RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

From reading this article, my eyes were opened to what is going on in Sudan. I found it very interesting from Ezra’s transcript how he said it’s, “very important for each group of people to keep their culture…learn other cultures…appreciate other cultures and learn to interact and intermingle with other cultures.” I think this can be transferred to my classroom. Since I teach second grade, it would be best to introduce different cultures from picture books. I found a book called Brothers of Hope: The Lost Boys of Sudan. This book would help my students relate to what they went through. I think one important thing Ezra is trying to say is we need to learn to get along. We can’t have tunnel vision and think my way is the only way to live. One way we can learn to get along, is by introducing other cultures to our classroom and welcome and learn about cultures that are already inside our classroom. If students can make a connection with a culture, then they will be more apt to have compassion and understanding.

The Lost Boys were able to transform their storytelling to help educate and persuade people for their cause. They realized the importance of being literate. I think when you are faced with extreme circumstances, you tend to do things that you would not have thought you would ever do. You also appreciate things more. For example this past school year I read Listen to the Wind, which is the children’s picture book version of Three Cups of Tea. When I read the part of how the children in the village of Korpe located in Pakistan didn’t have a school and the students only saw their teacher three times a week, my students thought it was the greatest thing. I had some trouble getting them to see the importance of school. So, I think you act differently when you face obstacles. As we continued the story, they thought it was great that Dr. Greg Mortenson helped them to build a school. They had a little more understanding when they saw the photos at the end of the book. I found a blog about how a fourth grade teachers, helped integrate this story with all subjects and tried to make it real for the students. Here is a link to the blog about integrating the book Listen to the Wind.

In the second grade curriculum, we teach citizenship. I have always taught it only dealing with our classroom, school and in our community. I hadn’t thought about teaching global citizenship. This book is great for global citizenship also. I found Big Universe website that offers other books that would be great to introduce other cultures to my students. There is a big world out there that needs to be explored. After reading this article, I realize I will be learning along with my students. I think this is one thing that has changed in education. I do not remember learning about other cultures. We are such a global economy now, that when something happens on the other side of the world it affects us here.

In the Somali culture, “spoken rather than written is important.” If you think about it spoken is important here in the U.S. We watch a lot of TV and movies. We judge a candidate, by how eloquently they speak. Whether we realize it or not spoken language is a big part of our culture. The only difference is ours is usually written down and then memorized.

Trish Edwards