A  considerable  number  of  children  may  become  blocked, when  reading  aloud  is  worked  at  class.  Readers  theatre  is  a  dramatic  representation  of  a  written  work  in  a   script  form.  This  appears  as  a  significant  activity   to  develop  in  class,  especially  for  those  children  who  may  not  feel  confident  in  reading,  as  our  teacher  Raquel  suggested. 

New  developments  in  the  field  of  theatre  appear  to  be  reported  as  a  stimulating  High  Order  Thinking  skills  advance.  While  memory  capacity,  in  a  standard  play,  is  worked,  the  new  view  of  a  Readers  Theatre  goes  forward  this  Low  Order  Thinking  Skill.  Readers  Theatre  involves  significant  attention  to  language,  social  and  affective  abilities.  Children  want  to  express  their  intention  and  feelings  by  means  of  body,  language  and interaction. As  a  result,  drama  affects  the  cognitive,  affective,  social  and  motor  abilities. 

Theatre  refers  to  attention,  concentration,  and  awareness.  These  abilities  are  needed  and  promoted  while  creating  a  dramatic  scene,  developing  a  plot  and  solving  problems.  This  concepts  also  needs  to  deal  with  social  competences.  This  proficiency  is  promoted  as  the  participants  have  to  interact  with  others  and  have  to  observe  the  rules  while  being  involved  in  drama.   As  the  interaction  is  developed,  physical  movements  affect  self-awareness,  when  motivation  and  creativity  of  each  child  take  place.  skills. 

Focusing  on  individual  aspects,  the  personal  development  of  the  player  improves.  Drama  increases  the  sensitivity  for  the  body,  feelings  and  expression  ability.  As  we  have   mentioned,  self-esteem,  where  confidence  appears,  intensifies  and  helps  to  find  sense  in  life.  It  promotes  the  ability  for  criticism,  the  willingness  to  make  efforts,  the  responsibility  for  the  group  and  their  work.  Every  child  become  conscious  of  their  work  and  motivation  allows  them  to  try  the  best  of  themselves.  

In conclusion,  we  need  to  engage  students  in  Readers  Theatre  to  provide  a  real  purpose  of  reading  and  opportunities  for  cooperative  learning.  This  could  integrate  writing,  listening  and  reading  in  a  real  context  where  shyness  appears  out  of  the  way.  This  meaningful  activity  will  indicate  an  increase  level  of  literacy  in  children  which  needs  to  happen.

Scholastic

To finish, here you can find several Reader's Theatre Scripts and Plays. 

See you soon! :) 

PSYCHOANALYSIS IN FAIRY TALES

Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990) discusses in his book "Psychoanalysis of fairy tales" the influence of fairy tales on children education.

Bruno Bettelheim

Fairy tales while entertaining the child, helps you understand and encourages the development of his personality, gives meanings to different levels and enriches the child's existence.

Fairy tales play the role of allies to maintain the positive aspects of life through laughter, tears and unexpected ends. They stimulate the imagination that nurtures our children by making the story a personal experience and participate in the construction of essential matters of life and death, desire, bans, violent feelings and contradictions.

Applying the psychoanalytic model of human personality, the stories provide important messages of conscious, preconscious and unconscious. When referring to universal human issues, these stories speak to the little self in training and encourage their development while simultaneously releasing the preconscious and unconscious of their drives. As the stories are deciphering, body conscious, give credit to the drives of the id and show the different ways of satisfying them according to the demands of the ego and the superego.

One of the messages transmitted by fairy tales to children is that struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinsic part of human existence. Although, if one does not flee but facing unexpected hardship and often unfair comes to dominate all obstacles, as in the story of "Hansel and Gretel". The child has to stop being subjected to pressures to act on it with itself. The student has to learn to trust that, in future, he will be able to overcome the dangers of the world, even more terrible than his fears can imagine. At the end, he will be enriched with the victory as Hansel and Gretel.

