Promoting Respect for Cultural Diversity Through Children's Literature

by Jennifer Lee Quattrucci

As we prepare to head back to school, it is important to intentionally plan to promote diversity in ways that value collaboration and trust among all stakeholders. Reasearch shows "Schools should make sure multicultural perspectives are incorporated into all aspects of school life by promoting diversity as a positive learning experience." (Abington-Pitre, 2015). One way to promote diversity is through incorporating great quality children's literature.

Remember that not all books that are perceived or even labeled 'multicultural' are appropriate. Before deciding to add a book to your classroom library or share it with your students be sure it does not contain stereotypes or tokenism. Of course, it is important to have all cultures represented so students truly know they belong, and for the stories chosen to contain appropriate and inspiring messages for our students.

I have selected eight children's books that meet this criterion and I have offered activities to extend the stories that are appropriate for ESOL students who are at the early production stage, speech emergence stage, or intermediate fluency stage. Students at the early production stage are mostly focused on listening and are just beginning to repeat basic words. The speech emergence stage is when they are able say a complete simple sentence and ask questions, and the intermediate fluent stage is when students feel comfortable enough to share their own ideas in English and use more complex sentences.

I hope you find these book selections and ideas helpful and that they inspire you to promote diversity in positive and meaningful ways. Click the book cover pictures for the amazon shopping links.

Fresh Juice by Robert Liu-Trujillo

There is a strong message of how important community is in this book. A young boy named Art decides that his father, because he has a cold, needs a special juice they call "Fresh Juice." Unfortunately, they can't make the juice because they need ginger, which is how they end up all over the neighborhood. They go downtown, and end up at the farmer's market, the food coop and at the West African grocery store! They run into different family members including Art's mom and stepfather and everyone in the book is so supportive while helping Art help his dad!

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Create a large blender on chart paper for each small group of students. Also create cards that have the different ingredients in "Fresh Juice." Have the students work together to attach the necessary ingredients (cards) to the chart paper blender and also pantomime making the juice together.

Speech Emergence Stage: With the support of sentence stems (The problem was ________ & The solution was ___________________) ask students to discuss the problem and solution of the story with a peer. Then have them complete a problem/solution graphic organizer together.

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to compare and contrast their neighborhoods to Art's neighborhood. How are they the same? What did they notice about Art's neighborhood that they wish was true about their own neighborhood? What do they love about their own neighborhood that they think Art and his family would love too? Have them create an ideal neighborhood with pictures and sentences.

A Crown for Corina by Elisa Chavarri

In this story it is Corina's birthday, and she is in her Abuela's garden partaking in the special tradition of the Mexican flower crown. She is given a hat and her Abuela tells her she must choose flowers that tell a story to add to her hat and create her crown. She takes this very seriously, deciding on a sunflower because yellow is her mom's favorite color, and she explains the reason behind every flower she adds to her beautiful new crown.

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Give the students a template of a hat and a template with several flowers. Have the students color the flowers to represent things that are special to them to glue to their hat to create their own 'crown.' Ask them to share what color their favorite flower on their new crown is. Provide them with the prompt: My favorite flower is _____.

Speech Emergence Stage: Provide students with the hat and flowers from the activity above but also the sentence stem: My _______ flower is for ___________. Have them create their crown and also use the stem to write and tell about 3 of the flowers on their crown.

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to work in cooperative groups to discuss the types of flowers they would need to create a meaningful crown for themselves and explain what their flowers would mean. Encourage them to ask each other questions about the selections and experiences and then have them draw each other with the crowns that were discussed.

Sunflower Sisters by Monika Singh Gangotra

Amrita and Kiki are the main characters of this beautiful book. They are best friends and call themselves sisters. They both older siblings who are getting married on the same day and wear sunflower dresses. One of the girls is South Asian and one is Nigerian. During the wedding, there is talk from elder family members about preference of lighter skin, but the very strong message from mum is to appreciate and love the skin you have. Colorism is explained in a matter of fact but also very sensitive way for young children.

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Provide students with a paper doll template and ask them to design it to look just like they do. Give them the opportunity to share with a peer what their favorite thing is about themself.

Speech Emergence Stage: Ask the students to work in small collaborative groups to create a skit based on one part of the story.

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to work in small collaborative groups to explain how Amrita and Kiki's feelings may have changed throughout the book. Provide them with a graphic organizer to explain.

