Examples Of Developmental Bibliotherapy
Developmental bibliotherapy can be used to help children deal with a variety of problems such as bullying, fears, death, and acceptance problems. The ten-step implementation process can be adapted to help a child deal with each of these problems. Additionally, there are also more detailed and specific ways to help a child use developmental bibliotherapy to cope with each of these individual problems.
Bullying is a huge problem within the education system today and it can prevent students from succeeding academically because of the emotional turmoil that consumes them. When using bibliotherapy as an avenue to help children overcome problems with bullying, besides just using the ten-implementation process it is important to consider what coping …show more content…
strategies the literature is describing. For instance, an article by Kelly Flanagan, entitled "Coping with Bullying: What Answers does Children's Literature Provide?” describes a study on the importance of choosing the correct books for using bibliotherapy for bullying. This article explains that it is crucial to research the books on bullying because a lot of the literature on bullying can support the wrong types of coping strategies. To illustrate, the article describes this point by stating, “those [bullying coping strategies] most commonly represented in the books were those that are often encouraged in bullying interventions—including befriending the bully, verbal confrontation, and bystander interventions. However, revenge seeking strategies of tricking, scaring, and retaliation against the bully accounted for 25% of promoted strategies, and distancing was also frequently modeled” (Flanagan, 2013, 698). Revenge seeking strategies were supported in over 25% of the 73 books on bullying that this study reviewed. Thus, when implementing developmental bibliotherapy in the classroom to help students cope with bullying it is crucial that the educator reviews the literature in depth to ensure that it promotes positive ways in which to handle bullying.
Another problem that students’ in an elementary classroom may face is dealing with a fear of death, crime, and war that is present in our society today.
Although these fears may be classified as “adult” fears, children are exposed to them due to the large amount of coverage of these events in our media today. It is the educator’s responsibility to recognize their students’ fears and use the implementation process to create developmental bibliotherapy lesson plans to incorporate into the literacy lessons. As the educator, some ways to make ensure that your lesson plans on how to cope with fears through using literature are effective are by making sure there is some sort of activity in your lesson. Examples of effective activities that work along side the literature are dramatization, pantomiming, puppetry, role-playing, written responses, constructing collages, reading aloud, and composing a letter (Nicholson & Pearson, 2003). In addition to creative activities, identification with the characters in the literature is part of the implementation process that needs to be highly attended to when using developmental bibliotherapy to help children cope with fears. Nicholson and Pearson describes the importance of these two parts of the implementation process pertaining to helping children cope with fears when she states: “Good stories allow children to see themselves in the main characters and to be moved emotionally by the struggles and triumphs of the characters. When combined with creative activities designed to elicit personal connections between the listener and those characters, children's literature becomes a powerful tool for helping youngsters develop strategies for coping with their own struggles” (Nicholson & Pearson, 2003, 15). When using developmental bibliotherapy with fears it is crucial that there is more emphasis put on the identification with the main character step and the follow up creative activity step in order for it to work
effectively.
Death and dying is another major problem that children in our world face today. This is a controversial topic among bibliotherapy researchers because many people believe that only trained school psychologists or counselors should help a student cope with dying or a death. The issue with this opinion is many schools do not have the funding to have a trained counselor in their building, in which case it is up to the teacher to teach the proper coping strategies for dealing with a death or someone dying. Melissa Heath describes the power of story on grief when she states, “A story can provide children with clear explanations about death, opening lines of communication and providing a safe, nonthreatening atmosphere in which safely explore and express grief” (Heath, 2008, 259’). Using literature to explore topics on death can give children a safe atmosphere to deal with their grief or support other students who are grieving. The most important step when implementing developmental bibliotherapy on death and dying is choosing the correct literature. Health describes how to choose the correct literature on death when she states: “First, the language, content, and plot must be sensitive to the child's level of understanding. Second, the story must be sensitive to the family's religious beliefs and cultural background. Third, the individual characteristics of the child-her or his personality, interests, and the unique situation contributing to grief-should also be considered. Fourth, select books in which death is clearly and logically explained in terms that are consistent and accurate Sixth, characters in the story should model healthy coping skills and realistic expression of emotions. Finally, the story's ending should provide comfort, positive support, and hope for the future” (Heath, 2008, 265). These guidelines are incredibly important for educators to consider when implementing developmental bibliotherapy to help children cope with such a sensitive topic such as death.
Another use of implementing bibliotherapy in the classroom is to deal with the problem of acceptance. An elementary classroom is very diverse and this may affect students negatively. Many students are looked at as outcasts based on their culture/background, how they identify themselves, or a disability they may have. As an educator using many different types of books in the classroom that focuses on different cultures, sexual orientations, and disabilities is a way that you can help children learn acceptance and respect for all different types of people. Pamela A. Kramer explains the importance of students learning acceptance in regards to children with disabilities when she states, “The effectiveness of integrating individuals with special needs into different settings is very much dependent on how well they are received by those around them” (Kramer, 1999, 34). By incorporating different types of literature that focuses on diversity this will allow children to understand and respect the differences between themselves and their classmates.
