Children's literature promotes

understanding
Bibliotherapy and critical literacy are two ways to use books to help children better
understand themselves, others, and the world around them. This article explains both
strategies and provides resources for selecting appropriate books.
By Melissa Thibault
Learn more
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Critical literacy: Critical literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective
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Related topics
Learn more about book talk, critical literacy, critical thinking, culturally relevant
teaching, diverse learners, emotional health, human relations, inclusion, literature,
mental health, and service learning.
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Teachers face difficult situations daily. Students come to the classroom with very different
experiences and circumstances, yet all are expected to transcend those differences, focus on
the curriculum, and meet the objectives established by the state. They need help if they are to
transcend this wide range of socio-economic, cultural, family, and health circumstances, build
understanding, and succeed in school.
Using childrens literature, teachers can help their class through difficult situations, enable
individual students to transcend their own challenges, and teach students to consider all
viewpoints, respect differences, and become more self-aware. Two approaches will help you
get the most out of childrens literature: bibliotherapy, which uses books to help children deal
with specific situations; and building critical literacy, the ability to consider various points of
view.
Bibliotherapy: dealing with personal situations
When faced with a difficult situation, many parents and teachers look for a book to help
explain, to provide a conversation-starter, or to fill in the gaps in their own understanding so
as to better address the situation at hand. Bibliotherapy is a term for this strategy, but the
name really isnt important. What matters is that when used correctly, books can heal. Books
can promote understanding, provide context, and facilitate conversation.
Using books to spark discussion
Some issues, such as bullying or disabilities, affect the entire class and should be discussed as
a group. It is essential that you use the book not as a substitute but as a catalyst for
discussion. In the ERIC digest article "Using Literature To Help Children Cope with
Problems," Wei Tu provides guidelines for selecting and using literature in the classroom and
summarizes a five-step approach appropriate for whole-class participation at any grade level:
1. Identify. Determine and discuss the problem. It should be meaningful, interesting, and
appropriate for children.
2. Brainstorm. Encourage children to think about possible solutions. Listen to and
respect all of their ideas. Keep a record of the solutions suggested in case the children
want to try more than one.
3. Select. Help children examine the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions
and then choose one that seems workable.
4. Explore and implement. Let children gather the necessary materials and resources
and then, if it is feasible, implement the solution they select.
5. Evaluate. With the children, observe and discuss whether the solution to the problem
was successful. If appropriate, help the children think of changes in the solution
implemented, or encourage them to explore new solutions.
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This problem-solving technique provides the catalyst for discussion which is essential to
supporting students through traumatic events in their home or school lives. Through guided
problem-solving, students can build the capacity to solve problems on their own when they
arise.
Inspiring independent reading: book talks
One approach to using childrens literature to address student issues is to provide book talks
to inspire independent reading. If the issues are specific to only a few children then it may be
beneficial to encourage those students to select relevant titles in the media center. Directing
students to the right books is not difficult: if you pique their interest they will gravitate to
titles that are relevant to them.
A book talk provides a short summary of a books plot with enough of a lead-in that students
get hooked without any plot spoilers. Holding the book up to the class, simply introduce the
title and provide a glimpse into the character or plot elements that are key to this
recommendation. No more than two or three minutes should be devoted to any one title, so a
twenty-minute book talk on a given topic may include as many as fifteen titles. Students may
need some time after the talk to examine the books, determine length and reading level, and
decide for themselves if it looks as interesting as it sounds they often judge the book by its
cover!
The media center is the best place to start. An online catalog can help you collect books
relevant to specific topics or, with some advanced notice, your media specialist may select
and make available a collection of books at an appropriate level about a specific topic. You
can ask your media specialist if he or she would schedule a book talk for your class on
specific topics, or try book talking yourself. On Nancy Keanes Book Talks Quick and Simple,
you can find titles by subject, including critical topics such as suicide, alcoholism, child
abuse, and foster homes. There are also sources of book reviews and tips for book talking to
help you find and present relevant, recommended titles to your class.
After students are introduced to the idea of a book talk as selection tool, you may want to
encourage students to write their own review and recommendations. As with any book
review, the presentation could be oral or written. In the context of bibliotherapy, you could
encourage students to emphasize character or plot elements they found the most authentic,
inspiring, or helpful. This approach allows for informal sharing in the classroom that may
provide yet another opportunity for discussion, building support and understanding among
classmates. If you assign a written review, you might encourage students to publish their
reviews so others can benefit. Online book review sites such as BookHooks are great for this
purpose.
