David Castillo edrg3321

What is International Literature? How is it different from Multiculturalism Literature? Why is it important to have in the Classroom?
According to our text, International Literature is defined as "that body of books originally published in a country other than the United States in a language of that country and later published in this country" some examples of Children's International Literature are "Going Back Home" and "I See The Rhythm" both, written by Toyomi Igus; English. This book includes vivid, colorful paintings and according to teachers this book means more than looking at words on a page - it means experiencing history, hearing the paintings, and seeing the music and is recommended for grades 4 and up.

On the other hand we have Multicultural Literature which is forever changing and is different from International Literature. In 1993, Junko Yokota defined it as "literature that represents any distinct cultural group through accurate portrayal and rich detail". In 1997, Violet Harris defined literature exclusively about people's ethnicity as "multiethnic literature". A perfect example of Multicultural Literature children's book is that of "Mada's Pinata Magic", written by Becky Chavarria-Chairz. She is a San Antonio, Texas native an a award-winning writer/commentator and freelance journalist who has written extensively on Hispanic customs, including pinata making and breaking.

Some activities I would like to use in the classroom for Multicultural Literature would have to be for each student to bring a game that would pertain to their family culture, so all children could experience the game for that culture. Another activity would have to be perhaps have a world map on a bulletin board and have each student identify their culture by placing a flag on the map that would identify their place of culture.

Other activities for International Literature could be perhaps creating audiotaped cassettes with greetings, basic conversations, songs and stories for the children to listen or read aloud. Maybe using the same concept of a world map and identify certain books from different countries and use visual object along with the book to relate the International Literature.

David Castillo edrg3344

RAFT
Role: Mozart
Audience: prospective employer
Format: job interview
Topic: qualifications as a composer (Strong Verb: point out)

Dear City Symphony Orchestra of New York,

My name is Cranky Violin Mozart I am interested in the Master Composer position posted in the New York Times. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and point out my qualifications as a composer. Being born and brought up in a family where music was in air, in life and in dreams of everyone, I feel strongly I meet your qualifications for your Orchestra. I will bring over 230 years of experience and knowledge on composing music. I have composed hundreds of beautiful and unique music works which include over 20 operas, about 14-15 Masses, 30-40 concerts (piano and violin), 50-60 symphonies. As my record reflects I meet all your qualifications as Master Composer and feel I can bring more excitement to your Orchestra. I look forward for to an interview.

Sincerely,
Cranky Violin Mozart


Capable Writers
Basically, capable writers provide support for the often lonely and frustrating task of writing. We see capable writers as professional trained guides in the hard work and personal exploration writing involves. Capable writers can inspire with a variety of original writing prompts. I feel strongly that if you have something important enough to put into words, but you're having trouble getting started or your writing has stalled, then professional writers and teachers, become our help or in this case our capable writers. For example: if I wanted to preserve in writing all the stories my father and mother has told us, I believe I would definitely could use some direction and encouragement from a professional writer or a teacher. I don't think we can do with out capable writers, after all they are the professionals (teachers) and are children in school we turn to them for support.

David Castillo edrg3321

Describe how to effectively evaluate books for Children. Is it Value based?

Teachers, Librarians and Parents have a difficult task in selecting appropriate books. In making these selections they must select books that provide balance in a school or public library. A literature program should include five objectives:

1. A literature program should help students realize that literature is for entertainment and can be enjoyed throughout their lives.


2. A literature program should acquaint children with their literary heritage and allow its transmission to future generations.


3. A literature program should help students understand the formal elements of literature and lead them to prefer the best that our literature has to offer.


4. A literature program should help children grow up understanding themselves and the rest of humanity.


5. A literature program should help children evaluate what they read.

It is also important for teachers to help students learn how to compare, question, and evaluate the books they read.

Anita Silvery a literary critic provides both a list of qualities of a reviewer and questions for the reviewer to consider. We actually applied this in our classroom among our home groups and personally i thought this was a great exercise. We had a great book and the entire group agreed with the evaluation criteria. If children's books were selected strictly based on values, we would have to many selections. There are so many values that can be intertwined and many people with many different beliefs so this would be impossible. Again, we used the "evaluation criteria" in our chapter three and our home group agreed it was an excellent and appropriate book for children.

Why do character/setting analysis on children’s books? What did it accomplish?

Characterization analysis is one of the most powerful of the literary elements, whether the story is a contemporary tale in which characters face realistic problems or an adaptation of classic literature. A believable and enjoyable story needs main characters who seem lifelike and who develop throughout the story. This allows children to experience the readings by sharing the characters main roles.

The setting of a story, such as the location in time and place helps readers share what the characters see, smell, hear, and touch, and also makes the character's values, actions and conflicts more understandable. The setting is very important part of a story that the characters and plot cannot be developed without an understanding the time and place. The majority of the time settings are used to create moods that add credibility to characters and plot. Therefore; without the characters and settings we would not have an enjoyable book for children to experiencethe characters and settings.

