Final Blog Post- What Diverse Literature NOW Means to Me!!!

Throughout the semester I realized that I learned A LOT about diverse literature. I think that the biggest thing I learned about diverse literature is that diversity crosses many different areas and groups of people. Before this course I used to think of diversity in specifically cultural terms, however now I think about diversity in a whole new light. Included in diversity are people with disabilities, sexual orientations, and religions along with different cultural groups. I have also learned a great deal about really looking into a book and seeing the stereotypes that it presents. However, I think that I have also thought a lot about and learned how one could use these books and the stereotypes in them to teach about stereotypes in text.

I really enjoyed looking into the text and questioning things that I may have seen as stereotypical or simply just problematic in the text. However, I believe that questioning is a correct term because in some areas there are unanswered questions. Sometimes it is a matter of interpretation if something is stereotypical or not. There were many times in which my groups discussion allowed me to think further into the issues I saw in the text and to see that they may not be as stereotypical as I at first may have thought. On the other hand these discussion also brought up many issues and questions in the novels that I had not even thought of. Overall, I think that I learned a lot about looking deeper into the text that we read and would use in our classrooms. I think this is important because not every book is perfect and teachers can use the imperfections in the text as teaching tools, to make children aware, and as ways of discussion. I also learned that it is important to discuss issues related to diversity even if they may be uncomfortable at first. Going to the MSU museum to see the KKK Quilt, which at first my reaction was “why would this be in a museum”, was a great eye opener into this issue. After going to see the quilt and talking about it I think that I really understood better the reasoning for the quilt being in the museum and I appreciated the quilt as an artifact of history and a artifact to ignite discussion.

When thinking about the literature I would use in my classroom I thought a lot about how important it was to avoid all stereotypes in books that the children would explore on their own. I also thought about how one could use books that might present stereotypical images but with the intention of discussion of those things and how this would be great in a whole class setting. I learned that the literature that I place out for students to view may be different from the materials that I use in class to read together because I think some books are great books to use as discussions but they need to be used in a whole group setting to discuss possible problems with the book or things of that nature with a class. Overall, this course taught me to the important of multicultural literature, but also the importance of the authenticity of the literature that you choose to put in your classroom and the importance of having group discussions on books to share thoughts and ideas about the text.

Reflection Post

When looking at this text set as a whole the picture books discussed show an authentic representation of African American Culture specifically through the author’s use of African American Language in the books. The use of AAL accurately in the narrative and the dialogue in the books, by both insider and outsider authors allows one to see the ways in which authentic AAL can be used in the text. In each text the inside and outsider authors use AAL as a way to add cultural authenticity to the text through the dialogue. It is important that the use of AAL is accurate in these texts and not simply a person’s own person language created through the text. AAL as a language has its own set of grammatical forms that construct the sentence formation of the language. Through this text set we see authors using authentic grammatical forms of AAL in both the narrative and the dialogue which shows that AAL is a language that can be used in both speaking (the dialogue) and in writing and creating stories (narratives).

Overall, I think that the cultural importance of the use of AAL in African American culture is shown through the books in this text set. Through the different styles of writing such as call and response and the different use of AAL in narrative children can learn about the language of the African American culture in an authentic way. The stories in these books are stories that range from users of AAL showing their intelligence, like in Flossie and the Fox, to stories about being proud of ones physical appearance, such as in Nappy Hair. Each of the books in this text set offer insight into the African American culture in both language and in other areas as well and are good examples of the diverse pieces of literature.

Professional Resource Review

In the May/ June 1999 issue of The Horn Magazine, Michelle Martin reviewed the book Nappy Hair written by Carolivia Herron. Martin as an insider to the African American culture shed light as an insider reviewer of her opinion on the book. In the article in The Horn Magazine, titled “Never too Nappy”, Martin discusses both the book and the controversy that surrounds it in a critical review of the text. Martin states that, “Typically a negative term, nappy connotes unmanageability-hair that is too dense to comb with ease. Because hair-straightening chemicals have been widely available to African Americans since the nineteenth century, being called nappy headed (or peasy headed a term derived from peas) often suggests that the nappy-headed person is too poor, too careless, too unkempt, or too old-fashioned to "do something with that nappy hair" (Martin 1). From this she explains why the controversy may have emerged in a school as a teacher used this book in her classroom and the parents of children in her class were offended by the title and topic of the book.