Critical literacy: addressing broad issues
I first heard the term critical literacy in a workshop at the International Reading Association
conference. During this session we worked in groups to define critical literacy as building
thinking skills that enable students to consider all viewpoints, respect differences, and become
more self-aware. North Carolina is changing, and those changes are reflected in classrooms
across the state, possibly even yours. The largest groups of new immigrants are Hispanics
from Mexico and Hmong from Southeast Asia, not to mention the steady influx of people
who have relocated here from New York, New Jersey, and the rest of the United States. The
cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity in North Carolinas schools grows every year, and
with this diversity comes opportunity.
Perhaps youre already using some activities to build critical literacy in your classroom. If you
read novels written from the point of view of a child from another culture or set in another
country, youre providing an opportunity for your students to stand in the shoes of another:
that is critical literacy. If your students hear stories about people who practice religions
different than their own or if they consider the differences between their lives and the lives of
people like them who lived through war, the Great Depression, or the Civil Rights movement,
that too is critical literacy. If you ask you students to write from the point of view of someone
much older than they are, thats critical literacy. These activities all serve the same purpose:
they help the student to see the world through someone elses eyes, to learn to understand
other peoples circumstances and perspectives and to empathize with them.
Levels of engagement with other cultures
What can we do to build critical literacy skills in our classroom? Social justice curricula
provide a good starting point for building understanding. These lessons and approaches can be
categorized as follows:
Contributions approach: discrete cultural elements added to instruction
Additive approach: perspectives of other cultures added, but structure of curriculum
does not change
Transformational approach: thoroughgoing change enables students to view the
world from perspective of diverse groups
Social action approach: students empowered to decide and act
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Most schools make an effort to address diversity on a contributions level. Including a
Chanukah song in the winter holiday program and assigning the Famous African American
report in February add discrete cultural elements to the curriculum. These elements are
separate and may feel like an add-on or an afterthought, something more obligatory than
celebratory.
The next level is the additive level. Selecting books from different cultures is one way to add
the perspectives of others: the format does not change (you still assign a novel or provide a
variety of stories to read) but multiple experiences add depth to the curriculum. Textbooks use
this approach when they add a color call-out box with the title "The Black Experience" or "A
Womans Perspective." These extras give some opportunity to learn how different people
experienced the same event, but they are still separate from the mainstream story; students are
not asked to consider these perspectives as "normal," let alone to attempt to see the event
through them.
The contribution and additive levels are simply not enough to building the thinking skills that
enable students to consider all viewpoints, respect differences, and become more self-aware.
There are, however, ways to approach diversity that build critical literacy skills.
Transformative reading: Readers Theater
The transformational approach adds an element to the reading process that changes the
entire process. Sometimes this kind of change is called ecological change because, like a
change to an ecosystem, it affects everything else around it. (In this terminology, ecological
change is opposed to additive change. As an example, getting a cat is an additive change to
your life; having a child is an ecological change!)
Readers Theater is reading that transforms. Readers theater is simply a dramatic adaptation
of any story or scene from a novel. Readers theater scripts may be purchased, created by the
teacher, or developed by students in the classroom from books they have read. Dont let the
word "theater" turn you off there are no sets, costumes, or makeup in Readers Theater;
performances are low-key. Students simply read aloud the words of their assigned character,
verbally acting out the story or scene for the entire class.
So why try Readers Theater? Role-play and theatrical text build oral communications skills
and reading fluency as students must act in character, conveying their lines expressively at the
proper time. The shared reading experience also promotes social and emotional bonds
between classmates, building interpersonal and collaborative skills in the classroom. Most
importantly, Readers Theater provides a powerful experience for all who participate because
it is an active learning experience students do not passively read about what happened but
become active participants in the events. If you have never tried this, you will be amazed at
the difference between reading aloud and Readers Theater. You may have read about the
Holocaust, you may even think you are an expert but even so, Readers Theater can reach a
place inside of you that has yet to be touched. It is impossible to read from the perspective of
a child writing from the Therein concentration camp in I Never Saw Another Butterfly and not
be profoundly affected by the experience!
Check out these resources to get scripts or to learn more about Readers Theater.
