NCCRESt

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Literature

• A Multicultural Autobiographies Interdisciplinary Course
  Describes an interdisciplinary course on multicultural autobiographies that integrated psychology and literature, requiring students to examine primary texts using analytical tools from both disciplines. Addresses the outcomes and writing assignments, psychological and literary perspectives on autobiographical texts, the students' responses, and teaching observations.
• Books Can Spark Multicultural Awareness
  Asserts that children are naturally curious about differences around them, and it is important to introduce children early to multicultural awareness. Provides a book list and some tips for using literature as a tool to teach children about differences, similarities, acceptance, and the benefits of living in a varied society.
• Citizenship Education and the Teaching of Literature: Lessons and Suggestions from the American Experience
  This essay shows how the construction of literature curricula and the study of literature can contribute to civic education. The paper describes the anti-civic forces now at work in literature programs in U.S.
• Confessions of a Canon-Loving Multiculturalist. School Reform and the Language Arts Curriculum
  Bitter ideological battles exist over hegemonic control of classroom exchange in high school language arts classes. Discusses the debate over the selection of literature that students will read, noting the influence of the dominant culture, the resistance to inclusion of multicultural literature in these classrooms, and the importance of promoting a multicultural emphasis.
• Creating a New Borderland on the Screen
  Discusses a research project at the University of Gent (Belgium) that created materials for teaching literature from a European perspective. Concludes that a global revision of the literature course design should be made in which hypertext and multiculturalism play a key role; illustrates with examples of hypermedia applications for "Don Quixote" and "Robinson Crusoe." (AEF).
• Finding a Voice for the Victimized
  Examines writers' growing awareness of the voices if the victims, exploring the representation of characters who resist subjugating colonial powers and tracing how various past and present authors have represented colonized peoples. By refocusing postmodern readers' consciousness on the violation of rights, authors reeducate and sensitize them to the contrasting voices that speak out against the persecution of those who are different.
• Language, Literature, and Learning in the ESL Classroom
  Argues that English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching should begin with meaning through immersion in literature and incorporate language study. Describes offering an inclusive sampling of North American literature.
• Multicultural Literature in Rural Schools: A Social Studies Unit that Promotes Cultural Awareness
  Presents a study in which 12 multicultural literature selections were used in a unit on families in order to facilitate the cultural awareness of second-grade students who live in a predominately African American, rural community. Discusses the themes that emerged.
• Multicultural Literature, Equity Education, and the Social Studies
  Considers the value of multicultural literature as a means of promoting social development for the greater good of society. Multicultural literature can be used across grade levels and subject areas to promote substantive social development, and it can improve the social studies curriculum by supplementing traditional materials.
• Pro-Claiming a Space: The Poetry of Sandra Cisneros and Judith Ortiz Cofer
  Examines three principles of the poetry of two Latinas, Sandra Cisneros and Judith Ortiz Cofer: the expression of dual language heritage, the highlighting of women's issues as a means of self-affirmation, and the importance of creating time and space for writing.
• Thematic Literature and Curriculum for English Language Learners in Early Childhood Education. ERIC Digest
  The incorporation of age- and language-appropriate thematic literature into the early childhood curriculum can stimulate content-based academic learning for English language learners (ELLs). This systematic approach is particularly beneficial to young ELLs ages 3 through 8, because it provides background knowledge and cultural information along with opportunities to hear, speak, and interact with carefully crafted language in thematic and story contexts.
• Unraveling Multicultural Education's Meanings: An Analysis of Core Assumptions Found in Academic Writings in Canada and the United States, 1981-1997
  Analyzes conceptions of multicultural education found within academic literature from 1981 to 1997. Identifies five key social and educational beliefs that generally have not been subject to academic scrutiny, and suggests that contradictions within the literature may have a potentially destructive impact on efforts to improve intercultural relations.
• Using Multicultural Literature in Gifted Education Classrooms
  Explains the Ford-Harris Matrix model of multicultural education in teaching literature to gifted students. This matrix combines levels of infusing multicultural content (contributions, additive, transformation, and social action) with the thinking processes of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).
• Why Read Multicultural Literature? An Arnoldian Perspective
  Discusses leaving the old canon and creating a new curriculum encompassing more diverse interests. Argues that multicultural literature should be read because it will cause readers to come face-to-face with their own values in a way which will either cause those values to change or cause readers to become more aware of them and more reflective of those values.