Date of Award

Spring 4-13-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Education (MSEd)

First Advisor

Mollie Welsh Kruger

Abstract

Childhood anxiety is explored through the lens of child development as well as children’s literature. The book written for this integrated masters project was created to help engage children around age 5, recognizing that it could be for ages 5-7, in thinking about anxiety. Anxiety disorders in children can take many different forms, but the major distinction between a disorder and normal worries is that it causes stress that disrupts normal functioning. Additionally, read-alouds are a common and beneficial way to introduce children to literature in schools. Young children can learn to read, take another’s perspective, as well as gain comprehension skills through read-alouds. The literature review describes other children’s picture books that help students deal with their worries or other emotional experiences. With the review of children’s literature, the book written for the IMP is placed as a fictional book among the three categories of self-help books, fictional books, and books in between.

Lesley Koplow (2002) discusses the use of bibliotherapy as a means to help students with anxiety. The book written for this IMP can be used as a means of bibliotherapy to help students cope with their worries and anxiety. The book tells the story of a girl named Lucy who must read her story aloud in front of her family and her peers’ families on grandparents day. She overcomes her anxiety about reading to a crowd with the help of her sister Sam. In the end, she is proud of herself and realizes she did not need to be so worried. Use of the book in the classroom is described in this study to demonstrate the ways that teachers can use the book to guide classroom discussions.

Comments

Teaching Literacy and Childhood General Education (Program of study)

Download

Share

COinS