David Castillo edrg3344

Briefly discuss the Read & Writing process (chapter 3)

According to this chapter both Reading and writing are similar processes of constructing meaning. Teachers organize reading and writing instructions using two types of stages - READING processes teachers use the five stages (prereading, reading, responding, exploring, and applying) of reading and WRITING processes teachers use the five stages (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing of writing. Students also learn to use the reading and writing processes through literature focus units, literature circles, reading and writing workshop, and theme cycles. The chapter also identifies five (shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, buddy reading, and listening as it is read aloud) ways to read a selection.



On a personal note even though the reading and writing processes had been in place for many years, it is unfortunate that we had to many school teachers not applying these effective techniques in our schools. As I think back to my primary school years, I recall the teacher reading aloud to us, however; not in a circle. I certainly do not recall the teacher explaining the reading to the class. My son is 10 years of age and in the fifth grade, I have been very involved with his education from his daycare center to his fifth grade year. I can honestly say that all his teachers have been excellent, his kindergarten teacher in particular was outstanding. My son entered kindergarten reading, so his teacher would have additional assignments for him and sometimes would allow my son to visit the first graders for about an hour. My son was taught very early about the process of writing, I still have copies of his drafts or sometimes referred by his teachers as brain storming before they would write there assignments.
Based on my personal experience and my son's classroom environment, I have to say there has been a tremendous improvement by teachers in the classroom. The classrooms are well decorated with many educational pictures and the students classroom assignments are all displayed throughout the classroom including the outside of the classroom. Therefore, I have seen many changes and it will only get better as our future teachers are graduating and entering into the classroom as teachers.

David Castillo edrg3321

Milestones in the History of Children's Literature
Many years ago literature books were not written for children. However, changes in printing technology provided affordable books, but most important were changes in social attitudes toward children. When childhood began to be viewed as a special part of the human life cycle, literature written specifically for children became very important. Therefore; when children's books were eventually written, they usually mirrored the dominant cultural values of their place and time.

Standards for Evaluating Young Adult Literature
Books should have the power to allow readers to place themselves in the role of the characters, to emphasize with protagonists and antagonists, and to understand points of view that may be different from their own. Some evaluation criteria used are:
-Do the characters face issues and problems that are believable for and interesting to young adult readers?
-Do the characters overcome these problems in ways that allow them to gain insights into different ways of handling problems?
Selecting and discussing literature that helps young adults understand that controlling their emotions is important.

The History of Censorship
Although "censorship" has always existed to some degree, the criteria for proposing that books be banned seem to shift with social trends.

Looking back at the history on children's literature, I'm personally glad this has changed. I recall reading some literature books in my primary grades and can honestly say they were not the best books for children then. The children's literature books in today's classrooms are far more interesting for our children. Today's children's literature books allow children to engage in this stories and enjoy reading. As far as censorship, there will always be someone that will want to challenge our school librarian or our school boards. Today we can pick up any children's literature book whether in a classroom or book store our children will immediately enjoy reading.

David Castillo edrg3344

Emerging Into Literacy
Chapter 4 - summary


Emergent literacy is about how children learn to read and write. According to this chapter children become readers and writers over time and through (home, school classroom, home, shopping) engagement with multiple opportunities to read and write. It also touches on how children’s written language begins before they come to school. Again, parents or caregivers play an important role in children’s knowledge in learning and writing. How is Emerging Into Literacy further developed?

Fostering Young Children’s Interest in Literacy
Concepts About Written Language – Teachers demonstrate the purposes of written language and provide opportunities for students to experiment with reading and writing by:

-Posting signs in the classroom
-Making a list of classroom rules
-Writing notes to students in the class

-Drawing and writing in journals

I personally feel that today’s teachers and future teachers have the approach of allowing the students experiment with the above opportunities. I reflect to my son’s drawings and writings in his journals, which I have kept since pre-kinder. I don’t recall these types of setting when I was going to school.

Young Children Emerge Into ReadingShared Reading

There are three stages that children move through as they learn to read: emergent reading, beginning reading, and fluent reading. In emergent reading the children have an understanding of the communicative purpose of print. In the reading stage children learn phoneme-grapheme correspondences and begin to decode words. The third stage fluent reading is where children have learned how to read.

Oh, how I wish our primary grade teachers would have shared more readings and perhaps learn to have showed the students the actual pictures of the book. Times have definitely change from twenty years ago, this is so interesting how I can now relate the three stages to my son’s primary-grades.

Young Children Emerge Into Writing

Introducing Young Children to Writing – children become writers before entering kindergarten, others are introduced to writing during their first year of school. As reading development children’s writing development follows the same three stages: emergent writing, beginning writing, and fluent writing. The first stage children make scribbles to represent writing, which appear randomly on a page but in time they begin to scribble from left to right and from top to bottom. In the second stage it signals children’s growing awareness of the alphabetic principle. Children move from writing single words to writing sentences and experiment with capital letters and punctuation marks. Finally, children write in paragraphs and vary their writing according to genre. They use mainly correct spelling and other conventions of written language, including capital letters and punctuation marks.

As stated earlier, how times have change I recall my primary teacher always crossing out my writing. Today’s teachers allow children to experiment with their writing, its part of the stages children move through to become fluent writers. Again, I can apply this to my son’s primary school years. I have kept all his scribbles to pages with letters/words written all over the page and as time went on with experience his writing went form left to right and from top to bottom.