The Boy in the striped pyjamas

My first opinion:

I hadn’t read the book and hadn’t seen the film yet so I didn’t really know what to expect. Well I knew it was a World War 2 story, but there are may World War 2 stories so I didn’t know what this would be about. You can tell a lot by looking at the book cover, but still that’s just guessing what it could be about. When I started reading I knew I was dealing with a naïve narrator (Bruno). This made it confusing sometimes, because he has no clue what really is going on. He really speaks from his point of view, a kid’s point of view, who doesn’t understand everything that happens. But I could figure it out quite quickly. I thought it was fun figuring out what the deeper meaning was which was frustrating at sometimes because you know it would go wrong eventually. I heard some people say that they cried reading the book so I thought I would, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sad at the end I was just really frustrated. I can’t stand reading books about people who are treated badly as in the Second World War. The worse thing was that Bruno didn’t see this, which frustrated me the most.

In Class discussion:

I have to admit that I was there physically but I was very tired so I hope I heard all the important stuff that has been told in class. We first started looking back at the things we talked about last time. We talked about how we could choose the right books for our pupils. The answer to this is, by asking the pupils and by using theory. Or you could go to a big bookstore and ask them which books are popular at the moment. We also talked about how you can encourage the pupils to read. If you use any form of literature, for example cartoon books or what so ever, pupils could get more interested in reading. We also talked about graded readers and at first I didn’t quite understand what it meant, but I think it is a great invention! Children can read great English books and easily understand them because they simplified the vocab and grammar. I work at two schools and one of them is the Praktijkonderwijs and it often occurs that I have to use primary school worksheets, which are very childish for the age of these pupils. The graded readers give them the opportunity to read a book meant for their age but than written in an easier way. I think that is great! After that we talked about the term Crossover literature.  Crossover literature is been there for a while but it was never called crossover literature until Harry Potter was released in an adult and child version.  Crossover literature appeals to both adults and children. This was also a bridge to the next topic where we had to fill in a form and had to decide which element in the book would appeal to adult and adolescent readers. If I look at “the Boy in the striped pyjamas” an adult will like the innocence of the boy (Bruno) and will like the underlying story that is actually really happening. An adolescent reader will like the adventure the boy is looking for. We had to talk about this in groups and we had to think about an elevator pitch for the book we read. I thought it was a pity that nobody did an elevator pitch on “the Curious incident..” .

Age suitability:

In class we talked about the age suitability and the age suitability for “His dark materials” was estimated to be for 10-16 years old. At this age children are in their puberties and if we look at the stages of Erikson they are rebelling against parents.

With “Good Omens” the age suitability was estimated to be 12+ because the humour would be a bit difficult and there are deep layers in the story. We also came to the conclusion that the in between phase (15-18 years old) is a bit difficult for this book.  “The curious incident” is about someone who has autism. This will be clear for adults but not for children. Children of 10 years old and up could read it, but for empathy they have to be older.  Then we talked about “the Boy in the striped pyjamas” and this gave a bit of a discussion. Some say that it is not suitable for young children because it is too horrible to read, because they will understand what this is all about. In primary school they learn things about the Second World War, so they will understand. Others said that children wouldn’t know what this is exactly all about.

But I think children will understand what this is about and I think, because it is written in a naïve narrator point of view without violence or cursing in it, this book is suitable for 10 years and up.  And maybe even younger, but when they wouldn’t understand exactly what it is about, than it’s a book where a boy explores a lot with an open ending. I think 10 years is a suitable age because the main character is 9 years old so they could relate to this character. If I look at commonsensemedia.org parents think 12 is a suitable age and children think 11 is a suitable age. Parents think that children wouldn’t fully understand the ending of the story. Some kids say that this is a good book to read when you’re learning about the holocaust in primary school, because it will help you understand what happened back then (Commonsensemedia.org, 2013).  

If I look at the stages of Erikson, the 10-year-old kids will be in the industry versus inferiority stage, which means that they learn to cope with new social and academic demands. And after that they will be in the identity versus role confusion stage. The main character in the book is in the industry versus inferiority stage so kids could relate to him. And if someone would be in the next stage he or she will be searching for his or her own identity and exploring things on their own. This is also what happens in the book. (Cherry, 2013) That’s why I think the book is suitable for the age of 10.

