Authencity in Literacture

As adults, we read what interests us. Literature has to give us some type of enjoyment for us to choose to read it. Many times, in our early childhood classrooms, teachers have predetermined the literature for children to "enjoy." Instead of allowing children the opportunity to pick and decide what they want to read, we rob them of this! An important thought to keep about the types of literature we expose our children to is authenticity. Children want to read interesting, authentic, relevant, thought-provoking, and understandable material. Books that are written with the purpose to be enjoyed, laughed at, informative, and interesting capture our children's attention. Children read these to be impressed upon, and they are! They are longing for a reason to keep reading. So many books fulfill this requirement for children, but others miss the boat completely. Books that are written for a purpose to work on a specific skill with a child (ie decoding, rhyming, etc) are not interesting to a child. They see through the intentions and become easily bored in the text. So, instead of increasing the child's reading skills, they have detracted from the literacy experience altogether. The books that aim to be aesthetically pleasing to a child have so much more of a meaningful impact on a child. As teachers, we should be mindful of this when collecting books for our classroom libraries. Try to choose books that spike the interest of the child. These types of books include: fairy tales, realistic stories, playful stories, thought-provoking stories, poetic stories, and even folktales. The genres are nearly limitless, and the children will marvel in the authenticity of these stories. Children want to be engaged in the text, and through this they can experience the most rich of literacy skills.