Fluent Essays

In our readings this week, we learn about the application of story maps (graphic organizers) as instructional tools. In this discussion, you will create and discuss a story map, then use that story map to write a picture book.To prepare for this assignment,Read Chapters 3 and 4 of the course text.Review the Reading Rockets web page Story Maps (Links to an external site.).Find templates by clicking Story Maps (Links to an external site.) or Story Map Template.Initial Post: Due by Day 3. Using the template you chose in the preparation section, create a story map for the book you will write in your final post. In your post, attach your completed story map and share three specific strategies for using that map in a lesson. Be sure to consider the developmental level of your children as you create the story map and the three strategies. Support your discussion with at least one credible source using the Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)table (250 to 300 words).The age group for this book is 4-5 years old. The book can be about anything as long as it is developmental age appropriate chapter_04.pdf chapter_03.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Jonathan Auxier 4 How to Analyze Stories and Poems Learning Objectives By the end of the chapter, readers will be able to • Define and explain the following literary terms: plot, setting, theme, character, and conflict. • Analyze and evaluate children’s literature for the quality of the storytelling. • Analyze and evaluate children’s literature for the quality of language use. coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 105 12/19/12 3:57 PM Introduction CHAPTER 4 G iven the proliferation of contemporary media produced for children, it can be overwhelming to sort through to quality. As we noted in Chapter 1, leveled books for children do not, by their own admission, attend to the artistic quality of a work. Even scholars of children’s literature do not agree about how to judge the quality of a children’s book. For instance, C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and a professor of literature at Oxford University, famously said, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest” (1967, p. 24). Children’s literature critic Peter Hunt (1984), on the other hand, argues that we should practice “childish criticism”—that is, that we should read, as much as possible, from the point of view of a child, which will likely change our criteria about what is good. Hunt argues that a book is considered a good children’s book if children enjoy reading it, which means that a lot of books that may have been considered good in the early 1900s are now historical artifacts rather than good children’s books. On the other hand, books like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911), and L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) are still considered good children’s literature because children still enjoy them. So what makes a children’s book good? The answer to this question depends, at least in part, on how you position yourself as a reader of children’s literature. As a professional literary critic, you might follow Lewis, and evaluate literature according to its formal characteristics such as word choice, imagery, and balanced structure, as well as its thematic complexity, or how well a book illuminates the human condition regardless of the age or experience of the reader. As an educator, your focus is more likely to follow Hunt’s: A good children’s book is one that appeals to children. I would add to this that a good children’s book should also help a child grow, whether that growth be in terms of multiliteracies, emotional, social, or moral development. As we have noted, books will appeal to very young children if they satisfy their preferences for novelty, simplicity, repetition, elaboration, and exaggeration. As children become more familiar with Some children’s books are still enjoyed literature, these preferences will shift according over 100 years after they were first to both personal experience and developmental published. needs. For instance, books may need to go further afield for novelty, as the same old stories about Wikimedia Commons the same old characters will require a new twist to keep them fresh. Simplicity may give way to a more pronounced preference for elaboration, which will unfold in terms of more sophisticated vocabulary, complicated conflicts, and complex characters. For educators, then, the criteria for quality in children’s books must include such aspects as children’s preferences and developmental appropriateness of the content and its presentation, as well as the aesthetic qualities of the book, which include the beauty and coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 106 12/19/12 3:57 PM Section 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Childrens Literature Experience CHAPTER 4 emotional qualities of the artwork, story, and language use. Those aesthetic qualities are the concern of this chapter. Future chapters will look specifically at the kinds of books and other media that are of high quality according to developmental criteria, as well as the best ways for sharing these stories with children at different levels of literacy achievement. In this chapter, though, we are concerned with the aesthetic richness of children’s fictional and poetic texts. Our goal in engaging children with quality literary experiences is to scaffold their acquisition and ease of use of the six multiliteracies—audio, linguistic, visual, gestural, spatial, and multimodal. We want to move children along a spectrum of complexity, encouraging them to expand their understanding of how language can be used creatively and effectively to communicate experience, how images and gestures express emotions and information, how the built and natural environments around them affect the quality of their daily lives, and how all of these aspects work together to enrich our lives and help us understand others. 