Reading the world, Reading the word: Culturally Relevant Books

1. Reading the world, Reading the word: Culturally Relevant Books Julie Rae Johnson Literacy Specialist & Outreach Trainer Comprehensive Center, Region VI

2. Overview Why use culturally relevant books?

3. Multicultural Education • How do you define it?

4. Identity • Appreciation of their own identity and others • Human dignity, justice and equality • Interdependence of society • From ethnic to national to global

5. Assumptions • It is increasingly important for political, social, educational and economic reasons to recognize the US is a culturally diverse society. • Multicultural education is for all students. • Multicultural education is synonymous with effective teaching. • Teaching is a cross cultural encounter.

6. Further assumptions • The educational system has not served all students equally well. • Multicultural education is (should be) synonymous with educational innovation and reform. • Next to parents (primary caregivers), teachers are the single most important factor in the lives of children. • Classroom interaction between teachers and students constitutes the major part of the educational process for most students.

7. Goals • To have every student achieve to his or her potential. • To learn how to learn and to think critically. • To encourage students to take an active role in their own education by bringing their stories and experiences into the learning scope. • To address diverse learning styles. • To appreciate the contributions of different groups who have contributed to our knowledge base.

8. Further Goals • To develop positive attitudes about groups of people who are different from ourselves. • To become good citizens of the school, the community, the country and the world community. • To learn how to evaluate knowledge from different perspectives. • To develop an ethnic, national and global identity. • To provide decision making skills and critical analysis skills so the students can make better choices in their everyday lives.

9. Immigrant groups

10. Culturally diverse groups • African American • Native American

11. Locating Resources

12. Evaluating Multicultural Literature • Story • Characters • Themes • Settings • Illustrations • Other Considerations

13. Levels of cultural content • Culturally Neutral • Visual information only • People are people • People are different, yet the same Culturally Relevant Books

15. What makes a book culturally relevant?

16. Classroom/Teaching Uses • Themes: • Customs, traditions and culture • Families, friends and community • Overcoming obstacles • Identity • Conflicts • Other?

17. Teacher Resources • International Children's Digital Library http://www.icdlbooks.org/library/basic/index.html • Lee & Low Books http://www.leeandlow.com/home/index.html http://www.americas-stirfry.com/

18. Internet Resources • Teaching Tolerance http://www.tolerance.org/ • Multicultural Literature compiled by NCREL http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/presrvce/pe3lk28.htm • Multicultural Book Reviews http://www.isomedia.com/homes/jmele/joe.html#eianch

19. Summary and where to get more information Bibliography Other sources of information