Diverse Perspectives in Children's Literature

The second chapter I chose to read for my “Fab 4” was chapter 11, Diverse Perspectives in Children’s Literature.  The reason I wanted to do this chapter for one of my fab 4 was because I wanted to learn about different views of children’s books.  Diversity can include culture, language, religion, social class, exceptionality, and family structure. Other cultures and life experiences is important in developing children’s perspective, insight, and possibilities as the progress to becoming citizens of the world.  Programs that do not acknowledge and accepting multicultural diversity are ineffective and must be eliminated in teaching. As I was reading this chapter, it listed a few teaching connections, which included, social studies, role-play, paintings, scavenger hunts, family trees, and a map search.  In my classroom to teach diversity, I would chose activities that were hands on and had practical learning experiences.  I would also allow my students to become actively involved in the learning process.  On activity that I would like to do is create a passport.  I think creating classroom passports is a good way to learn about other cultures.  I would first teach my students about cultural differences, as well as geographical differences.  I would have the children create a small mini-book out of construction paper and then after teaching about a place I would ask the students to dress up as if they were from this particular place and have an accessory item from the country.  I would take their photos and then place them in their passports.

Some examples of diverse perspectives in children’s literature:

The Colors of Us by Karen Katz (Grades 1-2)

This book shows through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, and how she discovers the differences and similarities that connect all people.

Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children (Grades 3-4)

The author and photographer, shows the variety of black children by comparing their skin, eyes and hair to positive everyday images like peaches, brown sugar, chocolate, ebony, tiger's eye etc.

Mismatch by Lensey Namioka (Grades 5-6)

Sue Hua just moved from racially diverse Seattle to a suburban white-bread town where she feels like the only Asian American for miles. Then she meets Andy, a handsome and passionate violin player who happens to be Asian American. Sue feels an instant attraction to Andy, and her white friends think they’re “made for each other”–after all, they both use chopsticks and eat a lot of rice, right? But there’s just one problem. Andy’s last name is Suzuki. And while that may mean nothing to the other students at Lakeview High, Sue knows that it presents a world of problems to her family.