Fairy tales has also other features that can help the child to resolve oedipal conflicts. Mothers cannot accept the wishes of the children to eliminate dad and marry mom. However, learners can participate as winner of the fantasy dragon and owner of the beautiful princess. Similarly, a mother may stimulate the fantasies of his daughter as Prince Charming and to believe in a happy end despite of the current disillusionment. With fairy tales, both boys and girls, who are in the oedipal period, can get the best of two worlds: on the one hand, they will enjoy the satisfactions from oedipal fantasies and, moreover, maintain good relations with both parents in reality. During the oedipal period, the child must bring order to the chaos of his inner life through references in the world. The story of “The queen bee” leads us to recognize that we have to give each element the corresponding demand. Consequently, the proper behavior always leads positive things. 

As we grow, we learn to prioritize reason over emotion as in the tale of "The Fisherman and the Genie". Story based on a captive genius who feels the desire to benefit one who released but as time passes, increasing his anger and his desire to benefit becomes revenge. For this reason, educator do not only have the protector faced but also the educational, where the child is not always agree. We will try to instill in our children that is not good to take impulsive decisions. 

In conclusion, Fairy tales staged, in symbolic form, the way to grow. This will be aided by a construction, unique in its kind, where everything is connected, where the sequences are chained to better manage the disorder and dominte feelings.

Children  explore  the  world  by  oberving  and  manipulating.  As  they  investigate  the  nature  and  parameters  of  language,  poetry  may  give  them  contact  to  specific  elements  not  found  in  their  everyday  experience.  Poetry  allows  readers  to  perceive  objects,  experiences  or  emotions  in  a  new  and  unique  way.  Pupils  are  natural  poets  because  poetic  language  comes  naturally  to  everybody,  and  give  us  the  ability  to  capture  the  essence  of  life  experience. 

Children  poetry  has  given  increasingly  relevance  in  the  last  years.  As  far  back  as  human  documents go,  there  was  little  genuine  children  poetry  written  before  Dr.  Isaac  Watts  published  his  Divine  and  Moral  Songs  for  Children  in  1715.  Poems  have  advanced  from  Watts’  religious  poems  to  children’s  feelings  themes,  worked  for  instance  by  Louis  Stevenson.  New  developments  in  poetry  suggest  that  children  understand  more  themselves  and  they  often  express  themselves  more  thoughtfully  when  writing  poetry.  Moreover,  rhymes  are  important  for  language,  cognitive  and  physical  development.

Dr.  Isaac  Watts  and  Louis  Stevenson

Working  on  language  development,  poetry  helps  students  to  learn  new  words.  It   appears  effortless,  by  cause  of  the  stanzas  structure,  but  it  provides  a  familiar  context  to  unfamiliar  words.  Furthermore  reading  rhymes  aloud  helps  pupils  practice  pitch,  voice  inflection  and  volume,  which  deals  with  the  physical  development.  Breath  coordination,  tongue  and  mouth  movements,  are  made  easier  by  the  musical  component  of  the  rhyme.  Reading  poems  benefits  on  the  understanding  of  when  you  need  to  breath,  and  for  how  long. 

On  one  hand,  linguistic  intelligence  is  still  worked  on  cognitive  development.  Students  understand  that  there  are  words  which  are  similar  in  sound  but  different  meanings.   They  learn  what  a  pattern  is,  and  became  capable  of  recognizing  patterns.  On  the  other  hand,  emotional  intelligence  is  a  dimension  that  we  particularly  need  to  take  care  about.  Poetry  promotes  empathy  as  a  means  to  reinforce  and  deeper  emotional  literacy.  Also,  reading  poems  written  by  others  offers  a  way  for  children  to  make  connections  and  associations  with  the  author’s  work.  It  allows  them  to  connect  with  the  author’s  emotions  and  understand  they  are  not  the  only  ones  who  are  feeling  such  emotions.

INSPIRING  STUDENTS

Myra  Cohn  Livingston  (1976)  suggest  an  approach  that  expedites  children’s  discovery  of their  own  poetic  voice:

1.       Share  with  pupils many  poems  that  will  stimulate  their  imagination.

2.       Give  them  observation  sheets  on  which  they  can  record  their  own  responses, guided  by  the  questions  “what  I  saw”  and  “what  I  thought  about  what  I  saw”.  These  sheets  create  a  bridge  between  the  facts  observed  and  the  feelings  related  to  the  observations.

