Why am I here in a Multiculture Literature course?

To be completely honest, I taking TE 348 was one of the main reasons that I enrolled in this course. I had never discussed children's literature in the ways we did in that class and I didn't want the conversations I took part in there to end that semester. An emphasis throughout TE 348 was the incorporation of diverse literature into the classroom and I really wanted more ideas on how to go about doing that. Growing up in a public school I was never really exposed to much diverse literature until I reached my junior year of high school and by that point it was difficult to incorporate because there were some in the class that were so hesitant they made it very hard for others who wanted to get into the literature to do so. I feel like incorporating diverse literature at an early age and continuing that is so much more beneficial to the students. In my professional career as a lower elementary teacher my goal is to incorporate as much diverse literature as possible. It is very important the each child in the classroom can find a piece of literature that relates to them on a personal level and I want to be able to make that an opportunity for each and every one of my classes. TE 448 is giving me the skills I need to decided what diverse literature I should incorporate and how to decide what is in fact "good" diverse literature. Issues of diversity are key to teaching literacy, especially if you are teaching in a very diverse school district. One thing to keep in mind is that no matter where you teach, there will be differences between the students in the classroom. One way to teach literacy and to prompt learning of the material is to choose activities and literature that is interesting to the students and is something which they can relate to and make a connection with. We have been taught through many education classes at MSU that sometimes it just takes getting students to read about something they are interested in or about something that is close to them to get them motivated to read more and also learn more about reading and writing. By incorporate diverse literature there is more of a chance that students will encounter a subject they are interested in which could be the difference in how they look at reading and writing. As a TESOL minor I think that multicultural education is extremely important. If I am in an ESL classroom I may have students from many different backgrounds with different values and outlooks on society and life. I think that the incorporation of multicultural literature into the multicultural education classroom would benefit them and make them feel more comfortable in a new setting. It is intimidating coming moving to a new place, let alone not knowing the language of that place very well. If I could reach out to the students with diverse literature and show them that their input is valued it may make a better classroom environment for them to open up and learn on a deeper level. My ability to incorporate diverse literature effectively has always been a concern of mine. I feel like because I did not grow up being exposed to such works, I may not know how to relate them to children. It is one thing to have discussions and voice my opinions in a college classroom but it is very different when interacting with students. Also, I have never had the first hand experience of incorporating diverse literature into the classroom and not knowing the response I am going to get from students makes me cautious. However, I do not want to underestimate children because a lot of times children are much more opened minded than adults. This is one of the things I look forward to about incorporating diverse and multicultural literature. I may end up in a situation where my students are very enthusiastic about learning of other cultures and I may find myself listening in on some very deep discussions, or at least deep in comparison to the age of the students. I always like a good surprise and watching my students really dive in and want to learn about diverse and multicultural literature will be an experience i would never forget. I have always said that if through teaching I can make a difference in one students life, all of my years of studying and working would have paid off. In relation to diverse and multicultural literature, if I can help bring one student into the light and understanding of diverse literature and help that student question issues in the world, all of my hard work would have paid off.