Martin discusses this issue by portraying both sides of the controversy as she shows the negative connotation that people have with the word nappy, which shows where their issues might rise from. However, she also explains that many of the individuals that had a problem with the book had not yet read the text itself. Martin further states, “Herron's book, in the end, affirms that natural, unprocessed Afro hair is wonderful just as it is. Fostering self-love in the children who read these texts, these picture books do not suggest that children should change their hair in any way” (Martin 1). This is a positive thing that the book is trying to accomplish and therefore uses the negative term nappy and sheds positive light on the term as it shows an African American family that embraces the uniqueness of their hair. Martin further goes on to state that, “in some ways Nappy Hair and picture books like it are way ahead of African-American popular culture in that they resist conforming to white standards of beauty and affirm the beauty, versatility, and historical significance of natural Afro hair”(Martin1).

Overall Martins review of the book Nappy Hair is a well-balanced review in that she explains the issues people might have with the book and the reasons behind it. However, she also explains the text and the positive things that Herron as an author does with a traditionally negative view of the word “nappy”. As an insider to this culture Martin offers personal experiences in her review that show her connection to the culture and shed light on her views of this book as an insider.

Martin also discusses the connection between the illustrations and the call and response style of text as she states that “The call-and-response style of the narrative would be less effective without the visual affirmation that Brenda's family is actively participating in Uncle Mordecai's oral tale” (Martin1). Although I agree with the strong connection between the illustrations and the text in this book I feel as though the call and response text is not necessarily made stronger through the illustrations and that this style of writing might still be difficult to understand without background description in it before reading.

The strongest thing I think that Martin’s review did was bring up the idea that this book could be used as a discussion tool. She stated that, “Nappy Hair can help to foster open discussions about ethnic topics that people don't usually mention outside of their own families and communities”(Martin1). This came after a personal description of how as a young adult she had conversations with white people about the similarities and differences in their hair. Although I agree that this book could be used as an important tool for discussions I also think that discussion about the call and response technique and other uses of African American language used in the text could be topics of deeper discussion and discovery for children reading this text.
Overall, this review explained the book and both the positives and negatives that go along with it. She discusses the negative ideas that are associated with the word nappy and how this could result in criticism in the book, however, she also brings to light the idea that the author is using this traditionally negative word and is using it in this instance in a positive light. Martins overall opinion is that people should read the book before criticizing it and she feel as an insider that this is a positive book. My only criticism of this idea is that there may be other insiders out there who do not share the same view of this book even after reading it, and that they might not feel the same way about this as she does. The review also does not discuss other aspects of AAL used in the text of the writing and although it tries to address both sides of the debate over the book it seems to show a rather one-sided opinion from 1 insider on the issue. Martin seems to think she speaks for all insiders in her review and doesn’t seem to reflect on how other insiders might feel differently then herself, due to different life experiences.

Martin, Michelle. "Never too nappy”. The Horn Book Magazine 1 May 1999: 283-288.
Research Library Core. ProQuest. MSU library, East Lansing, MI. 1 Dec.
2007

Final Project Book 4

Joosse, Barbara. Stars in the Darkness. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002.



Stars in the Darkness is a story about an African American boy who lives with his mother and brother in an apartment in the city. The boy is the narrator of the story and is dealing with the issue of his older brother, Richard, who he looks up to and respects, joining a gang. The narrator and his mother decide to rally the neighbors together to fight against the gangs by starting Peace Walks at night to stop the gangs. The story deals with the emotions the boy is feeling along with his mother as they realize that Richard has become part of a gang.

The book is written by Barbara Joosse, who grew up in Milwaukee, and who according to the images on her website she does not appear to be African American and according to her biography she also did not appear to grow up in the inner city. For these reason she would be considered an outsider author for this particular book about African American individuals. On the issue of her writing as an outsider Joosse stated that, "I often write outside of my own experience, drawing word pictures of places or people or activities other than my own. In order to do this, I need to visit those places (whether it is a geographic location or a new activity), record the voices of people who live the story I tell, research and call on a team of expert readers to check for accuracy”. This is an important thing to note when thinking about her as an author because it explains how she does her research to create these authentic books even from a culture that is not her own.

