Non conclusive Conclusion

Overall I found this exercise and intro into blogging and using RSS Feeds very useful for my own study and research and I see the validity in using this medium in my own classrooms in the future. I know that complaining about the number of feeds and info. about my topic will not solve anything so I am going to keep this blog alive long after the requirements of this class in order to give other teachers and parents and more especially students a place to come to find good and useful information on mulitcultural literature and its uses in the cannons of English and Language Arts classrooms.
Therefore, this is not a conclusion for me at all. I will continue to update this blog to help as many as I can and as I find useful info I will pass it on to whomever wants or needs it.

One word of advice. Do not look to the news media in America to spend much time talking about educating minorities in America. This will be a waste of time. As I have found the mainstream media does not concern itself with assisting teachers with information about educating those that need it most in our country. This is very sad but it is our reality at this moment and everyone that is interested in teaching ALL of their students will need this information so that they don't, in their own classrooms, Leave Any Child Behind.

I shall continue. Thank you for the opportunity and the exposure, see ya on the flip side.

Blogging as a Teaching Tool

While today children are using lots of spaces to talk about anything that comes to mind I think that the sort of blogging that is being done in schools is different and highly beneficial. Let's call this second type "Educational Blogging" since the subject matter is usually focused on the lessons being discussed in the classroom. This type allows students to get away from just writing "boring" papers and really allows them to engage with the material that is being studied and an immediate reaction can be given.
In English classes the added use of RSS News feeds can be a valuable research tool that can broaden the perspective of the young Secondary school learners. This way of researching the web can eliminate some of the problems we have in deciphering the good info from the bad and can be a source of "new" info. on all subjects and can be used in all classrooms. This can be a way also to tackle some of the more controversial issues. With harder evidence and up to the minute news and other comments when using Blog Searches.
There are three hurdles here that I have found so far. One is that when a blog has a topic that may be too specific that the news media is not covering it at the moment and can leave the researcher wanting in good, and new information. Secondly, for the teacher attempting to use this technology the concern should be is adequate time being given to students to who may have none, or limited access to the web at home and may need time during school hours to adaquately search and react to the results. Lastly, I don't think that there should be a "number" of blogs required. This should be eliminated or so low that no matter how specific or general the topic that the student can meet the required posts and that the content should be what is important. Not meeting a minimum number to BS through.
All in all, this should become a highly used tool and can be yet another way for students to react and to interact with the information being taught in their secondary classrooms.

Native American (Indian) Lit.

MEET JOSEPH BRUCHAC
Q: What do you suggest teachers look for when selecting Native American literature?
A: Seek out books that depict characters from a well-defined individual native nation-as opposed to generic Indians. I say this because there are popular books that were written without understanding these specific differences. For example, in Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles — which is a story of a little girl dealing with the death of her grandmother — descriptions and illustrations are totally incorrect for the Navajo culture. And no one in any Native American culture would call his or her grandmother "old one." Books like this are insensitive due to ignorance, not through intention –– but it hurts just as much.
(http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/multicultural.htm#bruchac)


Ok, here is part 2 from the Scholastic website now we can take a look at Native American Lit. Joseph Bruchac is a writer of children's lit and his insights on the subject may be helpful to understanding what we should and should not look for in literature relating to Native Americans. Joseph Bruchac gives the following tips:


Make available books that reveal today's Native American cultures.
Be prepared to talk about the ways in which Native American cultures have influenced world culture.
Talk about values Native American cultures share, such as respect, sharing, and reverence for living things.
Avoid books that suffer from what Joseph Bruchac refers to as "The Dances with Wolves Syndrome" –– books in which all Indians are noble and all white people are bad. Any children's book that builds up one culture at the expense of another ultimately keeps racial tension alive.

I find that everything Mr. Bruchac states, should be common sense except the last statement. The idea that presenting information in and honest light should be first and foremost on any educator's mind. This idea that multicultural equals lying about one's past to show it in the best light is not helpful at all. While I do agree that this should b ethe domain of the history depts, we know that we as Language Arts teachers will be faced with dealing with history as well and we have to be as complete as we can in our depictions of all ethnic groups and nationalities. In this way we can use the multicultural lit. to foster more open discussions in our classrooms.

