Bronx Masquerade

I love being inspired by small things a teacher can do to change the attitudes of children and the way they feel about school. I think my favorite part about the book was that we were constantly hearing Tyrone's perspective of the previous poet and we watch him grow from listening to others. The very first poet, Wesley, lets the readers know that it is a surprise that Tyrone is still even in school. As each student begins to fill the classmates in on their struggles and their downfalls, they all begin to see each other in a different light. While reading this, I couldn't help but think of the movies Freedom Writers and also the Ron Clark story. If anyone hasnt seen both of those movies- I highly reccomend it. It gives me hope that I can make a difference in the classroom, even by doing something as small as letting the kids read their thoughts outloud.

Inside/Outsider Debate part 2

Wow, today made a lot different of an impact on me than I thought it would. Before class, I was definitely in the frame of mind that insiders do it best, which is why I was originally not thrilled about being placed in the group that was pro outsiders. However, after the quick discussion with my "debate" group, I realized a lot more of the situation than I had really stopped to think about before. During the "debate", I found myself saying things that completely contradicted my first posting on the issue. What was even more interesting was that I actually believed and stood for the things I said. I know this is a short, quick post...but I just wanted to share with everyone how much of an influence other voices are to an opinion or views on a certain topic. I was very pleasently surprised. :-)

Insider/Outsider Debate

While reading these articles, I was surprised to find how much my opinions and views changed with each article I read. When I read Shannon's article, I thought- wow he really knows what hes talking about. And then I went on to Sims-Bishops article and then thought- wow Shannon didn't really know what he was talking about. So I felt very overwhelmed with opinions on the issues at hand. What really stood out to me was during Sims Bishop's article he states, "You have to know a culture intimately if you're going to reflect it accurately in your fiction" (Bishop, 1994). I felt that this statement embodied exactly how I feel on this topic. I do not find myself qualified to write accurate fiction on any other cultural group but my own, and I find it very hard to believe that many authors feel qualified when they do write about other cultures. I think because we are dealing with children's literature, a lot of authors unfortunatly tend to forget about the accurateness of the text because they don't think the children will be able to tell the difference. I really like how Bishop stated, "multicultural children's literature is the asm as children's literature. Why do we need a seperate term?" To a white, middle class young woman, of coarse multicultural to me is going to include an asian, an african american, a hispanic or a homosexual individual or a number of other things that I am not. It is multicultural to me because that is different from who I am and what I know. But to an asian, middle class young woman, I might find that reading a story about a white girl is multicultural to me because it is unknown culture to me. Going back to the debate on insider and outsider, I definetly feel that it is important to know the facts of a culture before stereotypes are simply printed in the story. Whether that means you lived the facts or you have researched the facts, the idea behind the story will refelect an accurate portrayal of the culture. Having lived the experiences you are writing about I feel is icing on the cake. It will make the story that much better because you can tell the story in a way that expresses the emotions of that culture because you know what that emotion is. Emotion cannot be researched or discovered, it has to be personally felt.

What I really want to look more into in class is why some author's like to have it known that they are writing about a culture of their own background while some author's don't publish that idea. Do we think we will assume the literature more accurate if we know it is written by the culture? I would find it very intriguing to read a few children's books that do not include the author's photo in the back of the book, and then determine which book was written by the author of that culture.

First Time Blogger!

Hey everyone my name is Rachel and I am a junior at Michigan State University. My major is elementary education with minors in english and history. I am hoping to move out of Michigan once my student teaching is over, and end up somewhere south (Florida, Georgia, one of the Carolinas would be perfect) and be a fifth grade teacher. I zeroed in on fifth grade for many reasons.

Number 1. That was my favorite grade in elementary school.
Number 2. I had my favorite teacher that year..Mrs. Brown, I want to be half the teacher she was for me.
Number 3. The most interesting and facsinating topics in history I learned in the fifth grade... the colonies, the presidents, and development of the United States.

I am a huge history nerd as you may tell... I spend my time watching the history channel and discovery channel. But I also love love love to read. Ever since I was exposed to Nancy Drew (in a very convenient year...fifth grade) I was known for being caught under the covers with a flashlight and a book in the wee hours of the night. I've since evolved to much more mature texts, many in which i tend to call my "murder mystery/thriller" books. I'm fascinated with criminals and the criminal mind and am convinced if i wasnt going to be a teacher, that I would make the perfect FBI profiler or criminal psychologist.

So thats just a little about myself. I hope to become much more efficient and comfortable blogging, having this be my first ever experience with it. I loved TE 348 and learning a more in depth way to read children's literature. I also hope to learn a lot more about diverse children literature (i hate the term multicultural). Hopefully it will be a good semester!!