LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Jessica Zuniga

A Diverse Curriculum in the Fifth Grade Language Arts Classroom

            I chose to write on the importance of integrating minority literature into a fifth grade Language Arts classroom in order to offer a variety of cultures and perspectives to my students.  I feel this topic is relevant to my career as a teacher because it will offer me the opportunity to share information on different minority groups with my students and have them to the same with me in return. This will have an immense impact on their knowledge base and mine in return.

            My starting point in research was finding information from a reliable source that has experienced firsthand what it is like to use minority literature in their teaching instruction. I chose Leila Christenbury, a former high school English teacher and current English professor, who wrote one of the textbooks I used in my Principles of Composition course this semester, entitled Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts. In this text, Christenbury states that you do not have to teach in a certain environment, such as the barrio or projects, to share with your students background information on the minority group that would commonly live in that setting. By denying your students various types of minority literature “you shortchange your students and you misrepresent the true nature of their country if you don’t introduce them to all the communities who have composed the history of this country. To deny your students a view into these different worlds is to deny them tools for the future” (Christenbury 293). By allowing them a view into these different worlds is compatible with Objective 5a in our syllabus ; to discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience. Students can come to realize, through reading minority literature, that “all people experience universal feelings of love, sadness, self-worth, justice, and kindness” (Lu). I feel that students can more easily relate to and have a better understanding of cultures if they are given access to these cultures through literature, which is “an important channel for transmitting societal values and beliefs” (Lu). Students can read and discuss what they read about literature, which makes it “come alive” for them, forming more of a reality for them than other channels of communication, such as newspaper articles or news broadcasts, might do.

            There are not just benefits to students who read about minority groups other than their own. Students who read about their own minority group can gain knowledge from connecting with their culture through literature. In Nadine Ruiz’s article, she highlights the point that “learners that read texts congruent with their background information, such as a Hispanic girl reading a story about a quincenera, read the story faster, recall both the gist and the details better, and summarize or recall it better”. If a student already has background knowledge on a particular topic because of their own experiences with that topic or a relative’s experiences with it, they are more likely to understand and retain the information better. This would allow them to help explain details on the topic better and be a more active participant in discuss, benefitting the class as a whole. Students who connect to minority literature “have opportunities to see how others go through experiences similar to theirs, develop strategies to cope with issues in their life, and identify themselves with their inherited culture” (Lu).  They can make connections with characters and relate to them on a personal level. This would encourage them when facing similar obstacles or motivate them when achieving success in their particular ethnic group.

            In this research  report I was seeking information explaining the importance of minority literature in a Language Arts classroom. I found, through my research, that minority literature allows students to connect to Objective 2, to observe representations and narratives (images and stories) of ethnicity, gender, and class as a means of defining minority categories. I feel that observing these representations through narrative will allow students a more open-minded view of the world and its various cultures that surround them daily.

            I chose to write on this topic because I want my students to gain respect, compassion, and love for one another through sharing each other’s experiences, thoughts and emotions in my classroom. Each person has something to contribute to each other, making each individual “an important factor in American society and its literature” (LC).         

Works Cited

“Mexican American Literature”. Research Report from Final Exam Answers 2005. LITR 4332: American Minority Literature. Retrieved 1 May 2007 from http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4332/models/2005/finals/f05lc.htm

Christenbury, Leila. Making the Journey. Third Edition. Heinemann, New Hampshire. 2006.

Lu, Mei-Yu. “Multicultural Children’s Literature in the Elementary Classroom”. Lee and Low Books. Retrieved 1 May 2007 from http://www.leeandlowbooks.com/administrator/meiarticle.html

Ruiz, Nadine T. “Effective Instruction for Language Minority Children with Mild Disabilities”. ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children Reston VA. Retrieved 1 May 2007 from http://www.thememoryhole.org/edu/eric/ed333621.html