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Teaching Tools

We have designed these teaching tools to inspire and guide your classroom or research in order to make these resources available to the broadest of audiences, with no specific age group in mind. As librarians, we aim to direct users towards further invesigation. We hope that these discussion questions, online resources, and libguides provide a concrete starting point for our users and their interests.

 


Teaching with Fairytales

Discussion Questions

  • What was the impact of the printing press?
  • How did literacy rates change?
  • Who was able to buy or sell books?
  • How have stories changed?
  • How did the church influence literature?
  • What are the roots of storytelling?
  • When did oral storytelling begin?
  • When did people start writing stories down?
  • How have audiences changed?
  • Who was reading these books when they came out?
  • Who reads children’s books now?
  • When did children become more than small adults?
  • When did children start going to school as we know it?
  • Was everyone able to go to school?
  • How are rules passed through fairytales rather than fables?
  • Who is represented in these stories?
  • Who is missing from the stories?

Online Resources for Teaching with Fairy Tales

Fairy-Tales: A Lesson Plan For High School English Teachers

Fractured Fairy Tales

Scholastic: Myths, Folktales, and Fairytales

Why and How I Teach With Historical Fiction

Children's Literature Promotes Understanding

Further Research

LibGuide for Further Research on Fairytales


Teaching with Little Black Sambo

Discussion Questions

  • Why has Little Black Sambo persisted for so long?
  • How do Little Black Sambo and the various reissues reflect the changing values and prejudices of society?
  • How has the role of minority characters changed over time?
  • How do Sambo’s actions and agency compare to characters in similar children’s books?
  • How have depictions of Africa or India evolved over the 19th and 20th centuries?
  • Should Little Black Sambo have been removed from schools and libraries?
  • How has the censorship of Little Black Sambo impacted the modern view of the story?
  • Does the evolution of minority character depictions in children's literature mirror that of other forms of youth entertainment (such as comic books)?
  • How has the revolutionary design of Little Black Sambo impacted children's literature in the succeeding decades?
  • Why were subsequent illustrations of Sambo depicted in the way that they were?
  • Was there a larger trend in imagery reflecting the American South at the time?
  • Do the illustrations fit with the illustrator's style for that period?

Online Resources for Teaching with Little Black Sambo

Teaching Tolerance

Further Research

LibGuide for Further Research on Racial Depictions and Little Black Sambo


Teaching with Fear and Morality

Discussion Questions

  • What values did Victorian morality tales try to impart?
  • Why did 19th century books try to scare children into behaving?
  • Were there other aspects of 19th century society that were terrifying to children?
  • Were these stories as frightening to children in the 19th century as they seem to audiences today?
  • Discuss the difference between religious morality and social morality; where can we see these illustrated in the original texts?
  • What social factors contributed to the development of "children's literature," and why did this genre not exist until the late 1600s?
  • What are some examples of contemporary cautionary/morality tales?
  • What values do today's morality tales try to impart?
  • In what way do today's morality tales try to teach children?
  • Is there a place in today's society for stories that frighten children into behaving?
  • Based on the differences between the Little Red Riding Hood stories from the early 19th and mid-20th centuries, what societal values are reflected in each version?
  • Based on the provided texts, what are some examples of morality tales punishing wickedness? Cautioning innocents?
  • What similarities are there between the different versions of the Babes in the Wood? Differences? What might be the significance of these differences?
  • Two of the Babes in the Wood stories have other stories attached to them (Farmer Wilkins and Lady Isabella's Tragedy). In what way do these stories complement the Babes in the Wood? Do they reinforce frightening children into morality? If so, how?
  • Is there significance to using anthropomorphized animals as "stand-ins" for human behavior (as in Chicken Little and the "wooing frog" stories)? In what way might this be effective or ineffective for teaching children?

Online Resources

And the Moral Is...

Morality "Tails" East and West

Children's literature promotes understanding

Lesson: Fairy Tales & Fables: Moral of the Story

Elements of a Fable

Victorian Britain: Teacher's Resources

Victorian Code of Morality

Further Research

LibGuide for Further Research on Fear and Morality


Teaching with Alphabet Books

Discussion Questions

  • What does each text say about the attitudes toward children during the period in which they were published?
  • What impact do the illustrations have on each book? How do they add to the amusement of young readers?
  • How well do the illustrations align with the actual text of each book?
  • For each alphabet book, what do you make of the quality of the text?
  • How effective are these books at teaching the alphabet?
  • How do alphabet books in the present day compare to historical alphabet books? In what ways are they similar and different?
  • What does each text have to say about gender roles for boys and girls?
  • In terms of representation in 19th century alphabet books, who is represented and who gets left out?
  • What values do 19th century alphabet books communicate to their readers?
  • If you were to write an alphabet book, how would you go about doing so? What would you use to represent the letters of the alphabet?

Online Resources

Why and How I Teach With Historical Fiction

Children's Literature Promotes Understanding

Further Research

LibGuide for Further Research on Alphabet Books