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?

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!