Wednesday, 30 October 2013

4.2 Describes how parents, peers & communities may see, feel & shape young children’s early literacy & numeracy experiences 

Week12 Reading Blog
Analyst – What does this do to me?

4.1 Critiques other plausible perspectives on early literacy & numeracy awareness & immersion  

During our tutorial this week we searched for children’s storybooks on the Internet and critiqued them on any implied or hidden messages, bias and stereotypes they might have within their text.  The story I chose was “The Gruffalo” children's book written by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The book’s target audiences are children aged three to seven years old.








The story is about a little brown mouse that eludes being eaten by several predators as he walks through the woodlands, by deceiving them with accounts of an eccentric monster that he is to meet. The plot twist is that when the Gruffalo does appear he too has plans to eat the mouse.  The mouse persuades the Gruffalo that he should not eat him but instead fear him and convinces the Gruffalo to follow him back through the woods to watch the other predators run in fear. The Gruffalo is not aware of his reputation and is led to believe that the mouse is the true source of the creature’s discomfort. The Gruffalo concedes to his craving to gobble mouse and instead returns to the woods, while mouse is left to enjoy his nut.


The Gruffalo is a story about survival

The story highlights relationship of size to power. The bigger the animal the more power they have and intelligence
The little mouse, because of his size has lease power, but he used his intelligence to save himself from being eaten by the other much bigger animals. Being small he could not afford to be stupid.
The Gruffalo was portrayed as a big powerful animal, he is the largest of all the animals and has the most power over them, and he could afford to be less intelligent.

After further reflection and research i came across a blog with a different perspective of the hidden messages in The Gruffalo.  This particular blogger shared that it is a story about the "analogy of the corrupt nature of celebrity, media and how one can ultimately achieve one's goals only through deceit"

http://littleliteraturereview.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/gruffalo-analogy-on-nature-of-celebrity.html


Before we had the tutorial discussion I did censor majority of my own children's experiences.  The thought processes that went into those decisions were not as deep compared to what we went thru during class.  I now understand the learning experiences that we introduce or engage children in, build on how they emerge as individuals and how they interact and react to their world. As educators it is important to always bare this in mind, while working hand in hand with the family and community.

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