Mayra  recommends  prompting  pupils  to  consider  sounds,  smells,  and  tastes  in  their  surroundings  by  bringing  in  potato  chips  and  other  noisy  food. 

PROMOTING  EMOTIONAL  LITERACY

1.       Discuss  with  children  a  variety  of  emotions  and  what  they  mean  to  each  person.

2.       Children  read  a  poem  based  on  an  emotion.

3.       Discuss  the  simils  in  the   poem.

4.       Children  write  their  own  poem  using  an  emotion  they  choose.

5.       Display  the  children’s  work.

TWO – VOICE  POEM

1.       Discuss  how  people  can  see  the  same  event  from  different  points  of  view.

2.       Ask  children  to  work  in  pairs  each  taking  one  point  of  view  of  a  situation.

3.       Together  the  children  can  write  a  two-voice  poem.

4.       Ask  each  pair  to  read  the  poem  aloud  in  two  voices.

5.       Discuss  the  different  points  of  view.

OTHER  ACTIVITIES:

This  websites  present  several  original  activities  to  be  done  with  children:

http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/activities/poetry-activities-for-kids/

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/poetry-printables

Moreover, these  are  examples  of  written  poems  activities:

Acrostic  poem

Shape poem

Bahman, S.; Maffini, H. (2008). Developing Children’s Emotional Intelligence. (Pp. 63-66). New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Parayno, S.M. (1997). Children’s literature. (Pp. 21-26). Philippines: Katha Publishing Co., Inc.

Poetry for kids. Recoverd from: http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/activities/poetry-activities-for-kids/

Scholastic. Recovered from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/poetry-printables

Stoodt, B. (1996). Children’s literature. Discovery for a lifetime. (Pp. 159-163). Australia: Macmillan Education Australia Fty Ltd.

Why do children love poems? Recovered from: http://timbuktu.me/blog/why-do-children-love-poems/

Thanks  for  your  attention, and ...

The  magic  Blondie  princess  from  Tangled,  produced  by  Walt  Disney  Animation  Studios  keeps  some  similarities  with  the  original  Rapunzel.  However,  Rapunzel  does  not  belong  to the  Royal  Family  as  it  happens  on  Tangled,  or  the  healing  properties  on  the  princess hair  are  not  presented  on the  original  Grimm’s  fairy  tale.

Analysing  at  class  with  Raquel  on  two  of  the  Cinderella  versions  has  aroused  in  me  curiosity.  Grimm’s  version  is  made  up  with  a  few  of  violence,  which  may  cause  an  attractive  fact.  Fairy  tales  seems  to  be  literature  for  children,  although  adults  used  to  enjoy  this  compositions.  Rapunzel’s  appointment  by  Raquel  has  motivated  me,  and  hopefully  you  will  stimulate  this  enthusiasm.  The  original  story  of  Rapunzel  from  brothers  Grimm  is  available  here .

INTERESTING FACTS

 

Grimm’s  fairy  tales  show  several  characteristics  of  their  periods  and  their  beliefs.  Grimm  brothers  were  protestants,  for  this  reason  we  will find  religious  interpretations.  Their  editions  involve  violent  punishment  which  increases  in  their  following  works.  After  reading  Rapunzel,  you  should  look  at  this  interesting  facts:

·         The  origin  of  this  fairy  tale  seems  to  be  the  legend  of  Saint  Barbara.  This  is  from  the  early  years  of  Christianity  in  3^rd  Century  Asia  Minor.  Barbara  was  the  daughter  of  a  pagan  merchant  who  locked  up  Barbara  in  a  tower.

·         Unequal  deals  with  the  requirement  of  unborn  children  are  often  use  as  a  payment  for  services  in  tales.  For  instance,  in  the  Beauty  and  the  Beast,  Beauty  is  delivered  with  the  payment  of  a  rose;  or  Rumpelstilskin  tale,  the  debt  will  be  paid  as  a  punishment  for  the  birth  mother’s  selfish  behavior.

