Final course Blog

This course has really opened my eye's to many different issues of diversity. If I hadn't had taken this course I would still be thinking about issues of diversity in a way that isn't right. The first issue that was brought up in the class was the issue of insider and outsider writers. I had never taken into consideration before this course that it mattered. While choosing literature to read about a certain group for myself I never bothered to look to see if the author was an insider or was knowledgable. I just looked at the book and believed to an extent that the writer knew what he or she was talking about. Now I understand the importance for texts to be written by an insider or someone knowledgable about the group so that stereotypes and misconceptions can be prevented in writing.
This course has really opened my eyes to the effects of literature that I used to think of as diverse actually being hurtful to the people depicted in the stories. I understand now how important it is to make sure when you're writing or picking out literature for a classroom to consider if the text if offensive. A way to do this is to research the topic and the author to make sure that the author is an insider or is informed. This will help to prevent possible problems with teaching a book. It is imposibble to write a book that has no stereotypes or misconceptions about a people, but writers should try as hard as they can.
Before this course I thought that diverse literature was literature about different ethinic groups of people. I was partially right except its a lot more involved. The literature needs to be an accurate representation of those peoples portyrayed. Insider writers and writers that had researched the topic were usually better representations of the peoples in the stories. Also, I didn't realize that GBLTQ literature was considered diverse literature and that there was such an array of diverse books out there for GBLTQ readers. I hope that when I am a teacher I can bring diverse literature into my classroom and be able to successfully teach my students. I hope to help promote understanding and accecptance for all people.

Text Set Reflection

The books I collected were, The Castle on Hester Street, Rebecca’s Journey Home, A Mezuzah on the Door and Witness . All these stories depicted characters and issues important within the Jewish faith. Overall, the authors depicted stories about Jewish issues and concerns at different times in our history. The common theme of family and friendship ties this text set together.
The theme of family and friendships occurred in Rebecca’s Journey Home, The Castle on Hester Street and A Mezuzah on the Door. These books center on the importance of friends and family in different ways. In Rebecca’s Journey Home, the importance of acceptance of a new family member is stressed in that book. In The Castle on Hester Street, the importance of love of your grandparents and your heritage is involved in this book. In A Mezuzah on the Door, the lesson is learned that your friends and family are always close to your heart even if they are really far away. Witness was the only book in my collection whose main theme did not appear to be friends and family.
From this set of texts the reader can better understand the Jewish culture and relate that culture to their own lives. The reader, if not Jewish could learn about Jewish traditions and their meanings. This could promote more understanding for the Jewish religion from people of other religions. It’s important for children to be exposed to diverse literature, like Jewish literature, at a young age to prevent stereotyping and to promote understanding and acceptance of all people.

Critical Resource

Feminism and point of view in Karne Hesse’s Stowaway and Witness By Wendy Glenn

Glenn, Wendy. "Consider the Source: Feminism and point of view in Karen Hessse's Stowaway and Witness." BNET.com. Winter 2003. ALAN Review. 22 Apr 2008 .

Glenn’s review of Karen Hesse’s novel Witness focused on the themes of feminism and points of view, rather than religion. According to Glenn, “this novel continues to question patriarchy, it distinguishes itself from other works in her body of fiction in the use of point of view other that that of the first-person female protagonist” (Glenn). She describes how Hesse explores gender issues but also provides a look at patriarchal culture from multiple points of view. This critic feels that this aspect strengthens the feminist pulse that beats in Hesse’s earlier works.
She believes that feminism is portrayed because the women appear to be the stronger characters, while the men are portrayed as weaker. “The men fall prey to the Klan’s rhetoric, believing involvement will help them to garner or maintain power”(Glenn). The women disagree with the KKK from the beginning of the novel while many of the male characters are still thinking about it as a possibility. “ The novel’s women, however, see through this rhetoric and stand against the values of the Klan. Not a single female character in Witness chooses to associate with the Klan; each seems to discern and reject the deceptive tactics used by the group to recruit members”(Glenn). This is representative of the feminist thought. The women in the novel don’t have the same rights as the men, but they do understand the difference between right and wrong. By showing the female view points the reader sees that women are strong and have opinions. This book empowers women from different races and cultures, through a story about women who stand up to the KKK when their male counterparts don’t.
Upon reflection I realized that the themes of feminism is a more relevant theme than religion as Glenn suggests. The diversity in Hesse’s novel are important because the author is trying to empower all women. The author of this resource admits that Hesse took a risk in straying from her typical first person, female protagonist that she has had in her other novels. By having an array of characters, they serve as her voice box allowed her to get her message in this book across without stating her opinion (Glenn).

Witness

by Karen Hesse
(Hesse, Karen. Witness. New York: Scholastic Apple Paperbacks, 2001.)

