Chapter 6: Traditional Literature

Traditional Literature has always captured my eyes especially Fairy Tales which seem to be a staple within the society we live today. Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Mulan are all fairy tales that have been retold by Disney but also there are variants of the story all around the globe. When I lived overseas for a few years I was privy to a variant of the transformation stories told all over the world. This one was about a young girl named Sirena and because she loved to swim so much and disobey her mother’s wishes she was turned into a mermaid. I loved this story when I lived on Guam because I love the ocean just as much as she did. This story also taught an important lesson to kids that they need to listen to their parents. It might not necessarily apply today because belief in magical powers and curses is small but it still teaches a good lesson like most Traditional Literature novels do.

You can find variants of stories in every culture and while the plot remains almost the same the character change sometimes and so does the underlying message. The messages change from culture to culture depending on their values and mores at the time period in which the story was first told. Taking a look into these variants gives your students an understanding of other cultures and how mores and society has evolved over the centuries and decades as the case might be. This also gives you a common theme amongst separate cultures and gives great grounds for a cultural comparison within the context of literature and you can combined similar stories when you are studying different cultures in a history lesson to not only show the differences within a historical context but you can show similarities and differences within the context of literature.

The style of these stories is amazing. They are written to be spoken and work more effectively if you do it this way. Within these stories you catch a glimpse of common expressions used during the time period. Within these common expressions you have to be careful that they can be understood by the children that you are reading to. With these expressions you can also analyze them and have the kids come up with expressions that are more modern and more common today to supplement the older versions. You can do this with younger students as well as with older students but with varying degrees of complexity within the original story. These stories also have a particular cadence or rhythm to them that catches kid’s attention and they can easily fall into the rhythm with you as well. This cadence also keeps their attention a lot longer than just reading a book.

Some great exercises the make sure that the children understand the books that they just listened to is to create a story map and then turn it into a board game for the classroom with cards and pieces. The kids can then play each other’s games and it becomes a fun lesson. Another great thing to do is have the kids go home and interview their parents or grandparents or family members and have them tell family legends. With these legends you can bind them together and make a book for the classroom of all the family legends collected. Once that is done you can have the parents come and tell the stories to your class and make a theme day of it.

I really loved this chapter because I have always been really drawn to myths, legends and fairy tales. Reading this chapter bolstered my love for them even more and gave me more to think about when teaching stories like these.