Bibliografie

Cherry, K. (2013, November 3). About.com Psychology. Opgeroepen op November 3, 2013, van About.com Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm

 

Commonsensemedia.org. (2013, November 3). Common sense media. Opgeroepen op November 3, 2013, van Common sense media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-boy-in-the-striped-pajamas

The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe

My first impression:

Well, I saw the film so I thought the book would be as exciting as the film. But this wasn’t the case. The film is still quite new so I thought the story was new as well, but when I did some research I found out that the book was from 1950. I could’ve known this because it is a story of World War 2. Besides that the book is written in a religious way, which they did in the early days. In one of our first lessons we were told about the first books that were written and that these books were watered down versions of the bible. That was when I realized that this book is pretty old. It isn’t that I didn’t like the book, but the book is written in a bit of a childish way. I think this book can be great for kids in the age of 8 years old, but I will explain this later on. As I told you in one of my other blogs I love fantasy stories. So I really looked forward to read one of the books for this week.

In spite of the childish way the book is written in I really did love the story.

In class discussion/theory:

This week we started talking about designing assignments. We talked about the aim of assignments, which are: processing information, to show and deepen understanding and to show personal response. We discussed about which would be more a boy and a girl thing. After a short discussion with one of the “Mr know-it-alls” in class we agreed on the fact that processing information is more of a boys thing and showing personal response more of a girls thing. I looked this up on the Internet to be sure we were all right and it turns out that we were. Boys develop their left-brain part more, which means they are better in abstract thinking, creativity and spatial insight. Because they developed the left part better than the right part of the brain they have difficulties with the ability to use language and expressing their feelings and thoughts (Smid, 2010).  So the conclusion is; processing information is a boys thing and showing personal response a girls thing.

We also talked about the multiple intelligences, which are:

-       Linguistic: Word smart

-       Logical mathematical: logic smart

-       Naturalist: Nature smart

-       Spatial: Picture Smart

-       Bodily kinaesthetic- body smart

-       Musical – Music smart

-       Interpersonal- People smart

-       Intrapersonal- self smart

We all got one of the intelligences and had to think of an assignment that fitted this intelligence. I had ‘word smart’ and thought of an assignment where they had to rewrite the ending of “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe” in case Edmund had told his family about his first meeting with the White Witch. Than we had to combine our assignment with the assignment of the person sitting next to you. Markus had Logic smart and with his assignment they had to think of 5 important events in the story and they had to write them down in order of importance. In combining the assignments they have to think of the 5 important events and write them down, consider what would’ve happened if Edmund had told his family and think of 5 new important events by writing a new end to the story. I thought it was quite difficult thinking of a good assignment and combining it to another assignment. But the message behind all this was clear. It is important to combine all the multiple intelligences in an assignment to adjust to all pupils in your class.

After this we talked about how a fantasy novel is structured. Before they wrote fantasy novels they painted stories. In the early days they made mnemonic devices to remember stories. They made epic heroic stories, which were romanticized based on myths and sagas. The fantasy stories are all structured in a certain way. They have a calling, a journey, obstacles, final ordeals and goals. The hero in these stories is always coming from unusual circumstances, he or she always leaves family or land behind, he or she always has to participate in an event, this always leads to an adventure or quest, he or she sometimes has to deal with a traumatic experience, the hero has a special weapon only he or she can wield, the hero always gets supernatural help and he or she must prove him or herself many times in the adventure.

A good fantasy novel doesn’t distance too far from the ordinary, uses language that’s appropriate, has a convincing world based on history or a myth and is emotional realistic.

With this information we had to fill in a form where we had to write down what the call, the journey, the obstacles, final ordeal and goal of our book was. We also had to fill in which strangeness and familiarity things we read in the book.  If these two things are in balance you’ve read a good fantasy novel. I think I can conclude I have read a good fantasy novel, because it was in balance on my form.

After filling in this form we talked about the similarities we saw between the three fantasy books we had to read. In all the books “the hero” isn’t prepared for the journey, they all have to have faith in themselves and they all have internal and external obstacles. 

