Session 8 -

This week we are looking at literature depicting people with disabilities. Our book discussion this week will be Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko and to support our discussions and thinking on this topic, reading the articles by Tal (2001), by Williams et.al.(2005) and by Linton (1998). Remember that everyone is writing a Questioning the Text paper this week - should be posted by Tuesday, 6 pm.

• For the Linton reading, consider Linton has to say about the power of language? What terminology do you prefer when discussing this topic? Why? What would it mean to read Al Capone Does my Shirts from a "disability studies framework? What types of questions would you ask about the representations in the text? How would you analyze those questions?
• When reading the Tal and Williams articles. think about the many different ways people with disabilities have been portrayed in text? What criteria might one use to evaluate books that include people with disabilities? Is there anything you question about the criteria presented?

You might also want to check out Gennifer Choldenko's website and think how your thinking about Al Capone Does My Shirts is impacted by what you get to know about her.

About blogging:

• Don't forget to post your groups summary of what you found out about the award you looked up if you haven't done that yet.
• You could also choose to post a blog (one of your ten for the blog assignment) about your perspective on the awards issue we talked about in class.

Diverse Literature Awards

Here is where you can post the blog you created with your team for the award you researched. (post as a comment) I'm looking for a summary of the information you gathered, but feel free to also include a link to the award's website if there is one, or list of winning books. Be sure to check out the other groups postings on the award they researched. This may be a good resource for the final project! Looking forward to seeing what you came up with.

Poetry Slam - Black History Month

Since I also teach at Lansing Community College, I always recieve info on events happening there. LCC has a very active Black History Month, with many and varied events. There is one coming up next week I thought some of you might be interested in. Thursday the 21st in the Kennedy Cafeteria between 6 and 8 pm: Poetry Slam featuring the Nu Poets. There will be an open mike as well as voter registrationand NAACP membership drives. Hope some of you will be able to attend. Let me know if you need more info.

Native American conference/Extra credit opportunity

Here is the information (finally) on the Native American Writers Conference I've been telling you about where Debbie Reese will be speaking. http://aisp.msu.edu/returning_the_gift.html It is titled "Returning the Gift" and takes place March 13-15 (NOT 14-16 as I said previously). The conference takes place at the MSU Union, and the cost to students is $20--there are many sessions that look appealing to me, but I will be attending a conference on Young Adult literature at WMU on the 14th, so I will only be able to attend the open reading on Thursday evening, which is open to the community and free. The link above will give you full information. Debbie Reese (and 9 others) will be reading from their work. If you also choose to attend this reading, (and write a one page paper or a comparable blog entry) on the experience, you can recieve up to 2 pts of extra credit.

Session 7

There are two topics we will be covering in session 7. One will be "practicing close readings of text" and there is nothing to prepare for this! The other is analyzing awards for diverse literature, and the preparation for this that I brought up in class Wednesday is as follows:

• Everyone:
  Read the Aronson and Pinkney articles. What are the arguments for and against honoring books in specific cultural/social categories? What assumptions does each position rely on?
  Where do you stand in terms of the debate?
  
• Small groups Award jigsaw: Research the following information for your assigned award. (Remember that information is on the slides from session 6 I’ve posted on angel, in case you can’t remember or weren’t in class.)
• Is there an official website for the award?
• Are there other resources that provide information about the award? (Sometimes libraries or author blogs feature information not available on the official sites.)
• Why and when was this award created? What is the rationale for the award?
• Selection criteria: What books, authors, illustrators are eligible? How are the books judged?
• Who sponsors the award?
• Selection committee: Who chooses the winners? How do you get on the committee? How transparent is the process?
• Bring in books that have won or have been honored by the award. This will mean a trip to the library--you can coordinate this within your group.
• How easy was it to find the books? Do they have seals or other indications that they are award winners?

It would be helpful if one person in the group could bring in a computer.

In class we'll teach each other about the awards, share books, and talk about the questions that our research raises. The "product" of your group work will be a collaborative post on your award. (Although you'll have time to work on this with your group, most of your research should be done in advance of class.)

How is blogging going so far?

I would like us to have a conversation on how you feel the use of blogs in the class is going so far. Although no one is required to post, please do so if you have a comment or question to add to the discussion.You might write about:

• What you find valuable about our use of blogs
• What you find to be limiting or frustrating
• How you can imagine using blogs in the future
• Questions you have about the blogs
• Ideas for mini-lessons/discussions we might have in class

I'll read the posts carefully, both to guide my planning this semester and think about the use of blogs in future classes.

Suggeted Reading - McIntosh

I completely forgot to post the info on the suggested reading I told you about a in Session 4 (it's posted in the Ppt slides I put on angel.) This article was one of the first of the required readings I did for the "Doing Our Own Work" Seminar (two four day retreats) on racism and white privilege, back when the Children's Lit Team was preparing for and developing this course.

The article is "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh. The article introduces the idea of "white privilege": the idea that white people may or may not have had a chance to recognize the significance of race in day to day life. Although McIntosh thinks in terms of race, the idea of privilege can be helpful in thinking in more general ways about how those with majority identities sometimes haven't had a chance to explore common experiences of people with socially marginalized identities. A colleague (Valerie) also suggeted article which uses the concept of privilege to think about heterosexual privilege called "The Daily Effects of Straight Privilege". What do people think? Did anything in McIntosh's article "ring true"? Was there anything that you questioned? What does "privilege" have to do with our identities as readers?

Session 6

This week we are reading Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. This novel is a bit different what we have read so far--it alternates between poetry and prose, and is told in about 17 different voices, with one main narrator. As you read, you might try reading some of the poems outloud, to really take in the poetry aspects. Pick a couple of the most that you find the most meaningful or interesting and would like to share and discuss in class.

