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The Goal
The Goal
The standards for English Language Arts in Colorado often emphasize that the main goals for students are to be able to comprehend complex ideas, express themselves clearly, and are proficient in collaboration. While these are by far the basis of what we want our students to take away from our lessons, it is our responsibility to provide them with the opportunity to learn about lives outside of themselves and to nurture an understanding of others through the texts we use. As we look towards our future as educators, we need to focus on creating an environment where highschool students can experience diverse texts, as well as looking towards how we can incorporate texts that will support ELL students as well.
Pedagogy
Pedagogy
When we look back to the literature we have been taught and continue to teach, the titles never seem to change. There is a reason that we continue to teach novels considered American Classics, and while it may be effective in teaching writing it is not as effective in fostering inclusivity. Although they are great stories, and are clearly able to stand the test of time, they do little for inspiring our students of color.
“If you’re growing up in a homogenous, white neighborhood, exposure to diverse books is absolutely vital. Otherwise, you won’t know anything about those who are different. And if you’re a diverse reader, it’s incredibly empowering to see yourself as the hero in a book. Nothing can replace the unspoken validation a kid feels when they see themselves on the page. It confirms existence.”
“If you’re growing up in a homogenous, white neighborhood, exposure to diverse books is absolutely vital. Otherwise, you won’t know anything about those who are different. And if you’re a diverse reader, it’s incredibly empowering to see yourself as the hero in a book. Nothing can replace the unspoken validation a kid feels when they see themselves on the page. It confirms existence.”
-Matt De La Pena
Resources
Resources
WE NEEd DIverse Books
WE NEEd DIverse Books
Part of including diverse texts does not only include the books that we teach, but the books that we recommend to our book lovers and the ones that we keep in our classroom libraries.
We Need Diverse Books is an organization whose main focus is to placing books with diverse characters in the hands of readers and to create a standard where all readers can see themselves in the pages of a book (Morris).
They offer resources for finding diverse texts and organize them so that they are easy to find.
if as a teacher your mental library has been exhausted, they have created a website (soon to be an app!) that can be used by students—and teachers alike—to find diverse books that students would like to read via a quiz.
By giving students more agency in what they choose to read, while providing them the with tools that cater to narratives outside of the canon, we are promoting a diverse classroom culture.
Teaching Tolerance
Teaching Tolerance
Finding books for students to read outside of the classroom is only half the battle.
As educators, we must be able to teach with inclusivity and diversity in mind. There needs to be an acknowledgment that it may be difficult to find funding for classroom sets of diverse texts, but teachers can supplement in so many different ways (short stories, poems, videos, etc.) that can be equally as effective. There is not only one way that we can include diversity in our classrooms, therefore there is no excuse to not do it and that is what this website helps with.
Teaching Tolerance helps teachers implement lesson plans with the diverse texts as a focus. This website also offers short stories and articles that align with their lessons (they have a tool for choosing these texts as well!). This website offers a variety of tools and lesson plans for engaging students in conversations about diversity such as Critical Listening and Four Perspectives. These lesson plans are also organized by grade level so that teachers can adjust the lesson as they deem necessary.
"I do not propose teaching texts just because they are diverse. Instead, as teachers and teacher educators, our selection of diverse texts must be intentional and must play a role in eradicating racial and social injustice and inequality…Teachers must choose texts with the students in mind.”
"I do not propose teaching texts just because they are diverse. Instead, as teachers and teacher educators, our selection of diverse texts must be intentional and must play a role in eradicating racial and social injustice and inequality…Teachers must choose texts with the students in mind.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
Although these tools are helpful in setting up the structure of a diverse classroom, we cannot rely solely on them. We have to be willing to educate ourselves on diversity and be able to model inclusivity in a classroom.
When beginning to teach diversity and diverse texts, it can be easy to give students an essay by Malcolm X and check off your diversity off of your checklist, but this is not all our students deserve. Ms. Kelly, the teacher I interviewed, believes that “there is a danger in presenting diverse texts and then assuming that you’ve done the work of addressing diversity, when there’s more to dig into as a community. It’s not enough to present a book list and say you’re done,” and I agree. The work does not end when presenting the book, but when our students are able to understand that there are stories that exist outside themselves that are just as valuable as their own.
There are so many ways to intentionally bring in diversity in the classroom, we just have to find them.
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