chpt29

**Chapter 29 - Promoting the Aesthetic Experience**
Ultimately, this chapter looks at how teachers should use literature in Social Studies so that students are able to have an aesthetic experience. Our essential question is:

"How should we, as teachers, choose and use literature in Social Studies to promote an aesthetic experience?"
__The Power of Literature__
 * Children's literature uses words and pictures to evoke an aesthetic experience, which allows the reader (the children) to perceive patterns, relationships, and feelings.
 * Literature helps connect the reader to the human experience.
 * Literature provides a doorway into other worlds that they children may have never experienced otherwise, which allows them to encounter new perspectives.
 * "Literature enables us to live many lives, good and bad, and to begin to see the universality of human experience" (Huck and Kiefer 2004, 9).

__The Role of Literature in Social Studies__
 * Literature should **not** be used to teach Social Studies! Rather, it should be used "to provoke an aesthetic response to stir a feeling of affinity with the human condition, to capture our hearts and imagination as well as our minds, and to connect us to ourselves and others" (306-30).

__Literature and Social Studies Objectives__
 * 1) Personalizes and contextualizes people, events, and situations:
 * Allows the reader to relate the story to his or her own life, and to construct his or her own meaning.
 * 1) Develops Language
 * Whether students are listening to the story, reading it aloud themselves, or writing a reflection on the piece, they are all working with and developing language.
 * Stories contain abstract language and patterns.
 * 1) Develops Multiple Skills
 * Creative thinking, problem solving, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, synthesizing, etc...
 * 1) Nurtures Empathy, Sensitivity, and other Social Values
 * Promotes different perspectives.
 * "Young people can come to understand their own lives more fully by seeing that they share areas of conflict in their lives with other human beings who, for better or for worse, have responded to these conflicts in their lives" (308).
 * 1) Addresses Delicate Topics Sensitively
 * Topics covered by literature often reflect situations that students may find themselves in.
 * Literature offers a new approach at addressing sensitive topics.
 * 1) Builds Community
 * "Literature often celebrates uniqueness, considers friendship and acceptance, and deals with concepts related to sharing and caring for others" (308).
 * When using this literature correctly, a sense of community can be built in a classroom.
 * 1) Celebrates Diversity
 * Looks at diversity in a positive manner.

__Choosing Literature__ There are three general considerations
 * 1) Literary Value
 * Well-constructed/ well-paced plot
 * Significant theme
 * Authentic setting
 * Credible point of view
 * Convincing characterization
 * Appropriate style and format
 * 1) Curriculum Fit: "The best books can enhance social studies understandings while poor selections may reinforce misconceptions and stereotypes
 * Shows human humanity
 * Provides sound geographic, social, historical, political, economic, and/or religious information
 * Shows that other people have different but valid approaches to our common humans concerns and needs
 * increases understanding, empathy, and the ability to learn from other peoples and cultures
 * 1) Student Suitability
 * Appropriate age and reading levels
 * However, even if the reading level is above that of the students, the story can be read aloud

__Categories of Literature__
 * 1) Contemporary Realistic Fiction
 * Fiction that reflects life as it is today
 * May assist children in making sense of their own lives and experiences
 * Contemporary multicultural literature included, which allows for pride in own culture to develop
 * "It is important to provide a collection that portrays members of a culture in a wide spectrum of occupations, educational backgrounds, living conditions, and lifestyles" (311)
 * Similarities as well as differences should be depicted
 * 1) Historical Fiction and Biography
 * Historical fiction is "All realistic stories that are set in the past" (311)
 * Biography is "a life story that reads like fiction but centers on facts and events that can be documented" (311)
 * Both help students to aquire a sense of what life used to be like, see multiple point-of-views, as well as to understand that what was yesterday has influenced what is today
 * Both allow students to see what changes throughout time and what stays constant
 * Factual details should be accurate but there should also be a story line that engages the listener without distorting the past
 * Stories that have details or language that is no longer seen as appropraite or politically correct should not be left out, altough if it is to be used in a classroom those details need to be discussed in depth
 * 1) Folk Literature
 * "[L]iterature derived from the human imagination to explain the human condition" (312
 * Historical stories that have been passed down through generations
 * Engaging and inspirational stories that require use of the imagination.
 * As many stories are common across different cultures, these tales allow children to see patterns and similarities amongst all humans
 * Often violent, sexist, and ageist but should not be left out (must be presented as tales from the past and discussed)
 * 1) Poetry
 * The Literature in this genre is vivid, imaginative, and evokes great aesthetic responses
 * Often depicts sensitive issues that students may themselves have experienced
 * Avoid poetry that is too difficult, senitimental, or abstract.

__Responding to Literature from an Aesthetic Stance__
 * When introducing a book for the first time to a class, do not ruin it's flow by asking predetermined questions while reading it. Let the students experience the book //as is.// Let them take from it what they want. Don't limit them by asking them to focus on certain things.
 * Allow your students to respond personally.
 * Have the students share their responses. it is important for students to hear the variety of personal responses that would be evoked by the same piece of literature.
 * Revisit the piece with predetermined questions and probes.