By Bhakti Shringarpure, Contributor This is extremely important as the UN reported that 1/3 of the world's major conflicts have a cultural dimension to them. This theme is mirrored in Just One Wish, a lovely story by Sally Rippin (2009) about overcoming diversity. Here are some important reasons to incorporate multicultural literature in the classroom: Multicultural Literature is a Mirror Students need to see themselves in literature because it provides them with a reflection of their own culture. succeed. 634 24 It also presents an accurate representation of the culture it portrays and must be free from stereotypes, or beliefs about a particular group that are oversimplified or based upon generalizations. We all have our favorite tropes and plots but, at the end of the day, we dislike repetition, as in finding similar characters over and over, throughout literature. "Babies" by Gyo Fujikawa is a great example. m?l tik?l t?r ?l?z ?m, m?l ta?-. This may facilitate deeper connections with the books read and train students on critical thinking and empathy early on. Diversity may include the various facets of sexuality and gender, cultural, and societal groups. This is by far the most obvious way to include diversity in a children 's book by making the subject of the book revolve around the concept of diversity. Learn to define multicultural literature, explore its importance, then review books such as 'The Kite Runner,' 'Things Fall Apart,' and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.'. Along their journey, students must make critical choices and learn about the results of their actions. True diversity often means having a boring, normal life and just being an average person. Colorn Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Those feelings can include love, sadness, fear and the desire for fairness and justice. Learning your culture is often more manageable when you compare it to others. Multicultural literature fosters positive self-esteem and prevents students from feeling isolated. It eloquently reveals the external differences and inner similarities that define their lives. Creating a culturally diverse library collection and instilling its use throughout the school curriculum helps to build a school community that is supportive, empathetic and accepting of others. I highly recommend you use this site! Bena Hefflin developed guidelines for selecting quality multicultural children's literature, and Eliza Braden and Sanjuana Rodriguez provide questions for teachers to examine texts with Latino families and stories of immigration that reflect real experiences. America isnt the only country that seems to have this problem; The United Kingdom is another nation that favors the stories of white authors over ethnic Brits. Seeing stories from all types of cultures and perspectives makes it interesting - it keeps us at the edge of our seat. Have you ever had the experience of seeing yourself reflected in a book? One of them A strange psychological effect of multiculturalism as a doctrine or ideology is that it makes people particularly disinterested or insensitive to the ideas or feelings of other people or cultures than their own. ', https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-about-poc-fnn/, https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/, "Mental health comes first": A Principal Shares Her Priorities for This Year (Part 3), 12 Strategies for Creating Inclusive Literacy Celebrations for ELLs, 6 Strategies to Help ELLs Succeed in Peer Learning and Collaboration, Addressing Immigrant Families' Questions and Concerns, Addressing Questions About Immigration Enforcement and Schools, Addressing Student Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression, An "Amazing Race": Building Community at Minnieville Elementary School, Best of 2020: New Resources on Colorn Colorado, Best of 2022: New Resources from Colorn Colorado, Capitalizing on Similarities and Differences between Spanish and English, Choosing Diverse Books for Your ELLs: Tips for Educators, Co-Teaching ELLs: 8 Strategies for Success, Creating Shared Expectations in the Classroom, Discussing Political Violence with ELLs, Immigrants, and Refugees, Finding Diverse Books Across Different Topics and Genres, How Immigration Issues Can Impact Students, How Puppets Are Teaching Kids to "Feel Your Best Self", How Schools Can Help Meet Immigrant Students' Basic Needs, How Staff Can Collaborate on Behalf of Immigrant Students and Families, How to Build Partnerships with Immigrant Families, How to Build Relationships with Immigrant Families, How to Connect Immigrant Families with Legal Support and Advice, How to Increase Access to Diverse Books in the Classroom and Community, How to Provide Social-Emotional Support for Immigrant Students, How to Support Multilingual Families Displaced by a Natural Disaster, How to Support Young Children in Immigrant Families, How to Support Your Childs Social-Emotional Health: 8 Tips for Families, How to Use Technology to Engage Multilingual Families, Immigrant Students' Legal Rights: An Overview, Interview with Henry Sales, Mam Educator and Advocate, Introduction: How to Support Immigrant Students and Families, Keep Asking Until