Literature Across Cultures: Gill

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Gill - Week2

From 2021-2023, I worked as an ELL teacher. I also worked with a curriculum from National Geographic for ELL and it is filled with multicultural stories in it. Stories the students would understand while learning English. In one particular story that had a lot of Spanish words in it. The students giggled as I missed pronouncing the Spanish words. They helped me pronounce the Spanish correctly. I helped them pronounce the English correctly. That story helped my student learn more, because they saw me make mistakes and learned that it was okay to make mistakes and ask for help.

My attitude and belief during that lesson shaped how my students responded and tried so hard. Lowery and Sabis-Burns says,"Individual students' success or failure weighs heavily on the teacher's beliefs, intentions, and personalities rather than the curriculum, material, and class size." (pg. 53). I think we need both. I think our students need stories they can connect to and understand as well as a teacher whose, "identity is constantly evolving, shifting and modified by external context and diverse culture." (pg. 53).

I liked “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, because of the italicized explanations with the stories. The stories connected me to the Kiowa Indians, the explanations connected me to Scott Momaday. I think I could use this story and several others to talk about families and lifestyles. In the 6th grade curriculum there was a book about Vishnu. “The Way to Rainy Mountain” could go along with that story of Vishnu and Aesop Fables to explain lessons taught in stories.

Lowery, R. M., & Sabis-Burns, D. (2007). From borders to bridges: making cross-cultural connections through multicultural literature. Multicultural Education, 14(4),50–54.

Momaday, N. S. (1969). The way to rainy mountain. University of New Mexico Press.

4 comments:

Morgan DibertJune 12, 2024 at 1:59 PM
Hi Regina,
I had no idea that National Geographic had a reading curriculum. That sounds like such a great way to incorporate multicultural stories. Students love to see us make mistakes and try to correct them. It seems like you are making a very safe environment for your students to be in. I am also one to make mistakes and show my students it's okay to do so. I think it helps build that relationship between us and them. I really like the quote you used and how you were able to connect that to your beliefs. As you talked about, I think it is important to show students that we are always changing and learning new things.
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Brenna LJune 12, 2024 at 2:40 PM
Regina,
Personally, I find myself to be more interested and engaged if a story is personal and someone's actual experience, so I think it's great you've been able to teach with personal stories! Especially as a young teacher, from the start I told my students that I would make mistakes as nobody is perfect and that I would also learn from them. I think this important to emphasize no matter the grade level because humans are lifelong learners. Not one single person will know everything there is to know id their lifetime.
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Regina GillJune 13, 2024 at 10:40 AM
Thank you Brenna. You are very right.
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Post Week 6: Article Summaries and Commentary

In this week's reading, you met a narrator who draws the reading into a short story with a decidedly hushed, slower tone. The couple introduced to us has experienced an unimaginable loss. How might that loss be affected by their cultural dislocation? Draw on the supplemental readings as you consider the question.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm. As was the case last week, there is not a set number of responses, but you are expected to demonstrate through responding that you have read and engaged with all class posts.

Week 5: Toward a Social Justice Ethic: What is an American, Anyway?

How do the issues examined in the article affect you as a teacher and as a person living in today’s world? What is the importance of having a voice? Of being heard? Are there differences in your response based on the role(s) you inhabit? Teacher, parent, individual community member, brother, sister, child, global citizen, and more—we inhabit many subject positions. Are there ways to bring those needs/expectations/responsibilities together?

Posts are due by 8 pm Thursday.

There is no set number of required colleague responses this week, but you are expected to read all posts and to respond as class discussion.

Post Week 4: Pre- and Post-Conceptual Perspectives

Some thoughts to help you brainstorm your post: Nineteenth-century travel writing caused those who read about other cultures to formulate their ideas about those cultures directly from the writing, so much so that if a person chose to travel to a country he or she had read about prior to travel, the traveller was often disappointed in the actual country and culture. In our current technological existence, our ideas of what places and people are like can certainly be informed by how they are depicted in text and on the multitude of screens we use to interface with the world. What informs your perspective? How might the ways in which we experience people, ideas, issues, cultures, and so on, be impacted by how we learn of them? Are the benefits and drawbacks to the use of the technology available to us? What might some of those be, and why?

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Responses should be posted by Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 2: The Way to Rainy Mountain

The critical text which accompanies your primary reading for the week explores ways in which we as teachers might use other cultures' literatures in our classrooms to move students from superficial, stereotyped perspectives to a fuller understanding of not only individuals from other cultures, but themselves, too. In your blog post, share with your colleagues how you might incorporate ideas from the article in your own teaching.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Your responses are due Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 1: Questions on Reading

You've been asked to post a question on the readings as your blog post. Here are some ideas to help you get started: You may have noted the publication dates of the readings and wondered why you're reading articles written in 2005. The reason is that the issues raised and discussion in each of the articles are applicable 16 years later. Do you agree? Disagree? Both? Explain why and pose a question to help your reader understand what you find to be the same or different. Or, if one of the two of the readings stands out to you, explain why that’s the case, but also post a question based on what stands out. Or, if something is confusing or problematic for you, what do you find confusing or problematic? With what do you agree or disagree? Be sure your question is open ended so that your colleagues can use it as a basis for discussion.

As you frame your question, be sure to summarize the article, then provide context for your question. Cite the text appropriately.

Questions to be posted by Thursday.

Responses (to at least two colleagues) to be posted Sunday.