Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dong Article

In the Dong Article, the main idea is that teachers should include more Multicultural Literature in their teaching repertoire in order to expand their own knowledge of cultural differences and in turn teach them in the classroom. I think this is an extremely important because of all the different cultural differences in the world. We must understand these differences in order to accept them. No other way is as accurate and effective in getting across these multicultural differences than literature. Using this multicultural literature in the classroom will help children understand these differences from different cultures at an early age and will set the groundworkfor them to be able to realize and accept these differences throughout the rest of their lives. Basically, if teachers use more multicultural literature in their teaching routine, there will be a greater amount of understanding among students when it comes to the differences and similarities among various cultures. In Esperanza Rising and Copper Sun we learn of Mexican Culture and African Culture. These two works introduce to us different traditions, foods, ceremonies, celebrations and other aspects of the two heritages of the main characters. By reading about all of these differences from our own culture, we learn to understand and accept them, successfully broadening our understanding of different heritages and their traditions.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Is it good enough to teach?

In my opinion, these three books are definitely worth teaching. Copper Sun introduces students to an in-depth and very accurate description of the horrors surrounding the slave era. This time period was a very important era in histry and without learning about the horrors, we will not be able to understand them and learn from them. Copper Sun helps adolescents understand just how awful the slave trade was and by doing so, not only educates them on the history of the trade, but also will help keep it from happening again by doing so.

Harry Potter and Twilight are also very important because of their large impact they have had on pop culture during their time as well as the values and lessons taught in both novels. Both of these books had a massive impact on the world with their vivid descritions of magic and fantasy. They both took the world by storm and made "Harry Potter" and "Edward Cullen" household names. However, their great role in pop culture is not the only reason they should be taught, they also teach strong values.

Harry Potter teaches adolescents about the importance of friendship and trust. Harry's friends are the most important people in the world to him, since he is after all, an orphan. In Twilight, the value is love and to not judge people for simply being different. All of these values are important to the growth of an individual and they legitimize these books to be worth teaching.

Based on the article, we have to want to or need to teach it, in order to make it worth teaching. These three books must be taught because of their impacts they have on the teaching of values, education of slavery and history, and the effect they had on pop culture, growing into some of the biggest phenomenas in history. Thus, making them good enough to teach

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Copper Sun

Copper Sun was a real eye-opener to the slave trade of the early years of the United States. Being a Pan-African Studies minor, I have taken many classes, read many books, and written many papers on the treatment of African-Americans during this time period. However, even though this book is a fictional work, it is the only book I have read that has been so personal with the treatment of slaves, describing Amari's feelings along with smells, sights and sounds of the slave trade. Most books I have read deal with the slave trade as a whole, describing the poor conditions in general, rather than going in depth and explaining them individually.

While the conditions of the slave trade along with simply the idea of slavery in general has always made me feel sick just thinking about it, this book really hit my emotions hard because it put an imaginary face on the treatment through Amari. I remember watching the mini-series Roots when i was in High School, and the way slavery was shown in the series seems very similar to how slavery and the slave trade was depicted in Shannon Drapers book.

As a whole, being very educated on the history of the slave trade, and even Fort Mose, i thought this book was very accurate in the description of the conditions and treatment of slaves. I do, however, wish that the ending of the book, when every person they encounter on their way to Fort Mose (Irish woman, doctor, Spanish soldier and the red-headed boy) was willing to help them, was more accurate. Given the time period and the setting, most people probably would not have helped them given the possible consequences of doing so, making this one of the most unbelieveable parts of the book.