Someone Responds: How a Small Question Had a Big Impact, Lessons Learned from an ESOL Coach's Partnerships with ELL Families, Making Students and Families Feel Welcome, Providing Social-Emotional Supports for Staff, Q&A with Areli Schermerhorn, Peer Evaluator for ENL/Bilingual Education, Q&A with ELL Teacher Dr. Muhibullah Abdur-Rahman, References and Resources: 20 Strategies for School Leaders, Special Education and Your Child: FAQs for Multilingual Families, Strengthening Partnerships with ELL Families: 15 Strategies for Success, Talking About Tough Topics: Tips for Educators, Teacher Appreciation: "The Teacher Who Refused to Give Up on Me", Ten Strategies for Supporting Immigrant Students and Families, The 2020 Election and Beyond: Resources for ELLs, The Importance of Emergency Contact Information, The Invasion of Ukraine: Resources for Educators and Families, The PRESS-In Model: Turning All Students into Readers, Tips for Families: Help Your Child Learn to Read, Unaccompanied Children in Schools: What You Need to Know, Using Books About Immigration in the Classroom, Using Cognates to Develop Comprehension in English, Using Diverse Books to Support Writing Instruction, Welcoming Afghan Families: Lessons Learned from Austin ISD, When Your School Community Is Impacted by a Global Crisis, Windows and Mirrors: Latinx Experiences in Children's Literature, 10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs, Culturally Responsive Instruction for Holiday and Religious Celebrations, Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners, Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: 12 Strategies for Language Instruction, Why Diverse Books Matter: Mirrors and Windows, culture (such as special traditions, celebrations, songs, nursery rhymes, and games), other aspects of identity and lived experiences, show students possibilities of who and what they can be, appear as the protagonist or hero of the story, appear in different kinds of stories, like detective or fantasy stories, enjoy different types of genres, like poetry or science fiction, have experiences they see others having, such as, work in different kinds of careers, like science or engineering, write or illustrate books (or work in the publishing industry), introduce readers to new worlds, perspectives, and experiences, engage readers with important topics and social issues, the number of diverse books published each year still is dwarfed by the number of titles published featuringwhite, English-speaking, middle class protagonists as "the norm". Why? Diversity can be brought out in the character's background, socio-economic status or family life as well. I sat at the kitchen table in my grandmothers house in Florida, flipping through the pages of Jamaica Kincaids book A Small Place. What is an example of a book where you learned from a different perspective than yours? Unfortunately, not all children's literature sends the messages that we want children to learn. So there is a request for an effective solution. If we educate children in acceptance and empathy, there is hope for a bright future. Through multicultural books many young readers are able to make a connection with their own culture or better yet, further explore another culture. Sign up for our Book Deals newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read. It becomes easier for them to accept themselves. In some cases, those books are relegated to a single 'multicultural' bin, even in cases where 100% of the students are African American or Latino." Australian School Library Association [ASLA] & Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA]. My cousin sat across from me and my mother was behind me washing dishes. Evans concluded that exposure to multicultural literature increased students awareness of the various social practices, values and belief systems of other cultures. What Is Multicultural Literature And Why Is It Important? Throughout the novel, Marquez takes the reader on a journey through time and frequently shifts between the past, present, and future. Sometimes I think that because our stories and viewpoints arent being told is why manywhite people have problems understanding our perspectives on things. The Social Studies, 105(2), 69-74. That leads to a tendency to homogenize the . " As recently as 2014, only 10% of children's books featured non-white characters. Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson. It is very important to include multicultural literature in language teaching. 0000002481 00000 n One novel that presents this well is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It can simply mean different ethnic, religious or national enclaves in close proximity to each other. 