NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

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United States Literature

• Applying Multiculturalism to a High School American Literature Course: Changing Lenses and Crossing Borders
  Describes a nine-week, secondary-school, language arts unit on the American dream with an emphasis on multicultural issues, particularly as they concern those students who are apathetic about or resistant to the multicultural program. Reviews specific lesson approaches to "The Great Gatsby," "Baseball in April," "Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World," and other works.
• Changing Hearts, Changing Minds: Encouraging Student Teachers to Use Multicultural Literature
  Investigates the problem of why preservice teachers are disinclined to teach noncanonical multicultural literature. Gives particular consideration to the need to help teachers develop strong rationales for teaching ethnically diverse literature that will sustain them through the resistances they will inevitably encounter to a multicultural agenda.
• Redefining "American" and "Literature": Bridging the Borders with "La Llorona."
  Describes the authors' experiences teaching the "weeping women" archetype in the oral tale of "La Llorona," and involving students in the tradition of story telling and folklore. Shows how these activities helped to redefine "American" and "literature," to link diverse cultures and communities, and to introduce students to literary terminology and critical approaches.
• The "Tesoros" Literacy Project: Treasuring Students' Lives (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes a project in a southeast Michigan high school in which Latino English-as-a-Second-Language students worked collaboratively for 10 weeks with at-risk working-class Anglo counterparts from an 11th-grade American literature class. Describes reading and writing activities that centered around the notion that students should search for and value the treasures of their own experience.
• Who's New in Multicultural Literature Part Two (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes the Multicultural Project at a high school in Colorado that uses literature by people of color in the 11th-grade curriculum. Presents brief descriptions of four Latino/a and five Native American writers and their works.
• Who's New in Multicultural Literature, Part One (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes how a multicultural unit was added to a high school American literature course, noting that this necessitated selecting a large number of new books for the school library. Discusses goals of the multicultural project and its main interpretive assignment.