Reflection on this semester

At the beginning of the semester, I didn’t really have a good understanding of what good diverse literature is. I knew what issues of diversity it could entail, but I didn’t really know much more about it. I had never really thought about all the stereotyping that occurs in books and had definitely never really thought about the importance of the author, or making sure I have diverse literature in my own classroom library. These are all things that I have learned so much about over the course of this semester.

Stereotyping is something that can be so easy for authors to do when writing about diverse issues. By stereotyping, it sort of relates to the reader because it discusses common ideas or perceptions people have on a particular topic. But what I have learned is to find those stereotypes within children’s books and make it clear that those stereotypes aren’t always true for every individual that is either from a particular culture or have a particular disability. I just always found myself believing whatever the author wrote about, never thinking of whether or not the author is stereotyping.

Another topic in this class that I learned a lot about is insider/outsider authors. This is something I had never thought about or heard about before this class. It never crossed my mind when I would read books about any topic how the author knows all this information. Are they an insider or an outsider to the particular topic? I again just always believed everything the author was writing about was accurate information. But this class has taught me to really research about authors, especially authors of diverse literature because maybe they really have no previous experience on the diverse issue they’re writing about and are making it all up. This is so important to do in order to have accurate portrayals of diverse literature in my classroom that will give the students a true understanding of the diverse issue instead of something made up by the author.

The last really big idea I have learned this semester is the importance of having diverse literature in my classroom library. I always knew that I needed to have a classroom library, but it really never crossed my mind to make sure I have diverse literature available too. This is so important because it is informing children of diverse issues and making them more accepting of the issues when they’re reading positive portrayals of these issues. But the one thing I have learned about having a diverse classroom library is to take the time to research about books and really read them first before putting them in my library. It wouldn’t be beneficial to my students at all if I were to put books that were either stereotyping throughout the whole thing or representing the diverse issue in a negative way. So I’m going to need to be picky about the books I chose to have in my classroom.

Overall, I have learned so much this semester about diverse literature. This class has changed a lot of my views on particular topics into more positive views. I’m really glad I took this course and learned about each of the diverse topics and got to read some really interesting diverse books.