Why do we share literature with children?

 1. IT’S FUN!

We will engage more and find time for it if we think its fun. Covers are important, everyone usually chooses a book because they like the cover. Sharing love and your favorite things with kids will in turn motivate them to share the same passion you have for reading.

     2.  It aids acquisition of language and language development

Language Acquisition: If a child reads at least 20 minutes a day their total word count for the year will place them in the 90^th percentile for standardized testing versus a child who reads one minute a day which places them in the tenth percentile.

Language Development: The most important years for vocabulary development are between the ages of birth to five. A child should read 1000 books by the time they reach kinder and that will help them tremendously. If you read to each child one book a day you will exceed the 1000 books by the age of four.

     3.  It develops empathy.

Stronger than sympathy; empathy is understanding how that person feels. Reading helps create an empathetic bond with books. Fictional books in particular makes kids more empathetic.

     4. It supports life-long readers.

There are two types of reading Serial reading and Series reading.

            Series reading is following a story through several books till it ends and you don’t know how you are ever going to move on to read another book. (Can you tell I’m so a Series reader! Die-hard fan here!)

          Serial Reading is reading several books from a specific author or genre. For example in my classroom we read a ton of books from Roald Dahl and Patricia Polacco.

These help investigate what they like reading on their own and helps the reader grow.

     5.  It helps reading autobiographically.

You can picture yourself in the book. It helps to relate to a book and feel like you know what they are going through. A mirror effect.

     6. It creates vicarious experiences.

You can live vicariously through the character. For example, when reading the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins; reading what she went through, I felt her pain and as if I was actually going through it and will never attempt to try it.

     7.  It creates philosophical speculation.

This is how they feel about things ethically and religiously. You get a picture of many point-of-views and develop feelings on the subjects. Asking questions such as…

Who am I?

Why am I like I am?

What is my place in the world?

Why does the world act like this?

   8. It helps give aesthetic experiences.

In school many times students are encouraged to be efferent readers which they only pull away information from the text. Instead we should be encouraging aesthetic reading which is for joy and pleasure of reading.

     9.  It develops imagination.

Reading asks what would happen if? It helps children gain some imagination instead of stifling it.

    10. It transmits culture.

Pay attention culture featuring, don’t wait till holidays, share on a regular basis, and see those cultural books throughout the entire year. For example, don’t only show books on Harriet Tubman during February for Black History month.

Reflection

For children to be successful in life, they must be able to read. Reading is involved in everything we do. Understanding why literature is so important to share with kids is vital for us to be able to share with colleagues, parents and the community. In fact I would love to make this a poster or flyer and give it out in my library.