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Children’s Literature Experience I n 1995, the movie Babe was released. Directed by Chris Noonan, Babe was based on a 1983 book by Dick King-Smith entitled The Sheep-Pig. Not only did it receive seven Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, but it was also a huge box-office success. In other words, Babe not only satisfied professional film crit- To get the most from this section, try to watch ics but was also a hit with ordinary fans, the movie before or after you read it so that the including children. A close analysis of movie will be fresh in your mind. If this isn’t posthis movie will help us understand the sible, links to a few clips are provided. elements that go into making a quality children’s text. Obviously, you will not be doing this close analytic work with every children’s book you evaluate, but this extended example will introduce you to the tools and terms of multimodal literary analysis and provide illustrations of the various elements that combine for quality literature. As we noted in Chapter 1, literature can act as a mirror and a lamp, reflecting the world that we can see as well as illuminating aspects of it that we can’t see. Babe highlights developmental processes that all children must go through, as well as telling a story that reveals certain truths about the world that children and adults understand at conscious and unconscious levels. It also deploys certain multimodal techniques that help children understand and follow the story, which has both simple and complex themes. It is a story that both adults and children can enjoy, because it addresses themes of family, challenge, conflict, obstacles, triumph against the odds, and what gives life meaning and purpose. At its most basic level, it tells a story that most children and adults appreciate—an underdog with a kind heart wins because of his basic goodness and faith. Children appreciate this because their small stature in a world of powerful grownups and older siblings often makes them feel disempowered, and they crave recognition and approval; they want to believe that little folks can accomplish big things. Adults often carry these feelings coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 107 12/19/12 3:57 PM Section 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Childrens Literature Experience CHAPTER 4 beyond childhood, believing themselves to be underappreciated in their spheres of influence and hoping for a chance to prove their worth. During the movie’s opening title sequence, we are introduced to various artistic renderings of pigs. The camera slowly pans across a wall of pictures that feature pigs doing tricks, as well as pigs featured in butchering diagrams. The music that accompanies this sequence begins in a minor key, evoking a scary or Both children and adults can appreciate the story of Babe. uncertain mood, and then shifts to a subtle lullaby, and then the Courtesy Everett Collection triumphant sound of a fully orchestrated fanfare, before easing back into a more mellow, sweetly melodic line as the camera moves into a framed picture of suckling pigs that comes to life and begins the story. This camera work and musical introduction accomplishes several things for the viewer. First, it introduces the main character of the story: This will be a story about a pig. Second, it provides audio and visual foreshadowing of the entire story. Foreshadowing is exactly what it sounds like—a sketchy preview that hints at what is to come. Foreshadowing aids in prediction, which is an essential part of engaging with and enjoying a story. You will hear often that it is important to ask children to predict what is going to happen in a story. This is because if children make predictions, they will be listening or reading more carefully to see if their predictions are correct. Good literature for children assists in their ability to make predictions by foreshadowing what is to come. In this case, the music starts out uncertainly, as Babe, the main character, will face an uncertain future. This is visually reinforced by the variety of pictorial representations on the wall; some indicate a happy, playful life for a pig, while others represent their more usual fate of becoming food. Which will be Babe’s fate? The shift in the music to a lullaby and then the celebratory fanfare indicates that there will be a period of tranquility followed by a triumphant climax in the story, which is the high point and culmination