Thursday, January 24, 2013

Chapter 11- Diverse Perspectives in Children's Literature

Chapter 11- Diverse Perspectives in Children's Literature-

 

First and Foremost lets take a minute to think about the diversity here in our SW Florida schools. 

It is incredible to see the different cultures in our classrooms. This chapter discusses schooling and its different perspectives in children's literature. What is that? The definition of perspective is:  The ability to perceive things in their actual interrelations or comparative importance: tried to keep my perspective throughout the crisis. 

When teaching in our classrooms, we have to be flexible to students different perspectives. In my opinion, it is very hard for a student to be completely wrong answering a open ended question, due to the students different and diverse perspectives. As we know, diversity means "to see other cultures and life experiences" Pg. 305, text. 

Multicultural text is very important in the classroom. The need for multicultural literature, pg.265, text, allows us to better understand the United States as a nation. It is very important to incorporate literature in our classrooms that deal with different nationalities and cultures. To read about a Hispanic family and their lives, puts us in a place where we can be sympathetic to others and their experiences. This is important because it is a way that we can have our students connect with one another in our classrooms. 

What caught my eye in this chapter was the different categories of Multi Cultural Literature on pg.311 of the text. The text defines these categories as follows:

Culturally neutral- Books that include culturally diverse characters, but topics are not related.
Culturally generic- Books that focus on diverse characters but also include different cultures from the larger American culture.
Culturally specific- Books that incorporate specific, culturally authentic details that define the characters, plots and themes. 

These books go from neutral to specific on a spectrum of general to specific. What I learned in studying about these different focused books is that the full range of books in the classroom is necessary, because the different ranges in books offer a different spin, and emphasis of the different cultures.

Above is a short video example of the bonus that the students get in learning by teaching diversity through children's literature in the classroom. I would use videos like this and the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A5V0w0TMCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU4uWL9qXLc
as a segway to reading and talking about different cultures and the diversity in the area in which we live. I think it is a great way to introduce a unit, connecting to the different ways the literature can be interpreted as well as discuss the different views from different readers.

To further study about the different perspectives in children's literature, I have incorporated some great print resources to follow:

Ada,A. (2003). A magival encounter: Latino children's literature in the classroom (2nd ed.). New York: Allyn& Bacon.

Bishop,R. (2007). Free within ourselves: The development of African American children's literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Bothelho,M., & Rudman, M.(2009). Critical Multicultural analysis of children's literature: Mirrors, windows, and doors. New York: Routledge.

Cowhey,M. (2006). Black ants and Buddhists: Thinking critically and teaching differently in the primary grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Day,F. (2000). Lesbian and gay voices: an annotated bibliography and guide to literature for children and young adults. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 

Dozier, C., Johnston, P., & Rogers, R. (2006). Critical literacy, critical teaching: Tools for preparing responsive teachers. New York: Teachers College Press.

Dyches, T. (2008). Teaching about disabilities through children's literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Gebel,D. (2006). Crossing boundaries with children's books. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Henderson, D., & May, J. (2005). Exploring culturally diverse literature for children and adults: Learning to listen in new ways. Boston: Pearson.

Reis,S. (2002). Book bridges for ESL students: Using young adult and children's literature to teach ESL. Lanhan, MD: Scarecrow Press.

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