Week 7: Fairy Tales

Growing up, I read fairy tales all of the time. The ones that really stick in my mind are the tales that really spark the imagination while conveying good moral actions from the reader. I believe that fairy tales are used to convey lessons to children in more creative ways so that children subconsciously understand the lessons without becoming disinterested by hearing a lecture on how to behave. When I was little, I really liked Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Cinderella. Each of these tales were very imaginative and definitely not something that would occur exactly the same in real life. These stories tell children to avoid strangers, not to take things from strangers, listen to your parents, and that every life, no matter how hard it may seem has happiness, and that you are not confined to simply one societal level. I believe that certain fairy tales cater towards certain groups of children, such as Cinderella is more of a female empowering story that is targeted at young girls who have the common "little girl" dream of becoming a princess. This story gives every girl, no matter her societal status, the hope that one day she too will meet her Prince Charming and will live a very happy life. Although these stories are very empowering, they are often criticized for being unrealistic. I disagree with this argument some what, because I think that the young age that these stories are targeted for are at an age where children need to dream and use their imagination. Children are very impressionable at a young age, and I think that fairy tales do a good job of teaching them valuable lessons while also sparking their dreams and imagination at the same time.

Week 6: "A Single Shard"

The article, High School Students Responses to Alternative Value Stances Associated with the Study of Multicultural Literature by Beach et al really relates the cultural divide that most students face when analyzing multicultural literature. The article gives multiple students’ reactions to cultural issues in various books to further demonstrate the need for students to be better informed in matters that people from other cultural backgrounds are facing. This article stresses the need for teachers to help children broaden their worldly views by exposing them to multicultural literature and providing background information before they read the literature so that they have a better understanding of the issues exposed in the literature. This book directly relates to the book Fresh Girl that we have read in this class because without prior knowledge about the Haitian culture, students would not be able to fully grasp the messages in the story. In the story, Marti faces a lot of discrimination for her Haitian heritage, even though she is American in nationality. The students in the book fail to understand Marti and make fun of her accent and clothes. Although I am older, and more educated culturally than the target middle school audience of this novel, I had a hard time connecting with Marti’s feelings and experiences of being discriminated against. Like many students who have read this book, I have not been physically exposed to many people from Haiti and other countries, thus making it hard for me to completely connect with Marti’s issues early on in the novel. I agree with the article when it suggests that students need to be better educated culturally in order to better understand the cultural issues addressed in many multicultural books.

Week 5: "Fresh Girl"

I am not sure why this did not post last weekend when I thought that I had posted it, so here it is:

The article, High School Students Responses to Alternative Value Stances Associated with the Study of Multicultural Literature by Beach et al really relates the cultural divide that most students face when analyzing multicultural literature. The article gives multiple students’ reactions to cultural issues in various books to further demonstrate the need for students to be better informed in matters that people from other cultural backgrounds are facing. This article stresses the need for teachers to help children broaden their worldly views by exposing them to multicultural literature and providing background information before they read the literature so that they have a better understanding of the issues exposed in the literature. This book directly relates to the book Fresh Girl that we have read in this class because without prior knowledge about the Haitian culture, students would not be able to fully grasp the messages in the story. In the story, Marti faces a lot of discrimination for her Haitian heritage, even though she is American in nationality. The students in the book fail to understand Marti and make fun of her accent and clothes. Although I am older, and more educated culturally than the target middle school audience of this novel, I had a hard time connecting with Marti’s feelings and experiences of being discriminated against. Like many students who have read this book, I have not been physically exposed to many people from Haiti and other countries, thus making it hard for me to completely connect with Marti’s issues early on in the novel. I agree with the article when it suggests that students need to be better educated culturally in order to better understand the cultural issues addressed in many multicultural books.

Week 4: Research Proposal

I plan on doing my research paper on the transition from innocence to experience that is a common theme in a variety of adolescent literature books. I am still working on tweaking my thesis, but it will sound something like this: The transition from innocence to experience is a common strand found in a diverse array of adolescent literary works. I will be using references from parts of The Call of the Wild, My Side of the Mountain, Esperanza Rising, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as other literary works that I come across in this class. I also have several literary criticisms collected on the transition found in The Call of the Wild, which will help to provide a good foundation for the transition from innocence to experience found in literature, and how it is an important theme in adolescent literature. I think that I want to focus on the transition that takes place through nature as one of my main points, the transition that takes place through oppressive times (such as The Copper Sun and Esperanza Rising), and one more main point that I have not yet discovered. If I could get your help and opinion on good main topics for this research paper, it would be much appreciated. I picked this topic because throughout my years of reading works of adolescent literature, I have noticed that there tends to be a common transition from innocence to experience found, and I believe that it has great impacts on the readers and am interested in looking further into the impact of this theme of transition. I love nature related works, and I think that this transition through nature is very interesting and kind of relates to Emerson and Thoreau’s works. I may want to twist this research topic to be more focused on the transition through nature, but I would like you input on this idea, and what I could further do with it.