I am a Special Education/English Major. Therefore, quality literature is very important to me and vital to my teaching. Part of what makes quality literature is having pieces that each child can personally connect to in some way. Therefore, having diverse literature is a necessity in order for children to feel comfortable and find a place where they belong. Multicultural literature also supports diversity and allows children of other ethnicities, social classes, or sexual orientations to gain insight and appreciation for those who are different than them. Therefore, this class is an amazing venue in order for me to find pieces of literature that are quality and multicultural, and teaches me the tools to find and evaluate the books myself.
Issues of diversity play a huge role in literacy teaching and learning. To begin with most classrooms are composed of a very diverse group of students. Therefore, to not address and discuss these differences would be doing the students in the classroom a disservice. When thinking of literacy, using literature is a wonderful venture for students to learn and discuss diversity.
My personal philosophy about multicultural education is that it allows for all groups of students to achieve equal education and to learn to work together as a whole. Multiculturalism is equality among racial, ethnic, social-class, sexual, and cultural groups. It teaches students acceptance of all students. Literature allows students to learn about these groups and connect with groups that are different.
When thinking about how to include this into my classroom what interests me is to learn what other ways besides literature I could teach and encourage this philosophy. In addition, I would like to learn what things that I could do or teach to combat the negative images and thoughts that students might have against groups that are different from themselves.
