{Guest post by Author Jacqueline Jules}
I am always a little uncomfortable when asked to provide information on my ethnicity. My skin is white but the box for “other” feels more emotionally correct. I often wish there was a designation on these forms for religious minorities.
3 Easy Activities to Promote Cultural Diversity in the Classroom
Guest post by Language Lizard
As students head back to school, it’s essential for them to feel welcomed, acknowledged, and safe in their classrooms. With U.S. schools continuing to change to reflect our country’s increasing cultural diversity, students must learn cultural respect and inclusion. Here are three easy activities designed to help ensure a smooth transition and introduce the concept of cultural diversity to students. In addition, these activities will help foster relationships based on respect, equality, and diversity in the classroom. (These activities work best for children in grades K-3 but will work if modified for older children.)
Make It Fun!
Playing a simple game such as “I Am Unique Scavenger Hunt” allows students to share something unique about themselves and to understand and appreciate the differences between themselves and their classmates. In addition, this game will play a role in learning the importance of accepting others regardless of differences.
How to play “I Am Unique Scavenger Hunt”: Students share one thing about themselves that makes them special and unique. The teacher will then make a list of the facts without the names. Next, the children must ask each other questions to determine whose name goes where.
Another fun game is “Walk the Line, if…,” which is an excellent way for students to get to know one another. It also works to celebrate one another’s uniqueness and highlights how many parts of their identity they have in common with others.
How to play “Walk the Line, if…”: Have the students gather on one side of the room/line and face towards its center. The teacher calls out specific categories/labels/descriptions and asks all those to whom this applies to walk to the other side of the room/line. Continue with questions ranging from who wears glasses to who speaks another language other than English, etc.
All About Me!
Have each child create a one-page poster or book that explores their identity. The student will have the opportunity to write, draw or use pictures that tell who they are, where they are from, and what they like to do. This exercise allows them to understand their background and what distinguishes them from those around them. After the student presents information about themselves, take the time to mark a world map that will indicate where each person and family originates.
Explore Multicultural and Bilingual Books
Reading bilingual books highlighting different cultures, traditions, and customs allows teachers to help children feel comfortable with cultural diversity. In addition, they introduce children to different languages and enable them to delve more deeply into the languages represented in the classroom. Finally, these books are an excellent springboard to other activities, including vocabulary development, geography lessons, and craft activities based on the book’s theme. For more lesson plans and book ideas, visit Language Lizard. Many of Language Lizard’s bilingual books come with free lesson plans and activities to support diverse classrooms.
Benefits of a Culturally Diverse Classroom
One of the many benefits of having a culturally diverse classroom includes varied student perspectives, insights, and thoughts, allowing for a richer classroom discussion. Also, multicultural classrooms encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. And a culturally diverse classroom will better prepare students for their future in today’s ever-changing world.
Guest post from author/illustrator, Aram Kim
I sometimes sit on the park bench in the big playground in my neighborhood. In the afternoon, the playground is dynamic with children playing, running, screaming, laughing and talking. Though it is a natural scene for me by now, I am still amazed by the wonderful diversity of the children who play there. They all have different skin colors, languages and outfits, but none of that seems to be a problem for them. I live in Queens, where it is reportedly said hundreds of languages are spoken. Even in the same neighborhood, the entire ethnic scene changes when you just cross the road. I am so in love with it. I also like to visit libraries and bookstores. I spend most of my time in the children’s book section. Sadly, what I love about my neighborhood is not always reflected in children’s books.
We need so much more diversity in children’s books so that any child can see themselves and see others in the books they read. They should be able to naturally learn that everyone’s voice matters. There have been wonderful campaigns and movements to bring more diversity into these books and increase the diversity of creators and publishing industry employees. I admire the passion, perseverance, resilience and effort of the people who organize these campaigns.
I’ve always thought I could contribute to increasing diversity in children’s books, even a tiny bit, by telling the stories I know and creating stories only I could tell. However, I was very eager to be more actively involved in the effort to increase diversity in children’s literature. That explains why I was dancing around at 3 o’clock in the morning in my mom’s kitchen in South Korea. In March of this year, after submitting all the revisions for my new book No Kimchi for Me!, I went back to South Korea for a month to visit my family.
One day during this trip while I was still jet-lagged and working at 3 a.m with a client in New York, I got an email from Multi-cultural Children’s Book Day committee. They asked if I would be interested in creating next year’s poster. Everyone in my family was sleeping at that time, so I pantomimed a scream, popped out of the dining room chair I was sitting at, and spent the next few minutes jumping and dancing around. The only time I could remember doing this before was when I got the contract for my debut picture book Cat on the Bus in 2015.
So that’s how I got to spend part of my summer creating the Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 poster with much support from wonderful people at MCBD committee. I thank them so dearly to have given me the chance to be a part of this amazing campaign. As a children’s book author/illustrator, the most gratifying part of the job is when I meet kids at school who are delighted to see me, excited to listen to my story, and eager to tell their stories to me. Their vibrant energy motivates me.
Creating this poster gave me a little more assurance that I am getting one step closer to serving these readers right. They all deserve to see more diversity in the books they read and they love.
**Click the above poster image to download your copy
Aram Kim was born in Cincinnati, raised in South Korea, and currently lives in New York City. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Aram is the author and illustrator of Cat on the Bus, called a “beautifully designed visual work” by School Library Journal and included in the ILA Children’s Choices 2017. Aram Kim’s new picture book, No Kimchi For Me!, about family, food, and a six-year-old “coming of age” has universal themes, and at the same time celebrates Korean culture. A Junior Library Guild selection.
Commissioning talented artists to create an exclusive poster for the yearly MCBD holiday was something we started in 2016. Thanks to the talents of artist/illustrator/author Robert Liu-Trujillo, we were able to offer supporters our very first downloadable poster in honor of our national online event. To view 2016’s poster by Robert, go here: Multicultural Children’s Book Day FREE Downloadable Poster.
For the 2017 MCBD event, we feel exceptionally blessed to have the wisdom, color and talents of world renown author/illustrator, Demi, on board as the creator of our gorgeous MCBD poster for our 1/27/17 event and upcoming e-book!
Demi is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator who, during her successful career, has published over 300 titles. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her “demi” because she was half the size of her sister.
Demi’s books have sold over half a million copies and her work has been appreciated by many diverse people across the globe, such as the Dalai Lama and the Pope. The Empty Pot, her best-selling title, was selected by former First Lady Barbara Bush as one of the books to be read on the ABC Radio Network Program Mrs. Bush’s Story Time, sponsored by the Children’s Literacy Initiative. Demi’s book Gandhi was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and received an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award. To read Wisdom Tales Press’ extended biography about this amazing and talented lady, go HERE.
MCBD co-founders Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen have both been fans of Demi’s work for many years. In 2015, Valarie even created a robust blog post on her site, Jump Into a Book, called 19 Books Celebrating China with Author Demi.
As you can imagine, the MCBD team was thrilled and overjoyed when Demi agreed to create a breath-taking signature poster for our 2017 event.
NOW…it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Time for the 2017 MCBD 2017 Reveal!
**Guest post from Becky Flansburg
One of the MANY things I love about being the Project Manager for Multicultural Children’s Book Day (coming 1/27/16) is getting a landslide of simply amazing books to read, review and aprove during the three months leading up to the event.
It’s like Christmas every day when I go to my PO Box. 🙂
This uptick in books is made even sweeter when I come across books/authors from my home state of Minnesota and Lehman Riley from Papa Lemon Books is one such example.