2.1 Multicultural Literature Helps Readers Be Themselves and Respect Others 2.2 Teachers and Students both Benefit from Reading Multicultural Literature 2.3 Multicultural Literature Constructs Children's Version of the Truth 2.4 Multicultural Literature Prepares Children for a Future in an Increasingly Multicultural World Brave Books, Kirk Cameron Plan Public Library Events August 5; Public Libraries Need to Prepare, Barnes & Noble's 'Best Books of the Year So Far' List Is Here, and It's Got Something For Everyone, 16 Recent Books Reddit Thinks Will Be Classics, Some of the Most Popular Books That Dont Exist, 28 Fascinating, Fun Facts About Books and Reading. With generous support provided by the National Education Association. Derived from the Latin word literature, meaning writing formed with letters, literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination, including poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and in some cases journalism and song. Cultural diversity is important because our country, workplaces, and schools increasingly consist of various cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. It gives readers the opportunity to form different types of sentences, use different structures, and work with different ways of linking ideas. 0 She also talks about what happened when she told her classmates she wanted to try out for the part of Dorothy in the school's production of The Wizard of Oz. 0000003198 00000 n Multicultural literature serves as a powerful tool to enable students to better understand their own culture as well as the cultures of others. What do teachers achieve by integrating multicultural literature into the curriculum? Many experts point out that cultural. Crossing Borders: Multicultural Literature in the Classroom. 1. This is also one reason that using mirror books is such a powerful example of: For example, in an excerpt from Colorn Colorado's award-winning film You Are Welcome Here, filmed in Dearborn, MI, middle school teacher Anna Centi talks about connections her refugee students from Yemen made to Linda Sue Park's book A Long Walk to Water, observing that she has been able to push her students with more rigorous text when they feel connected to the stories they read. 2022 Sandbox Networks Inc. All rights reserved. An article on the BBC Future website about reading fictiondescribes how these questions help readers to identify with characters and evaluate their actions, desires, and goals instead of their own. %%EOF He is ashamed of his father's laziness and lack of productivity. In turn, we can learn more about our own cultures and its values. Whether it is teaching children about diversity through a story of acceptance, or focusing on a child's version of real-life events revolving around diversity issues. With the state of the world today, reading diverse literature can help us push for changes that go beyond the classroom. Tips for selecting quality multicultural literature for the classroom. Children are like small sponges. Landt, S. M. (2006). Amir and Hassan are friends even though they are from different social classes, and throughout the novel, we see the cultural importance of friendship, family, and the division of classes in society. However, the same is not expected for white students when it comes to knowing our perspective. This is an exciting time to be using diverse books with your students given how many outstanding books are being published and how many people are working to increase students' access to diverse book. All rights reserved. Why Diverse Books Matter: Mirrors and Windows | Colorn Colorado (2000). Share various perspectives: It's important to share books from diverse perspectives. By working together to organise units that include culturally-diverse literature, teacher librarians and classroom teachers ensure that multicultural themes are woven throughout the curriculum. This content contains affiliate links. Multicultural literature and a diverse classroom library, even at an elementary level, reflects the stories and narratives of those whose voices have not traditionally been heard. We can also examine the truth, or fiction, behind certain stereotypes and formulate our own views. You can read more about the research supporting the use of culturally responsive instruction from the New America Foundation. Also, it eliminates detachment from ones own culture and rejection of another. Smith, E. (1995). People with different opinions, backgrounds (degrees and social experience), religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientations, heritage, and life experience. 0000005141 00000 n Each new generation of their family represents the cultural and industrial changes of Macondo from a rural village to a modern town. There can be stress, personal problems, too much work, etc. (vii-viii). Building a multicultural school library: issues and challenges. Usually, the subject of such works concerns the humiliation of minority rights. This can help children and teens understand at an early age the characteristics that unite people wherever they live. Even board boards can offer this. Multiculturalism focuses on inclusion, understanding, respect and appreciation of unequal power in society. How could we connect multicultural and global literacy? CC0 Public Domain. These connected stories center on a powwow held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. This resource offers a great extension to the school library fiction collection, especially for bilingual students. What do you think are the impacts for young readers of not seeing themselves in books? So there is a request for an effective solution.
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