Tanya+Sykes+Riff+(part+1)

Tanya Sykes Literature for Young Adults Michael Sherry 2/9/11    Riff Part 1: Ethnographic Research ** __ Multicultural Literature in Adolescent Literacy __ ** ** Multicultural literature  ** Multicultural literature can be described as literature that portrays racial or ethnic groups aside from the “white Anglo Saxon” majority that currently reside in the United States. (Norton) ** Why teachers teach multiculturalism in literature:  **  · Experts in multicultural education frequently emphasize the importance of using literature to increase cultural awareness.  · Educators should maintain that multicultural literature materials meet the needs of students and help them grow an understanding of themselves and others.  · Through carefully selected and shared literature students learn to understand and to appreciate a literary heritage that comes from many diverse backgrounds.  · They gain understanding about different beliefs and value systems.  · They develop social sensitivity to the heads of others and realize that people have similarities as well as difference.  · Multicultural literature helps students expand their understanding of geography and natural history, increase their understanding of historical and sociological change, broaden their appreciation for literacy, techniques used by authors from different cultural backgrounds and improve their reading, writing and thinking abilities. (Norton) ** Five 5 phase-model for studying multicultural literature- **The five phase-model is extremely important when teaching multicultural literature, because it gives students the opportunity to read about the literature from a specific culture in stages. The first step in the process is for teachers to introduce historical texts from the culture to students early in the semester and then give students the opportunity to read modern literature from the culture. Phase 1 Traditional Literature  · Identity distinctions among folktales, fables, myths and legends.  · Identity ancient stories that have commonalities and are found in many regions  · Identity types of stories that dominate the subject.  · Summarize the nature of oral language, role of traditional literature, role of audience an literary style. Phase 2 Traditional tales from one area  · Analyze traditional myths and other types compare with Phase 1 finding  · Analyze and identity values themes in the traditional tales of one region Phase 3 Autobiographies, biographies and historical non-fiction  · Analyze for values, beliefs themes identified in traditional literature  · Compare information in historical documents with autobiographies and biographies Phase 4 Historical fiction  · Evaluate according to authenticity of setting, conflicts, characterization theme, language and traditional beliefs and values.  · Search for role of traditional literature. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Compare with nonfictional autobiographies, biographies and historical information Phase 5 Contemporary fiction, biography and poetry. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Analyze the inclusion of any belief and values identified in traditional literature and biographical literature. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Analyze characterization and conflicts. <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Analyze themes and look for threads across literature. (Norton) ** Questions to Answer:  ** What kind of texts should teachers introduce in their classrooms to study multicultural literature? Should minority students study multicultural literature? Should students only study multicultural texts written by minority authors? What percentage of multicultural literature should exist in a state’s curriculum? ** Work Cited ** Norton, Donna E. "Teaching multicultural literature in the reading curriculum." Reading Teacher 44.1 (1990): 28-40. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.