Words and Terms

Diamante Poem

Unknown Terms:

• Diaspora^: is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.
• Intersectionality: a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another.
• Palliative: (of a treatment or medicine) relieving pain or alleviating a problem without dealing with the underlying cause.
• Sacralizing: imbue with or treat as having a sacred character or quality 
• Fraught: (of a situation or course of action) filled with or destined to result in (something undesirable). 
• Provincialism: the way of life or mode of thought characteristic of the regions outside the capital city of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded. 
• Transracial adoption: refers to the act of placing a child of one racial or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial or ethnic group.

Literature Entries

Lit Circle 1: The Outsiders
 Conflict Assignment: Have students identify the different types of conflict that were found in this novel. Person to person, person vs self, person vs nature, etc.

Allow time for reflection for students to write/discuss times when they dealt with the different types of conflict in their own lives.


Age and Diversity:

 In particular, I love the book Jacob's Eye Patch. This book introduces children to disabilities that involve the eyes and addresses some natural curiosities that can arise when coming in contact with someone who is different in this area.Most of the time if we allow children to ask questions, we are able to satisfy their curiosity while building upon their empathy.
Also, as was evident in this week's presentation, there is a myriad of children's literature that deal with the issue of death. In the book that was mentioned by Mem Fox Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, a little boy experiences what it's like to be close with someone suffering with Alzheimer's.

Age Diversity in Youth Adult Literature:

I read Seth Lerer's article "For Grown-Ups Too: The Suprising Depth and Complexity of Children's Literature". In it he mentions that many of the real-life situations, even the most difficult ones, are often covered and discussed in child friendly terms in numerous books. Literature can be helpful helping children understand age and diversity but simply increasing the amount of exposure that children have to these certain situations.