Literature's Effect on Classroom Writing In today's schools where writing is used as a means to promote clear thinking, it appears that reading a variety of literary genres has a related positive effect on writing. The children's compositions reflected the writing models in their texts. Students exposed regularly to various literary forms seemed better able to use different literary forms in their own writing. Eckhoff concluded that the students' writing was affected by their reading models and recommended that teachers provide students with a variety of literary models. Folktales One genre that might be effective as a beginning point, and is particularly enjoyable for children, is folktales.
Folktales often start with real people, good guys and bad guys.
As the exploits and the events of these people are told and retold, usually the original story is modified to make it more interesting or more humorous. As people told these tales around the fireside and in local cafes and restaurants, they became more eyepopping or sidesplitting to impress the listening audience. They are spoken stories, not written ones. Now, of course, we may read folktales because they are collected in books, but their language remains folksy, talkable, perhaps regional. Most modern-day folktales now originate on radio or television.