However, even as an outsider author she uses African American Language (AAL) in both the narrative and the dialogue in the book. Since the narrator is an African American boy the narrative text also uses this language. Through the use of words that drop the final consonant, as is a typical grammatical form of AAL, such as howlin’ fightin’ playin’ sleepin’ and nothin’, the author uses this grammatical form used in AAL to add authenticity to the text. This correct grammatical form of AAL as written by Joosse shows the way in which an outside author can also authentically create AAL in text. For this reason I believe that this book is a great example of a diverse literature book written authentically by an outside author and would be great to add to a classroom collection.

Final Project Book 3

McKissack, Patricia C. Flossie and the Fox. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1986.



Flossie and the Fox is a story of a young African American girl who goes to bring her neighbors some eggs and on the way uses her wit to outsmart a fox. As she walks through the forest she meets up with a menacing fox and Flossie makes him prove that he is indeed a fox. She does this by using the physical description the fox gives to identify himself as a fox against him by saying he could just be another animal. For example, when the fox says he has a thick coat Flossie says a rabbit has a thick coat too. This continues as she walks through the woods to her neighbor’s house. The fox gets frustrated in trying to prove that he is a fox and that Flossie is not afraid of him and he gets so wrapped up in proving his identity that he does not notice that he has followed her out of the woods and into a dangerous situation of being chased by a hound. This book follows Flossie and the fox in their trip through the woods and Flossie cleverly outsmarts the fox and the fox tries desperately to prove his identity as a fox.

Patricia McKissack uses many techniques in her writing that add to the authenticity of her text. She uses many grammatical components of African American Language (AAL) that add to the authenticity of her writing. Through her use of the zero copula form, or the absence of the word “are” in a sentence, she demonstrates the African American Language in her text. One example of this is when she states, “I don’t believe you a fox”. This use of AAL in her writing adds authenticity to this book and demonstrated diversity in her writing style. McKissack also uses multiple negation in her writing, such as “I aine never seen” and “you anie no fox” which is also a typical grammatical form use in AAL. These grammatical forms that are typical of AAL show authenticity in the use of AAL in the dialogue and narration in the book. The book also shows diversity in language as the African American characters in the book are depicted using AAL and the fox is shown using LWC (or language or the wider community also known as Standard English). This shows diversity in language types throughout the book. Although some may consider the fact that the African American characters speak AAL and the fox speak LWC as a stereotype, I believe that the way in which the characters speak shows authenticity in language and also goes against the typical stereotype that speakers of AAL are unintelligent in the way in which Flossie outsmarts the fox in the book. This goes against typical stereotypes because the African American girl who speaks in AAL is shown outsmarting the fox that speaks LWC. Overall, I believe that through the use of African American Language and LWC in her book, McKissack creates an authentically written story using AAL and LWC and that this book is a creative and authentic piece of diverse literature.

Final Project Book 2

Herron, Cavolivia, Nappy Hair.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997

Nappy Hair is a picture book written in a unique style of writing known as Call and Response. This call and response story tells the story of a young girl, Brenda, and her Uncle Mordecai’s view of how she got her “nappy hair”. The book talks about this young girl and how proud she should be of her hair because it comes from “the lord” and her ancestors from Africa, and how “one nap of her hair is the only perfect circle in nature”.

This style of call and response is an authentic African American story telling technique in which the characters in the story respond to the narrator of the story. Uncle Mordecai is the narrator in this story and throughout the book the author uses different styles of text to show that another character is speaking in response to Uncle Mordecai. For example in this passage the standard text is Uncle Mordecai and the other text is the response by other characters in the book:

“Brenda, you sure do got some nappy hair on your head, don’t you?
Well.
It’s your hair, Brenda, take the cake,
Yep.
And come back and get the plate.
Don’t Cha know.”

Call and response technique of story telling is an African American traditional way of telling stories and this adds authenticity to the text and the story as told by Carolivia Herron. Herron uses another grammatical form of AAL in her writing as she writes, “ain’t going to be nothing they come up with going to straighten this chile’s hair”. In this passage the author also makes use of AAL in the way in which she uses multiple negation in her passage through the phrase “ain’t going to be nothing”. Multiple negation is also a AAL grammatical style which adds authenticity to the text itself.

The illustrations in this book are done in a cartoon style and depict an African American family and specifically Brenda with her nappy hair. Each character in the book is African American as depicted in the illustrations, including the angels in heaven. Brenda is the character with the nappy hair and her expressions in each illustration depict her happiness and how proud she is of her hair showing through the illustrations that she is proud of herself and her hair. The illustrations depict a multi generational family, all dressing in various clothing some traditional and some modern, and they all have different styles of hair which is an important emphasis of the book and a detail the illustrator considered in his illustrations.

