Bronx Masquerade

First off i really enjoyed reading our last book, Bronx Masquerade. After picking it up from the library i was unable to put it down, and finished reading it all in one sitting. I was intrigued by the teacher, Mr. Ward, and his students ability to take risks. A simple paper turned into an opportunity for a classroom of diverse individuals to find a common ground based off their differences. Open mike Fridays allowed the student's to not only display their creative ability, but also enabled them to find another voice. They found the freedom and courage to discuss personal issues. This class activity drew the attention of other students, faculty, and the community. As the year came to an end the classroom, once divided by stereotypes and prejudices, was united as a family.

I hope to someday as a teacher implement a program within my classroom that reaches the students as Mr. Ward was able to do with his. I believe it is a great way to show the students that a classroom can be more than just a place to learn. In a sense it can be a community on its own. Providing an atmosphere that allows the students to feel comfortable and confident will hopefully enable them to instill these character traits throughout their everyday life and future endeavours.

Arab American Children's Literature

The article we read by Tami C. Al-Hazza was helpful in not only helping me to better understand the Arab culture and people, but was also beneficial to my future as a teacher. I found it interesting to read that only a small, 20% of the entire world’s Muslim population is actually Arab. Additionally, I had not previously known that the Arab world includes numerous other populations such as Christians, Masonites, and Egyptian Copts. Often times Arab’s are labeled inaccurately within the American society and Al-Hazza does an excellent job of supplying accurate information.

In terms of children’s literature I found this article extremely informative, providing many examples. Al-Hazza presents books for all genres and types; fiction, novels, picture books, information, poetry and folktale. This is an article that I will refer to when I have a classroom of my own. I feel confident that the books mentioned throughout serve as great representations of the Arab culture and will provide positive and credible information and pictures for my future students.

September 22,2008

This past summer I ran a summer camp program at a local Christian daycare. The facility is located within the church, and because of this it holds many outside activities and events. Towards the end of summer there was a major Arab organization conference held over a two day time period. I have little experience and prior knowledge with this cultural group and found myself spending my lunch breaks trying to learn more. I gathered information pamphlets about their group and culture as a whole. While reading Al-Hazza and Bob Lucking’s article I found that some of the websites given near the end sounded familiar. After digging through my stuff, I was able to find a pamphlet I was given at the conference which provided the website www.cie.org/resources.asp, also mentioned in our article. This website is beneficial in finding diverse information in regards to Arab holidays, classroom lessons, articles, media sources, and community events.

September 17, 2008

I was very intrigued by today's debate over the insider/outsider issue. As I sat back and listened to both groups, I took in all that was being proposed and defended. All the while the debate went on, and no matter which points are brought forth it always came back to the same question; How do you define an insider and outsider. After class I revisited my previous definition and stance using the ideas gathered from our debate. From your personal opinions and definition you are then able to place yourself among a group and stand proudly as a representative of it.

Insider/Outsider Debate

These articles were extremely informative and also provided great insight and opinions. Prior to reading these articles I had placed myself among the outsiders. Agreeing with Shannon, I am all of the characteristics that define the majority or mainstream culture within America. With my lack of knowledge and experience about other cultures and diverse groups, I could never imagine myself attempting to take on the label insider. However, I found it very intriguing how these authors "battled" with their speech this issue and defended their pieces of work with dignity and class. It was not until further in my readings of the articles that I realized the possibility of calling myself an insider. Within Cai's article he mentions that the mainstream, who often consider themselves outsiders, are in fact just as much of an insider as anyone else. Because I meet all qualifications for a standard majority individual, this places me at the forefront of multiculturalism.

Not only did the articles help clarify where I stand on the insider/outsider debate, they also allowed me to learn more about multiculturalism in general. Shannon makes a great point when he states, "We should not have a separate category of literature called multicultural literature, because the separation would make general literature appear as the norm and multicultural literature as alien." (Cai 316) It was not until reading this sentence that I really thought about how multiculturalism as a group of literature could work against itself. This is an idea and suggestion I wish to further discuss in class.