Age suitability/theory:

As I said before I think this book is suitable for 8-year-old kids. I checked it again on commonsencemedia.com and they also say 8 is a good age for this book (Nichol, 2013). The book is written in a simple and understandable way. It is easy to read, it isn’t very scary, it doesn’t have very violent or bloody scenes in it and there is no swearing to be found in the book. So you could say that the book is child friendly. Besides that the children in the book are around 8- 14 years old themselves so children at that age could relate to these main characters. If we look at Erikson’s stages a child at the age of 8 years old has to be in the “industry vs. inferiority” stage. This means that children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority (Cherry, 2013).  The characters in the book also have to deal with this. And some of the characters are in the transition to the identity vs. role confusion.  For example Peter and Susan.

Fun to know:

The main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion. For example; Aslan sacrificing himself for Edmund in the same way that Christians believe Jesus sacrificed himself for sinners. Narnia is caught in an endless winter diverted from a Norse tradition mythologises a great winter which they call the Fimbulwinter. The trapping of Edmund by the White witch is diverted from the Snow queen of Hans Christian Anderson. The dwarves and giants are from Norse Mythology and the Fauns, Centaurs, Minotaurs and dryads are from Greek Mythology. Last but not least, the freeing of Aslan’s body from the stone table by field mice comes from a fable “The lion and the mouse”. So Narnia is a mix of history, religion and myths (Wikipedia, 2013).

Bibliografie

Cherry, K. (2013, October 19). About.com psychology. October 19, 2013, van About.com psychology: http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm

Nichol, M. (2013, October 19). Common sense Media. October 19, 2013, van Common sense Media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-the-chronicles-of-narnia-book-1

Smid, A. (2010, November 4). JM voor Ouders. October 19, 2013, van JM voor Ouders: http://www.jmouders.nl/Themas/Gezondheid-11/Gezondheid-11/Jongensbrein-Creatieve-en-abstracte-denkers.htm#

Wikipedia. (2013, September 25). Wikipedia. October 19, 2013, van Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe

The Catcher in the rye

My First opinion:

I heard a lot about this book and I heard it was very popular, so I thought this must be a great book. It looked a bit old fashioned but some old fashioned books can be fun. So I started reading. I read a few pages and I was very confused because I couldn't make any sense of it. So I did some research to give me some idea about what the book was about. And it seems that Holden, the main character, is writing this story from a nut house. This made it much clearer. Holden changes subjects quite often, which makes it difficult to follow. When I read the first lines I knew I wasn’t going to like the style of how the writer had written. I don’t like to read a book where they only use the first person perspective point of view (Miles, 2012). Maybe if it were told differently I would but in this case I didn’t like it.

In class discussion/theory:

In class we talked about how to design an assignment after letting your pupils read a book. In class you can react on the book they have read by sharing your enthusiasm and theirs. You can talk about parts of the story and ask them what they liked and what they didn’t like. You also can ask them what they thought was unclear in the story, what they thought the important elements were and which patterns they see. By reacting on the book you can either do this individually or in a cooperative activity. It is better to do this in a cooperative way because everybody knows something but there’s nobody who knows everything. So it is better to let the pupils discuss the book together in groups. There are some questions you have to avoid during the discussion in class. Never ask the question “Why?”, don’t ask for summaries and what does the author mean? You don’t want to know this. It is not interesting and you don’t know why an author wrote the book in the way he did. During the discussion you have to keep the conversation going. You have to bring the pupils back to the text by asking them; “ How do you know that?”. You can also ask them; “ What surprised or shocked you?”. Or particular questions like; “What if…”. I thought the assignment tips were quite interesting to know. Now I can use this in my classes.

After we talked about designing an assignment we talked about Erikson’s identity and role confusion. There are a several kind of types in the identity versus role confusions stage;

-       Moratorium

-       Foreclosure

-       Negative identity

-       False identity

-       Narcissism

Moratorium is when somebody is stuck in this phase. In the worst case this can lead to schizophrenia.

Foreclosure is that someone gets in this stage too earl because of pressure from parents or when a parent dies a child feels like he or she has to fulfill the task of the mum or dad.

Negative Identity is when somebody defines his of herself as what he or she is not. They focus on the negative things. He or she is the opposite of the things around them. This doesn’t necessarily have to be negative.