The different techniques of AAL used in the text by the author of Call and Response and multiple negation are grammatical forms of AAL that add authenticity to the text itself. This authenticity in the way the book is written and the accurate use of AAL throughout the text and the illustrations makes this book a piece of diverse literature. Herron also uses the word “nappy” a traditionally negative word used to describe African American people’s hair, in a positive light throughout the book, which counteracts the typical negative stereotypical view of the word “nappy”. For these reasons I believe that Nappy Hair is a unique book that would be piece of diverse literature that could be used in many ways to inform others about African American culture and to ignite discussion about things such as call and response techniques, AAL, and even ideas about nappy hair.

Final Project Book 1

Clifton, Lucille, Three Wishes. New York: Delacorte Press, 1992.

Three Wishes is a story about a young African American girl named Zenobia. On New Years day she finds a penny with her birth year on it on the ground while out walking with her friend Victor. Zenobia believes in the luck of the penny and that she has three wishes to make on the penny. When she jokingly says that she wished it was warm out on that cold winter day and the sun immediately came out, her and Victor began to think that the three wishes might really come true. However, afterwards in Zenobia’s house when she says she wished Victor would go away her second wish came true. After talking to her mom about what she would wish for Zenobia comes up with her last and final wish on her penny.

This story about wishes and friendship is written by Lucille Clifton using African American Language in both the dialogue and narration of the book. Clifton uses authentic grammatical forms of AAL as she uses words such as “somthin” and “walkin” in her text. This grammatical form of dropping the final consonant of the word, known as final consonant negation is a grammatical form of AAL. The characters in the book are all depicted as African American through the illustrations. Through the illustration the characters appear to live in a middle class neighborhood through the neighborhood depictions and the depiction of the way the characters are dressed in the illustrations. Through the use of authentic AAL in the text and the depictions of a middle class African American family this book appears to go against typical stereotypes of African Americans, and uses authentic language to create a story about friendship. Also, the topic of the book is something that could be relatable to children of all cultures, in that the plot is not culturally specific. However, the use of AAL in the text of the book adds cultural authenticity to the text and the African American characters in the book. For these reasons I believe this book is an example of diverse literature that could be added to a multicultural library.

Response to the idea of not allowing the topic of same sex parent families into a unit theme about types of families

After our class discussion on Boy Meets Boy I left class still rather bothered about something that came up. One student mentioned that in her preschool classroom a particular teacher refused to allow her to discuss same sex relationships and parents when doing a unit on families. I am also a child development major and when doing this theme in my classroom I hope that I will be able to discuss all the different family types that are out there, including same sex parents. This lead me to really think about how hard it can sometimes be as a teacher to really teach the things you believe in especially when they may be considered controversial to others. In this particular situation it was a teacher who had more power then the student teacher not allowing this subject in her classroom, in a program that prides itself in being antibias. However, what about in the future when we are all teachers and we want to discuss this type of a topic in our classrooms and the principals and district will not allow it? Or parents have issues with it even after explaining your intentions and the school takes the side of the parents because they do not want to cause controversy? Why should one have to ask the permission of parents to talk about this if it is not in the curriculum? Same sex parents are types of families too that exist and I believe it is important to discuss them if you are doing a unit on families, just as it would be important to discuss different ways people celebrate holidays in a unit of holiday customs. The above mentioned situations are possible situations that could occur and I think that I personally would really struggle with the idea that these families are being denies a voice in schools. I know that in my preschool placement last semester there was a child who had two mothers, and after hearing this I really began to think about how that child would feel if her teacher denied her family’s structure a place in a family unit. Would this child simply not notice? Or would this child at such an early age begin to wonder if there was something wrong with her family because their family structure was not discussed?

Another thing that I began to think about in this situation is what I personally would do if I were ever placed in this situation of having a head teacher not let me discuss something like this. Would I simply conform to her views and think that I will do it my way in my own classroom? Or would I try to argue the issue or go to the head of the school to see if this decision could be reversed?

These are just a few things I began to think about after this discussion. I suppose most of my irritation with this lies in the issues of religion in schools as well and holidays not being talked about or celebrated because it might offend some people. I personally believe it would be more beneficial to students to be educated about other holiday customs in an anti biased way then it is to brush it under the rug. That’s just my rant about these issues does anyone have any other ideas?!?!?!?!

