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Sample Student final exam answers 2019 (2019 final exam assignment) Part 3: Model Research Reports |
LITR 4340
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Jasmine Choate
Understanding the New Youth of America
For my research, I decided to focus on
learning more about Immigrant representation within Young Adult Literature and
the impact it can have in the classroom on both immigrant and native students.
As a future 7-12th ELA teacher I want to be aware of how I can make
my classroom a comfortable and welcoming place where my students, immigrant or
not, feel like they have a voice. For my research, I want to learn about how
well, or how poorly, immigration is portrayed towards a younger audience. I’m
also interested in how much immigrant representation has progressed throughout
the years considering the subject is not quite as taboo as it was 20-30 years
ago.
Reading about the immigrant experience
is very eye opening, especially when it comes to the hardships they have to
face, usually at a young age. In a journal article that I came across, Elizabeth
Clifford analyzed 20 different young adult novels from the perspective of
children here in the US in her article
Immigrant Narratives: Power, Difference, and Representation in Young-Adult
Novels with Immigrant Protagonists. By going through the different
demographics and similar storylines, one thing that she discovered was an
unfortunate truth that I, as a future teacher and American citizen, should take
into consideration more often. “Most of the protagonists were in their early to
mid-teenage years, although a few stories began earlier in the protagonists’
lives, sometimes when they were toddlers. Many protagonists had experiences and
responsibilities that were much more adult than most American children would now
experience.” (Clifford 4) The average childhood here in America is
non-comparable to some of the tough obstacles that child immigrants have to
face. Learning through their perspectives, can affect how young people think and
understand immigration. This shows the true power that these young adult
narratives can have on the growing minds of their targeted audience.
Representation in young adult literature
is incredibly important, especially for teenagers of any culture. It gives them
something to relate to and view as a voice for their culture, their home, and
even their identity. They are in the stage of their youth, where being or
feeling “different” impacts them emotionally and mentally. This mostly negative
outlook may be even higher in those immigrant children or children with
immigrant parents due to how much they have assimilated into the dominant
culture. “The young people portrayed are delicately balanced between two worlds.
However, in the minds of many of the protagonists, as well as many of their
American peers, difference equals deficit, with the implicit assumption that the
ways of the home country are not desirable, and so the young immigrants strive
to assimilate as much as possible.” (Clifford 14) By having the literature
representation mirror their reality, it enables them to feel understood and
heard about their desire to assimilate or fit in.
Through my research, I found another
article by Jennifer Graff titled
“Countering Narratives: Teachers’ Discourses About Immigrants and Their
Experiences Within the Realm of Children’s and Young Adult Literature” that
clearly exemplifies why these young adult immigrant narratives are so necessary.
Graff had discussions with students in grades 3-8 about the multicultural
literature within their school work. Their responses reflect how much the stigma
of immigration within the dominant culture around them has shaped how they view
immigration and multicultural identities within literature. “’Why would I want
to read books about people who are ruining where we live?’ / ‘I ain’t reading no
Spanish speaking books. Why we gotta read their language when they don’t know
ours? It’s not fair.’ / ‘Hey, no way I’d read that. They be takin’ like jobs and
stuff. Now they’re takin’ the books?’” (Graff 109) Reading this shocked me
because you typically think that children would not discriminate in such a harsh
manner, but the reality is that they absorb the mindset and beliefs of those
around them, whether they are positive or negative. Further proving the point of
how important it is to incorporate the different cultural and immigrant
narratives within young adult literature for all children and adolescents to
benefit from.
So far in my research, I have had my
eyes opened to how much of an impact these immigrant narratives can have on
America’s youth and have gone down a path of curiosity into how much of this
literature is actually being used within the education system currently. To
further develop my research, I decided to interview and discuss the topic of
immigrant representation in youth literature with my Theories of American
Pluralism (SILC 4315) professor, Sylvia Holub. I felt she would be a suitable
expert because not only is she a prior teacher of grades pre-k through 4th,
but she is also very knowledgeable in the topics of multiculturalism as it is
the basis for our course. In my interview with her I wanted to first learn about
her backstory as a teacher dealing with immigrant students and being able to
educationally reach them all at the same time, despite their cultural
differences. She had experience with students who had immigrated from all parts
of the world like Honduras, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Africa, India, China,
Vietnam, and Korea. When asked if she felt that, as a teacher, there was any
sort of immigrant representation within the literature at school for these
students to learn from and relate to, she quickly noted that there wasn’t. Even
mentioning how most of the parents of the immigrant students would rather they
focus on English and US culture instead.