The supporting articles we are reading this week are:

• Woodson (1998): Here is yet another perspective on the insider/outsider debate. What does her voice add to the debate?
• Martin (2004): What does she mean by the "double voicedness" of text? How is this "double voicedness" connected to the historical position of African Americans? Do any of the modes of discourse seem familiar? (You might draw on popular culture for examples or written texts.)

Optional:

• What can you learn about Nikki Grimes through internet research? Post any interesting resources in a blog entry.
• Contribute a response to "How is blogging going?" by 6 pm the night before class

Group C:

• Write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the Angel dropbox by 6 pm the night before class
• Bring a hard copy of your paper to class

Magic in Africa: Questions the Lesson Raised

Anyone interested in continuing our conversation about representations of Africa or about the two books themselves? I know people had lots to say that didn't get said because of time constraints!

One topic that we didn't discuss in class was raised my someone in her quickwrite:

• As a teacher, should I raise these questions with kids? Or should I just let them read or explore on their own?

My response to the first question was "yes"! All readers need to consider what books "offer" them and read with a critical eye. (Rethinking Schools on-line has some great articles on how teachers do this type of critical literacy work in the classroom.)

But the second part of the question makes it tricky, right? It makes me wonder:

• How do you teach someone to read critically without communicating that the teacher's read of the text is the "correct" one? (This is the question I'm going to ask my instructor group to help me think about when we watch the video tape of the lesson.)
  
• To add a layer of complexity, how do we learn to read transculturally, especially when we value cultural authenticity and when issues of power and representation are involved?

Any thoughts, either on questions we raised in class or on the question of what it means to teach this type of lesson?

Session 5

This week in class we are discussing Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye and looking at two different readings to support our study of Arab American literature.

• The Al-Hazza and Lucking (2005) article provides a context for our discussion. Who are Arab Americans? How are they (mis)represented in the media? What are the implications for how we read a book like Habibi?
• Al-Hazza (2006) provides an analysis of children's and adolescent literature? What do you notice about the types of books that are available that portray Arab Americans? What seems missing?

As you read Habibi, take note of what strikes you, what questions or concerns you have, anything you would like to bring to the discussion. The B's will be writing Questioning the Text papers this week, (and posting them in the drop box on angel by 6 pm Tuesday), but of course everyone will come to class prepared to discuss their impressions of the novel.

Suggestions for Questioning the Text papers

I had several students ask me after class Wednesday to talk to them about examples for your Questioning the Text papers. I did give one example in class before reading Heart of a Chief, and I will give you a few more here, but I want to caution you not to get too tied to examples, or to try to fit each book to one of the examples. Be open to the spontaneous questions that come to as you read a particular text and take care to be specific to the text you are reading, and not try to get it to fit a generic model of a question. That being said, the following may be helpful in thinking about your papers. First, I will suggest that you take the time to read the assignment guidelines again and ask yourself if the question you want to pose can be answered by analyzing the text and if it engages in a discussion of the work as a piece of diverse literature. I also have for you below a list of some generic types of question that were helpful to students last term. I hope that all of you will also post samples of questions that seem to work in discussions as we go throughout the term, to add to this list.

• In what ways does XXX function as a generalization or stereotype in XXX?
• Who seems to be the implied audience for the text? (i.e. What textual clues signal who the author assumes you'll identify with or what knowledge the reader does or does not bring to the text)
• How does the [genre/style/plot/or any other literary feature] position readers to think about XXX?
• What does XXX say about the relationship between XXX and members of the dominant culture?
• How is humor/tragedy/etc. used to...?
• How does XXX and XXX work to unravel the dichotomy of…
• What did [plot twist, particular character/etc.] add to the text?
• How does the text challenge ideas about [choose any dichotomy: modernity/tradition, gender, etc.]
• Using XXX’s framework, how would you characterize XXX?
• What does the title of the book…

Please continue to post your questions, ideas and thoughts on your papers as they come to you. I began by cautioning you not to get to caught up with these examples, I also want to caution you that using one of these models doesn't guarantee a particular grade. I need to assess how you develop the question and the relationships between the sections of the paper. I hope this has been helpful.

Claire

Magic in Africa: Following up on your feedback

Where should I begin? I just finished watching the video of the lesson we did together yesterday and I have so much to say! Once I've created an artifact with the lesson, I'll be happy to share it with you.

I read through the feedback you offered in your quick-writes and want to follow up on a couple of ideas. (You can see the complete list of feedback here.)
Hi again,

Here are some questions/dilemmas that I've had when planning and watching the video of this lesson.

• People seemed to value the experience of looking at a book closely and questioning. (This is, of course, what you do in your questioning the text papers.)
  

• The activity didn't seem to clarify or suggest a "right" answer to the question of who can write culturally authentic literature. Even if this felt frustrating, I think this is good! These topics are complex--the trick is to become comfortable with the messiness of it all. Being a teacher means that you will always be generating new questions that will lead you to learning new things which will lead you to new questions... (You get the point--it's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, but with knowledge!)
  

• People wanted more information to help them make sense of the books we read. In addition to general resources on Africa (or whatever country or more narrow topic that interests you), you might check out Sankofa: A Journal of African Children's and Adolescent Literature. The MSU library has it and don't forget the African Studies Center on campus!

• Almost across the board, people said they would have liked more time working with the books and debriefing as a group. I'll arrange for more time in the future!

In my next post I'm going to share the questions that the activity raised for me.

Thank you again for letting me visit!