Chapter 5- Traditional Literature

Traditional Literature is among the most memorable in children’s experiences in literature. It is defined as a genre of stories passed down through many generations by word of mouth. These stories don’t have and identifiable author and they encompass variety of stories including legends, fables, riddles, myths, epics and tall tales. Most people have heard the stories of Cinderella and Snow White but they may not be aware that there are hundreds of versions of many of these popular tales. These stories have changed over time as they have been passed down from generation and told by people in all lands to explain their lives and their world in order to reflect how people thought and what they valued as a society.

Traditional Literature is an excellent tool that can be used to encourage numerous oral and written activities in the classroom. It can serve as the building block for contemporary literature, provides a window on diverse culture and act as a moral model for children. In exploring the web links provided for this chapter I ran across several interesting websites including Kay Vandergrift’s Snow White site which includes a reprint of the original 1898 version of the Grimm’s fairy tale. Throughout the text, certain phrases are hyperlinked. When clicked, the reader can compare the hyperlinked text to thirty-six other versions. Another interesting site I located was When Cinderella Went to the Ball: Five Hundred Years of Fairy Tales which offers and exhibit of the Cinderella story from the Grimm’s Brothers tales to the modern spin offs and interpretations.

 

As part of my annotated bibliography I read Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella Tale. I had no problems finding many wonderful uses for this and other stories like this in the classroom. Some of my ideas included comparing different versions of the story, writing fractured fairy tales, and mapping where some of the cultural Cinderella versions they have read took place.