Out of curiosity, I looked at the website of Adarna Publishing - http://adarna.com.ph
to see if there were any news or article that I could use for my Children's literature subject. I found out that they have provisions for parents and kids, teachers and librarians and literacy advocates.
As I explored the headings under Teachers and Librarians, I found out that they make it possible to have a diverse of activities for kids such as:
- Author and Illustrator visits
- Book report suggestions
- New Library Titles Suggestion
- Book Fair Invites
- Class Kits and Lesson Plans
Their sample lesson plans are for free, and I have thus downloaded some samples that could be useful in the method of teaching Children's literature. Mostly it involves Storytelling. Hopefuly I could someday use it in real life.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
An Epic Site
Wanting to see if there are some materials for "Bidasari" in the internet, I have come across this site on Filipino culture:
http://kapitbisig.com/philippines/arts-and-literature.291
It contains Tagalog and English versions of classical Filipino tales like Ibong Adarna, Rizals Noli and Fili as well as fables, poems, songs, legends, epics, and even declamation pieces that would really be useful in teaching Children's literature.
Hopefully I'd come across more and more sites like this ^_^
http://kapitbisig.com/philippines/arts-and-literature.291
It contains Tagalog and English versions of classical Filipino tales like Ibong Adarna, Rizals Noli and Fili as well as fables, poems, songs, legends, epics, and even declamation pieces that would really be useful in teaching Children's literature.
Hopefully I'd come across more and more sites like this ^_^
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Philippine Folk Tale Books: The tale of the Heavenly Bodies
Last Tuesday, I have started looking for online materials that could help expand my search on Mindanao Children's literature, and I have come across several books with the help of my trustworthy friend, Mr. Google.
Mr. G had helped me look for several bookson the subject of Philippine folk tales:
Philippine Folk Literature: An Anthology by Damiana L. Eugenio
Philippine Folk Tales (luckily I was able to get a copy of this book from www.forgottenbook.org)
Filipino Popular Tales (Large Print Edition) - Dean S. Fansler
These Google books were accessible enough, although some pages cannot be readily accessed. The problem I have noticed with these copies is that when I clicked on the Find a Library button, they could only link me back to foreign libraries. This made me think that the materials are only available outside the Philippines. If that is indeed the case, that would really be something. How ironic to see so much Philippine-based books that are only available internationally!
One interesting thing I keep on seeing on the stories contained in these books are the tales about the heavenly bodies - the moon, sun and the stars in particular. I have seen so many regional versions of the story focusing on these three main characters.
I remember as a kid the story of how why the moon and the sun never meets. It goes something like this:
Once there lived the happy heavenly family. The father, the sun, is a strong and good provider. His wife, the moon, was a loving and caring mother, and their numerous little kids, the stars were a noisy and energetic lot. The sun would go out in the morning to look for food, while the moon would be in charge of the house and of taking care of their star offsprings the whole day. One such day, the sun came back tired from work. Thinking that his loving wife would be there with his warm dinner, he opened the door and happily greeted his wife. To his amazement however, he saw that the house was in disarray and the children were crying from hunger and turning the whole house apart. When the sun asked them where their mother was, they said that she (hmm... I had really forgotten this part so I will therefore innovate..) has gone out with her friends. This made the sun mad, so he resolved to wait for his very responsible wife and to give her a piece of his mind.
The confrontation did not go so well (as it often does) and the sun ended up hitting his wife. Disgusted and extremely furious, the moon packed her bags, woke up the all their children and fleed from her husband, taking all her little babies with her.
You could just imagine the astonishment of the sun when the next day came and he found himself alone. Immediately, he felt sorry for what he had done and in vain he tried to look for the moon. Unfortunately, she could never forget how his loving husband had treated her that night, and so she would always go from place to place, never resting, ad never letting her husband catch them. That is how the day and the night came to be in existence.
When you think of it, this legend does not explain why the eclipse takes place. Is it a sign that the moon is about to forgive her husband? Is the sun speeding up his chase? Why wouldn't the stars rebel against their mother? Don't they ever wish to see their father again?
Perhaps I need to find out more how each version goes so that I could for a relationship amongst each region's version, and if my questions would be answered...
Mr. G had helped me look for several bookson the subject of Philippine folk tales:
Philippine Folk Literature: An Anthology by Damiana L. Eugenio
Philippine Folk Tales (luckily I was able to get a copy of this book from www.forgottenbook.org)
Filipino Popular Tales (Large Print Edition) - Dean S. Fansler
These Google books were accessible enough, although some pages cannot be readily accessed. The problem I have noticed with these copies is that when I clicked on the Find a Library button, they could only link me back to foreign libraries. This made me think that the materials are only available outside the Philippines. If that is indeed the case, that would really be something. How ironic to see so much Philippine-based books that are only available internationally!
One interesting thing I keep on seeing on the stories contained in these books are the tales about the heavenly bodies - the moon, sun and the stars in particular. I have seen so many regional versions of the story focusing on these three main characters.
