For this assignment I have chosen the topic “picture books” and with it,
a Walt Disney book from my own childhood called Peter Pan, although it can be
argued to be more of a story book than a picture book.
Peter Pan is a story about a boy who never grows up because he lives in
a magic place called Never Land. He becomes friends with a girl and her two
younger brothers and invites them to visit Never Land to explore some wonderful
adventures. A story with at theme that many children can relate to and immerse
themselves into.
The story is told by a third person, the storyteller, and contains lines
for when the characters are speaking. There is quite a lot of text, primary
carrying the story forward rather than the pictures, so the text does not
depend on the pictures for clarification (Gamble, 2013, p.215-216). But the
language is comprehensible I would argue, because it is an everyday language
and even has some transparent words (Munden & Myhre, 2015, p.39-40). Also, the
size of the text is big, with a lot of air between the lines and letters, and
the story is divided into short paragraphs so it is easier to read for those
who struggle.
The pictures in the book is quite symmetrical to the text, because they
illustrate mostly what the text is already saying and leaves little room for the
imagination (Gamble, 2013, p.215). This however could be a good thing,
considering how much text the book contains and that some of the words may be difficult
to understand. The pictures are also very colourful, funny, filled with action,
and shows clear facial expressions fitting for the events in the story. There
are almost no frames surrounding the pictures, except for a few scenes where
the framing is intended to emphasize a specific happening and/or to create a
certain effect (Gamble, 2013, p.210). An example of this is when Peter suddenly
spots a rowing boat with Captain Hook, where the picture is framed inside a
circle - just like looking through binoculars.
Concerning the use of this book in teaching, I found it to be most
relevant for the competence aims from the 4th year in Kunnskapsløftet.
Especially aims like “find similarities
between words and expression in English and his/her own native language”, because
of the transparent words one can find and work with in the story. Another aim that
is relevant to this book because it is a fairy tale and a story, is “understand the main content of nursery
rhymes, word games, songs, fairy tales and stories”. It may be that many
children are already familiar with the story, so that the pupils who has
difficulties understanding may be able to transfer the Norwegian version into
the English one and make some sense of it. Yet another aim is to “create own texts inspired by
English-language literature and child culture” (Utdanningsdirektoratet, u.å),
where the pupils could write their own ending to this book, or write something
about what they would like to do in Never Land, or whether or not they would
like to remain a child for ever – and why/why not?
References:
Gamble, N. (2013). Exploring
Children’s Literature: Reading with Pleasure and Purpose (3rd
ed.ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Munden, J. & Myhre, A. (2015). Twinkle
Twinkle. 3rd edition. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
Utdanningsdirektoratet. (u.å). National
Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary Education and
Training. Retrieved 08.11.2015, from http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-4.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng
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