Children's Literature Lecture Notes PDF

Children’s litrature The lecturer Dr/ Rana Alaa Eldin Abdelmonem  Chapter 2: Children's stories: The artistic structure of the story: The story is an integrated artistic structure with basic elements that make it up. The idea is the nucleu...

Children’s litrature The lecturer Dr/ Rana Alaa Eldin Abdelmonem  Chapter 2: Children's stories: The artistic structure of the story: The story is an integrated artistic structure with basic elements that make it up. The idea is the nucleus around which any story revolves, so it must be suitable for the child and work to create a psychological atmosphere full of happiness and joy through the language and style in which the idea is formulated, the incidents, events, dialogue and characters, whether they are main or secondary, in addition to the time and place frame in which the story takes place, which work together to highlight the essence of the story, which is the idea. Thus, the elements of the artistic structure of the story are multiple, which are often taken as criteria for judging the story and estimating its value. The picture story presented to children is characterized by: Its contribution to shaping children's different experiences. It is positive values and desirable habits. It develops the taste of visual art and develops the aesthetic sense. Educates and entertains the child and forms his identity and belonging. Provides functional information to children from their environments and surroundings. Provides sensory training for children to develop their ability to distinguish and balance between similar and different forms Sizes, weights, colors and dimensions. Practicing activity, research, thinking, understanding relationships, imagining, remembering and linking between things. Contributing to linguistic preparation and linguistic growth. Among these basic elements of the artistic structure of the story are: -1 Idea -2 Event- 3 Plot -4 Characters -5Conflict -6 Temporal and spatial environment -7 Style Educational objectives of the story: Entertainment, enjoyment and psychological comfort resulting from the subject of the story. Training children with disabilities on communication skills and developing listening and speaking skills in children. Mental development in learning the logical sequence of events, knowing the facts of things and providing children with new social concepts and values. Stimulating imagination and visualization in children, as stories help in acting and releasing feelings and emotions naturally. Relaxation and physical comfort in the way of sitting. Developing the child with a disability linguistically by training him to express himself and develop his linguistic dictionary. Training the child on democratic dialogue and respecting opinion and other opinions. Developing the child's creative abilities by participating in telling the story. The child's understanding of different literatures, which gives children a lot of self- values that they learn about through listening to stories and tales narrated. Creating familiarity between the child and literature in general. Addressing his social and psychological problems through the problems raised by the story. Types of children's stories: Folk tales: Folk tales are the heritage or popular legacy that began with humanity since ancient times. There is no human society on earth that does not have its literary heritage of folk tales in its various forms. Folk tales are those woven by popular imagination around a historical event or a hero who participates in making history for a people. The people enjoy telling them, listening to them, and passing them on to their children and grandchildren. They are stories with unknown authors and are characterized by several qualities, including: The chivalry of the hero, his chivalry, and his high moral qualities. Suspense, ease of ideas, and simplicity of language. They often contain melodious poetry that helps influence the listener about their stories. They usually begin with a familiar phrase, Once upon a time. The folk tale is also an attempt by man to escape with his imagination from the pressures imposed on him by society or others, as well as his geographical world and his biological world, by moving to distant places, and gaining his special supernatural powers.  Animal stories: These are stories in which different animals play roles. They are the most preferred types for children, especially in early childhood from 3-5 years because this type of story is simple and easy to remember. It usually includes a few characters, not exceeding three in one incident, and because it speaks, thinks, works, and depicts different human situations. Science fiction stories: These are stories that deal with scientific developments and changes that occur in society based on realistic assumptions and perceptions about the future of humans on the surface of the Earth and are based on prediction to a large extent and are sometimes called prediction stories or stories of the future. The goal of this type of story is not only to convey information to children but also to satisfy their imagination and push their minds to think about broader horizons.  Stories of heroism and adventure: Detective stories, epics, supernatural stories and adventures are included in stories of heroism and adventure. The reason for children's interest in this type of story is attributed to the fact that some of them compensate for part of the deprivation or deficiency that they feel in their real life and because the heroes of this story perform a type of work that is characterized by strong and fast movement that takes children out of the stagnation of life, as they merge with the heroes of the story and assume some of its roles. Therefore, the characters of the story must be drawn in a way that endears good qualities and good customs and traditions to children. Historical stories: Sometimes called historical fiction stories, it is a record of human life and emotions in a specific historical context with the aim of understanding the human character, as the story revolves around a specific historical event while adhering to the elements of narrative work. Accordingly, it does not aim to convey facts to children, but rather aims to help them imagine the past and feel the joys and sorrows of previous generations, while giving the child the opportunity to live the atmosphere of the past as an extension of that society.  Religious stories: They deal with religious topics including worship, beliefs, the lives of prophets and messengers, stories of the Holy Qur’an, and what God Almighty has prepared for His servants in terms of reward or punishment, the conquests of the Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace), the mothers of the believers, and immortal women, all of which call for virtues and repel vices, and combine pleasure, suspense, moral meaning, and noble positions, and in them there are positions for admonition and consideration. Realistic stories: At the beginning of the second stage of life, children tend to be free from imagination and their connection with society increases and their desire to explore the real life around them grows stronger. This type of stories deals with various topics that depict children's reality such as nature, animals, trips, airplanes, facts of various sciences, and different systems of life with their literature, traditions, and institutions. This does not mean that they are devoid of imagination to become dry and boring, but rather they are a mixture of reality and imagination in a smart and tactful way. Humorous stories: Children are happy to hear humorous stories because of the joy, happiness, and pleasure they spread, in addition to the fact that they achieve goals in making children love reading, developing their literary tendencies, achieving psychological comfort for them, stimulating their minds, and providing a space for criticizing bad habits and harmful traditions and trying to get rid of them. Characteristics related to the story for kindergarten children: Imitation and acting: The child loves to act and play the roles and characters of the story, he imitates his father and grandfather, and the little girl imitates her mother, and this tendency to act is a characteristic that the teacher must exploit in classroom activities. Generalization: The child with mental disabilities generalizes his experiences, whether positive or negative, an example of a positive experience (a book from which a story was narrated or a song was sung, as all books become a source of pleasure and a beloved experience for him). Imagination: It stimulates activity in most children, so this characteristic must be utilized to satisfy and enrich their imagination through the surrounding environment enhanced by activities that activate, stimulate and direct their imagination. Emotions and internal feelings: Literature in all its forms (acting, story and drawing) plays a role in venting the child's emotions, as it projects his feelings and personal sensations during various activities.