False identity is when someone has gender problems.

And the last one is Narcissism. Here you have primary and secondary narcissism. Primary narcissism is when somebody loves him or herself. And secondary narcissism is when he or she only starts to feel good about him or herself when they have a 1000 friends on Facebook or when they get at least 500 messages a day. They have no self-esteem what so ever.

After we spoke about all this theory we had to fill in a form about the books we have read and then discuss this with each other. We agreed on the fact that we all didn’t like the book. At the question; “What did you like about the book?”, we all answered; “Nothing!”. We all didn’t like the first person perspective style in which the book was written. And we all thought that the point of the story was very unclear. The patterns we saw were; same language Holden uses and depression. And if we link the theory with the book we could say that Holden is in the moratorium phase, the negative identity and in the secondary narcissism. Holden is tries to relate to different identities. He changes it every time he meets someone else or new. He also has a negative identity because he only focuses on the negative things. For example, everybody is a phony and you can tell he is depressed. Last but not least Holden is very insecure and has very little self-esteem. You can tell this because when Stradlater asks him to do him a favour by doing his homework, he does this for Stradlater.

After talking about “ The Catcher in the rye” someone asked why this book is so popular because nobody liked the book. We were told that in 1951 when it was written the book was a breakthrough. It is a memory of a certain time. The way they spoke then is different than we talk now. Holden has to call this girl at home hoping that her mum or dad won’t pick up the phone. Pupils now can’t imagine what this feels like. So we could use this book for history class as well to talk about that time.

We also talked about the two other books and linked the types of identity versus role confusion to them as well. Looking at “The Catcher in the rye” and “The Wasp factory”, they are both controversial which “The story of Tracey Beaker” is not.

Age suitability:

In the class discussion we had, we thought the book is suitable for children of 14-16 years old. When I looked it up on the internet they say that the age suitability is indeed 14 years old. I ended up at a website called “Common sense”. They have a part where they tell parents what they need to know about the book. I think that’s great because parents know their children best. Not every child at that age is at the same stage so parents can decide wether their child is ready for reading this book. On the Common sense website they tell parents about the swearing, that the book is about a rebellious teen, that there are sexual references and people smoking and drinking. But also that parents must see the point of this book, which is a compassionate tale of a child adrift in the world (Perle, 2013).

Holden shows how a boy in puberty can act. The Puberty is a stage that can start between 9 and 12 years. Boys usually complete puberty between 16-17 (Wikipedia, 2013). The behaviour Holden shows in the book can be related to the behaviour of a boy in his puberties. During puberty, hormones and chemicals are released into the body, which can result in psychological changes. These may include; Mood swings, tiredness, sadness, irritability, anger, anxiety, self-consciousness, sexual desires/arousals (Lohmann, 2013). This is why this book is a great book for boys at the age of 14 who are in the midst of their puberty because they can relate to Holden.

Bibliografie

Lohmann, R. (2013, October 12). Share care. October 12, 2013, van Share care: http://www.sharecare.com/health/endocrine-system/psychological-changes-boys-during-puberty

Miles, E. (2012). Literature 1. English and American short stories , p10.

Perle, L. (2013, October 12). Common sense. October 12, 2013, van Common sense: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-catcher-in-the-rye

Wikipedia. (2013, October 12). Wikipedia. October 12, 2013, van Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty

Twilight

My first impression:

I hadn't seen the film or read the book yet, so I really didn't know what to expect. I heard different things about this book. Some people really loved it and some despised it. So I wasn't sure if I would like it, because as I told you before I'm not much of a reader. The book started a bit slow, with Bella moving to her father's place and going to school in Forks. I still didn't really know what to expect, I thought this wasn't very interesting. So at first I thought I would not like the book at all. But then, when the things got more mysterious like; The moments the Cullens were described as outsiders and the moments they were absent without any reason, made me more curious. I really like vampire stories but because of all the things I already heard about this book, I wasn't sure if this would be a story I would like. But eventually I did. I'm not very romantic myself but I love to read romantic stories. And this is definitely a romantic story. A bit of a cliché but I loved it.  

