This document provides an overview of teaching literature to children and young adults using the picture book "The Red Tree" by Shaun Tan as an example. It outlines the general aims of analyzing students' perceptions of the world, increasing self-esteem, and fostering imagination. It then describes contextualization activities, discussions, and assignments for students related to themes in the book like hope, feelings, and interpretation of images and phrases. Assessment criteria focus on linguistic adequacy, thematic appropriateness, aesthetic attractiveness, and personal experience.

1. TEACHING LITERATURE TO
CHILDREN AND YOUNG
ADULTS
TOMÁS M. COSTANZO

2. • LITERARY TEXT: THE RED TREE
• AUTHOR: SHAUN TAN
• ILUSTRATOR: SHAUN TAN
• GENRE: PICTURE BOOK

3. GENERAL AIMS
To analize
students’
perceptionof the
world
To increase
students’ self-
esteem
To foster students’
imaginationand awareness
of their inner world

4. Topics Themes
Hope
- Life is a quest for meaning
- In the end, we will all be able to solve our
problems
- There is always something that can give us peace
- The most important things in life are not easy to
spot at plain sight.
- We perceive the world according to what we feel

6. Contextualization

8. What feelings do you
associate withthe color
red? Why?
Do you think that
feelings change our
perception of the
things around us?
Why?
When I feel sad the
world looks like
What does the world look like for
you when you feel sad?
Discussion

9. Contextualization
Which is the color that
defines you and why?
The color that definesme is

10. Development

12. The book is based on
images and phrases to
suggest feelings, for
each of these phrases
state which is the order
in which they
appear(e.g. first,
second, third) in the
story and say wether
you agree or not with
the autor’s statement
and why.
Phrase Order of appearence I agree/don’t agree
because…
The world is a deaf
machine
Terrible fates are
inevitable
An things go from bad
to worse
Nobody understands
And the day seems to
end the way it began
Now watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrmMFFpKxgw&t=245s
1)

14. GROUP DISCUSSION
- What do you think the red tree represents?
- Do you think it is important for us to
have a red tree? Why or why not?
- Did you notice the red leaf in each image of the book? What do
you think it represents? Is it related to the introductory phrase
taken from the author? Why?

16. Match with an arrowthe phrase withthe corresponding image and state a possible meaning for that image
Sometimes the day starts
with nothingto look
fowardto
Nobody
understands
Terrible fates are
inevitable
Darkness
overcomesyou
Meaning
Meaning
Meaning
Meaning
2)

18. Design a picture that describes how you feel today and think of a phrase that describes it

19. Closure

21. In the book the authoruses images of
surreal landscapes to represent abstract
ideas. Take a look at these landscapes
and compare themto those of the book.
Describe themby using a phrase that
defines them.
(Vladimir Kush)
( Salvador Dalí)
1
(Max Ernst) (Yves Tanguy)
(Dorothea Tanning)

23. Think about that color that defines you and design your own tree
2

24. LINKAGE TO OTHER AREAS
- Art
- Literature
- Psychology

25. CRITERIA FOLLOWED
- Linguistically adequate
- Thematically appropriate
- Aesthetically attractive
- Personal experience reasons

26. VALUE OF THE PROPOSAL
- ( Personal) Themes are of interest to teenagers
given their worries related to the age
- ( Pedagogical)To develop student’s ability to
express themselves as regards speaking and
writing competences
- ( Pedagogical) Useful to teach students about
the essential aspects of life

27. HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/SURREALISM
Bibliography
Puchmuller A./Asensio M./Quiroga
L./Collado A./Fessia R ( 2014) Think
Outside the Box. Editorial Dunken
Tan S. ( 2011). Lost and Found.
Scholastic.. New York
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th
e_Red_Tree_(Shaun_Tan)
http://www.shauntan.net/books/
red-tree.html