Republic of the Philippines

Iloilo Science and Technology University

Miagao Campus
Miagao, Iloilo

TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE ELEMENTRAY GRADES THROUGH LITERATURE (EEd 1)

First Semester 2025

MODULE 8: TEACHING LOCAL LITERATURE

Lesson Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the students must have:
a. identified the existence of local literature in the community;
b. integrated on local literature in teaching literature; and
c. written a mocked lesson plan for a teaching demonstration.

ACTIVATE: ________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION

 Folk literature includes all the myths, legends, epics, fables,

and folktales passed down by word of mouth through the generations.
The authors of traditional literature are usually unknown or unidentifiable.

 These stories have endured because they are entertaining, they embody
the culture’s belief system, and they contain fundamental human truths
by which people have lived for centuries. Knowing the characters and
situations of folk literature is part of being culturally literate.

 Folk literature, regardless of its place of origin, seems clearly to have arisen to meet a variety of human
needs:
1. The need to explain the mysteries of the natural world
2. The need to articulate our fears and dreams
3. The need to impose order on the apparent random, even chaotic, nature of life
4. The need to entertain ourselves and each other

 Their brevity, immediate action, easily understandable characters, recurring features, fantastic elements,
and happy endings particularly appeal to children between the ages of 3 and 8.

 Folk literature can help children begin to develop a sense of morality. It helps children to sort out good and
evil in the world and to identify with the good.

ACQUIRE: ________________________________________________
Folklore depicts the way main characters manage their everyday life events, including conflicts or crises. Simply,
folk literature is about individual experiences from a particular society. The study of folk tradition and knowledge is
called folkloristics. Although some folklore depicts universal truths, unfounded beliefs and superstitions are also basic
elements of folklore tradition.

Types of Folklore
Following are the major forms of folklore:
 Folk song
 Folk tales
 Fairy tales
 Tall tales (kwentong-bayan)
 Ballads
 Folk dramas
 Proverbs, charms, and riddles
Function of Folklore

 convey a moral lesson

 present useful information and everyday life lessons in an easy way for the common people to understand
 sugarcoat the lessons of hard life in order to give the audience pointers about how they should behave.
 pass on living culture or traditions to future generations.
 an expression of self-reflection
 serves as a platform to hold high moral ground without any relevance to present day reality
 In the modern academic world, folklores and folktales are studied to understand ancient literature and
civilizations.

ISSUES IN FOLK LITERATURE

A. Violence

 We can find the prevalence of violence in folk literature, such as foolish and irresponsible little pigs are
devoured, wolves are cooked in boiling water, witches are pushed into hot ovens, characters are mutilated
in any number of ways.
 However, we find no reference to blood and nor is there a great sense of terror. It is a tale of ultimate evil
and the triumph of goodness over adversity. The story is a sad one, but not without hope and not without
justice.
 Many folktales contain violent actions, but few exploit that violence and most leave the details up to the
reader’s own imagination.
 From a Freudian perspective, folktales can provide an outlet for children to release their hostility,
frustration, anger, and fear because 1) the violence in folktales gives children a vicarious means of coping
with their inner frustrations, 2) folktales, through their rich symbolism and evocative story patterns, fulfill
unconscious psychological needs in some children.
 From a perspective of children’s reactions to folktales, it shows that children have a desire to see evil
punished and eradicated from the world once and for all. For example, when given the choice, children
most often prefer versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” in which the grandmother is devoured and the wolf
is ultimately killed, as opposed to those versions in which the ravenous wolf, after inexplicably tying up the
grandmother and tossing her in the closet, is miraculously reformed and promised to be good henceforth.

B. Antifeminism

 In the folktales we often see a depiction of negative female stereotypes (e.g. passivity, subservience,
and fragility) or an evil image of stepmothers, such as those in “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow
White”.
 Many folktales portray women as rather helpless (beautiful) creatures whose futures depend on the
kindness of capable (handsome) men, whom the women must attract by their pleasing appearance and
sweet nature. This perspective became more prevalent through the animated folktales of Walt Disney.
 The presentation of females is distorted probably because men were the earliest serious collectors of the
tales and they chose to record the tales with a male gender bias.
 In recent years, many folktales have been retold or published that reveal positive female role models in
stories. For example, James Finn Garner’s “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life
and Times” (1994) and Kathleen Ragan’s collection “Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters:
Heroines in Folktales from Around the World” (1998).

C. Examples

 Little Red Riding Hood

 Rapunzel
 Cinderella
 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
 Sleeping Beauty
 APPLY: ___________________________________________________
With a group of 5 members, compile and upload a soft copy of local folklore that you know in your locality.
Identify the place of origin of the tales. Guidelines and mechanics are as follow:

1. Use short-size bond paper, with 1” margin an all sides.

2. Use Arial Narrow, size 12.
3. Deadline: December 7, 2020 at 12 midnight.
4. One examples for each:
A. Riddle
B. Poem
C. Legend/Myth

ASSESS: ___________________________________________________
Be ready for your recorded demonstration teaching.

References:
[Link]
[Link]

Prepared:

[Link] JADE N. PEREZ, Ph.D.

Associate Professor V

Enhanced by: Janice Irene T. Noble, EdD