In Class/Theory:

In Class we talked about Erikson again, in the stage of the adolescent, which is; Identity versus role confusion. Who am I right now and what do I want to be in the future? How do I fit in? Where am I going? These are things young adults struggle with. This is exactly what happens in the book with Bella. She moves to another place where she has to start all over again, new friends, new school and besides that she’s at an age where Identity and role confusion normally is one of the main problems. This differs per person, because not everybody is in the same stage at the same age, but you can tell Bella is.

At this same age idealism, “The divided self” (Unique feelings), Isolation and new emotions are coming up are important. We talked about what this means.  The idealism of other people being better than you are. Unique feeling you only have and nobody else, so others don’t understands you because this is your feeling. Isolation, you want to be alone to protect yourself, because if you are alone nobody will hurt you. And new emotions like love.

We also talked about the theory about the reader as a thinker. Which has 3 elements; Identification, realism and thinking.

Identification

At the age of the young adults, identification is very important for them. They want to relate to other adolescents, like their friends in a sports club or an orchestra. They are searching for their own identity so they question authority, examine their future in terms of their relationships with their parents and peers, which can often lead to feelings of confusion to figure out how they will fit in. (Fisher, 2013)

In the book you see Bella searching for her identity. She doesn’t really know where she wants to fit in and if she wants to fit in or if she will decide to isolate herself from everybody. She is kind of an outsider.

With Identification the plot is subordinate to the unfolding of the character, there’s a complex structure- interrelationships between characters, an intense emotional involvement and the reader and characters can reflect on their own behaviour. If we relate this to the book, you see that all these things come across.

Realism

Is it realistic what you read? And is it realistic to young adults in this case? Characters have to reflect reader’s experiences, it has to have a bit of tragedy and an individual making wrong choices. The world of an adolescent is dark and dangerous, so a good adolescent book bares this in mind. The real world is not ideal, so this has to be the case in the book. In Twilight it is about vampires, which is unrealistic, but Stephenie Meyer wrote it as it could’ve happened in the real world. She used daily problems teenager have to cope with, like the feelings she describes between Bella and Edward.

Thinking

An adolescent is a reader who’s aware of its own thoughts as he/she reads, they think about the deeper meaning of a story.

After we talked about this theory we had to discuss the books and fill in a form, to compare the books. We had to write down who the main characters were, what the nature of the attraction, what problems they face, how they solve them, the role models, what was realistic and what wasn’t. I sat in a group where everybody had read Twilight, so we could only compare our answers.

Controversial? At the end of the class discussion we had to tell whether Twiligt, Cal or Forever are controversial. I will discuss this in the “Age suitability” part,

Age suitability:

If we look at the theory I already mentioned (Erikson’s Identity versus role confusion) I think we can say that this book is suitable for 12 year old children. This depends on what stage they are in, but generally it would be perfect for 12 year olds. All the things young adults struggle with are also mentioned in the book, so children can relate to the characters, which is important for children who are in the ‘Identity versus role confusion’ stage. The book is written very realistic and reflects on a life of a young adult. For example, Bella is feeling very insecure and is somewhat clumsy, which most children around 12 are dealing with. A child around the age of 12 is capable of thinking about the deeper meaning of a story and is aware of his or her own thoughts. So I think 12 is a suitable age based on the theory we discussed in class.

As I said, in our class discussion we talked about the controversial thing about the books we read. Twilight could be controversial because of the vampire and werewolves part. This doesn’t exist and isn’t acceptable for religious people.  Besides that Edward is a hundred years old and Bella is a teenager. And she is changing her whole life for him. Some people even say it is an abusive relationship they have. If you bare this in mind, you could say the books aren’t suitable for 12 year olds. But I think that if they are capable of reflecting on their own behaviour, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Fun thing to know:

There even is a site where they explain parents what Twilight is about, to give them the opportunity to choose whether they will allow their children to read the books. (Reelz, 2013)

Bibliografie

Fisher, N. (2013, October 6). Global post. October 6, 2013, from Every day life: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/stages-development-adolescents-2410.html

Reelz. (2013, October 6). October 6, 2013, from 10 things parents should know about Twilight: http://www.reelz.com/article/754/10-things-parents-should-know-about-twilight/