I am following the organization National Black Child Development Institute. The organization is focused on educating and informing community stakeholders in trends and issues that influence the lives of black children and their families. The organizations also works to provide the unique resources that black children and families need. These resources include those related to health,welfare and child development.
In the NBCDI's most recent publication is short piece on preparation for returning to school this fall. In the short article the author mentions the influence of reading on supporting children through the first days to separation from loved ones. Included is the added enthusiasm when children have when they read books with characters that reflect them and their lives. This caught my attention because it reaffirmed the work I did last year in my own classroom to bring books with African American characters into my classroom. I sought out donations and was able to raise money to purchase almost 100 books that depicted African American children ad the main characters outside of just discussing their cultural background. It is important that all children see all children depicted in typical fiction stories. For my project this year I will seek out books depicting children of Hispanic and Asian descent. This also connects with the topic this week of changing demographics and diversity. As the diversity changes in our schools it is important that their environment and resources change to reflect who the children are that we teach.
Thanks for sharing all of these great books. I have such a diverse classroom and would really love to bring more culturally diverse books into my class. I love that you are trying to find some that have typical stories. I think it is very difficult to find this. Do you have a specific resource you are using to get these books?
ReplyDeleteRachel,
DeleteI found titles by doing generic Google search using terms such as " books for African American children" "books with African American children" " diverse children's books". After that I did my own research to determine what the stories were about and if they were age appropriate for my students. To obtain the books I used the website donorschoose.org where I set up a page explaining my project. Then others can donate money to my project. The majority of my donors were family and friends and the parents of my students ( I timed this with the Christmas holiday and offered this as an alternatively to families who wanted to buy something for me as a gift). The best part is that the first week after you begin your project donors choose will match donations up to $100. It did require a bit of "leg work" setting up the project page and writing a thank you letter and having all the students write ones as well ( this ia requirement) but it was well worth it and I plan to do it again this year with a different focus.