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.