NCCRESt

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Class Activities

• "Leyendas" (Legends): Connecting Reading Cross-Culturally
  Describes how using the Hispanic tale "La Llorona" can help teachers connect cross-culturally with their students for enhanced literacy instruction. Describes ways "La Llorona" may be used in courses for preservice education majors and in elementary and middle-grade classes.
• Add Salsa to Your Classroom with Young Adult Books about Latinos
  Discusses the use of young adult and children's books about Hispanic Americans as a part of multicultural education in middle school classrooms. Considers interdisciplinary learning activities to explore the history of Hispanic experience in the Americas, and recommends works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anthologies for classroom use.
• Beyond the Boundaries of Tradition: Cultural Treasures in a High School Theatre Arts Program
  Argues that canonical plays must be critically engaged rather than "handed down," with students discovering much about themselves and each other through their own engagement. Describes how a high-school acting class examined the dramatic work of Latino/a playwright for their in-class scene work, and used student experiences to create their own scenes about experiences with prejudice.
• Challenging Students to Respond to Multicultural Issues: The Case-Study Approach
  Presents two case studies that challenge business communication and technical writing students to respond to problems that reflect a multicultural dimension and involve business people whose perspectives, values, and traditions are not Western. Includes discussion questions.
• CIRCA 2000: Curriculum Intervention for Reading Comprehension & Achievement
  Presents an essay that is the result of group-centered activities by graduate students and a faculty mentor in a leadership training program for prospective educational administrators in California. Notes that the class produced some forward-moving and future-thinking core recommendations for reading improvement and achievement in multicultural settings.
• Classroom Multiculturalism: A Closer Look
  Uses field data gathered in two school districts to explore multicultural activity in social studies classrooms. The focus is on the source, treatment, and incorporation of multiculturalism into the lessons.
• Cultural Awareness Education in Early Childhood Education
  A cultural awareness curriculum was implemented in one multicultural kindergarten class in a Los Angeles suburb school. The project, intended to foster ethnic pride and reduce ethnic prejudice, began the first week of school and extended for 2 months.
• Encouraging Students To Analyze/Articulate Their Beliefs about Cultural Diversity
  This paper offers suggestions for teaching high school and college students about cultural diversity and for providing them with multicultural educational experiences. After presenting a background and rationale for such teaching, the paper gives a list of classroom activities, including student reactions to statements regarding racism and affirmative action and a video analysis exercise.
• Exploring the Intergenerational Dialogue Journal Discussion of a Multicultural Young Adult Novel
  Explores the reader response patterns and intergenerational dialogue produced by five high school/university student pairs reading and reacting to a young adult multicultural novel, Gary Soto's "Buried Onions." Concludes that participants offered multiple perspectives, maintained mutual respect for each other's interpretations, and revealed the potential for intergenerational dialogue journal exchanges in the social studies classroom. (SG).
• Improving Literacy Skills through Jamaican-Style Play Building
  Describes a unit that allows students to recognize diversity, understand why diverse perspectives are held, and harness this diversity to improve society. Describes how students use and refine their literacy skills as they first research and report on Jamaica, and then use a Jamaican-created model to build a play that addresses a serious problem in their community.
• Intercultural Communication Activities in the Classroom: Turning Stumbling Blocks into Building Blocks
  This paper explores behavior patterns that inhibit effective communication in everyday, educational, and business cross-cultural settings. Opportunities to change these inhibiting patterns, metaphorically referred to as "stumbling blocks," into building blocks or tools for successful intercultural understandings are discussed in the paper through three structured intercultural simulation activities.
• Introducing Canada: Content Backgrounders, Strategies, and Resources for Educators. NCSS Bulletin 94
  Canada's present role in the new world order and its trade and economic dimensions are clarified in this book. Furthermore, the book explains the intricacies of Canada's history and multicultural heritage.
• Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8
  This activity guide seeks to dispel misrepresentations of Native Americans and build understanding among cultures by offering a hands-on approach to dissecting the whys and hows of institutionalized racism and by painting a realistic and diverse picture of modern American Indians.
• Teaming for Learning Success
  Describes how team teaching benefited two first-grade classrooms, one a bilingual instruction classroom and the other an English instruction classroom, by expanding opportunities for language use and transforming the two classrooms into a more inclusive community of learners as these young children used first and second languages to build bridges to each other and their curriculum. (SR).
• The Power of Poetry
  Discusses poetry and the power it can have in elementary school classes. Considers why poetry is effective and the value of memorizing poems, and recommends multicultural titles for Blacks, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans that can help motivate children to read and write.