Witness by Karen Hesse, describes a town that kicks out the Ku Klux Klan after a number of mishaps with the townspeople. This book follows three children and eight adults that live in this town. Each is affected in their own way by the KKK. Ester, a six year old Jewish girl, and her friend, Leanora, an African American 12 year old feel the least safe in this town. This book is organized into five acts and can be performed. Each person in the act has a free verse that they speak. Each character has a specific way of talking which allows the characters to come alive. The reader is able to get the views of different characters in less pages because each character speaks as the story unfolds.
The author of this novel is Jewish but doesn’t include any Jewish traditions in the novel at all. While, two of the characters are Jewish, and are harassed by the KKK , the main theme is not centered on being Jewish. Positive Jewish content is limited in this book. Most references to Judaism occur in a negative or labeling way. This book tells a great story, its not a story to help the reader deepen their understanding of the Jewish faith.

A Mezuzah on the Door

A Mezuzah on the Door
By: Amy Meltzer and Illustrations by Janice Fried

(Meltzer, Amy. A Mezuzah on the Door. Minneapolis: Kar-Ben Publishing, 2007.)

A Mezuzah on the Door is a story about moving away to a new home and missing familiar people and the little things that make a home. Noah is a young Jewish boy who learns about the comforts of friendship even when friends are far away. The family celebrates a Hanukkat Habayit to celebrate their new home that they recently moved into. They invite all their new and old friends to come and celebrate by placing the Mezuzah on the door to the house and on all the doors to their rooms. After the Hanukkat Habayit, Noah is able to sleep in his new house not feel lonely.

Meltzers book centers on the Jewish tradition of dedicating a new house. The reader gains knowledge on how to perform this ritual as well as what it means for Jewish people. This book enlightens a non Jewish reader on this very special tradition and provides insight into its purpose.

People of all religions can relate to Noah’s experience of moving to a new home. People move all the time and struggle with missing their old home. The underlying theme in this book is that even though someone moves away, people close to them are always close to their heart and won’t be forgotten. Diversity is limited in this story because there are no non Jewish characters.

The Castle on Hester Street

(Heller, Linda. The Castle on Hester Street. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1982.)

The Castle on Hester Street follows the story of a young Jewish girl listening to her grandparents explain how they arrived in America from Russia. Julie’s grandfather tells an elaborate, over the top depiction of their voyage to American and life once here. Her grandmother keeps her grandfather grounded by explaining how it really was to arrive in New York City as an immigrant.
The illustrations in the grandfather’s depiction of the events were bright and exciting, while her grandmothers depictions were gloomier. Heller leaves the reader wondering whose depiction is correct. This story includes aspects of the Jewish faith in subtle doses. People that are not Jewish could easily relate to this book because many immigrant families went through the same hard times to survive as the characters in this book. It gives insight into the struggles not only of the Jewish immigrants, but what immigrants from all backgrounds faced while coming to America during the 1920s and 1930s.
Heller’s, Sydney Taylor book Award winner, tells the story about Jewish people from Russia where they left because they were being persecuted and attacked. He does not depict Jewish people in a negative or overly positive way. It just shows that this family is just like any other immigrant family struggling to survive so that future generations can live a better life.

Boy Meets Boy

Boy meets Boy was the first GBLTQ text that I have read. At first I was a little shocked by how open the author was about the main characters sexuality right from the beginning. While reading this novel I thought that the number of gay characters was out of proportion from any high schools that I have ever heard of. In my high school there were some openly Gay, bisexual and Lesbian students but not as many as were open about it with functioning relationships. I think that the portrayal isn't the most accurate in terms of the amount of GBLTQ students at that one school. Another aspect of the book that I found to seem inaccurate is the author didn't show any of the hardships that the students went through, like being teased or questioning their self worth. I am not gay but i would think if I was in high school I would have a tough time coming out to my friends and parents. In this book the main characters were open with the entire school and their family and almost everyone was accepting of their relationships. I think that in real life its much harder for a GBLTQ to come out and not be affected by other people judging them. The aspect of the novel that I found to be successful was how the novel showed emotional relationships the characters shared rather than physical. Sometimes in gay novels, emotional relationships aren't developed and the characters are just expressing themselves sexually. This novel could be used as a gateway for straight people to understand that gay people share the same feelings that they do for other people. This novel could also show gay people that there is a chance to have great relationships and there is hope for a future without prejudices.

