The use of storytelling through J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in the fantasy genre for young learners
— Priscila Mateini, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Paper given 13 February 2021 at Tolkien Society 2021 Winter Seminar
The aim of this paper is the use of storytelling to introduce fantasy genre in the context of children literature. J.R.R. Tolkien works have a range of sources to teach children through fantasy and fairy tales to develop reading and writing skills. Since a child has the interaction with those books, the possibility to create and engage themselves throughout the readings can be very significant to become a vivid readers in the future. Storytelling has been part of some schools curriculum, what allows the teachers work some readings materials as well as creative writing for Young learners.
The research has been working as part of engagement in a project based learning pilot in a private school in Rio de Janeiro, where the use of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels and tales have been empowering young learners to write their impression about the extracted parts from — Treebeard song from The Lord of the Rings and “Leaf by Niggle.” Those two pieces were worked with students in the 6th and 7th grades during the pandemic, in an online format (virtual classes) as part of exploratory practices in the field of Literature and English studies.
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