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Reading Against The Strain Project Summary

1402 Words6 Pages

Bailey Lyons
HDFS 240
Dr. Kreischer
20 October, 2016
Reading Against the Grain Project: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
A.)
Through the progression of time, children have been encouraged to embrace their identity. However, in children’s literature, there is a substantial gap when it comes to texts which incorporate concepts of diversity. People have a tendency to seek out characters in which they can relate to, whether that is culturally, physically, emotionally, etc. Unfortunately, when a child struggles with finding characters that they can relate to due to a racial barrier, or another flaw in diversity, the flaw becomes engrained in the child’s mind. The assumption is that because there are few books in which they can relate to, the …show more content…

On the flip side, if schools were to present one biased perspective, the school would be doing a disservice to the students. As a result, students who have disabilities, students with an ethnic background, and many others could feel as though the school is excluding them, and they do not have a place. Literature holds a distinct role when it comes to influencing perspectives. Children who display forms of discomfort when interacting with someone who who is different from them, lack understanding. Literature provides a powerful resource for students who need to understand other cultures or …show more content…

I did not foresee myself gaining as much knowledge on the concepts of diversity as a whole from a children’s literature course. Understanding that diversity impacts the world in positive and negative (when diversity is lacking) ways, it motivates me to create diverse lesson plans. I would be doing my students a disservice if any of them felt as though they are an outcast, or that their race/cultural/disability is completely unacknowledged. As a result, “reading against the grain” has made me more cognizant of the need for diversity in literature, especially children’s

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