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The Child as Critic: Developing Literacy Through Literature: K–8
Now in its fourth edition, this classic textbook offers theory and practice for creating and implementing holistic, literature-based approaches to the teaching of reading. The author uses a proven research base and examples from actual classroom practices to present teachers with numerous practical suggestions for incorporating these approaches into existing literacy programs, including information on small-group discussion techniques, questioning, ways of eliciting response, record-keeping, evaluation, book selection, and appropriate methods of presentation. This bestselling text has helped countless numbers of teachers, language arts supervisors, and curriculum specialists to create effective reading programs that are fun and inspiring for both the student and the educator. The completely updated Fourth Edition Praise for the Third Edition! “May every teacher of literature, from pre-school through graduate school, read this book and live and teach accordingly.” ― The CLA Bulletin (now the Journal of Children’s Literature) “Sloan reminds us that ‘Literacy begins in hearts, not heads.’… She describes concrete examples (of instructional strategies) for primary, upper elementary, and middle school grades.” ― Language Arts
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
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October 10, 2023
Unless printed words make a strong appeal to their emotions
and imaginations, children will remain indifferent to reading and
writing them. For children, printed words must provide wonder,
delight, interest, and pleasure, or they won’t bother to read, even
though they may have learned the rudiments of reading.
Among the masses of printed material available to readers,
the works for which we reserve the term literature possess the
greatest potential to influence the feelings and the imagination.
Born of imagination, the unique literary work influences through
a direct, intense appeal to that faculty. At its best, literature is art
created in words, where, driven by imagination, language is chosen
with artistry and skill to construct stories, poems, and informational material with potential to engross, enchant, and enlighten.
Children will become readers only if their emotions are stirred
and their imaginations stretched by what they find on printed
pages. One way—a sure way—to make this happen is through
genuine literature, works that claim consideration because, having something to say, they use language to greatest effect in saying it.
Nothing is more important or practical in the long run than
genuine literature. Nothing should come before it. All efforts to
teach reading must begin with it. It is only the art of literature that
can successfully counter the drawing power of television. Literature, because it is worth reading, nourishes the desire to read.
---
If literature is essential to the development of readers and
writers who are genuinely literate, it is also essential to the education of the child’s imagination. There is no single definition of
imagination. We have no standardized tests to measure it, but this does not mean that its education can be neglected. We know that this creative and constructive power is not exclusive to the artist or inventor. Nor is imagination secondary to intellect or emotions; it is the very core of them. It is through the imagination that we participate in every aspect of our daily lives: in conversation, in relating to others with sympathy and consideration, in making choices and decisions, in analyzing news reports and the speeches of politicians, in evaluating advertisements and entertainment.
Why can literature and the study of it educate the imagination? One reason is that literature itself is bom of imagination. The imaginative writer constructs a world that is but never was;
within each world there is room for endless imaginative possibilities. A story is not real life; anything can happen; anything goes. Literature illustrates what it is essential for humans to realize: there are no limits for the imagination. Literature makes carpets
fly and rabbits talk; it overcomes the tyranny of time and conquers
death itself. A Yellow Brick Road leading to an Emerald City will
never be found on a road map, but it exists, along with other literary locations and their inhabitants, as an imaginative reality.
Literature, furthermore, has the capacity to develop our
imaginative perspective on reality. What we call reality is a confusing tangle of experience: Radios blare at us, advertisers bombard us, we are harassed and hurried, torn in a dozen directions. We have all had the desire, when the confusion of life is at its height, to "get away from it all,” "to sort things out,” “to see where we are,” "to get ourselves together.” We feel a need for perspective on our fragmented experience. One way to get it is through literature, the art that describes what happens to human beings as they try to come to terms with living. Literature gives shape to
shifting human experience.
Another property of literature worthy of the name is its ability to call forth, as we experience a work, our own imaginative
experience, something we “have always known” but couldn’t express until a poem, play, or story put it into words and images
for us. Thus literature puts us in touch with our own imaginative powers. Nothing is more important for creating a truly human world than realizing the power of the imagination. William Blake said that nothing is real beyond the imaginative patterns we make of reality. Imagination, in Blake’s sense, creates reality. In the real world there can be no change or reform of any kind unless we first use our imaginations to describe what sort of life we want to lead, what kind of world we want to live in. The experiencing of a variety of literary works and the appropriate study of them can lead gradually to the transferring of the imaginative habit of mind that literature embodies.
----
Mathematics, social studies, and science all have their places in the curriculum. They are established as subjects of study: their content and methods of instruction receive serious consideration. It is still not so with literature. Yet literature, of all people's creations, is one of the greatest sources of nourishment for developing minds and imaginations.
It has the capacity to delight; it is meant to be enjoyed, and children in a time of illiteracy and aliteracy need to be convinced of its value through encounters with the best it has to offer. Literature is a humanistic study, and studies in the humanities are essential to our survival in a technological world where things can easily become more important than people. Literature has a civilizing influence. Because it deals with all human experience—our dreams and our nightmares—literature can show us both sides of the coin: what it means to be human and what it means to be inhumane.
---
Children in large numbers have not thrived on instructional diets that serve up imaginative literature only as dessert. These children turn to television to satisfy their desire for fantasy, their need to hear language that jingles, rhymes, and sings. For many of them reading is an onerous activity confined to classrooms.
With children, feeling comes first. They want to read what makes them laugh or cry, shiver or gasp. They need stories that reflect what they have felt but had no words to express. They need the thrill of imagining, of being in some character's shoes for a spine-tingling adventure. They deserve the delight that comes with hearing language that puns and plays. For children, reading must be equated with imagining, wondering, reacting feelingly. If it is not, we should not be surprised that they refuse to read.
