Friday, September 16, 2011
Bishop article and multiculturalism
I especially enjoyed reading the Bishop article this week focusing on incorporating multicultural literature in the classroom. I have learned about various multicultural texts in my past children's literature courses, but out of all my resources, the Bishop article touched on every aspect and controversy. Yes, it is important to incorporate multiculturalism in the classroom, but it can be a tricky task. For example, Bishop explained that there are risks to evaluating and selecting texts for a classroom. One must be aware of the book and what it has to offer. Is it reliable? Is the information valid and relevant? Where are the sources coming from? If a white teacher wrote a book on mexican culture, some of the information can be misguided considering they have never experienced that culture first hand. Yes, research may be done, but who is to say that research is legitimate? While I agree that it is important to educate students on the diversity of our world, especially our own country, we have to be careful in doing so so we do not offend anyone or give out the wrong ideas and facts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you that incorporating multiculturalism in the classroom is a lot harder than it may seem. Its so important that the teacher has a reliable way to get his/her information, like you said, so that children are not misguided in any way. I think a good way to do this is to have kids from that cultural background at question share about their experiences, which are very real and reliable.
ReplyDeleteHey Girls! I just wanted to apologize for not having been on this blog yet. I have had a combination of confusion and horrible forgetfulness. I talked to Dr.Handsfield to let her know that I had not contributed yet. I can't figure out how to post officially, is there any way I could get another invite to this blog space?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, here is my post for the week =].
SPELLING
Reading about the spelling stages in Flint really challenged my understanding of how children (especially young children) learn. I think it is very important to recognize that young children learn in stages, and that we cannot expect complete understanding at a young age. I asked a question in class about how to approach correcting students with misspellings - and I loved Dr.Handsfield's answer about being sure not to over correct. I think it is very important to acknowledge these spelling stages, and teach our students (future) based on the understanding that they are working through them.