Genre Presentation

On Thursday's genre presentation, we had the privilege to watch a story recorded by the group. Their presentation was over multicultural literature. This topic was very interesting and we learned that there are all sorts of good literature around the world. Some stories even have a good moral to them. By reading multicultural literature, we get familiarized with the type of cultural the story is based on and with the customs. I think the group did an excellent job on re-telling their story with the paper figures they created and even with background music.

Chapter 8 Fiction

What can I say about fiction stories? It is our window to escape out of reality and go into a world where anything can happen. When I hear the word "fiction", I think about magic, monsters, and heroes. There are different type of genres of fiction, but out of all of them, i have to say that fantasy is what draws me in. One of the popular fictional stories that is selling like crazy right now is the Twilight series. All the young people are into this love story between a mortal human and a vampire. My favorite fiction stories are scary stories. Fiction explores possibilities limited only by the imagination. I like how our text book quotes that stretching the imagination through literature has wonderful psychological rewards, extending the boundaries of what we perceive as reality (Living Literature 179). Every child loves to daydream and imagine a different world of human beings and of creatures that talk. Reading fiction stories to our classrooms will keep our students interested in reading because we are showing them that there can exist a whole new world where anything is possible and can happen.

Nonfiction

Believe it or not, when we hear the word nonfiction, we tend to push it away. It doesn't fascinate much people as the fiction stories do. But I stop and realize that in the literacy world there needs to be a balance; a balance between the real world and the fantasy world. Nonfiction can be about biographies and facts of all sorts of things. I think that it is important to feed true facts to our children so that they may gain knowledge. Visual information is the main ingredient in nonfiction books. Without illustrations, the books would be pointless to our young readers. Illustrations and other visual material are an increasingly vital feature of nonfiction books. Today's books are filled with extraordinary photographs and illustrations. It clarifies and expands the understanding of the readers. It is also always interesting in reading about other people's lives and the experiences they went through.

Shared Reading

The article was very insightful. I think it is very important to conduct shared readings in our classrooms. I learned that it it gives young children an enjoyable experience so that they grow to love stories and become independent readers and writers. Reading aloud is bringing literature alive to the children. I love reading to children and i read the stories dramatically to the whole group. The children become so fascinated and more engaged to the story as i get into it. Any child can pick up a book and read but they can never compare the experience with the shared reading with the whole class. It becomes memorable for them because of all the connection they had with the book and the rest of the class. As they reread the stories, they pick up new information that they probably have missed in the first time. It turns out that reading aloud needs to happen for every student at all grade levels. It is very effective in developing and supporting many aspects of literacy like: interest in reading, language development, building vocabulary, developing listening comprehension, understanding different kinds of sentence structures, and so much more.