Worksheet 2

The indomitable frontier: defining Literature and the making of a reader

A- Learning to teach: Let’s have a look at this scene of The mirror has two faces.

https://youtu.be/I9URMDi5AqI

Now fill in this box with keywords or phrases that caught your attention and that may help
you engage your students’ attention.

Motivation

B- So I think I have to tell you a story.

Luciana is my niece. When she was a little girl I used to read stories and poems to her.
Generally, lying on my mum’s bed. We really had fun. I started to buy books and read them
myself before giving them to Luciana. Sometimes she asked me “What are you reading?”
and I told her something about the story just to get her interested in it, but I did not insist. As
you know “curiosity killed the cat” and made Luciana read books. I knew she was going to
ask me for the book whose story I had left unfinished.
That’s what happened with a book called “Encuentro con Flo” by Laura Escudero. It’s about
a girl and her relationship with her grandma who suffers from Alzheimer and who is going to
live in her house with her family and share the room with her. The girl strongly opposes to
that idea, but after some time she finds some letters and when she reads those letters to her
grandma, her grandma starts connecting with her. Why? What is the mystery those letters
describe?
Of course I gave the book to my niece and forgot about it. Some weeks later she pushed this
letter under my door:

2 de febrero de 2009
Querida Titita:
Me termino de leer “Encuentro con Flo” y está muy lindo eso de las cartas y
de la “Señorita Flo” y del misterio de Anita. Y además que para mí Julieta le gustaba José.
Por la descripción me parecía feo. En el cuento no dijo que le gustaba José, sino que dijo
que le gustaba Tomás. Por la descripción es lindo.
Te escribo en vez de decírtelo oralmente porque así hago algo parecido al
cuento. Bueno, el cuento me encantó. Ahora me tengo que leer “Heredé un fantasma”.
Hasta la próxima carta.
Te quiere
La señorita Luchi ¡¡Ja Ja!!

P.D.:Así va a ser en todos los cuentos

(my punctuation)

And she became a reader. Now she is at university. She does not read many books at
present.She reads mainly for her university subjects. I don’t ask her about what she does
with her reading. I don’t insist. Freedom and no testing were the basis of her becoming a
reader. I know Literature is waiting for her somewhere and at some time in life. I also know
that she will choose a good book. She does not need me as a mediator any more, but if she
needs me I’m sure she will find me in that act of opening a book when lying in bed and
entering another world.

You may wonder why I’ve told you this story. Wait and see.
C-Definitions of children's literature:

As you could see in worksheet 1 there is not ONE definition of children's literature. It is an
extremely variable and elastic term. In fact, limiting what children's literature is goes against
its nature. It is a literature without boundaries:
● It may be read by children and adults alike.
● It may have different levels of interpretation depending on the reader (child, teenager
or adult; female or male; reader’s culture) or the moment of reading by the same
reader.
● It may have simple or complex language. It may play with language and include
coined words or nonsense or sounds.
● It may be realistic, fantastic or both of them.
● It may be moralistic, didactic or politically incorrect.
● It is innocent, controversial or both of them.

To me…
Literature is a game with certain rules, but children's literature is fascinating because the
game consists in a code- breaking act of some nature whose aim is to make us-- the
readers-- discover the rules we abide by in real life. Paradoxically, by seeing the world
through the eyes of fantasy we understand reality.

Graciela Montes(an Argentinian writer of children’s literature and critic) wrote an article
called “La frontera indómita”. There you can see these ideas of Literature as a game,
freedom, creativity, connection between different worlds, transformation and culture.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JDY2oKU9TRnmpjWOqSTII_BEWYrg1dY-CFQaVj-
wS48/edit?usp=sharing

This video about Graciela Montes’s concept of Literature will help you understand her
theoretical standpoint.

http://bibliotecaszonag.blogspot.com/2014/08/la-frontera-indomita.html

In the following box write down phrases or keywords that caught your attention and that you
would like to remember. Also doubts you may have so that then you can ask me if it is
necessary.
 Notes

Daniel Pennac is a French writer who wrote a book called “Reads like a novel” in 1992. That
book was a success. It is about how someone becomes a reader and also about the role of
the ones who surround that reader and give him/her something to read. Those people are
called mediators and that’s what we teachers are.
This is one of the rights of the reader. Right Number 10: The right to be quiet
Louise Rosenblatt is an American university teacher. She wrote The transactional theory of
reading and writing. Read these texts:
D- Let’s make connections.

Can you see anything of what Pennac and Rosenblatt say reflected in the story I told you?
Account for your answer. Was Luciana’s indomitable frontier enlarged? If so why?

Making connections

E- Starting your training as a mediator: Developing a critical eye for the selection of
books.
Now have a look at these texts:
a- “The book with no pictures” by B.J. Novak
https://youtu.be/EZwY5BeYcyo

b-"Princess Smartypants" by Babette Cole

https://youtu.be/Hl6jIUz0e4o

c-"Cinderella" by Walt Disney

https://youtu.be/vl33DNKSUuI

d-”The sad book” by Michael Rosen

https://youtu.be/F4WOo0Lsr14
(You may wish to know why Professor Rosen wrote this book. If so, you can watch this
video:
https://youtu.be/T_TOAQa5Ieo )
Do these books enlarge or constrain children’s indomitable frontier? Give reasons for your
answers. Copy your ideas in this chart:

Book Potentiality

“The book with no pictures”

"Princess Smartypants"

“Cinderella”

“The Sad Book”

After thinking about it with a critical eye, which book would you choose?
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
 Instructions
We will work on this worksheet in the next lesson we will have. You don’t have to hand it in.
It is your study guide.

F- This is what happens in a class when as a teacher you master the art of storytelling.
From The Mirror Has Two Faces : Rose Morgan’s teaching scene:

https://youtu.be/EcuhMYVjY_Q

Storytelling will be something we will continue working on. I hope you will make the most of it
in your life as a teacher.

Well done!!! Lots of thinking today. Time to relax now.

Self assessment:

1. Have you enlarged your knowledge of the nature of YES NO

Children’s Literature and Literature in general?

2. Have you discovered any useful tools for your teaching YES NO
practice?

3. Have you learnt new theoretical information that may YES NO

support your teaching practice?

4.Have you learnt something about children that may be YES NO

useful for the teaching of Literature ?

5. Have you learnt strategies that you can use as a YES NO

mediator to promote reading?