·         Rapunze l is  another  name  for  rampion  and  is  thus  a  suitable  name  for  the child.  The  name  is  ironical.

·         As  in  most  romantic  fairy  tales,  the  heroine  is  physically  beautiful.  Beauty  appear  as  an  aspect  that  represents  goodness,  worthiness,  privilege,  and  wealth.  An  interesting  blog  focus  on  this  background,  is  one  of  my  classmates, Rebeca Rodriguez .

·         In  folklore,  Rampion  is  said  that  lead  quarrels  amongst  children  who  eat  it  and  is  associated  with  funerals. 

Rampion

·        Stolen  Rampion  from  the  enchantress’  garden  could  be  seen  familiar  to  the  eaten  apple  by  Adan  and  Eva.  This  should  be  seen  as  a  unacceptable  action,  nevertheless  in  the  past,  members  of  a  considerable  number  of  peasant  societies  believed  that  it  was  necessary  to  fulfill  the cravings  of  a  pregnant  woman.  If  they  were  not  fulfilled,  bad  luck  might  occur  or  even  a  miscarriage.


·         Rapunzel  is  locked  up  in  the  tower  as  the  age  of  twelve.  This  stage  of  life  is  related  to  puberty,  where  emotional  and  sexual  urges  become  a  strong  force  in  a  young  woman’s  growth.

·         Rapunzel  and  the enchantress Gothel  are  the  only  characters  who  have  a  name.

·         In  several  Grimm’s  fairy  tales,  the  forest  play  a  role  in  the  story.  It  presents  a  natural  barrier  between  Rapunzel  and  the  civilization.

·         The  sentence  “let  down  your  hair”,   is  defined  in  popular  culture as  dropping  one  reserve  or  inhibitions.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotations  for  Rapunzel.  Recovered  from:  http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rapunzel/notes.html

The  Origin  and  History  of  Rapunzel.  Recovered  from:  http://suite101.com/a/the-origin-and-history-of-rapunzel-a148496

THE  FLIGHT  OF  HUMAN

Reading  is  a  complex  cognitive  process  of  interpreting  symbols,  in  order  to  construct  or  derive  meaning. Reading  is  so  much  a  part  of  our  life.  Gods did not give us wings to fly, they  gave  us  the ability  to  read  and  write  in  our times, this  is  our  flight, the  freedom of humans,  as  Adelaida  Nieto  said.  The  most  important  resource,  that  a  reader  might  gain,  is  an  awareness  of  the  manner  in  which  we  use  language.  Consequently,  the  new  generations  may  be  involved  in  lecture  to  grow  and  be  aware  of  our  world.

Probably, some  of  you  might  determine  that  reading  is  just  taken  for  granted.  Although,  reading  is  above  all  to  do  with  language.  Lecture  may  be  used  to  handle  immediate  necessities  or  to  learn  from.  On  one  hand,  reading  for  survival  is  included  in  order  to  response  to  our  environment.  For  instance,  a  “stop”  sign  for  drivers.  On  the  other  hand,  reading  for  learning  serves  as  a  means  of  finding  out  information.  This  works  for  extending  our  general  knowledge  of  the  world.  Learning  something  new  is  not  supposed  to  be  the  only  kind  of  reading  for  learning.  Reminding  ourselves  about  half-know  facts  in  contemplation  of  supporting,  consolidating,  and  clarifying  ideas,  takes  place  too.

  

Reading  for  its  own  sake  deals  with  pleasure.  At  this  point,  teachers  should  be  open  minded,  by  cause  of  the  significant  proportion  of  our  pupils  that  may  be  lost  in  schools.  Literature,  which  is  pretended  to  offer  enjoyment,  is  required  in  some  cases  for  examinations.  Reading  helps  to  form  part  of  our  environment.  Finding  out  answers  and  making  questions  build  a  bridge  between  you  and  the  world.  A  piece  of  culture  is  allowed  in  our  thoughts,  by  the  guidance  of  reading.  The  bilingual  society  demands  the  use  of  different  languages.  If  readers  do  not  read  for  pleasure  in  their  mother  tongue  they  are  very  unlikely  to  do  so  in  a  second  or  foreign  language,  as   Catherine  Wallace  suggested.

