The Gems of Multicultural Children's Literature

Presenter Information

Amy DavisFollow

Preferred Delivery

In-Person

Length of Presentation

50 minutes

Start Date

7-10-2022 11:00 AM

End Date

7-10-2022 11:50 AM

Document Type

Presentation

Abstract

Multicultural children’s literature offers a lens into different cultural traditions and symbolism that unless otherwise noted, teachers may overlook the opportunity to share with their students. This presentation will feature these cultural “gems” from such ethnic groups as African American, Arabic, Asian, Hispanic, and Indigenous. The featured books include such titles as “Carmela, Full of Wishes,” “Time for Bed, Miyuki,” “My Hair is a Garden,” and many more.

Description

The target audience for “The Gems of Multicultural Children’s Literature” will be preservice and practicing elementary (Kindergarten-5^th grade) teachers. The purpose is to expose educators to a variety of children’s literature from ethnic groups such as African American, Arabic, Asian, Hispanic, and Indigenous. The presentation will highlight and discuss the cultural traditions and symbolism of ten children’s books with titles such as “Carmela, Full of Wishes,” “Time for Bed, Miyuki,” “My Hair is a Garden,” and many more. For example, in the story “Carmela, Full of Wishes” by Matt de la Peña, the main character, Carmela receives gold bracelets for her birthday. Throughout the story, she gets the evil eye from her brother and she thrums her bracelets at him. In the Hispanic culture, this is called “Mal de ojo” and Hispanic mothers have their children wear gold bracelets to protect them from evil. Even though this is not explicitly stated in the story, it’s important for teachers to share this information with their students. Participants will not only gain knowledge of these stories, but also a deeper knowledge of cultural diversity. The Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards were passed in December of 2020 and with the adoption of these standards, preservice and practicing teachers need to understand cultural and community diversity and learn how to incorporate students’ experiences, cultures, and community resources into their instruction (www.isbe.net). Wright (2019) stated, “…reading texts that align with students’ cultural knowledge may support reading comprehension” because teachers build upon students’ funds of knowledge which leads to deeper comprehension and understanding (p. 5). Incorporating multicultural literature in elementary classrooms engages students in the learning process while appreciating student diversity. This presentation will celebrate diverse children’s literature.

Wright, T. S. (2019). Reading to learn from the start: The power of interactive read-alouds. American Educator, 42(4), 4-8.

Speaker Information

Amy Davis is an assistant professor at Eastern Illinois University in the department of Teaching, Learning, and Foundations. Her specialty is elementary literacy and English as a second language. Before finishing her Ph.D. at Kansas State University in 2018, Dr. Davis spent nine years as both a 4^th and 5^th grade classroom and English as a second language teacher and two years as an ESL Learning Coach for Wichita’s United School District 259. During her time at KSU, she worked with English teachers from Mexico, Ecuador, and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Davis is fascinated by children’s acquisition of a second language and their transition from listening and speaking to reading and writing. Her research includes the use of student-generated artifacts to develop and promote expressive language and reading/listening comprehension.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.