Week 11: Emerging Scholars

After reading all of the books that we have covered in class this semester, I find it hard to pick just one to recommend for the Emerging Scholars class to read this summer. Since I have to pick one book, I would have to say that I think that they should read Esperanza Rising. I think that this book would be a very interesting book for both males and females in that program. The Emerging Scholars program focuses on students from lower income areas, and I think that these students would be able to relate to the struggles and hurdles that must be overcome in Esperanza Rising. Esperanza and her family go from having everything to truly realizing what is important in life, family. I think that these students, because they come from lower income areas could really relate to the struggles and understand the concept of not having material wealth, but wealth at heart. I also think that this book would teach the students about the struggles that go on in other countries, such as Mexico, and give them a better understanding of why people immigrate to America. It would also show them that although America is the "land of promise," there are still troubles that people face in establishing themselves. I think that this novel is a very good book for students to read because it will show them that with a little hard work, happiness can be obtained even without materialistic items.

Week 10: Mulan

I believe that Disney's story of Mulan and the Chinese folktale are very different. Although Mulan is a revolutionary woman in both versions of the tale, I believe that Disney's version tends to Westernize Mulan more than the original version. In Disney's version, once Mulan has revealed herself, there is hope that she will remain a powerful woman who continues to break the sexist traditional barriers of her society and culture. On the other hand, the original version depicts Mulan fighting to save her father and prove a point and then returning back to the woman who would be accepted by her Chinese culture. Although I am a fan of keeping stories true to their origin, I believe that in order for the story to become as popular world wide, Disney had to make the movie more Westernized. By making Mulan more Westernized, the story fits better into western culture, one that is dominated by more and more revolutionary women breaking out in what used to be known as strictly a "man's world". I think that viewers would have been fine to relate to a version involving a character like Ailin, due to their ability to see the struggles and relate to what she is going through to an extent. In a world in which Disney's main audience is the Western world, I think that making Mulan more Westernized helped to raise awareness and interest in the original Chinese story.

WEEK 9: Black and White

In the book Black and White, Paul Volponi uses many of his personal experiences working with prisoners in his work. Although many critics may argue that Volponi is exploiting these experiences with disadvantaged people, I believe that he is doing just the opposite and is paying tribute to the struggles that some people face. Volponi worked in Rikers Island, where he witnessed that the overwhelming majority of inmates were black or hispanic, and were in poor living conditions. He places Marcus in this area in order to show the unbalance between blacks and white, and to further illustrate the line that separates black and white. In this scene, Volponi is paying tribute to those who were incarcerated, not expoiting them for entertainment in his book. Volponi later uses the experience he had a with a crazy drunk man on a subway train going off on a racial tirade. Volponi uses this experience and has Eddie and Marcus witness this man, and while all of their friends find it funny, it strikes a certain spot in Marcus and Eddie's hearts, thus showing that Volponi is paying tribute to the lessons that he learned from this man's racial ignorance. Finally, Volponi uses his experience as a basketball coach in a game where a fight broke out and a student was killed for no reason to further drive home the seriousness that the lines between black and white has drawn. Volponi uses these experiences in his work to teach lessons about racial divides to students, thus paying tribute to those who took part in these times in his own life.

Week 8: Linguistic Characteristics

There are many similarities and differences between word use in children’s literature and adult fiction. Children’s books are usually used to convey an idealistic world through the use of narrative words like, “said”. The use of direct speech is more prevalent in children’s literature than in adult fiction, due to the popular story style in children’s literary works. Johnson’s study found that adult and children’s fiction are closely linked by certain linguistic characteristics that are prevalent regardless of the designated audience. Although these styles are linguistically similar, children’s literature is often definable by the use of certain words and sentence structures that are characteristic of writing for children and how they see the world. After reading several of the books that we have completed this semester, I can see how Johnson’s observations are true, such as in The Copper Sun. Although adults can read this book and draw more from it, when children read it, the style and word usage is appropriate for the mind of a child while still getting the point about slavery and hope across. In my opinion, I think that Johnson’s observations are for the most part correct and can be seen while analyzing literature.

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.