Confessions of a Closet Catholic Discussion

Our group meet Monday at 3:45 and the majority of our discussion on the book “Confessions of a Closet Catholic” was centered around the topic of the representation of the different religions in the book. Since three of the five members of our group went to catholic schools and attend a catholic church we mainly focused on the representation of the catholic religion in the text, since we are more familiar with the customs and traditions of the church we belong to. We then thought about this representation of the Catholic faith and talked about the ways that this depiction might effect those who read the text. While reading the book we noticed some of the descriptions of the catholic religion that did not fit our own person experiences with the faith. Although we commented on the idea that there are many different traditions in the catholic faith and many different styles of churches that choose to emphasize different traditions more then others, so we noted that our personal experiences are obviously not the only ways to practice the catholic faith. The author seemed to frequently mention the ideas of guilt and deadly sins as important to the catholic faith. In my personal experience I do not view these things as essential or important parts of the catholic faith. The other things that we thought were interesting portrayals of the catholic faith that did not really fit our experiences were the idea of kneeling at the alter before communion and the practice of covering your head in a church. These practices are old more traditional catholic traditions which are not typically practiced in the church anymore at least not in any of our experiences. These things lead to a discussion about the idea of how the religions were portrayed and if the catholic faith was accurately portrayed in the text. Since our experiences with the Jewish religion are not as in depth we were not sure if these types of traditional depictions of religions occurred in both cases or not. We thought that is would be interesting to compare the depictions to see if they are both more traditional views or if the view of the Jewish religion was maybe more modern. We thought that this would have an effect on how the book was read because this might show a bias in religion through the parts of the faith that the author choose to emphasize.

KKK Quilt at the Museum further thoughts!!

After going to the MSU museum to see the quilt display and the KKK quilt I really began to think about the ways in which this quilt and exhibit would be a great teaching tool for children. However, I also began to think about the ways in which this display might make some teachers not want to bring children to the museum as a whole. Simply having the quilt on display as it is in the case angled on the wall might draw attention to the particular quilt as of great importance if you were not aware of the reason that the quilt is displayed that way for preservation reasons. After thinking about this and idea of having children go on a museum scavenger hunt I began to wonder what children might think of this if they were not made aware of the display before. Also, since children all come into educational setting with different background knowledge about things they may have many misconceptions about the KKK already and this may simply increase those misconception. As a child was wondering around looking for scavenger hunt items, they might see this KKK quilt displayed and see that the museum is displaying it and see this as the museum stating the KKK is a good thing. This could easily be prevented if the children were given background knowledge about the quilt before they arrive at the museum, however, at what age would this type of a discussion be appropriate. Would first graders be able to understand the complexity of the topic??? Would this simply just make some teachers steer away from a museum field trip while this exhibit is open?? Or would this be a great teaching tool for teachers to use with children of all ages to at the very least discuss what the job of a museum is??? Although I really enjoyed going to see the quilt because of the connection it made to “Witness” and because of the information we learned I simply wonder what this type of a display up would do to teachers thinking about whether or not to go to the museum for a field trip, and what ways you could prepare a class for seeing something like this, even if it is not the point of the fieldtrip to see it.

The Use of Spanish Words in Children's LIterature

When doing the readings for this week I was particularly interested in the way in which Roselinda Barrera and Ruth Quiroa, wrote about the idea of using Spanish words and phrases in literature. They explain in the article "The Use of Spanish in Latino Children's Literature in English: What Makes for Cultural Authenticity?" the ways in which authors can add Spanish words into the text to enhance the text. They stated, "Spanish words and phrases hold considerable potential for enhancing realism and cultural authenticity of English-based text, specifically by creating powerful bilingual images of characters, settings, and themes" ( 247). After reading this article I really began to think about the book "Becoming Naomi Leon" by Pam Munoz Ryan and other books I have read by her and other authors and the ways in which the use of Spanish words in the narrative text adds to my feeling of the authenticity of the text. I personally think that this is a positive took that authors can use when writing to create authenticity, however I think the ways in which these words are used must me carefully considered. One children’s picture book that used this tool of adding in Spanish words in the text is a book called “If The Shoe Fits” by Gary Soto. This book also makes great use of using Spanish words in the text to add authenticity to the text. I used this book in a class of mine before and the children all really enjoyed reading it. We also did an activity so the children could figure out what the Spanish words meant while listening to the story. This activity dealt with teaching the children tactics of using the other words in the sentence of the story or the pictures to deduce the meaning of the Spanish word in the text. I think that this is a very useful way to create authenticity in the text, however, as Barrera stated, “ In order for their (Spanish words) potential to be realized, authors must use these elements strategically and skillfully, and with cultural sensitivity” (247). I think that this idea is very important to consider ESPECIALLY in writing literature for children.

