Multiculturalism (House on Mango Street and How to Kill a Mockingbird)

The last time I remember reading How to Kill a Mockingbird, I was in eighth grade with a negative attitude towards the book.  I don't remember if that attitude was because of the intimidating content length and small letter size or just lack of interest against reading in general.  Whatever the case was, this book left my possession for the first time without any following opinions or regards about the context.  Luckily, I was given the opportunity to reread How to Kill a Mockingbird at the college level.  This time I really appreciated the book for what it entailed.  As I was reading many questions where constantly popping up in my head that I didn't even think about the first time through.  Also, House on Mango Street was a great multicultural read and I would recomend any teacher to use this book in the classroom.  I had never read House on Mango Street, but overall I enjoyed reading this book for the first time as well. 

Questions that arose for me out of How to Kill a Mockingbird obviously had to do with the issue of prejudice.  But, these issues where not part of the disscussion questions that my eighth grade teacher formulated for us.  These questions always boiled down to "good vs. evil."  The book portrays African Americans as good and the white population as bad.  The issue of Tom Robinson raping a white women is a big part of the book.  Atticus tells his children to stay on the side of Robinson's because he is an innocent man.  Atticus also tell his children that there is good in everyone and eventually good will prevailed over evil.  Also, at the end of the book when Boo Ewell tries to kill the children, but goodness prevails and he does not. 

House on Mango Street was also focused around good vs. evil.  Evil may have seemed to prevail through out most of the book considering alot of people die.  The reasons for these people's death had do with the fact that they were Latino.  The Latinos in Chicago did not have the same opportunities as whites did.  They had poor housing situations, neglected hospital care, ect.... 

When using these two books in my future classroom, I want my students to not have the same impression I did when reading How to Kill a Mockingbird for the first time.  Through out the novels (including House on Mango Street) I want the students to really observe the many themes surrounding these books. 

  
     

American Born Chinese Comics

American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, is probably the first comic book that I have ever read and I have to say that I very much enjoyed the book.  I can see why this is one of the books on our class reading list for adolescents.  Someday, I can definetely see myself using this comic in one of my future classrooms.  This book is an easy read for children and also contains valid information that needs to addressed.  The atwork through out the comic is nicely done, which I think will help children stay on the task of reading this book. 

American Born Chinese is also a great book for children of the middle school level to read because it starts out as three separate stories and merges them all together in the end.  The first story tells of a fairytale Monkey King.  The second tells Jin Wang's story about being a second generation immigrant.  Lastly the third tells of a young American boy, Danny, who's cousin Chin-kee is constantly following him around. 

The topics in this book cover many racial issues that I would like to cover in my classroom, such as equality, mixed ethological relationships, and Chinese mythology.  Adolescents are at the age level where they need to comprehend the importance of racil equality.  Through this comic, children in my classroom will learn about the pressures that Chinese-American children face interally and externally (also other minority races.)  Chinese-American racism is a subject that is not talked about as often as other minority racism. 

In my classroom this book will be used because many students can relate to one of the many characters in the book.  First, some students may relate to Jin Wang with his struggle to be an "American" teenager.  Children may also relate to Jin because of his attempt to fit in and be popular.  Next, Amelia Harris's character is interested in Jin Wang even though she is of a different racial background.  Some students may be struggling with a mixed racial relationship.  On the opposite end of the specrum Jin's best friend, Wei Chen Sun, and his girlfriend, Suzy Nakahara, are in a same race relationship.  Wei also gives an example of how a true friend should act, as he does toward Jin.  Danny is an American boy who faces embarassment when his outspoken Chinese cousin, Chin Kee, comes to town and goes to school with him.  Chin Kee is the untimate negative stereotype of what a Chinese child would act like. 

         


   

YGBB

"You Gotta BE the Book," written by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, was very insightful for me as a beginning teacher of Language Arts in the middle school level.  As I saw today in my teacher observation of a reading exercise, students are not interested in learning about books, especially when in comes to long novels and subject matter that does not appeal to them.  The students were constantly interrupting the teacher and staring off out the window instead of paying attention to their teacher.  I found Wilhelm's book to be a coincidental treat.  The book gives many ideas on reading strategies, student interaction, and teacher observation.  With this new information, I hope I will be able to get my students to participate and enjoy literature in the courses I will be teaching.  One way that Wilhelm inspired me to do that is through his "Looking at Student Reading" section.  Hearing students ideas, as Wilhiem provided for me, really gives me an "in" to students minds and how they feel about reading.  In my classroom I am going to have a large selection of novels that I will let students vote on.  Of course, as long as they follow the school ciriculum.  I will stay far away from addressing literature as "school work."  Reading discussion is also going to be a heavy enforcement in my classroom through the interactive approach to reading.  The interactive approach allows students to come up with thier own ideas about what the book means to them.  Also, meaning making goes along with classroom interaction.  In meaning making I will state the importance of the novel, summarize, draw conclusions, and answer questions.  Lastly, I want my students to learn how to read through the "Bottoms Up" approach.  In this approach Wilhelm says, "once students have understood and mastered the subskills of reading, they can apply these in context to decode letters and words; they are then well on thier way to becoming readers." (20)  I think that through effective phonics, children can grasp contexts better on thier own.
       

My Literacy Profile

* Reading is an activity that I thoroughly enjoy.  I enjoy reading because it is relaxing and is an easy way to forget about reality for a little.  Fourth grade was when I started reading actual novels.  I started strictly for school at first.  In 10th grade I started reading novels for my own amusement.  I started reading books such as Wicked, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Harry Potter Series, and The Lovely Bones.  Fantasy, Romance, and Biographies are the genres and topics I focus on when I choose a book to read.  The literature that was taught in my classes as an adolescent were books about historical fiction, mystery, and science fiction.  I did not particularly like the books that were taught in the classroom when I was an adolescent.  I strictly viewed them as school work not pleasure.  These books included How to Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank, Johnny Tremain, and Night.  I would definitely consider myself a motivated reluctant reader.  Just recently, I bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble and it allows me to access almost any book I want at any time.  I hope to inspire my own students to read for enjoyment and urge them to choose books that they are interested in.