We Can't Be Tourists Forever

I was in third grade and we were learning about how other cultures celebrated Christmas. For the month of December we would “visit” different countries and take a look at how they celebrated Christmas. We would eat different foods, play different games, and read different stories from the culture we were studying that day. If my teacher was trying to teach us multiculturalism I think there are a few problems with this lesson.

1.       Not every culture celebrates Christmas

2.       As students, we are contrasting other cultures to Christmas (assuming that all students celebrate this Christian holiday).

3.       We were, as Hade says, taking a “tourist’s conception of multiculturalism.” We were just traveling to these other cultures for a short period of time and then going back to our own (240).

Hade discusses how for a good portion of his professional life he thought multiculturalism could best be taught by just teaching it and “addressing a lack of knowledge” (236). I think my teacher had the same idea. By making us aware of other cultures, we would understand them better and therefore have open minds regarding other cultures. After reading Hade’s “Reading Multiculturally,” I don’t think my teacher really helped us learn to have a multicultural perspective.

                While reading Hade’s chapter, like every other reading in this class, I had that initial feeling of ‘how will I ever be able to do this.’ As Hade suggests, reading multiculturally is not just reading books about race, class, and/or gender, which I think we see a lot in the classroom. We think we're reading muliculturally because we're reading books about class, race, or gender, but that is the tourist conception. We are "visiting" these other cultures but only to go back to our own and compare it to that. I think Hade has a point when he says reading multiculturally is more about how we interpret it. It is how we interpret it and how our students interpret it. I think to aid our future students to read multiculturally we first need to incorporate Wilhelm’s ideas to make them engaged readers because Hade states that “signs of race, class, and gender are not just in books, it takes a reader to make them come alive” (243). Our students will not see these signs if they are merely surface reading. Then I think we need to ask our students the questions Hade presents in his last paragraph. Students need to search for their own ideas of class, race, and gender. Like Hade suggests, they (as well as myself) need to “challenge assumptions” (252). They need to read texts and question what is being said about class, race, and gender and form their own opinion. As a teacher hopefully I can encourage students to do so- it’ll definitely be a working project (as will all my other future classroom plans).

                I think students will also be able to think multiculturally by somehow experiencing the life of those in different classes, genders, and races. Or as Atticus says, in our reading for this week, you can’t judge a man until you walk around his shoes. Jane Elliot had her students experience what is what like to be discriminated against based on a physical feature and look at the impact it had on her students and other observers. I mean her activity began in the 60’s and is still being looked at today. Also I thought it was pretty awesome how her activity worked on adults as well because at any age discrimination is present. I think if we were to tie in Elliot’s idea of having an experience and Hade’s approach we could really aid our students in having a multicultural perspective.     

*** Just for fun, we can look at Michael Scott. I don't think he really has a multicultual perspective.

Reaching the Unreachable

      Wilhelm had his students never failed to give him a headache and Frey and Fisher had struggling readers and writers in the poorest community in San Diego. I’m sure every teacher has a headache giver, or a student that is far below their expected proficiency in English, but what matters is how each teacher engages that student. It is probably very difficult to try to engage these students and easy to accept that you cannot reach every single child in your classroom, but I think you have to try everything before ruling them out as “unreachable.”

      Wilhelm took the time to find out what his students were interested in and was then able to apply their interests to reading. Frey and Fisher looked to popular culture to get their students to read and write. They embraced popular culture through the use of graphic novels as a type of “hidden literacy” (19). I like that they referred to it has “hidden” because I feel like that would make it ten times more enjoyable for the students. Kids seem to like to do the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing, so maybe novels that do not seem at all like normal classroom reading will make the students read. It will not appear as traditional literature, so maybe the students will embrace it. From reading Wilhelm’s experiences with Tommy, Walter, and Kae and Frey and Fisher’s study with Hoover High School it seems as though graphic novels are a great way to engage struggling readers. Also it seems like there are so many activities and lessons that can go along with graphic novels that can engage all different types of learners on all different levels. Graphic novels are something they’re familiar with but also something new and different at the same time. On the surface it seems like fun, simple reading but there is so much meaning to be explored and found. American Born Chinese, our graphic novel this week, proves that graphic novels could easily be incorporated in classrooms. This novel opens up readers to the ideas of multiculturalism, stereotypes, and self esteem (all ideas seen in classic literature). It also can be linked to different literary conventions such plot structure, mood, and tone.   

            So one way I can reach what seems to be an unreachable student is through incorporating art and graphic novels (which seems like a ton of fun to do in the classroom). However, I wonder what are others ways to engage reluctant readers, because I don’t think any student is really “unreachable.”

Wilhelm's "You Gotta BE the Book"

            Jeffrey D. Wilhelm poses a question, in “You Gotta BE the Book,” asking “what if we took on the ‘tomorrow mind’ instead of the ‘yesterday mind’?” (59). Well I am sure it is easier said than done, but should not that be the mindset of a teacher? As a future teacher am I not teaching and guiding tomorrow’s future? And, when dealing with tomorrow I do not think it would be worthwhile to dwell on yesterday. From some of Wilhelm’s experiences with tomorrow’s future, today’s students do not embrace reading; they consider it to be “like…pain” (21), or something that if they like it will “destroy [their] reputation” (29).  There has to be something wrong with our current mindset to make students think reading is harmful or embarrassing because as teachers we know it is completely the opposite. So, I think as a future teacher I need to try to think with a “tomorrow mind” and then hopefully tomorrow will have students that look at reading as helpful and they’ll be proud of what they have read (and it looks like Wilhelm has done this for his students so we should high-five him for his “tomorrow mind”).

            It is easy to say I want to have a “tomorrow mind,” but I have no idea how I would go about implementing it in my classroom. While reading chapter 3, it was almost overwhelming; I found myself starring things I would like to implement in my classroom and underlining theories backing up the starred items. Now I have these stars and underlines and all these ideas I want to bring to my classroom, but it makes me nervous because what I think it seems like quite the challenge to apply them. It will be easier to teach a text as solely a text (and even refer to it as a text to further ward off any student wanting to read it) and provide the students with worksheets and end of the chapter summaries. Easy is boring, boring for me and boring for students. So I have no idea really how I will go about trying to apply Wilhelm’s ideas, but I will try and find out what works and what doesn’t.

            I mentioned in my literacy profile that I like books that I can relate to, and that is why I was so drawn to Wilhelm’s evocative and connective dimensions. There is something about connecting your own life to literature that makes reading easier and simply more fun. These strategies encourage the students to get into and see the setting of the story and actually vision the characters and their actions. Also once the students have entered the story world and met the characters they are encouraged to relate to story to their own life and experiences. These strategies encourage deeper reading and thought- it makes the students more than surface readers (which is awesome). Wilhelm’s concluding findings “that without the bringing of personally lived experience to literature, the reverse operation, bringing literature back to life, did not occur” (93). So although I do not how I will go about bringing Wilhelm’s findings into my classroom, I’m sure through trial and error I will get a good system going where my students are applying the evocative and connective dimensions to their in and out of classroom reading; resulting in students hopefully forgetting yesterday’s dislike for reading and embracing tomorrow’s found enjoyment in books.    

            Because at the end of the day, when teaching reading and literature we do not want to have a Jonah who thought we just wasted our time trying to teach them reading and literature.