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Guiding Principles for Teaching Multicultural Literature
Author(s) -
Louie Belinda Y.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1598/rt.59.5.3
Subject(s) - multiculturalism , psychology , multicultural education , pedagogy , reading (process) , schema (genetic algorithms) , mathematics education , teaching method , linguistics , computer science , philosophy , machine learning
When using multicultural literature in the classroom, teachers shouldCheck the text's authenticity Help learners understand the characters' world Encouage children to see the world through the characters' perspectives Identify values underlying the characters' conflict resolution strategies Relate self to the text and critique the portrayal of characters in the text and in popular media Use variants of the same story or collection of stories to help students to build schema Encouage students to talk, write, and respond throughout reading the multicultural textsThe author reports a study in a fourth‐grade classroom in which these principles were applied in teaching four variants of the Mulan story and watching Walt Disney's Mulan video. Data included videotaped records of instructional sessions, transcripts of the sessions, field notes, teacher journals, student journals, and student projects. After a three‐week instructional unit, students demonstrated critical understanding, empathetic understanding, and conceptual understanding of the texts. Teachers of children and young adolescents can apply these principles to teaching other multicultural literature selections.