After this, I then was curious how she felt things have
changed for how literature or even immigration and multicultural identities were
represented when she was younger. She spoke about how there was absolutely no
multiculturalism context within school or education when she was a young girl.
“I grew up in a time when Assimilation was taking place. We were in trouble if
we spoke Spanish ever. They would hit students; they would punish you. I spoke
Spanish once and got in trouble, and spent a very miserable afternoon crying for
speaking five sentences to a new immigrant who had come to our school.” (Holub)
Thinking of this, I can immediately see how far the belief of immigration and
multiculturalism in education has come. There are still many strides to be made,
but it’s important to acknowledge the growth so far. Professor Holub spoke of
how strict schools used to be when it came to assimilation, so it is obvious
that immigrant narratives were nowhere to be found in youth literature at the
time. When asked if she had any tips for young adults or teachers who are in
search of books with immigrant narratives outside of school, she mentioned
searching for award winning books as some tend to focus on impactful and diverse
narratives for readers of all ages.
This tip from Professor Holub led me onto the next phase
of my research, which was trying to see what types of literature based on the
immigrant narrative are there for the young adult/child audience. I started by
searching for the different types of awards and found a website which held an
extensive list of the different types of awards that focus on diversity complied
by Laura Schulte-Cooper. From this, I discovered the Américas Award that focuses
on “books that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the
Caribbean, or Latinos in the U.S.” (Schulte-Cooper) The most recent winner of
this award is a young adult fiction novel
American Street by Ibi Zoboi that focuses on a young girl, Fabiola, who
moves to the US from Haiti. Her mother is detained by US immigration services
and therefore Fabiola is left to navigate America and its culture on her own. In
the book, she interacts with her American cousins, the problems of school, and
dealing with not having her mother alongside her. I think this narrative would
benefit all adolescents in giving them the perspective of someone their age, who
is facing obstacles that they themselves most likely have not had to experience.
At the start of my research, I was not sure where this
journey would take me. I simply knew I wanted to build a foundation of knowledge
on the immigrant narrative within Young Adult literature in order to benefit my
future students. From reading articles and learning about the benefits of
diverse perspectives, I was able to realize how important and impactful these
narratives we’ve been reading all semester can be. They broaden the outlook of
the audience by allowing them to experience both the struggles and achievements
of American Immigrants. By speaking with Professor Holub, I was able to
incorporate the course material for these two completely separate courses and
see how they both supplement each other by focusing on the pluralism of cultural
identities here in America. I also got to speak to her first hand on how
America’s views have changed on the importance of multicultural identities in
youth. Since there is still a lack of in school representation of these diverse
novels, I think it is important to know how to find books that contain immigrant
narratives. Which is why, my research came to a close with searching through
several award winning books and learning about what important stories are
waiting to be told to the youth of American today.
Sources:
“American Street by Ibi Zoboi.”
Goodreads, Goodreads, 14 Feb. 2017,
www.goodreads.com/book/show/30256109-american-street.
Choate, Jasmine, and Sylvia Holub. “SILC Professor
Interview.” 6 May 2019.
Clifford, Elizabeth. “Immigrant Narratives: Power,
Difference, and Representation in Young-Adult Novels with Immigrant
Protagonists.” International Journal of Multicultural Education, vol. 13,
no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–20.
Graff, Jennifer. “Countering Narratives: Teachers’
Discourses about Immigrants and Their Experiences within the Realm of Children’s
and Young Adult Literature.” English Teaching: Practice and Critique,
vol. 9, no. 3, Dec. 2010, pp. 106–131.
Schlute-Cooper, Laura. “Awards That Celebrate Diversity
in Children’s Literature.” Children and Libraries, 2015,
dia.ala.org/sites/default/files/resources/awards-diversity.pdf.
