by Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, Columbia University
It has been inspiring to learn about different ways of engaging teacher candidates with literature. In this last blog, I want to share some examples from my own teaching experience. Engaging teacher candidates and in-service teachers with literature is one of my favorite things as a teacher educator. As other instructors, I use different strategies to discuss the literature.
by Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, Columbia University
This week we continue with the focus on the use of international children’s and adolescent literature in classrooms. Today I share an interview with Prof. Deanna Day from Washington State University at Vancouver, who shares how she incorporates international literature in her reading class. In her responses, she focuses on books on immigration.
by Carmen Martínez-Roldán, Columbia University
This week Dr. Denise Dávila from The University of Georgia shares her experience using Tofu Quilt by Ching Yeung Russell with preservice teachers.
Nominated for multiple awards and included on many notable book lists (ALA, IRA, NCTE) this Asian Pacific American Library Association Honor Book (2010) offers a stunning collection of poems. Together, the poems tell the story of Yeung Ying’s childhood and education
in Hong Kong in the 1960’s, a time when educating girls was not a priority for some members of Chinese society. Continue reading
By Andrea García, Hofstra University
One of the graduate courses I teach in Literacy Studies is an introductory course in bilingualism and biliteracy for teachers who are seeking certification as Literacy Specialist. While this course provides a broad overview of many aspects of language and literacy development in multilingual contexts, it also offers opportunities for in-service teachers to consider issues of cultural and linguistic identity, race, and power, as experienced by immigrant and transnational families. Continue reading
By Andrea García, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
As we begin the month of February, it is difficult to escape the constant push for celebrating friends and loved ones with chocolates and diamond hearts. And in thinking about the idea of appreciating the important relationships in our lives, I decided that celebrating our relationships as readers can offer an alternative for framing the conversation. For this reason, I have selected to focus this month’s blog on inviting you to celebrate the relationships we forge as readers through our sharing of books and stories. As Giorgis, Bedford, and Fabbi (2008) describe, “Literature can… provide an impetus for strengthening relationships-such as that between a parent and child, or a teacher and student, or within a community of learners. Additionally, many readers form instant and lifelong connections to books, returning to these texts and re-reading them throughout their lives” (p. 5). Continue reading
By Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, Teachers College, Columbia University
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“If someone is different from you, go stand next to her and observe. That person just brought another world to your door without you having to travel.”
-Thanhha Lai
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This Sunday, November 18, a group of teachers, librarians, and teacher educators had the pleasure to hear award-winning author Thanhha Lai talking about her novel Inside Out and Back Again.
By Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, Teachers College, New York
Reading Time: Magic Windows/Ventanas Mágicas (1999) by Carmen Lomas Garza
In this entry I share a vignette of a bilingual pre-service teacher’s and a second-grade bilingual student’s engagement with Garza’s book Magic Windows/Ventanas Mágicas during a read aloud in an after-school program. During reading time, some teacher candidates, such as Diana, observed that when the books they had chosen for the children seemed too long, it helped facilitate the discussion of the book and the entire reading event, in general, when the teacher candidate and the child took turns reading, thus distributing the role of reading between the two. Continue reading
By Prof. Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán & Elizabeth Morphis, Teachers College, New York.
In this week’s blog, Elizabeth Morphis, a university student taking my Latino literature course, conducted a read aloud of the book Hurricane Dancers by Margarita Engle with six fifth grade students at a New York City public school. Here she shares some highlights of her experience. We hope that other teachers or readers will feel inspired to offer their thoughts regarding the use of historical fiction and of verse to reflect on the complexities of historical events.
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Monique Storie, University of Guam, Latte Heights, GU
“Why would I want to read fiction when there are so many fascinating things on this earth to learn about?!”
We are avid readers in my house but we run the gamut in our reading preferences. My husband and I prefer fiction (I gravitate towards realistic fiction while Brett prefers modern fantasy and alternate history) but our son is a true non-fiction aficionado. As a preschooler, Ethan loved when his teacher read current events to him and would even remind her to read the newspaper in the morning when she forgot. As he grew, Ethan found facts, events, and tidbits about our lives more interesting than stories. My father, a non-fiction aficionado himself, summed up Ethan’s fascination with non-fiction by saying “Why would I want to read fiction when there are so many fascinating things on this earth to learn about?!”
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by Julia López-Robertson, Lisa Stockdale & Amber Hartman, The University of South Carolina
A man without history is a tree without root.
Confucius
. . . students are often disinterested in their own culture because their parents have worked so hard to help them blend into the Western world and environment.
We close our blog this month with another graphic novel, Vietnamerica, and leave you with a few questions regarding students’ language and culture and its place in the classroom. The main character, G.B., is a Vietnamese American who learns about his family’s past in Vietnam and America through family stories and also by visiting his home country of Vietnam. G.B.’s parents fled Vietnam during the war in Saigon to keep the family safe and to find new life in America. Although G.B.’s family struggled to adapt to their new life in America, they wanted what was best for their children so they didn’t go back right away. G.B. grows up in the United States and it is obvious throughout Vietnamerica that he has definitely assimilated to the American culture and become extremely “Americanized.” When his parents ask him to visit Vietnam with them years later, G.B. wants nothing to do with it. He questions why they still care about Vietnam when they left it so many years ago. Eventually, G.B. comes to the conclusion that his family’s past is important, and he tries his hardest to grasp what he can before the history goes away.
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