Stevenson Blog 1
After reading both articles, it was clear that I connected the most with Multicultural Literature and Discussion as
Mirror and Window? By Jocelyn Glazier and Jung-A Seo. As I read, I was frustrated initially and then as I continued
to read, I made several connections to my life as a student, teacher, and parent. When Glazier and Seo began with
saying that the students in the majority have their voices stifled, my frustration began. Unfortunately, the connections
I made at this point were negative. It made me think of the current culture where we are limited as educators on who
we can include and whose voices can be heard. Once I continued to read, the frustration faded and I made more
positive connections. One connection that I made combined my negative and positive connections to the text. When
I was working on my undergrad, one of my instructors assigned culture boxes for us to compile and share. The
entire class was made of white females who were all from the midwest. At first, we had the same feelings as the
authors described the majority having. I felt like I didn’t really have a culture to share. The instructor made all the
difference in how we approached this feeling and because of her, I feel more comfortable identifying my culture.
She explained that we all have things that make us who we are. We had discussions about our beliefs, traditions,
recipes, family roles and expectations, etc. We filled a box with representations of our culture and shared them with
the class.
I think that there is validity to the authors’ claim that the majority’s voices are stifled when we discuss
multicultural literature and the comparison to viewing the text through a window versus a mirror. What strategies
have you used or could you use to help your majority students discover that we all have culture and guide them to
view multicultural literature through a mirror as well as a window?
Glazier, J and Seo, J. (2005). Multicultural literature and discussion as a mirror and window?
Hi Mandy!
ReplyDeleteI love how honest you were about how and what you were feeling while reading this article. I, too, had a hard time thinking about the limitations we have set by the government and how we can't teach certain things or have certain discussions. I remember at the beginning of the year when our administration said that to be on the safe side, we couldn't give any surveys that ask any personal questions. Right away, the entire elementary staff wanted to know if we could do the interest inventories that are so popular to get to know our students.
I would love to know more about the culture boxes you brought up and what that structure looks like. The question you posed at the end is wonderful and now has me thinking about what strategies I have used... I really think integrating as many different books with different family dynamics, races, and cultures is the strongest strategy I have used. This led to wonderful discussions with my 3rd grade students. What do you think you have used to accomplish this?
Thank you for sharing! Sam
I have been out of the literacy role for a bit, but one of the strategies that I have used in the past to make connections to cultures and our own was creating a growing anchor chart in our classroom while reading. While reading Esperanza Rising, we added terms (in Spanish) and traditions to the Esperanza column. We then translated the terms into the languages present in my classroom. After that, we added a few similar traditions and cultural events that students have similar to Esperanza. One of the connections that they made was the blanket Abuelita taught Esperanza to make. Some students were able to connect that to the quilts their grandmother made out of old baby clothes.
ReplyDeleteI like the activity you used while reading Esperanza Rising (good book!). I'm glad you brought this particular text into our discussion because it's an excellent example of a voice to add to our originary narrative. During the junior year in high school, a course commonly taught is a joint/block history-English study. I don't know if you're familiar with the course. Anyway, when students get to the Great Depression, they are STILL reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which many students find really hard to read. What if they add Esperanza Rising so that students get Esperanza's perspective in addition to the perspective in Steinbeck? That would add a voice to the narrative, that of the migrant Mexican. What do you think? Would students benefit from an additional perspective (and a more recently written text)?
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