PH

INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION SULTAN MIZAN CAMPUS 22200 BESUT, TERENGGANU

TASK 2 (CHILDRENS LITERATURE) (LGA 3101)

COURSE: B.Ed TESL JAN 2012 INTAKE

NAME I/C NUMBER UNIT SEMESTER LECTURERS NAME

: MUHAMMAD TAUFIQ ABD. RASHID : 920222115287 : TESL 2 : PISMP SEM 2 : MADAM DASHIMA BINTI ABDUL WAHAB

1.0 Definition of Bibliotherapy The ancient Greeks maintained that literature was psychologically and spiritually important, posting a sign above their library doors describing itself as a "healing place for the soul". In the US it is documented as dating back to the 1930s. The basic concept behind bibliotherapy is that reading is a healing experience. Literary sources can assist with the resolution of complex problems. It was applied to both general practice and medical care, especially after World War II, because the soldiers had a lot of time on their hands whilst recuperating. Also, the soldiers felt that reading was healing and helpful. In psychiatric institutions, bibliotherapeutic groups flourished during this time. The patients became preoccupied with the books and the engagement seemed to be good for their general sense of wellbeing, for a variety of reasons. Today, healthcare workers and institutions recognise the wide and varied use of bibliotherapy within a range of scenarios. According to Jacqueline Stanley, bibliotherapy is the therapeutic use of books in the treatment of illness or personal problems. It is both an art and a science. Individual bibliotherapy involves identifying areas of challenge in your life, such as spirituality; parenting; divorce; or grief, and reading purposefully to gain insight. Bibliotherapy is an old concept in library science. Bibliotherapy can assist children in building confidence and self-esteem. It attempts to normalize a child's world by offering coping skills and reducing their feelings of isolation, reinforcing creativity, and problem solving. It also gives parents an opportunity to discuss their children's issues with the children.

2.0 Definition of Childrens Concern Concern is thoughts, images and emotions of a negative nature in which mental attempts are made to avoid anticipated potential threats. As an emotion it is experienced as anxiety or concern about a real or imagined issue, usually personal issues such as health or finances or broader ones such as environmental pollution and social or technological change. Most people experience short-lived periods of worry in their lives without incident; indeed, a moderate amount of worrying may even have positive effects, if it prompts people to take precautions or avoid risky

behaviours. Children concern is about things that make them worry, such as being bullied moving hoses, abuseby parents and so on. 3.0 How to use Bibliotherapy? Bibliotherapy can assist children in overcoming problems by having them read stories about characters who have successfully resolved a dilemma similar to their own. Identification with a literary model can foster thought and possible resolution to a problem such as dealing with a separation, illness, death, poverty, disability, alienation, disaster, war, etc. The underlying premise of bibliotherapy is that interpreting stories is an ever-changing process to which children bring their own needs and experiences. Since students often have difficulty identifying and communicating their feelings, stories can serve to facilitate open discussion and selfunderstanding. If children become emotionally involved with literary characters, they are more able to verbalize, act out, or draw pictures describing their innermost thoughts. Use of bibliotherapy is not limited to crisis situations, nor is it a cure for severe psychological difficulties. It may not meet the needs of some children, especially those who are not ready to face their specific issue. Other students may be unable to transfer insights gained from reading into their own life, or may use literature as a form of escape. Yet, these experiences with literary characters have been shown to be beneficial to many children. The goals of bibliotherapy are to help children identify and validate their feelings, realize that other children have problems similar to their own, stimulate discussion, foster thought and self-awareness, discover possible coping skills and solutions and decide on a constructive course of action. There are ten steps that make bibliotherapy a more effective solution for dealing with the issues that a student may be facing, including developing support, trust, and confidence with the student that is suffering from an issue, identifying other school personnel that could aid in implementing the therapy, seeking support from the student's parents or guardians, defining the issue that the student is facing and why the teacher wants to help solve it, creating goals that may help the student overcome the issue, researching books that may help with the specific problem, introducing the

book to all the people that will be involved, incorporating reading activities, and evaluating the effects and successes that the book may have had on the student.

4.0 Conclusion The concept of healing through books is not a new one. This use of literature in this way can be traced far back in history, to the days of the first libraries in Greece (Bibliotherapy, 1982). The first documented use of bibliotherapy as an intervention technique was recorded in 1840 (Afolayan, 1992). In 1916, the term "bibliotherapy" was used in a published article in The Atlantic Monthly to describe the process of presenting books to medical patients who needed help understanding their problems (Crothers, 1916). Today, bibliotherapy is the term applied for the use of fiction to explore; a) children's feelings about self-esteem; b) the experience of living with a chronic condition including disability, and c) the ability to relate to a main character with a similar condition. The rise in popularity of bibliotherapy may be due to the societal and familial problems in the United States; a rise in divorce, alienation of young people, excessive peer group pressure, alcohol, and drug abuse. Tu (1999) provided the explanation that: Through literature, children can understand that they are not alone in encountering problems. In using literature to help children cope with problems, teachers recognize that children today encounter many problems and they can then better understand and relate to children's feelings .Bibliotherapy has thus been used to enhance understanding, self-esteem, and adjustment to a developmental crisis (Morris-Vann, 1983). Teachers can use bibliotherapy in the inclusive classroom as a tool to promote understanding of disabilities for both the challenged and non-challenged students. Pardeck and Pardeck (1994) explained a perspective of interest to this study when they claimed that literature has developed in recent years which is concerned with the pedagogical and curricular issues raised, for example, in connection with the

"urban school," minority ethnic groups, disadvantaged and handicapped groups, and children who live apart from their families. So as a future teacher I think I should used biblitherapy in my classroom. It is because it will make the student can identified their problem easier. They may not realize their problem, but through this method they can learn that they have problem and the teachers will know about it. It will make easier for us to help them.