Lailah's Lunchbox by Reem Faruqi

In this book, it is the season of Ramadan, but Lailah is in a new school in a new country. She is very sad, missing her old friends and the place she used to live. Although she is excited that she is finally old enough to participate in the fasting she feels like her new friends won't understand why she is not eating lunch. The school librarian and her teacher help her to understand how she can make friends by explaining to them about her beliefs. She learns that part of being a friend is to respect each other's differences.

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Have students work in pairs to match feeling pictures (create with photos or emojis) to different parts of the book to describe how Lailah felt throughout the story.

Speech Emergence Stage: Provide students with sentence stems to prompt small group conversation about Lailah and the school librarian. For example, one sentence stem might say "Lailah made friends by _______." and another might be "The librarian helped Lailah by _______."

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to work in cooperative groups to discuss what they would say and do if they were Lailah's new friends. Have them write a note to Lailah that might help her be more comfortable in her new school.

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor by Maria Dismondy

This story is mainly told in the point of view as a student named Johnny who is nervous when a new student enters his classroom and also the point of view of Gabe who is the new student and does not speak any English yet. The boys learn to connect through the things they have in common, such as a love of soccer and chocolate milk!

Extension Activities

Early Production Stage: Invite students to stand up. Show students different scenes of the book as well as 'fake' teacher created scenes.) Make simple drawings of the events in the book as well as events that did not occur ahead of time.) As you show the students the drawings, if it is an actual scene they must act it out, if not they must sit down.

Speech Emergence Stage: Ask students to work collaboratively to order the sequence of events in the story and provide a sentence about what they collectively feel is their favorite part. Provide them with a chart of the various events, but not in the order that they happened in. Provide a sentence stem to anchor their thinking such as "Our favorite part was when ___________."

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Provide students with pictures of both Gabe and Johnny and ask them to work in collaborative groups to complete a character trait poster of one or the other.

Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali

At the beginning of this book, Musa is a brand-new student and very nervous about meeting new friends. However, throughout the course of the school year Musa and all the other children learn so much about each other, especially the holidays that they all celebrate, and it becomes a very comfortable, inclusive environment for all!

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Create a matching game for the students to work on in groups of 2 or 3. Make cards with the holidays from the book and matching cards with a symbol of each holiday. Laminate the cards for extra durability and teach them to play it by turning all cards over so pictures cannot be seen and attempting to match holidays and symbols by memory.

Speech Emergence Stage: Using a graphic organizer, ask students to work collaboratively to decide on the main idea of the story. The graphic organizer should allow for students to record main idea and supporting details as a brainstorming tool. Provide a sentence stem for them to summarize their work such as "The main idea of the book is __________________"

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Allow students to work in small cooperative groups to interview each other about their favorite holidays. Have them complete an anchor chart that summarizes their discussion.

A Maleta Full of Treasures by Natalia Sylvester

This is a wonderful story about a Peruvian grandmother who visits her granddaughter with a suitcase full of surprises. Dulce appreciates all her surprises so much and decides to fill up her own suitcase "maleta" for grandma so that when she goes back to Peru, her grandma and all her cousins will have special items to appreciate as well!

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Provide students with file folders which they can decorate to look like suitcases (maletas). Ask them to recall 3 of the items that Dulce packed and draw them in their file folder suitcase. Have them share their work in collaborative work groups when they are done. Invite them to label their pictures with a word or beginning letter sound.

Speech Emergence Stage: After reading the story ask students to work in groups of 2 to create a short skit based on the scene when Dulce and grandma are saying good-bye at the airport. What might they be thinking? What could they say?

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to work collaboratively to imagine if they had to pack a suitcase with special things from our classroom for a visitor? What would they pack and why? Provide students with a graphic organizer to organize their work.

Change Sings by Amanda Gorman

The main character of this book is a young black girl, and she is with a Jewish boy as they go on a musical journey to make changes around their neighborhood. They clean up the park, give food to a young hungry boy as well as to an elderly woman who cannot leave her house. They even offer a bone to a tough looking dog and all kinds of instruments as more and more children join in on the music and good deeds!

Extension Activities:

Early Production Stage: Create cards of the various good deeds that the children in the story perform so that students can use them to play charades in teams.

Speech Emergence Stage: Have students work in pairs to write and illustrate their own 'buddy goal' about a positive change they make together. Provide them with a sentence stem such as "Together we will __________."

Intermediate Fluency Stage: Ask students to work cooperatively to answer the question "What would happen if the changes in the story did not happen?" Encourage them to record and explain their thoughts to the whole class.

Reference

Abington-Pitre, A. (2015) Where did we go wrong? Eight characteristics of multicultural

schools. Universal Journal of Educational Research.3(2), 99-103.