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!