children’s book, according to the article I read on “The Crafty Writer” website.

First, you must “beware of marketing.” Not all good books have flashy covers that yell “read me” at you. Thus, you should not pick up the first book you see and buy it. You may have to search shelves to find a good book that will suit you. How long will you spend looking for a book in the store? Personally, I lose patience when going through book shelves for too long, so I am sometimes guilty at buying the book based on an appealing cover.

Next, you need to look for a good story. There needs to be a well constructed plot, with a set beginning, middle, and end. Also, consider if the characters are realistic and believable in terms of their personalities etc. Lastly, did the author step outside of the box in terms of the story line?

When skimming books in the store, it is important to look for good quality writing. Some authors think that their writing doesn’t have to be top notch when writing for young children who won’t pay as much attention to that aspect. In addition, quality illustrations are important in children’s books. Illustrations compliment the text and bring life to the story. However, too much detail in the pictures can distract the child reading and take away from the text.

Lastly, awards on the books are a good guide to choosing quality books. There are many different awards, so familiarizing yourself with them can help you choose the best book for you. Are you familiar with what each of the awards mean, that are given to books?

For more guideline and things to looks for when choosing a children’s book check out this article: http://www.thecraftywriter.com/2007/08/15/what-makes-a-good-childrens-book/