of the action. Then the tender melody ushers us into a happy resolution, or sense of closure, after the triumph, as well as into the movie itself. The framed picture works (as we noted in Chapter 3) as a comforting bordered space that reminds viewers that this is a bounded story, a structured piece of action with a beginning, a middle, and an end. In addition to the bordered picture, there is also a voice-over narration in this film. This works to remind children that the big screen in front of them is like a storybook, with an adult reader telling the story at one level, while the characters and images tell it at another level through action and pictures. Since stories for children most often have happy endings, this voice-over presence adds another layer of comfort through the expectation of repetition. This will ultimately be a happy story because it is, after all, a story. coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 108 12/19/12 3:57 PM Section 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Childrens Literature Experience CHAPTER 4 In the opening scene, the narrator provides context for the story but also introduces the kind of dramatic and verbal irony that we discussed in Chapter 3. While the narrator describes the adult pigs’ fate in terms of the happiness of going to “pig paradise,” the visual images are full of ominous shadows cut with bars of vertical light, and the music and sound effects are loud and sinister. Viewers who can read are also reminded that the adult pigs are being taken away to be butchered because the side of the truck says “Meats,” but viewers who can’t read, such as Babe himself, are spared that knowledge for the time being. Another significant moment of this opening scene is when Babe is separated from his mother and speaks his first words, “Bye, Mom.” As we noted in Chapter 2, this is a familiar scene in children’s literature, familiar enough to be considered a motif. A motif is a recurring theme, subject, or idea with which authors can expect readers to have some familiarity. The scene where a character is separated from his or her mother recurs over and over again in children’s literature and is often accompanied by the character’s first words. It is an undeniably sad but also empowering moment for the child; his mother is gone, but Babe can speak for himself. Introducing the character this way establishes him as the protagonist. A protagonist is the main character of a story, but more importantly, the protagonist is the one whom the audience is supposed to identify with and support. Most children have had a similarly sad moment of taking leave of their mothers, and even though that leave-taking is usually temporary, they can still relate to Babe’s emotional state. They have heard that sadness in their own voices, so they recognize it in his, and this makes them relate to Babe as a sympathetic character. Separated from his mother, Babe’s future is now open to possibility and uncertainty. This uncertainty becomes what can be called the narrative hook. The narrative hook is what engages a reader’s curiosity—it is the first thing that happens that makes a reader wonder what is going to happen in the rest of the story. What will happen to Babe now that his mother is gone? As viewers, we’re not interested in what will happen to his brothers and sisters because they have not been introduced as characters—a character has to have some role in a story, and the other pigs in the piggery are simply “extras.” So far, Babe is the only character in the story. When Babe is taken to the fair as the prize in a guess-the-pig’s-weight game, we begin to meet other characters. His first meeting with Farmer Hoggett is emotionally charged in a generally positive but rather puzzling way. Not only do the pig and the farmer gaze intently at each other but the voice-over narration reinforces their connection, as does the farmer’s name. Even Mrs. Hoggett’s voice, which imitates a traditional pig-call as she tries to find her husband, foreshadows that Babe’s destiny is linked to the Hoggetts, but it is not yet certain what that future will be, since the next contestant to guess Babe’s weight has come to the fair dressed in a butcher’s uniform. Babe’s fate is still in jeopardy as the reader is being “hooked” by the story. Nor does Babe’s fate become any less certain when he arrives at the Hoggett farm. One of the first things Fly, the female sheepdog, says to her pups about Babe is that he will be eaten when he gets big enough. Fly then introduces her pups (and the viewers) to the concept of difference and worth in the farmyard. When her pups ask if they will be eaten when they are big enough, she responds, “Good heavens, no! The bosses only eat coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 109 12/19/12 3:57 PM Section 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Childrens Literature Experience CHAPTER 4 stupid animals like pigs and ducks and sheep.” This off-hand statement introduces the main conflict of the story, a conflict that affects both Ferdinand the duck and Babe, since they are both in danger of being eaten. There are several types of conflict, which we will discuss later, but the conflict that Babe faces is of the category “character versus society.” In