Using the Literature Based Approach to Enhance the Comprehension Levels (PART 4)

Literature Based Approach:

Literature-Based Approach instruction is the type of instruction in which authors' original narrative and expository works are used as the core for experiences to support children in developing literacy. (Tunnell & Jacobs, 1989). Literature-based instruction is much more than giving students quality literature; it is doing the authentic things with the literature that all writers and readers would naturally do, and giving students support with these activities as they need it.

According to an article published by Kortner (1999), the members of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) believe that ‘literacy can be promoted by developing children’s joy in stories and by instilling in youngsters an early love of literature through positive contact with books’. (Cullinan; n.d). Within the same article states, ‘Through the use of children's literature in a school reading program, youngsters can enter the world of literature while they learn to read. Works of literature can have an integral place in the earliest stages of a reading program through a teacher's practice of reading aloud [Higgins, n.d].

Some language arts specialists hold that real stories and real characters are better vehicles for teaching reading comprehension than the basal readers and accompanying workbooks [Smith-Burke, n.d]. At the very least, real literature could be substituted sometimes for the excerpts found in basal readers’. 

The Teacher’s role in Literature Based Approach:

With this use of teaching, the teacher's role becomes one of planning and supporting authentic learning experiences. A Literature Based Approach to enhancing comprehension skills not only gets the students involved freely in their learning, it also helps students to get along through encourage group work. It is great for working with groups as well as individually. It provides not one, but a variety of ways and tasks for learning to take place. 

Students and the Literature Based Approach

The major impact and benefit of using a Literature Based Approach is that the student or students may develop a love for reading and feel empowered to encourage others to want to be great and voracious readers as well. Another great benefit is that students are not hindered by vocabulary choices and are not given controlled vocabulary to develop particular reading skills, rather, they are presented with stories and books written as literature. 

Thinking along the routes of the Top-Down Approach to teaching and learning, LBA incorporates this strategy where whole text is reviewed before learning the parts and structures. Fountas and Hannigan (1989) contend that once students understand the general meaning of the whole text, they are better prepared to deal with the analysis of the parts. This was quite debatable as many believe that children are to be taken through the analysis of the various parts and structures before interacting with the whole text.