Aaron Shepards Readers Theater Page
Anchorage Press Plays
Smith and Kraus Publishers
"Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges," a lesson plan from ReadWriteThink, is another
example how reading can encourage critical discussion and build thinking skills. Tackle
point-of-view in the shared reading of books like Jacqueline Woodsons The Other Side,
which is told from the viewpoint of Clover, an African American girl who lives in a town
with a fence that separates the black side of town from the white side. Compare the challenges
faced by the poor in your own community to those portrayed by Frances and Ginger Park in
The Royal Bee, the story of Song-ho, a poor peasant boy who is determined to learn how to
read and write. By addressing barriers that separate human beings from one another and
examining the role of prejudice and stereotypes in sustaining injustice, students can discuss
difficult issues such as race, class, and gender and work towards social justice and equality.
Service learning: a social action approach
The highest level of social justice activities are those that lead to action. Community service,
sometimes referred to as service learning, is integral to many school and district-wide
programs. Some individual classrooms and student groups take on community improvement
efforts by cleaning up school grounds, monitoring nearby waterways for pollutants, and
volunteering at community facilities. According to the research,
service-learning has proved to be a powerful antidote to student disengagement, in addition to
offering the following benefits:
Reinforces and extends the standards-based reform movement by providing
real-life context for learning and giving students a sense of the practical
importance of what they are learning in school.
Builds on students willingness to become involved in service while adding an
academic component to the service.
Contributes to young peoples personal and career development.
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When you take the social action approach, students make decisions on important social issues
and take actions to help solve them. Read the Learning in Deed report for more information
about service learning, including research demonstrating the impact these activities have on
student achievement.
The internet adds a new dimension to the discussion, creating a framework for better
communication and more collaboration opportunities on a global scale. For example, you may
join the online community at TakingITGlobal and take part in new thinking, a diversity of
voices, and new opportunities in the areas of peace and justice, environment and equality. If
students are frightened by the degradation of the environment they can make a difference on a
more-than-local level with Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!). If you are frustrated by
the content on the evening news, you may make sure your views are heard when you join
OneWorldTV and share news as you see it, record images as you see them, and discuss issues
with others.
Selecting books to help students
It is important to find books on specific topics but it is even more important that these books
be developmentally appropriate, well-written and are appealing to the students. These
resources include carefully-selected and reviewed titles and will help you to find the right
book for any situation. Start with the winners. Use the Database of Award-Winning
Childrens Literature, developed by reference librarian Lisa Bartle. Not only can you search
across award categories, but you can generate a reading list. You can restrict the list using
criteria about the intended audience or the story itself. For example, you can restrict the search
to contemporary stories, multicultural (two or more cultures represented), with an African
American protagonist and get forty-one books, including biographies, poetry, and fiction.
Restrict to reader age 8-10, and the list is down to seven award-winning books, including All
the Colors of Race, which presents poems from the perspective of a child of an interracial
marriage, and Smoky Night, in which a child finds out, during the Los Angeles riots, how
alike people are despite racial differences. Carol Hursts Childrens Literature Site subject list
includes topics such as families, racism, diversity, and tolerance. The term "list" is deceiving;
the books are actually presented in articles detailing the plot, setting or character features that
distinguish the books selected for each subject. Like the subject lists, the curriculum areas are
another good access point for teachers seeking books to build understanding. Under the
curriculum area language arts there are listings for books with characters that are bullies;
under United States history there are book recommendations for topics such as slavery, Native
Americans and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. Most of the articles integrate ideas for
presenting or integrating the book into teaching. Dont miss the articles on "Looking
Critically at Picture Books" or "Reading Aloud Recommended Titles, Grades K-9."
Another good source is "Notable Social Studies Books for Young People" from the National
Council for the Social Studies. These annual lists are not searchable, but titles are arranged by
themes, including culture, contemporary concerns, social interactions, and relationships. The
annotations provide information about both content and intended audience. The 2001 list
included a variety of titles that might address classroom concerns. Explore the balance
between personal freedom and government intervention in Lynn Josephs Color of My Words,
a story addressing a young girls struggle to write and be heard in a society without protection
for the freedom of expression. Examine a single event from sixteen different perspectives in
Voices of the Alamo by Sherry Garland, and then discuss how current events or issues may
appear different to different people. The 2003 list offers selections to deal with the fears
students express about violence on the global scale, such as Understanding September 11th.
On a more local scale, A Perfect Snow provides context for a hate crime and reveals the
dangers of fearing people who are not like us.