My final thoughts on TE448!

I honestly didn't notice how much I was benefiting from this class until the very end after I completed the final project. I have learned so much about how culture and diversity can be used in children's and adolescent literature and what a great addition these books are to a classroom library. Picking out my own books on cerebral palsy for my text set for my final project showed me how much I have learned about what to look for in books about cultural and diversity to put in a classroom library. I never looked at books that critically before this project, and now whenever I look at picture books I find myself looking at every aspect of them including the pictures, how the text is positioned on the page, the stereotypes it may portray and what the text says itself. It all can have meaning or hidden messages, and I really enjoy looking for these!

Although the first couple "questioning the text" papers were a little difficult for me to write, they got progressively easier to write as the course went on. I had never read an adolescent book that critically before, and during the first couple papers, I didn't understand that the best kind of questions about texts are ones that have multiple interpretations and answers. I liked having the small group discussions about the books and the papers because there were so many different opinions about the books and the questions that were brought to the table. The most rewarding thing about having whole group discussions and large class discussions is that I left that class having more ideas about the books than I came in with on my own. I think that a person's personality and the way they form opinions can really affect the reading and interpretations of a book. We had so many different personalities in our class, and I know that some of the ways my classmates looked at the books would never happen in my mind. It was great to hear opinions and thoughts other than my own about the books. It was very enlightening and interesting.

This class has made me very interested in reading more diverse children's literature and researching it to see if it will make a good addition to my future classroom library. Thinking back to my elementary school and language arts classroom libraries during my earlier years of school, I cannot remember any specific books on diversity and culture being included. I'm not sure if that is just because my memory is bad or because there actually were none, but I am very sure that it is the latter reason. I think it's so important for students to start being aware of diversity at a young age, because it gets more and more difficult to make it apart of their lives as they get older. If they see it from the early beginning, it will simply become another aspect of their lives and they will hopefully be more accepting and interested in it.

Our class focused especially on stereotypes throughout this semester, and I became so much more aware of how much they are prevalent in literature. Children are exposed to enough stereotypes in their daily lives by their parents, the media, and the influence of other students; I want to make sure that the books they are reading in my classroom are not reinforcing these stereotypes by their pictures and their ideas. My goal is to find children's literature that will actually help break some of those stereotypes that the children might have formed already. Again, the earlier you catch that and correct those misconceptions, the better!

I am so happy that I took this class. I enjoyed most of the books that we read, and I got a lot out of listening to the discussions in our class and doing the blog postings. Literature is going to be a huge part of my future classroom, and this class has prepared me more than I could ever imagine for looking for books to include in my library.