Quotations taken from the article "The use of Spanish in Latino Children's Literature in English: What Makes for Cultural Authenticity?" By Rosalinda B. Barrera and Ruth E. Quiroa (2003)

Red Cedar Book Award

While searching around Richard Scrimger’s web site, I found a note that “From Charlie’s Point of View” was nominated for the 2008 Red Cedar Award. After our class discussion on awards I decided to look up what this award was. I found that this award is actually awarded by the children who read these books. The books are by Canadian authors and the intention of the award is to get children reading books by these authors. There is a web site (Link at the bottom) in which there is a “bookcase” that holds the all of the books nominated. Children who read all of the books are eligible to vote for their favorite book and the book with the most votes is given the award. Children in the fourth through seventh grades are allowed to participate in this.

I thought that after our discussion about book awards that this was a really interesting way to award an author and award. The voters are the children, whom the books are in effect written for, and they get to vote on their favorite. I was curious however, as to how the nomination process for these books happened though. Overall I thought this was a very interesting award and I figured that others in the class might want to look into it too, since it correlates with the awards topics we discussed a few weeks ago.

Link to information about award…
http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/award_ind/awards.php?award=redcedar

Link to a previous years “nomination bookshelf”… (I thought this was a really cool set up)
http://www.redcedaraward.ca/

Link to Richard Scrimger’s Web Site…http://www.scrimger.ca/home.htm

Additional Thoughts on "Charlie's Point of View"

There were a few ideas during our group discussion on the book that we didn't get a chance to bring up in class but that i thought were really intersting points about the book itself. During a discussion about the ways in which the dark black pages worked in the text, one of the students in our group also pointed out the brail at the bottom of each page. She also showed us how it said in brail "Charlie's Point of View". I thought this was very interesting becuase I had noticed the brail at the bottom of the pages, but I personall did not think anymore into it then simply noticing it was brail. I thought that the creative addition of both the brail in the book and the black pages added to the story and helped in the understanding of Charlie's character. There was one specific time when Lewis said to Charlie "look what I found" and as you turned the page and saw black it helped me to realize, on a much smaller scale, what Charlie's character expereiences. I think this was a unique and creative way to help the reader identify with the character a little more, even though the blinedness can not necessarily be shared. When I was reading I remember being so interested in the story and trying to figure out the mystery of it, that as I turned the page and saw the black, when I really was curious to see what Lewis found, I felt a slight sence of the frustration an individual who is blind might feel when people say thinks like "look at that" or "see this" when you infact can not, even if the comments are unintentional.

Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association

The purpose of this Award is to recognize authors and illustrators who create a representation of Asian/Pacific Americans and heritage in a positive way. The selection criteria is simply that the author or illustrate represents Asian/Pacific heritage in an accurate and positive way. The authors and illustrates do not have to identify themselves as being of Asian/Pacific heritage. The organization itself has been established for nearly thirty years, but the American Librarians Association sponsored award is relatively new in creation. There are three separate awards that are given under this title for illustrations in children's picture books, youth literature and adult books. The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association has a section dedicated on their site for the members of the selection committee although it is not made completely clear 'who' the members are. The accolades of the members are given as a quick biography and perhaps in defending their position on the committee, but further information isn't really clear. No picture is given as a representation as to who the members are and that is something that our particular group thought it was interesting that the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association would choose not to give you a face for their organization.Over all, we had a very difficult time finding books in the library that have won this particular award. "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata, "A Step from Heaven" by An Na and "Project Mulberry" by Linda Sue Park were either winners or nominees for this award and were the only ones that were locatable.Our group thought that the criteria for this award sent a positive message in that when considering winners, the committee paid close attention to content verses identity of the authors or illustrators. We all felt that it added an interesting twist to the insider/outsider debate considering that the criteria doesn't specify that the creators have to be of Asian/Pacific heritage or association, but that of the three books that we were able to locate two of the authors were of Asian/Pacific heritage.We welcome questions or comments on this award and wonder what you think about the criteria saying that the authors and illustrators don't have to be Asian/Pacific American, but those are the people who seem to represent the winners of the award as a majority. Let us know!


woopsy thought this saved as a post but i guess not... i just relogged on and saw it was not on here... but here's the awards post now!!!!

