Task 1: Written Assignment.

Discuss how stories can be used to exploit children’s aesthetic, linguistics, cognitive and moral development. In writing the essay, you should also provide examples of appropriate stories and suitable activities that could be used for this purpose.

Using storybooks in a classroom is a very effective way to teach young learners. There

are lots of children’s storybooks that can be found and very relevant with the current situations.

They contain appropriate contents and suitable issues for the children, which can be use to

exploit children’s aesthetic, cognitive, linguistic and moral developments. These developments

are very important for children to help them to create a well-built character.

Aesthetic development is always connected with creativity and imagination in production

of arts. According to Kemp (2009), aesthetics is the process of producing and experiencing art

where there is always a close connection between art and aesthetics. Drawing, coloring,

painting are all categorized as arts. Therefore, to help develop aesthetic values in children,

storybooks with lots of colorful illustrations can be use. Example of storybook that will be

suitable is Animal Fashion Parade written by Christine Barrett. This book has creatively drawn

animals with colorful clothes and dress which is very suitable for young learners to help develop

their creativity and imagination. Plus, this book will also introduce children with colorful arts

which is necessary for children to appreciate arts. From this book, drawing and coloring activity

can be used to help develop children’s aesthetic. Children will need to draw an animal character

wearing clothes using their own creativity. This activity will help children in developing their

aesthetic as it requires the children to creatively draw the character using their own imagination.

As this activity involves drawing and coloring, children will eventually love arts and they will be

motivated to learn language because of its interest value, as well develop an appreciation of the

language (Chitravelu, 2005).

Besides that, cognitive development is also very important for children. Problem solving,

decision making, sequencing, predicting are examples of cognitive skills and abilities

(Michelon,2006). Developing cognitive in children will help them in gaining knowledge and

building comprehension. Stories can be use to exploit children’s cognitive development.

Example of storybook that will be suitable is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This

story is about a hungry caterpillar that eats its way through a wide variety of foodstuffs before

pupating and emerging as a butterfly. From this book, the activity that can be use is predicting

the sequences. While using the storybook, teacher can ask the children to predict what will

happen next. Examples of question that can be use are “what do you think the caterpillar eat

next?” or “how many fruits will the caterpillar eat after this?”. This encourages the children to

make prediction and at the same time it will develop their cognitive skill. Other activity that can

be use is sequencing activity where the teacher jumbles up the plot of the story using pictures

and the children will have to rearrange the plot. This activity help to develop cognitive ability by

practicing sequencing.

Linguistics development is very important for children as it vital for them in order to

motivate them to speak, communicating as well as having conversation. According to Meg

Brannagan (2010), language is an important skill that allows a person to communicate. It is

important for a child in order to adequately exchange information with others in a meaningful

way. Stories are the one of the best medium to help develop children’s linguistics. I Want My

Hat Back by John Klassen is a good storybook to be use for developing linguistic in children.

The story is about a bear searching for his hat by asking his friends animals. This book contains

appropriate words and vocabularies that can be use to teach children. Besides, the sentences

structures are correct and suitable for children to practice in their daily life. For example, the way

the bear questions his friends are very polite and in a good manner where children can practice

using the same sentences in their daily conversation. The best activity that can be use is to

have role play activity. Role play activity will help to improve children’s listening and speaking

skills as well as their communicating skills as they will talk and communicate with each other

using the same sentences in the storybook. This will help in linguistics development by

practicing the children with correct way of having conversation outside the classroom.

Last but not least, stories can also be use to exploit children’s moral development. Moral

development is essentially about learning the difference between right and wrong, and

understanding how to make the right choices (Miller, 2013). At early stage, children cannot

differentiate between the good and bad things as the development doesn’t form independently.

They need guidance from the adults especially from their own parents and teacher. Teacher can

use storybook and use it to develop moral value in children. For example, The Pinocchio by

Carlo Collodi is very to teach students not to tell lies. The story shows the effects of telling lie

where the nose of Pinocchio, the main character become longer whenever he tells a lie. This

will help children to realize and understand how to make right choice. Teacher needs to

emphasize on the effects of telling a lie to others in order to catalyze children’s moral

development. Activity that will suitable to use is to create a different version of the story.

Children will need to change the characters, the place settings and the most important part

which is the different consequences of telling lie to others. At the end, teacher will discuss with

the children and emphasize on the bad consequences. This is to help children to be more aware

and at the same time develop their moral values.

As for conclusion, stories are one of the best medium to develop the four aspects,

aesthetic, cognitive, linguistics and moral development in children. Teacher should be smart

enough to choose the suitable storybooks and fully exploits the use of storybooks in the

classroom and uses it optimally to help children learns and gains knowledge in their life. Good

choices of books will be very useful and beneficial for both the learners and the teacher.

References.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Brannagan, M. (2010, July 14). Why is Language Development Important to a

Child. Retrieved July 31, 2013, from Livestrong.com Website:http://www.livestrong.com/article/

174703-why-is-language-development-important-to-a-child/

Chitravelu, N. (2005). ELT Methodology, Principles and Practice. Selangor: Oxford

Fajar.

Kemp, G. (2009, August 31). Croce's Aesthetics. Retrieved July 31, 2013, from

Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/croce-aesthetics/

Michelon, P. (2006, December 18). What is a Cognitive Ability/ What are Cognitive

Abilities and Skills? Retrieved July 31, 2013, from Shopbrains.com Website:

http://sharpbrains.com/ blog/2006/12/18/what-are-cognitive-abilities/

Miller, R. (2013). Moral Development of Toddlers Two to Three Years Old. Retrieved

July 31, 2013, from Globalpost.com Website: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/moral-

development-toddlers-two-three-years-old-2239.html