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DURING AN INTERACTION WITH A fifth-grade male student, I asked him why he appeared not to be interested in the stories I read to the class. I will never forget his reply: "There ain't no Little Red in my hood, and if I catch one of 'dem little piggies, I'm gon' have a Bar-B-Que." While his response made me chuckle, we continued to discuss why he did not like fairy tales. His comment suggested that he did not view fairy tales in the traditional ways.
This conversation concerned me, because fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs, are often used to teach across the curriculum, not just to develop literary behaviors. Therefore the student's lack of engagement could lead to boredom at the very least, and academic failure at worst (Hale, 1994; Irvine, 1990).
This suggested to me a need for more contemporary themes in reading material for some readers. It moved me to explore the pedagogical implications of the selection of children's literature, as well as how that literature and literary response (Rosenblatt, 1978) may be used as an instructional tool to increase literacy success and initiate social action. When I introduced a more contemporary version of the tale, he added to his response a discussion of the things that Little Red could have done to protect herself, what her grandmother could have done differently, and what the neighborhood could do to get rid of the wolf.
As an elementary school teacher, I always found a small group of students in my classes who were not the least interested in the suggested children's literature listed in the core curriculum. Like my young student, these students were most often African American males who scored very low on the standard measures of literate behaviors. As an African American educator and member of a society that has expanded the repertoire of literacy necessary for full participation, I know that a mind "turned off" to literature is a mind often ignored in traditional classrooms, and therefore a mind that will have fewer venues for expression.
In light of the ways that contemporary events are so shocking that they "shut our mouths wide open" in silent response, the use of contemporary realistic fiction,...