Standard 4.

0 Collaborate and communicate with families

Element 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4

Artifact 1.1.1

8/6/17 (3 Hours)

Hey ladies,
Since you are the reading guru's and always working on perfecting your craft, I was hoping that
you could assist me with an assignment.

Could you please answer the following questions for me.

Do you know of any literature that you use or don't use with regard to gender and cultural
stereotyping?
Any ideas on how to promote cultural diversity in the school or your classroom?

I thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this,

Stacey

I like the Yang the Youngest series. And their problems are equal and solved in a culturally
unbiased way. In the Year of the Boar, and Jackie Robinson is good too.

Also Jalepeno Bagels, How My Parents Learned to Eat, and there are fairy tale versions in many
cultures.

Dena

Reflection

I believe that Maugansville is a very diverse area. We have many students from different
cultures coming into our school building daily. There are many students that speak
multiple languages while they are trying to learn English. There are families from all
over the world and are in a way our own little melting pot. There is an opportunity to
build on the diverse community we have and have students share experiences.
 With having a very diverse community it is challenging to find literature that supports all
different cultures of the world. It does get controversial with some topics such as
teaching slavery in third grade. It is important to select literature that isnt bias and allow
productive conversations and discussions to happen in the classroom.
All of the teachers I was able to talk to felt that there are some units that allows for
organic conversations about culture. It isnt something that you should force. It is also
something that you should expose students to because they are exposed to different
cultures.
It is very easy to pick and choose a variety of cultures when studying fairy tales and
folktales. This is the best way to expose students to different beliefs and cultures of the
world. The school library has so many folktales and fairy tales from different cultures
that it is a wonderful source of information.