Blog # 4 Multicultural and International Books

Multicultural books depicts how a certain culture of people live their lives. This could include various things and can include how they celebrate and what they celebrate, foods eaten and how they are made, clothing , housing, how a leader is elected and much more.

It is important the author is creditable. This means that the author has first hand knowledge or insight to the culture and could share details that someone from a different back ground could not. This may even include a visitor who may observe a culture for a certain amount of time and writes from his or her perspective. Keep in mind that the author may only be receiving filtered information.

It is also important to read or have information on the author before making the book available to make sure this is material that you want your students to be exposed to. You want a book that will stimulate their interest and gain insight to other parts of the world or other people. They can gain great insight in knowing that some things in their culture is taboo in other countries it make be considered beautiful. This can help students develop respect and understanding of difference and help open the door to discussion to other topics like race, defining beauty and having them come to realization that one way doesn't mean it's the only way.

Two activities I would enjoy doing with k-2 is having them look at their own culture and bring in one item that they could share with the class. I think the children would enjoy the hands on fun of being able to touch and see other objects from other countries in person. They could display it on a table along with their flag. Another activities that I think they might enjoy is food bringing in one food that they enjoy very much. If this proved to be too much they make a menu of what one of their favorite dishes might be and share it with the class.

International Literature is a book published in another country besides the United States other parts of the world may have a different definition. Of course, one of the most famous books of all is The Book: The Holy Bible but I found many international books that really sparked my interest and were really enjoyable and definitely worth having in your classroom. Some books I just considered classical like Henzel and Gretel where internationals books which I found interesting and help me to see books from different perspective.

International books also include so much insight to other cultures including word choice and tone which really give you insight and taste of authenticity.

For an a class activity I would have the children pick a country then I would encourage them to become experts and become our tour guide. Students would be encourage to write a mini-book entitled If I was born in China, If I was an Aztec Indian, If I was Eskimo. Whatever, interest they had they could take off an run with their imagination.

After, they were done with their mini-book I would like to see a follow up activity which compared both worlds to see if how different or alike they really are. I would try to inter agate some of this into Social Studies.