Folk Literature: Is it beneficial towards student's learning?

         Folk literature is beneficial to children for several reasons. According to an article written by Young et al., “Folk literature introduces students to many cultures, and it quickly becomes apparent that virtues such as honesty, hard work, mercy, and forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, and learning are honored across cultures.” Folk literature covers a wide variety of topics that are beneficial for children to learn about. These topics teach children to become self aware, and aware of other’s values and beliefs. As a future teacher, I would like to include several folk literature books within my lessons. On top of teaching children self awareness and different values/beliefs, these books also teach children good morals. For example, Turtle’s Race with the Beaver teaches children how to share. When the Turtle beats Beaver in a race, Beaver rethinks his selfish behaviors and learns how to share the pond with the turtle.

            Furthermore, folk literature books create great discussions within the classroom. Folk literature books encourages students to make predictions, identify the moral of the story, and helps children to understand language, such as in the nursery rhyme, Mother Goose. As a future teacher, I know that it is important to incorporate meaningful books into my lesson plans. A typical lesson would consist of reading one book to the students. As I read, I would pause and ask the students to predict, identify any changes within the characters, and to prepare for discussion. After the book is read, I would use the remaining time to have a classroom discussion. The discussion would include any of the student’s thoughts, comparison of predictions, lessons that were taught, and so on. I think folk literature is one of the best genres to teach students.