NCCRESt

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Literary Criticism

• A "Tempest" Project: Shakespeare and Critical Conflicts
  Describes a 4-week unit of study that focuses on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," a text that has been especially controversial in today's climate of increased multicultural awareness. Involves students in a larger conversation about the possibilities for reading and interpreting literature and prepares them to write mature analyses of the play.
• A Critical Review of Ann Rinaldi's "My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, A Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880."
  This paper critically reviews the book, "My Heart Is On the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, 1800." The review begins with a profile of Captain Richard Henry Pratt who founded the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Indian Industrial School in 1879.
• Addressing Race, Class, and Gender in Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Are Watching God": Strategies and Reflections
  Describes an educator's attempt to raise multicultural issues in the classroom through a course centered on Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Are Watching God." Maintains that educators have a responsibility to raise issues of cultural diversity in learning communities that provide ways for student to engage in thinking that expands their world views. (TB).
• Commitment to Change: The Council on Interracial Books for Children and the World of Children's Books
  The Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC), founded in 1965, was formed to promote and develop children's literature that adequately reflects a multiracial society and to effect change in media portrayal of minorities. Past critiques by CIBC of "The Cay" (Theodore Taylor) and "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Harper Lee) are highlighted.
• Preservice Teachers' Discussion of a Multicultural Young Adult Novel
  Explores preservice elementary teachers' literature-circle discussion of a multicultural young-adult novel with a focus on two research questions: how preservice teachers discuss a multicultural young-adult novel, and what are the views and theories that informed their understanding of literature response discussion. Participants in the discussion adopted either a literary analysis stance or a personal association stance.
• Toward a Literature of Difference
  Contributes the first steps in the establishment of literary standards produced from readings of children's texts that are culturally different in form and context. Discusses instances in which the role of the literary critic comes into conflict with the responsibilities of the multicultural educator.