My Views on Blogging

When I first heard that we had to make a blog page for class I was not too thrilled with the idea. I had to do a blog before for an english class i took at MSU in which we were required to make one post every week, and I really struggled to think of things to post each week. However, I am really enjoying the way in which the blog is used in this class. I like the way in which we are only required to write a specific number of blogs, not a weekly blog, becuase there are some weeks when there are more ideas I would like to explore then other weeks. I think it is interesting to see all of the views that others have about similar topics and that the blogs are a way to continus the discussions that we have in class, and to bring up new ideas that may have come up after the discussions happened. I really like the way that the class blog has announcements for class related material and this really allowed me to see the ways in which blogging could be useful in the classroom setting. I began to think about the ways to use blogs as a future teacher I could use blogs to communicate with parents, and ways that the children could make posts on the classroom blog as well. I think that the ways in which blogging allows people to communicate and share ideas is wonderful and I am really enjoying the experience I am having with blogging thus far, becuase I am now able to see it as a beneficial tool as opposed to a burdenson assignment that i previously viewed blogging as.

The "Insider Outsider Debate", is there one answer???

I am writing this particular blog entry in response to a class question posed about the “insider and outsider” debate about who can write multicultural literature. I decided to write this blog before I read the articles pertaining to this debate so I could examine my own thoughts on the topic, so that I could compare and contrast them to others, and so I can see other points of view that my resemble or differ from my own while reading.

I think that this debate is very interesting yet complicated because there are many factors that need to be taken into account when considering both sides of this debate. I think that both insiders and outsiders are able to write multicultural literature, however, the quality of the literature depends on the authenticity of it. For me, authenticity does not simply mean that you come from the background that you are writing about, I think it is more complicated then that. My first thought about who an “insider” is, was the more obvious answer, a person from inside the subgroup they are writing. However, after considering this I think that an insider is better described as, someone who has personal experience or enormous insight into the subgroup they are writing about. I feel as though someone who is not from a subgroup that they are writing about, but has done research and carefully analyzed the things they are writing about can write very authentic literature. I also think that individuals who are part of the subgroup can write literature that is not as authentic.

I do not think that simply being part of the subgroup you are writing about allows you to write literature and automatically have it considered authentic. I believe that authenticity comes from the research that is done and the information that is put into the book, both visually and verbally. For this reason I believe that you can write authentic literature as an insider or an outsider.

This also brought up a question in my mind of how do you really know who and insider and an outsider are? When I look at myself personally as an “insider” to the Polish culture, I do not feel as though I could write an authentic piece of literature depicting the Polish culture. However, I do believe that an “outsider” to this culture after careful research and by interviewing members of this group could write a more authentic story about the Polish culture then myself.

There are many opinions about the answers to this debate and I think that each individual author, each topic, and each individual piece of literature are different and should be treated that way. I do not think there is a cut and dry answer that only insiders can write about their subgroup, but I think it is important to look at the literature, and to look at reviews from both insiders and outsiders on the content of the book, before making a decision on the authenticity of the literature.

I would really like to look more into ways to find out what other "insiders" say about particular pieces of literature. I think it is important to find reviews of books from individuals on the "inside", but I would like to look further into ways that this can be accomplished and different opinions can be combined to come to a gereral conclusion on a book from the "insiders" whether the book was written by an insider or an outsider.

Introduction to my Blog

My name is Ashley and I am a senior at Michigan State University majoring in Child Development with a concentration in Language Arts and I am in the College of Education. I have created this blog for a course I am taking entitled TE 448 which is a course on Diversity in Children's and Adolescent Literature. I am interested in diverse literature becuase I believe that it is very important for children to learn about themselves and about others through reading. I also think that diversity in literature is important becuase there is diversity in the world around us and this diversity in everyone should be represented in the classroom as well. Throughout this course i would like to explore and learn more about the question of authenticity in diverse literature and the question of inside and outside writers. I think that these questions are important in finding appropriate diverse literature choices.