I remember as a kid the story of how why the moon and the sun never meets. It goes something like this:
Once there lived the happy heavenly family. The father, the sun, is a strong and good provider. His wife, the moon, was a loving and caring mother, and their numerous little kids, the stars were a noisy and energetic lot. The sun would go out in the morning to look for food, while the moon would be in charge of the house and of taking care of their star offsprings the whole day. One such day, the sun came back tired from work. Thinking that his loving wife would be there with his warm dinner, he opened the door and happily greeted his wife. To his amazement however, he saw that the house was in disarray and the children were crying from hunger and turning the whole house apart. When the sun asked them where their mother was, they said that she (hmm... I had really forgotten this part so I will therefore innovate..) has gone out with her friends. This made the sun mad, so he resolved to wait for his very responsible wife and to give her a piece of his mind.
The confrontation did not go so well (as it often does) and the sun ended up hitting his wife. Disgusted and extremely furious, the moon packed her bags, woke up the all their children and fleed from her husband, taking all her little babies with her.
You could just imagine the astonishment of the sun when the next day came and he found himself alone. Immediately, he felt sorry for what he had done and in vain he tried to look for the moon. Unfortunately, she could never forget how his loving husband had treated her that night, and so she would always go from place to place, never resting, ad never letting her husband catch them. That is how the day and the night came to be in existence.
When you think of it, this legend does not explain why the eclipse takes place. Is it a sign that the moon is about to forgive her husband? Is the sun speeding up his chase? Why wouldn't the stars rebel against their mother? Don't they ever wish to see their father again?
Perhaps I need to find out more how each version goes so that I could for a relationship amongst each region's version, and if my questions would be answered...
Monday, November 29, 2010
Mindanao Children's Literature: The Search
When Mr. Villafania, my Children's Literature professor, asked us to make some research on local Children's Literature, I never thought that it would mean bringing home a sea of books and xerox materials to work with. Now that it has turned into a baby thesis, I am now faced with the challenges of immersing myself into a truckload of paper stacks and books!
To be honest, I really do know very little about local children's literature. My knowledge ends with the monkey and the turtle story and the many legends about how the different race were created. It is quite interesting for me to find out that there is indeed an abundance of materials for local stories, but the spreading out, the circulation of these materials is its weak point.
Now we are tasked to do exactly that - compile stories that had circulated around the Philippines so we could help strengthen awareness for children's literature. I remember when I was little, I used to glue my eyes day in and day out on the television screen because it was my only source of children stories. We have very little books at home, and since i am the only one that is truly interested in them, it actually seems surprising that I turn out to be a book - lover.
I think, somehow, what we are, what we become is part-destined and partly influenced by hereditary and environmental factors. Just like mutation - it could happen sporadically. Maybe I am a cause of some mutation from my family's genes.
Regardless though of whatever my love for literature's origin, I STILL need to finish typing and researching and reading and screening for my work. Hope I make it through!
To be honest, I really do know very little about local children's literature. My knowledge ends with the monkey and the turtle story and the many legends about how the different race were created. It is quite interesting for me to find out that there is indeed an abundance of materials for local stories, but the spreading out, the circulation of these materials is its weak point.
Now we are tasked to do exactly that - compile stories that had circulated around the Philippines so we could help strengthen awareness for children's literature. I remember when I was little, I used to glue my eyes day in and day out on the television screen because it was my only source of children stories. We have very little books at home, and since i am the only one that is truly interested in them, it actually seems surprising that I turn out to be a book - lover.
I think, somehow, what we are, what we become is part-destined and partly influenced by hereditary and environmental factors. Just like mutation - it could happen sporadically. Maybe I am a cause of some mutation from my family's genes.
Regardless though of whatever my love for literature's origin, I STILL need to finish typing and researching and reading and screening for my work. Hope I make it through!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Introductions
Writing is actually similar to falling in love - you cannot help yourself, and no matter how you desperately run away from it, you find yourself falling, succumbing to its qualms.
Needless to say, this love-hate relationship I have with writing is the reason why I am here, taking up some English major subjects in the hopes of getting a masters degree. He had won me over - writing, and though I had tried running away from it in the past, I still end up seeking him, reeling back into his trusted arms, though our future together seems bleak and unsure.
Thinking back from when I was little, it was the precise love for life that made me love literature. I have created an alternate world that would help me escape realities that so confines and limits man, not knowing that it would in turn haunt me. For I guess life and literature are great mirrors of each other. So long as I could turn to it, I am alive and able.
Now as I readily embrace it, I feel that I am still unsure of my future with him. But when I reflect on how I could help others, especially children, to see and appreciate life like I did through literature, then I know within my heart that I am satisfied that I am choosing to finally follow the route to my own Ithaca.
This blog is a witness of my journey through Literature. I hope I make it through the end.
Needless to say, this love-hate relationship I have with writing is the reason why I am here, taking up some English major subjects in the hopes of getting a masters degree. He had won me over - writing, and though I had tried running away from it in the past, I still end up seeking him, reeling back into his trusted arms, though our future together seems bleak and unsure.
Thinking back from when I was little, it was the precise love for life that made me love literature. I have created an alternate world that would help me escape realities that so confines and limits man, not knowing that it would in turn haunt me. For I guess life and literature are great mirrors of each other. So long as I could turn to it, I am alive and able.
Now as I readily embrace it, I feel that I am still unsure of my future with him. But when I reflect on how I could help others, especially children, to see and appreciate life like I did through literature, then I know within my heart that I am satisfied that I am choosing to finally follow the route to my own Ithaca.
This blog is a witness of my journey through Literature. I hope I make it through the end.
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