Most would say that showing only the positive side of Native Americans lives would be better for our youth so that the negative prejudices promulgated by the media and history books will have a counter. But, here I agree with Mr. Bruchac and I say as well that honesty in talking about people in history is a much better practice.

Attempting to buy Lit for or by Minorities

This post is about trying to find YA Lit for or by Minorities in Schuler's Bookstore. Most times finding books of interest large chain bookstores can be a daunting task but if you are looking for Literature for or by Minorities in the Young Adult section you better know titles and authors because you may not be able to find them. While looking for multicultural texts in relation to young minority adults even after spending over an hour looking though the shelves I grabbed someone to help in my search. Now, I know that the people working in the large chains may not be all that knowledgeable about the books that they are stocking but on this day they weren't any help at all. Except for the cashier that commented, "Yeah, I have a hard time finding them here too." This from an employee!

What I was trying to do is simulate a young person looking for something good to read. I didn't find anything. It could have been that there weren't any multicultural titles that made the cut and were facing the potential buyer with anything but the spine of the book. It could be that Schuler's Books doesn't carry titles pertaining to or relevant to minority readers. It could be that the shelves contain these titles but we as readers need to develope special powers to find them.

Now why is it so hard for a young person to find something to read? Most people would say that they look at the book's front cover, flip it over and read the back cover and decide whether they want to read the unknown book or not. I tried this with a few books and outside of the lucky chance that I might find an author with a Spanish last name, finding books in the YA section for minorities was painful at best.

So what do we do? Do we have to depend on the Anthologies, or the pre-made lists of Multi-cultural lit. in books and websites? Do we have to rely on what the librarians find "good" for our diverse societies' needs?

Finding Lit for Black Folks. (part 1)

Here are some things to:

KEEP IN MIND
African-American experiences are diverse and unique. The black experiences of the South do not necessarily reflect those of the North, nor do inner-city situations parallel rural settings. Make sure your classroom library reflects this diversity, as well as that of blacks living in places such as the Caribbean, Africa, and Great Britain.
Reject books with offensive expressions, negative attitudes, or stereotypes. You'll know them when you see them-trust your instincts.
Don't ignore these books because there are no children of color in your class. Books depicting African-American experiences are valuable for all children.

(from How To Choose The Best Multicultural Books http://classiclit.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=classiclit&cdn=education&tm=750&gps=118_246_786_419&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/multicultural.htm)

If we are going to teach literature to Minorities we must find sources in our current, everchanging, body of literature to bring to our classrooms. One site offering insights into what we should and should not choose is the Scholastic website. Above is the link to the complete article found that illustrates some of the choices we must consider for African American students. Let's take a deeper look.

• Relevance - This should be one of the first considerations for any group of students that we are teaching. We should be looking at our entire classroom as diverse and we should not assume that a student that is Black, living in the urban North, will understand the rural south anymore than his white or asian classmate that has little or no experience in this part of the country. Also, we need to consider the times (or setting of our chosen pieces of literature). We must realize that we may have to do some explaining about ideas of overt racism, or ideas about segregation, or marches, or even Jazz. This should be a rich opportunity to bring new ideas to light for your students. On the other hand if we have students that do have first hand knowledge then that should be used to benefit the group's collective learning.
• Global - This area is very interesting because we are being told here that this is important but we don't have this attitude when looking at mainstream English lit in America. We don't take a global view there so why is it important when looking at African American Lit? I think this is a very valid question. The idea contained here is one that is hotly contested even among African American elite. The Black Diaspora, while containing all people in the world with African roots, can be a little ambiguous for American students since we, Americans, do not take a world view yet when educating our children. If this is the case why is it necessary to choose books from all around the Diaspora? While some think that this is important when we look at the issue of relevance for Black students to have a world view and others may find it unecessary for Black students and the rest being American. I find that it is important to take a world view when looking at all literatures. Therefore, this should not be stressed for just our Black Students but this strategy should be employed when choosing literature for all of our students. I think Democracy can handle it.

This is the end of part one check back for part 2.