Bullying is a huge problem within the education system today and it can prevent students from succeeding academically because of the emotional turmoil that consumes them. When using bibliotherapy as an avenue to help children overcome problems with bullying, besides just using the ten-implementation process it is important to consider what coping …show more content…
strategies the literature is describing. For instance, an article by Kelly Flanagan, entitled "Coping with Bullying: What Answers does Children's Literature Provide?” describes a study on the importance of choosing the correct books for using bibliotherapy for bullying. This article explains that it is crucial to research the books on bullying because a lot of the literature on bullying can support the wrong types of coping strategies. To illustrate, the article describes this point by stating, “those [bullying coping strategies] most commonly represented in the books were those that are often encouraged in bullying interventions—including befriending the bully, verbal confrontation, and bystander interventions. However, revenge seeking strategies of tricking, scaring, and retaliation against the bully accounted for 25% of promoted strategies, and distancing was also frequently modeled” (Flanagan, 2013, 698). Revenge seeking strategies were supported in over 25% of the 73 books on bullying that this study reviewed. Thus, when implementing developmental bibliotherapy in the classroom to help students cope with bullying it is crucial that the educator reviews the literature in depth to ensure that it promotes positive ways in which to handle bullying.
Another problem that students’ in an elementary classroom may face is dealing with a fear of death, crime, and war that is present in our society today.
Although these fears may be classified as “adult” fears, children are exposed to them due to the large amount of coverage of these events in our media today. It is the educator’s responsibility to recognize their students’ fears and use the implementation process to create developmental bibliotherapy lesson plans to incorporate into the literacy lessons. As the educator, some ways to make ensure that your lesson plans on how to cope with fears through using literature are effective are by making sure there is some sort of activity in your lesson. Examples of effective activities that work along side the literature are dramatization, pantomiming, puppetry, role-playing, written responses, constructing collages, reading aloud, and composing a letter (Nicholson & Pearson, 2003). In addition to creative activities, identification with the characters in the literature is part of the implementation process that needs to be highly attended to when using developmental bibliotherapy to help children cope with fears. Nicholson and Pearson describes the importance of these two parts of the implementation process pertaining to helping children cope with fears when she states: “Good stories allow children to see themselves in the main characters and to be moved emotionally by the struggles and triumphs of the characters. When combined with creative activities designed to elicit personal connections between the listener and those characters, children's literature becomes a powerful tool for helping youngsters develop strategies for coping with their own struggles” (Nicholson & Pearson, 2003, 15). When using developmental bibliotherapy with fears it is crucial that there is more emphasis put on the identification with the main character step and the follow up creative activity step in order for it to work
effectively.
Death and dying is another major problem that children in our world face today. This is a controversial topic among bibliotherapy researchers because many people believe that only trained school psychologists or counselors should help a student cope with dying or a death. The issue with this opinion is many schools do not have the funding to have a trained counselor in their building, in which case it is up to the teacher to teach the proper coping strategies for dealing with a death or someone dying. Melissa Heath describes the power of story on grief when she states, “A story can provide children with clear explanations about death, opening lines of communication and providing a safe, nonthreatening atmosphere in which safely explore and express grief” (Heath, 2008, 259’). Using literature to explore topics on death can give children a safe atmosphere to deal with their grief or support other students who are grieving. The most important step when implementing developmental bibliotherapy on death and dying is choosing the correct literature. Health describes how to choose the correct literature on death when she states: “First, the language, content, and plot must be sensitive to the child's level of understanding. Second, the story must be sensitive to the family's religious beliefs and cultural background. Third, the individual characteristics of the child-her or his personality, interests, and the unique situation contributing to grief-should also be considered. Fourth, select books in which death is clearly and logically explained in terms that are consistent and accurate Sixth, characters in the story should model healthy coping skills and realistic expression of emotions. Finally, the story's ending should provide comfort, positive support, and hope for the future” (Heath, 2008, 265). These guidelines are incredibly important for educators to consider when implementing developmental bibliotherapy to help children cope with such a sensitive topic such as death.
Another use of implementing bibliotherapy in the classroom is to deal with the problem of acceptance. An elementary classroom is very diverse and this may affect students negatively. Many students are looked at as outcasts based on their culture/background, how they identify themselves, or a disability they may have. As an educator using many different types of books in the classroom that focuses on different cultures, sexual orientations, and disabilities is a way that you can help children learn acceptance and respect for all different types of people. Pamela A. Kramer explains the importance of students learning acceptance in regards to children with disabilities when she states, “The effectiveness of integrating individuals with special needs into different settings is very much dependent on how well they are received by those around them” (Kramer, 1999, 34). By incorporating different types of literature that focuses on diversity this will allow children to understand and respect the differences between themselves and their classmates.