Children must know words with power. This power is most evident in literature, writing by lovers of language who work at putting the best words in the best order for the greatest effect. Powerful words have magical powers: they can cast a spell to hold readers and listeners in thrall, and as this happens, a measure of their power transfers to each reader and listener. Sometimes discouraged, we may think that nothing less than magic can fight illiteracy and aliteracy. Then we are prepared. In words with power there is powerful magic. Our challenge is to see to it that children encounter these words.
and imaginations, children will remain indifferent to reading and
writing them. For children, printed words must provide wonder,
delight, interest, and pleasure, or they won’t bother to read, even
though they may have learned the rudiments of reading.
Among the masses of printed material available to readers,
the works for which we reserve the term literature possess the
greatest potential to influence the feelings and the imagination.
Born of imagination, the unique literary work influences through
a direct, intense appeal to that faculty. At its best, literature is art
created in words, where, driven by imagination, language is chosen
with artistry and skill to construct stories, poems, and informational material with potential to engross, enchant, and enlighten.
Children will become readers only if their emotions are stirred
and their imaginations stretched by what they find on printed
pages. One way—a sure way—to make this happen is through
genuine literature, works that claim consideration because, having something to say, they use language to greatest effect in saying it.
Nothing is more important or practical in the long run than
genuine literature. Nothing should come before it. All efforts to
teach reading must begin with it. It is only the art of literature that
can successfully counter the drawing power of television. Literature, because it is worth reading, nourishes the desire to read.
---
If literature is essential to the development of readers and
writers who are genuinely literate, it is also essential to the education of the child’s imagination. There is no single definition of
imagination. We have no standardized tests to measure it, but this does not mean that its education can be neglected. We know that this creative and constructive power is not exclusive to the artist or inventor. Nor is imagination secondary to intellect or emotions; it is the very core of them. It is through the imagination that we participate in every aspect of our daily lives: in conversation, in relating to others with sympathy and consideration, in making choices and decisions, in analyzing news reports and the speeches of politicians, in evaluating advertisements and entertainment.
Why can literature and the study of it educate the imagination? One reason is that literature itself is bom of imagination. The imaginative writer constructs a world that is but never was;
within each world there is room for endless imaginative possibilities. A story is not real life; anything can happen; anything goes. Literature illustrates what it is essential for humans to realize: there are no limits for the imagination. Literature makes carpets
fly and rabbits talk; it overcomes the tyranny of time and conquers
death itself. A Yellow Brick Road leading to an Emerald City will
never be found on a road map, but it exists, along with other literary locations and their inhabitants, as an imaginative reality.
Literature, furthermore, has the capacity to develop our
imaginative perspective on reality. What we call reality is a confusing tangle of experience: Radios blare at us, advertisers bombard us, we are harassed and hurried, torn in a dozen directions. We have all had the desire, when the confusion of life is at its height, to "get away from it all,” "to sort things out,” “to see where we are,” "to get ourselves together.” We feel a need for perspective on our fragmented experience. One way to get it is through literature, the art that describes what happens to human beings as they try to come to terms with living. Literature gives shape to
shifting human experience.
Another property of literature worthy of the name is its ability to call forth, as we experience a work, our own imaginative
experience, something we “have always known” but couldn’t express until a poem, play, or story put it into words and images
for us. Thus literature puts us in touch with our own imaginative powers. Nothing is more important for creating a truly human world than realizing the power of the imagination. William Blake said that nothing is real beyond the imaginative patterns we make of reality. Imagination, in Blake’s sense, creates reality. In the real world there can be no change or reform of any kind unless we first use our imaginations to describe what sort of life we want to lead, what kind of world we want to live in. The experiencing of a variety of literary works and the appropriate study of them can lead gradually to the transferring of the imaginative habit of mind that literature embodies.
----
Mathematics, social studies, and science all have their places in the curriculum. They are established as subjects of study: their content and methods of instruction receive serious consideration. It is still not so with literature. Yet literature, of all people's creations, is one of the greatest sources of nourishment for developing minds and imaginations.
It has the capacity to delight; it is meant to be enjoyed, and children in a time of illiteracy and aliteracy need to be convinced of its value through encounters with the best it has to offer. Literature is a humanistic study, and studies in the humanities are essential to our survival in a technological world where things can easily become more important than people. Literature has a civilizing influence. Because it deals with all human experience—our dreams and our nightmares—literature can show us both sides of the coin: what it means to be human and what it means to be inhumane.
---
Children in large numbers have not thrived on instructional diets that serve up imaginative literature only as dessert. These children turn to television to satisfy their desire for fantasy, their need to hear language that jingles, rhymes, and sings. For many of them reading is an onerous activity confined to classrooms.
With children, feeling comes first. They want to read what makes them laugh or cry, shiver or gasp. They need stories that reflect what they have felt but had no words to express. They need the thrill of imagining, of being in some character's shoes for a spine-tingling adventure. They deserve the delight that comes with hearing language that puns and plays. For children, reading must be equated with imagining, wondering, reacting feelingly. If it is not, we should not be surprised that they refuse to read.
Children must know words with power. This power is most evident in literature, writing by lovers of language who work at putting the best words in the best order for the greatest effect. Powerful words have magical powers: they can cast a spell to hold readers and listeners in thrall, and as this happens, a measure of their power transfers to each reader and listener. Sometimes discouraged, we may think that nothing less than magic can fight illiteracy and aliteracy. Then we are prepared. In words with power there is powerful magic. Our challenge is to see to it that children encounter these words.
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