Proposals and Suggestions for the Positive Response of Toddlers to
Literature Teaching with Reference to Applied Educational Programs

Eleni Ilia

(University of Athens, Greece)

Abstract: Literary readings contribute to mental and social maturity, to the development of creative thinking, to aesthetic cultivation, to contact with timeless, cultural values, to linguistic development, to acquiring more specific knowledge and so on. Consequently, their role in the educational process is valuable and irreplaceable. Reading any literary text is a particularly creative process. We become co-authors of the author, we form expectations for the story, we identify with the heroes, we shape attitudes towards other characters. As a result of this activity, we get the feeling that we are directly involved in narrative events, that we are experiencing personal situations and emotions attributed to the text. That is, what results from our contact with the literary work has the character of experience and contributes to our self-knowledge. The very nature of literature dictates both the aims and the modes of its teaching approach. The choices and manipulations of the teacher himself, his own initiatives, his personal ability and disposition are the decisive factors for the success of literary teaching. Particularly in the Nursery school, the pupils’ first contact with the literary phenomenon takes place and their subsequent relation to it is substantially determined and their aesthetic criteria are formed. In order for all students to experience aesthetic enjoyment, the emotional burden that literature offers, we are designing imaginative, attractive educational programs with a playful character, where the “magic” element is at the forefront. We give toddlers the opportunity to express their reading response to literary texts by freely redefining the literary model, exploiting it as a source of inspiration and the driving force of their imagination.

Key words: literary teaching, reading response, creative redefinition