My Personal Philosophy

I chose to take this class because it was a requirement for my Language Arts degree and because I really enjoyed TE348 and I figured I would like this course just as much.
This course connects to my professional goals because it makes me become more aware of diverse literature for my own classroom one day. It has also made me analyze texts in a way that I had never done before. Analyzing texts can be very important because one has to be aware of what they or their children may be reading. I wouldn't want to give my children a book to read that was very stereotypical because I wouldn't want them to get the wrong impression of that particular ethnic group. This course has also opened my eyes to diverse literature that I may not have been aware of because I was not really around it when I was younger. Well, I may have been around it, but it was never emphasized when I was growing up. I hope to someday make the children in my classroom as well as my own children, aware of the necessity of diverse literature and to be aware of people who are different from yourself because you can learn so much from other people.
The role of issues of diversity play a huge part in literacy teaching and learning. This type of literature can be very helpful in engaging students to become more interested in different ethnic groups and to take a stand on what type of diverse literature they enjoy the most. It is also important to address some of the misconceptions that different ethnic groups have and try to get rid of these misconceptions from the children's thinking.
My personal philosophy about multicultural education is that it should be encouraged in classrooms. I feel that all students should be aware of the world around them and it should be encouraged by the teacher to enforce such learning. Children's literature for multicultural education would play a huge part in my personal philosophy. I think that it is easier for children to relate to a text, especially if it is about someone of their same age.
I feel that one challenge would be finding the right books to bring into the classroom. I would wants texts that the children would be able to relate to, as well as have a powerful statement. But the whole idea of bringing in such diverse literature is very interesting and exciting to me. I feel that with diverse literature comes a promising future for the classroom as a whole.