Resources for Students and Teachers

Aalw Aardema, Verna. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. (L4-pictures)
This book explains why Mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears through an African folktale. This book is another resource to help students learn about the African culture as part of a multicultural unit. The book is a fun way to have students familiarize themselves with African folklore as part of the African culture. The vocabulary used in this book make this a just right book for upper elementary students.

K 146c Karlin, Barbara. Cinderella. (L6-pictures)
This is a real original Cinderella story. This story comes from an English or American culture. The book has fun illustrations by James Marshall and is sure to make students laugh! This book has another fairy tale ending and is a vacation or just right book for third graders.

394.26 Ev27 Everix, Nancy. Ethnic Celebrations Around the World.
This book is an excellent teacher resource guide. Its pages are filled with various activities for students to learn about festivals, holidays, and celebrations from around the world. Students will be able to familiarize themselves with many of the celebrations of other countries. This book fits in great with a unit on multicultural literature. The reading is just right for upper elementary students.

394.26 J72 Jones, Linda. Celebrate. (L7-pictures)
This book is full of fun activities celebrating cultural holidays from around the world. Students will be able to have fun doing these activities within school or as a take home activity. Students will learn about other cultures and their holidays from doing the activities in this book. This is a great resource for teachers for activities to include in a multicultural unit. This book will work for any grade in the elementary school with the teacher guiding the activities. This book is just right for students to use.

Martin, Rafe. The Rough-Faced Girl. (L5-pictures)
A Native American Cinderella story about a girl who defeated all odds. This fun version of the Cinderella in the Native American culture will intrigue students and teachers alike. This book is a just right book for students.

JM319m Manushkin, Fran. The Matzah that Papa Brought Home. (L9-picture)
This is a rhyme spoken using the rhythm of “The House that Jack built.” The rhyme speaks of the Jewish Passover. This is a humorous tale that has several Hebrew words in it which makes it a dream book. for students.

Steptoe, John. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters.’ (L7-pictures)
This is a unique African Cinderella story which will captivate both students and teachers. It tells a story of a beautiful girl who is overshadowed by a jealous older sister until an unexpected person comes along! This book will be a dream book or a just right book for upper elementary students depending on their readability level.

T172a Tarbescu, Edith. Annushka’s Voyage. (L7-pictures)
This book is about the Russian culture. It is a great book to go along with a unit on multicultural literature. The illustrations of this book do a fantastic job of depicting the Russian culture. Teachers will love sharing this book with their students and students will enjoy reading the book. Students will learn about the Russian culture through the eyes of a girl named Annushka on her way to America. This book is just right for upper elementary students.

Links

www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com
This website is a dream come true for professionals. It lists multicultural books and has ideas for activities students can participate in. It also has lots of other fun details. I think this is a great web site for teacher’s teaching a unit on multiculturalism. It’s probably too confusing for students to use and enjoy. The print is small and the web site lacks graphic images and other means of intriguing students. Teachers will like this site because of its content.

www.kinderart.com/multic/
This web site is a creative site for either students or teachers. It is easily readable by teachers and most students. The web site is set up creatively. There are many art activities which can be created for a multicultural unit under the guidance of the teacher. This web site will provide extra ideas for teachers to incorporate into their unit. This web site shows creativity and will be very easy for teachers to search and read about multicultural art activities.

www.literacy.uconn.edu/multilit.htm
This web site is a great resource for educators in every grade level interested in teaching a unit on multicultural literacy. The site includes instructional resources, background information, and booklists all dealing with multicultural literacy. There are also several different literacy topics covered on this web site ranging from Adolescent literacy to Reading comprehension, and effective teaching. This web site is very user friendly and with it’s variety of information on multicultural literature educators are sure to enjoy browsing.

Strategies for Teachers

Vocabulary Word Map

A vocabulary word map is a visual representation of a definition, displaying three categories of semantic knowledge: (a) the general class or category to which the concept belongs; (b) the primary properties of the concept and how these properties distinguish it from other members of the class; and (c) examples of the concept.

Readence, John E. Content Area Literacy. Kendall/Hunt publishing Co. 2001. Page. 175.

Clock Buddies

Clock buddies is a meant to be quick and easy way to pair students for activities. When a teacher needs to quickly partner students he or she says okay get with your two o’clock buddy. Students pull out their clocks and partner up with their two o’clock partner. This strategy works because it is previously set up. It is done so that partners always have each other’s names on their matching hour on the clock buddy chart.

Available Online: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/qar.html

QAR-Question Answer Relationships

QARs were created to help students realize the answers they seek are related to the types of questions that are asked. There are four QARs:
1. Right There- the answer is in the text usually contained in a single sentence.
2. Think and Search- The answer is found in the text but you have to search for it.
3. Author and You- The answer is not in the text, but you need the information the author has given you combined with what you already know to answer the question.
4. On my Own- The answer is not in the text, and you don’t have to read the text to answer the question.

Available Online: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/qar.html

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizer is an instructional tool used to illustrate a student or class's prior knowledge about a topic or section of text. Graphic organizers are a great way to arrange information in a simple map structure, which will be easy and fun for students to use. It’s a great visual to help students learn! Graphic organizers help organize information according to main ideas, subtopics, details, in sequence, to show relationships between different parts, to show similarities and differences between two or more concepts, components or elements of a story, and lots of other ways. Some examples of graphic organizers include the following:

K-W-L-H

Anticipation/Reaction Guide

Compare/Contrast

Problem/Solution

Network Tree

Fishbone Map

Human Interaction Outline

Series of Events Chain

Available Online:
http://www.ncrel.org

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