The book I'm currently reading, "America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories", consists of fourteen stories saturated with the colors and textures of "American" diversity. The stories are told about young people, some who were born in America and many who were not, some who are urban dwellers and some who find themselves harvesting a crop of cotton alongside their parents. Yet, in each short story it is easy to hear the authentic voice of a generation trying to find their identity amongst the landscape of America.
The short story format is quick and easy reading; I could totally see students associating themselves with the diversity within this anthology. This book could be easily tied in with many of the new literacy theories we have gone over in class thus far. It would be easy for a students to identify themselves in the stories and in turn tell their 'own story' in the form of a WeVideo project or a even creating a music video from song that exemplifies their heritage.
At the moment, I have a couple favorite stories that I've connected with on various levels, personal and otherwise, but I'm holding off sharing them until I have read the remainder of the anthology.
Tracy, I am so glad that you chose this book. I think a lot of teachers don't have enough awareness of literature representing youth of color (and youth of all kinds of diversity). That's because we often weren't taught enough of that literature, and so the cycle repeats. I am so glad you are finding this set of short stories useful! (Also, I like how you are incorporating image into your blog. Blogs allow for multimodality, and you are making use of that!)
ReplyDelete