Bibliotherapy Argumentative Essay

There are many students sitting in classrooms who possess problems ranging from family issues to drug and alcohol usage. Problems which one would think are far beyond a teacher’s control and fall more into the hands of a therapist. However, there are many different approaches to therapy and using books as a therapeutic measure happens to be one of them. Bibliotherapy is defined in simple terms, as the use of children’s literature to explore children’s feelings about self-esteem, the experience of living with a chronic condition, and the ability to relate to the main character with a similar condition. (Iaquinta & Hipsky, p. 209) It is defined in more complex terms as the use of literature to teach about the issues that one personally faces
In-depth discussions would be a proper way to use bibliotherapy in the classroom because often times children are going through things, inner struggles and battles that do not affect their outer appearance. During in-depth discussions, discussions can be brought up such as, “do you agree with how the character handled his/her problem?”, “would you have done anything differently?”, or “if you are faced with a problem such as the main character in the future, could you see yourself handling your problem the same way or would your own approach?”. Journal writing would be an appropriate way to use bibliotherapy in the classroom because often times children keep things bottled up inside and it only makes things worse. During journal writing, students could write about a similar situation that the main character went through that they know someone has faced or that they themselves have faced and how did that situation turn out. The journal writing is to give students and escape with revealing their personal lives to their peers or making them feel