Confessions of a Closet Catholic

Today in class there was a lot of great discussion about Confessions of a Closet Catholic. In my small group we discussed if this book would have been appropriate to use in a classroom setting. I think that this book could be used in a classroom setting if the appropriate measures were taken. There should be some lengthy discussions before as well as after about the book. If there are good discussions then children can get a lot of new insight. Other people in my group felt differently. Some felt that it should never be read in a classroom setting. This is because religion is a tough concept to cover. Its hard to find a book that portrays a religion correctly so nobody gets offended. Even in Closet Catholic there was some debate as to if some of the practices were accurate representations of the Catholic faith. I am not Catholic, so I didn't pick up on those inaccuracies. While I was reading I thought that the author did a great job portraying the Catholic faith through the eyes of a 12 year old. This discussion really made me wonder if there are ANY books that are diverse that don't offend anyone. Is that even possible?

Project Mulberry

Project Mulberry was a very interesting read for me. In our class discussion a text from India was included in the Asian literature that Claire brought in for the class. This sparked the discussion of who qualified as being from Asia. I know that I never had thought that India, Pakistan and other surrounding countries made up Asia. I only thought countries such as china, Japan, Korea etc made up Asia. The idea of being not knowledgeable about certain cultures and then to just assume where they were from was an issue that was brought up in the book. Mr. Dixon, an African American, was guilty of this. He assumed that Julia was from china just because she was Asian. I as well as many other people are guilty of making assumptions of where people are from based on their appearance.I think the reason that many do is because they haven't taken the time to understand cultural differences between groups of people.

Another issue that was a big issue in the book was the issue of racism. Julia's mother was the character that I noticed as being racist and Julia didn't like her mother's views about her African American teacher and Mr.Dixon. I had to wonder if being raised by a racist would cause the child to be racist. I have to also wonder if Julia would grow up with some of the prejudices that her mother has projected upon her about certain groups of people, like African Americans.

Personal Philosophy

This class connects to my professional goals in a number of ways. This class has given me insight into many of the issues of diversity that are in children's books today. Class discussions and the books we have read have opened my eyes to the issues that surround diverse literature. It is important for people to read diverse literature because it makes people aware of other cultures that they may have misconceptions about because they have never read a story by an insider from that group. Reading diverse literature opens people up to new ways of thinking about topics and groups of people that they may have never thought of from that perspective. My philosophy on multicultural education is probably similar to many of my classmates. I think that it is necessary that people grow up learning about different groups of people and different perspectives. By learning about different perspectives and groups of people hopefully it can promote more respect for others. Looking from a teachers perspective I know that it is impossible for people to be open to learning about different perspectives that differ from their own but I know that if I promote respect for people from different groups and perspectives that I can have an impact on many more students.

Al Capone Does My Shirts

Al Capone does my Shirts is my favorite book that we have read in this class. I really could relate the situations in the story because one of my sisters is autistic. I understood how the family felt and it seemed like quite an accurate depiction. In our class discussion we discussed the use of language that people use when describing people with disabilities. I found that discussion particularly interesting. I think that its interesting how many people fail to realize by calling someone mentally retarded is actually a very mean term. When people with impairments are being spoken about, their impairment is said before their name. This is something that isn't Politically correct. The person's name should come before the impairment. This made me think about the language that was being used in the book. The only words that described Natalie, were stupid and retarded only a few times. I was surprised about this especially when this book was written about the 1930s.This led me to question if this book was written back in the 1930s would the language used to describe Natalie change and become more negative.

Book Awards

Today in class we had a discussion about children book awards and if having awards for different minority groups was a good idea or not. I had never realized that the Calidcott and other awards like that were so limiting in who was chosen for the award. When reflecting back on the readings, I agree with the Pinkney article more than the Aronson article. Pinkney makes a good point that the awards are meant to showcase the work of different minorities that may never win a Calidcott or other well known award. The children of these minority groups are then more able to see successful writers that come from the same backgrounds as they did. I think that having these awards like the CSK award and the Schneider Family book award are allowing minority authors a chance to be recognized for their work. Having these people in different miniority groups shows children that people like them are writers and are successful. This could possibly lead to more writers from different backgrounds in the future. Also, by having these awards it allows people from different backgrounds to easily find great pieces of literature about different groups of people that are possibly well written.

introductory post

I am really interested in taking this course. I can't wait to read some of these books that we are going to be reading throughout the sememster. When I was in school I never really had the oppertunity to read about some of these "controversial "topics. I think it will be a good experience and I will be able to expose children in my classroom to these great books when I begin teaching.

Insider/outsider Debate

I think that books written by insiders don’t necessarily show a accurate a representation of a particular culture. Even though someone might be an “insider” it doesn’t mean that they know all the facts and know how to successfully represent thier group accuratly. Everyone is biased in some way shape or form even if they think they aren’t. This can cloud someone’s depiction of a certain group including their own group they are writing about. If an outsider has the knowledge and a more unbiased view of people than an insider, the written work they produce could be just as informative or even more informative and accurate than a story that was written by an insider. As a teacher how do we figure out how to distinguish between which books are a fair representation of a specific culture if we know nothing about that culture?