Week 3: "Esperanza Rising"

After reading Esperanza Rising, and the article by Yu Ren Dong, I have gained a better perspective on the importance of teaching multicultural literature to students. Esperanza Rising, along with the other books that we have read so far in this class work to convey the importance of representing many different cultures and writing styles in teaching a literature class. These books move students away from the traditionally “white” novels, and push their minds to expand and gain a better understanding of many different cultures.
Esperanza Rising moves away from the typical black and white cultures that are seen in most multicultural literature, and expands the children’s understanding of the Latino culture. Esperanza is a young girl that is faced with many different hardships which she must overcome, and ultimately serves as a beacon of hope for all children going through hard times. This novel is important to be taught in classrooms because it helps to give students a better grasp of the Latino culture and hardships that those people have had to endure. The more cultures that are represented in classrooms, the better students are able to relate to stories, as well as broaden their perspectives on life.
Yu Ren Dong’s article, “Bridging the Cultural Gap by Teaching Multicultural Literature”, serves to illustrate the importance of providing works spanning over a great assortment of cultures to students. I agree with Dong’s belief that the more diversity that students are exposed to, the greater and more informed their worldly views will be. Dong also makes a point of expressing the importance of the educators to be well informed themselves of different cultures, so as to better express the importance of cultural diversity to students. I believe that all of the novels and articles that we have read so far in this class have helped to better educated us in the importance of multicultural diversity and have expanded our worldly views as well.

Week 2: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Twilight"

After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Twilight, and the article by Brannon and Greene, I now have a better understanding of why I have read such a diverse spread of literary works so far this semester. The article by Brannon and Greene stresses the need for diversity in literary selection in classrooms. I agree with this viewpoint, and also agree that many teachers do not fully achieve this due to the difficulty in reconstructing their syllabi. I feel that it is very important for teachers to take the extra time and effort in order to better expose their students to a variety of literature. I firmly believe that what you read works to mold your outlook on the world, and the more diversity in literature that you are exposed to, the more open-minded your view on life will be.
In this class, we have already read some very contrasting pieces to the traditional literary selections. We began the class reading Sharon Draper’s novel The Copper Sun, which is meant to educate adolescents on the evils of slavery. This novel opens up students’ views to the world by educating them on slavery, a topic not widely covered in most classrooms due to its controversial and violent content. Another important reason for this novel to be taught in classrooms is that Sharon Draper is an African-American female writer, something not so common in the literary world full of old white men. I firmly believe that more teachers need to teach novels such as Draper’s to their students in order to broaden their perspectives on the issue of slavery and race.
This week, we have completed reading Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Meyer’s Twilight. Both of these novels are similar in many ways, such as their magical aspects, but they are also different in their purpose, as Twilight serves as a love story and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone serves as an adventure tale full of hope. I believe that the style of literature found in these works should be taught in school because it opens students up to a different style of literature than they have previously seen in past English courses. After completing my readings so far in this class, I agree with Brannon and Greene’s emphasis on improving the diversity of literature in their article.

Week 1: "Copper Sun"

After reading Sharon Draper’s novel, Copper Sun, I was able to come to the conclusion that she did a good job in presenting the harsh realities of slavery to her adolescent target audience. This book contained many different examples of the abuses that slaves underwent on a daily basis, and it was able to better instill in me the fact that slave-owners saw slaves as property and not as people. This book opened my eyes to the evils of slavery, and educated me on the fact that slave children were often used as gator bait in alligator hunting. The whole gator hunting seen where Tidbit is thrown into the water and barely escapes the powerful jaws of alligators several times for the sheer enjoyment of Clay Derby and his friends really struck me. I had always known that slaves were beaten, raped, and abused, but I never thought that human nature would allow somebody to endanger the lives of another person for the sheer enjoyment of the hunt. I have previously been well educated in the evils of slavery and strongly oppose any oppression to people of color, but this novel brought more shame to white people than I had previously known through the various examples of the tortures that slaves were put through. In the scene where Mr. Derby kills Noah and Mrs. Derby’s love child, I truly believe that the impressions of slave-owners as people and slaves as animals to be reversed. Mr. Derby murders a child that has done nothing in the world except taking its first breaths, and yet Mr. Derby feels the need to shoot the child. This book truly makes me more aware of the trials and tribulations that blacks have undergone in gaining freedom, and it has caused me to look at Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a different light. Previously, I had looked at it as simply a day off of school, but I now understand that he was fighting for hope and for freedom, just like his ancestors had before. This book has for me, and I expect that it has for the adolescent audience, opened my eyes to the abuses and struggles facing slaves at every moment of their lives, but has also showed me that there is hope in this world. This novel expresses the fact that no matter how difficult your situation is, there is always hope and the opportunity to make a better life for yourself.