Get  students  being  engaged  in  reading  might  take  into  account  several  aspects.  An  important  by-product  of  reading  for  pleasure  is  fluency.  This  deals  with  confidence  and  motivation.  Unless  a  pupil  gains  fluency,  the  reading  purpose  is  likely  to  be  boring  and  unmotivated.  Motivation  and  interest  is  essential  for  our  students.  Literature  needs  to  be  appeared  as  a exciting  subject  and  not  as  a bored  one  just  to  be done  to  pass the  exams.  Persisting,  valuing  and  planning  develops  the  dedication  of  every  student.  Teachers  should  involve  them  in  reading  by  providing  strategies  and  creating  a  nice  reading  context,  where  children  feel  comfortable  and  inspired.  Here  you  can  find  some  resources  to  achieve  students  read:

Confidence	1. Tongue-twister: http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm 2. Nursery rhymes: (Here you will find  lots  of  nursery rhymes, their history and meaning) http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
Motivation   and  interest	1. Involve  students  in  choosing  reading  materials  for  the  library,  for  example  browsing  the  book  catalogues  and  voting  on  the  titles  you  could  order.  This  will  give  them  responsibility,  make  them  feel  valued,  give  them  a  sense  of  ownership  of  the  books  and  provide  you  with  up-to-date  information  on  students  likes/  dislikes. 2.  Use  reading  groups  and  pupil  librarians  to  input  to  this  process. 3.  Give  students  awards  according  to  the  amount  of  books  reading.  Also,  they  will  need  to  complete  some  questions  and  activities  from  each  book.
Dedication	1.  Older  students  helping  younger  children  read  as  “reading  buddies” 2.  publicizing  student  “recommend  reads” 3.  students  talking  about  their  favorite  books  in  assembly.

Bibliography:

Wallace, C. (1992). Reading.  Language  teaching.  A  scheme  for  teacher  education.  (Pp:  1  -  7).  Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press.

The  largest  teachers’  union.  Recuperado  de  http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/12432

Nieto,  A.  (2002).  ¿Se  le  hubieran  quemado  las  alas  a  Ícaro  si  supiera  leer?  Recuperado  de  http://www.lecturayescritura.com.ar/ponenciadelaida.htm

 BRAIN LOVES MUSIC

Probably, a significant proportion of people may learn the song’s lyrics immediately. In the field of education, learning content will apply more time than chant’s verses. Music can play a more constructive role in classrooms, on the point of stimulating students to acquire knowledge through melody. Jazz Chant is a rhythmic expression of spoken English. It appears to be in the light of learning to speak and understand with a particular attention to the sound system of the language.

How do we use Jazz Chants?

Jazz chants are short, snappy poems and rhymes that any student who can clap or produce sounds is ready for these compositions. Students may perform this rimes in small or large groups, using their voices and bodies in order to build meaning. The use of rhythm instruments, enhance the beat. To be inaugurated in this field, it might be essential to start with “The Magic Formula”. This drives you to focus on a topic, for instance subjects and take three words with two, three and one sounds: language, history and art. Consequently, improve with different rhythms and enjoy with it. 

Why Jazz Chants?

Jazz Chants carry rhythm to the education context, not only content expressed by learners, it also affects in their learning process and motivation. It provides opportunities for our learners in reading practice for fluency and pronunciation. Furthermore, students have the chance to develop a sense of rhythm in the classroom with simply clapping, stamping and body movement. In addition, these poems can be used in every subject and language. The main goal of chants could be defined as the improvement of student’s ability in communicating in every way.

This ideas represent and adjustment of the content and language to the music, where learners may feel inspired and excited. It may be useful to look at this video from Carolyn Graham, Jazz Chant’s creator:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_nPUuPryCs . Moreover, it would be interesting to take a look at the work of some Spanish rap artists, who use El Quijote to make their lyrics and expound literature.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apu209VdUbs and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dM4k1KZMW8 .

ENJOY!