I once read somewhere that literature reflects history. I
feel some points in this article reinforce this point. The article says that “Studying
canonical texts is an important strategy for understanding the values and ideologies
of dominant groups at various points in history . . . literary texts such as The Scarlet Letter and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn offered
me insight into the American psyche than most texts on U. S. History.” History
books may discuss more of what is going on in the world at a specific time, but
it leaves out how different groups respond to these events/ideas on a personal
and emotional level. Literature, although often fictional, gives a better idea
of what people of the time felt and how they reacted to certain circumstances.
Another part of the article I support is the idea
multiculturalism is more than reading works written by people of color or about
people of color. I feel it would be more beneficial to do a multicultural
reading of a text that doesn’t necessarily primarily focus on the various
cultures of its characters. Many texts that focus on other cultures often
stretch stereotypes and can leave students with a negative image of the
culture, something that has the opposite effect of that text. Doing a
multicultural analysis of a different kind of text would be more beneficial, as
it also asks students to apply their critical thinking skills as they analyze the
text.
One activity the article used that I might adopt for my
own classroom is using rap songs in a poetry unit. This would be a great, fun way
to increase levels of student interest and engagement in the unit. Letting
students pick their own song to match with a piece of poetry would be helpful
as students get to exercise their creativity as well as critical thinking and
analyses skills. Students may have so much fun with the assignment that they
may not even feel like they are doing school work.
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