the society of the farm, Babe and Ferdinand share the possible fate of being eaten; those are the social rules. As Ferdinand explains it, they don’t have a purpose. Cows give milk, hens lay eggs, horses pull carts, sheep provide wool, and dogs look after sheep, but ducks and pigs don’t have a purpose other than to be eaten. Unless Ferdinand and Babe can find a purpose for themselves, they will not survive. (See http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=U1v_Ed4QFC4&list=PL5E32A267457A6D6F&index=2&feature=plpp_video.) The narrative structure of this film is set up so that Ferdinand’s predicament is explained before Babe’s, and it seems much more light-hearted and even humorous. Ferdinand is a comic character, so while children will like him and wish him well, they will not likely invest in him emotionally as much as they do Babe, who has been introduced to them as a character to identify with and feel empathy for. There are many scenes throughout the film where Ferdinand and Babe skate very close to death, and these are emphasized by Babe’s finding Ferdinand in the slaughterhouse after he has been disgraced, and Mrs. Hoggett’s continual references to pork’s tasty qualities. But only more experienced viewers will make the connection between Ferdinand’s problem and Babe’s, because Babe himself is oblivious to his vulnerability; he giggles, for instance, when Mrs. Hoggett tickles his belly while measuring him for her roasting pan, and he has no idea what the slaughterhouse is used for. Babe is a light-hearted child character who is happily unaware of the dangers he faces, allowing very young child viewers to be happily unaware as well, while inviting slightly older viewers to understand and enjoy the tension created by the foreshadowing of danger offset by the charm of Babe’s innocence and their faith that this story will end well. One of the reasons Babe is unaware of his fate is because of Fly. Fly welcomes Babe as a surrogate pup. This adoption by a second mother is another motif in children’s fiction. Just as the child is separated from one mother, he is found and taught the ropes of his new society by a second mother figure, often of a different species. For instance, Stellaluna is adopted by a bird mother (Cannon, 1993), Babar the elephant is taken in by a human lady (de Brunoff, 1931), Dumbo the elephant is nurtured by Timothy Mouse after his mother is taken away (Dumbo, 1941), and the Banks children must learn to play along with Mary Poppins, who, though human, is also magical (Travers, 1934). This adoption suggests that children have to learn to live by different rules than the ones they are born under. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBLeqsoRew&feature=related.) Explore and Reflect: The Role of the Second Mother Think about stories you know where the main character encounters a second mother figure after the loss of the first. For instance, many fairy tales feature an evil stepmother, but in other stories, children have nannies or teachers who take on caregiving roles. Make a list of these stories, and then make a chart that compares the qualities of the first mother figure with the qualities of the second. What do you notice when you compare the roles and qualities of each? Discuss your findings with friends and classmates to get their opinions. coa80519_04_c04_105-140.indd 110 12/19/12 3:57 PM Section 4.1 Case Study of a Quality Multimodal Childrens Literature Experience CHAPTER 4 In a sense, “character versus society” is the struggle that every child must face, since all children have to become acceptable to a society that is wider than their immediate family. They might have a purpose within their own family, but their purpose and worth in the outside world has yet to be determined. But “society” is an abstract antagonist, or opponent, so many children’s stories provide a representative for children to focus on. In Babe’s case, the antagonist is Rex, the lead dog, who represents the opposition to Babe’s and Ferdinand’s quest to be anything more than what they are. In the conflict of character versus society, children can expect to encounter both resistance and support, and this story clearly shows that. Babe tries to support Ferdinand, but he is too much of a child to do anything substantial to help. Fly, on the other hand, does what one parent often does in children’s stories—she stands between the child and the other parent, supporting the child’s attempts to try something new and extraordinary. The other parent is often, then, the site of resistance, imposing limits that are supposedly for the child’s own good but are more often motivated by fear and a desire to maintain the status quo. In Rex’s situation, he is the enforcer of the status quo because the status quo works for him, and he is supported by the other animals because they are also unthreatened by the order of the farm. Fly knows what will happen to Babe if he doesn’t stand out from the crowd with some special talent, and, because she loves him, she encourages him to challenge the natural order and pursue his talent as a sheep-pig. The other support for Babe comes, of course, from Farmer Hoggett, who acts as the farm’s deity. If Rex is king, then Farme ... Purchase answer to see full attachment