Reading the World in Schools

Beyond the Canon

PGL Summer Conference

July 9, 2010

Carol Mendenhall, ELA ConsultantHonor Moorman, English Dean, International School of the

Americas

Welcome and Introductions:

Where in the World is your literary dream living?

Listening for more than one story: opening up the canon of literature our students read.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Some Ideas to explore—broadening the perspectives of our students:

o Thematic approach: Power of the Family: Purple Hibiscus; Joy Luck Club; To Kill a Mockingbird; Imagining Isabel: 9

Some Ideas to explore—broadening the perspectives of our students:

o Thematic approach: Power of the Family: Purple Hibiscus; Joy Luck Club; To Kill a Mockingbird; Imagining Isabel: 9

o Regional Approach: Latin America/Magical Realism: One Hundred Years of Solitude, War of the Saints, House of the Spirits, Labyrinths

Some Ideas to explore—broadening the perspectives of our students:

o Thematic approach: Power of the Family: Purple Hibiscus; Joy Luck Club; To Kill a Mockingbird; Imagining Isabel: 9

o Regional Approach: Latin America/Magical Realism: One Hundred Years of Solitude, War of the Saints, House of the Spirits, Labyrinths

o Look across Cultures around one idea: Food: Five Quarters of the Orange, Pomegranate Soup, The Language of Baklava, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.

Some Ideas to explore—broadening the perspectives of our students:

o Thematic approach: Power of the Family: Purple Hibiscus; Joy Luck Club; To Kill a Mockingbird; Imagining Isabel: 9

o Regional Approach: Latin America/Magical Realism: One Hundred Years of Solitude, War of the Saints, House of the Spirits, Labyrinths

o Look across Cultures around one idea: Food: Five Quarters of the Orange, Pomegranate Soup, The Language of Baklava, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.

o One country: different perspectives: Korea: Lost Names, Jia, A Novel, The Guest, Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction

Resources for locating international literature:

World of Words/International Collection of Children and Adolescent Literature http://wowlit.org/ You will find many useful resources on this site for building bridges between cultures. These resources include multiple strategies for locating and evaluating culturally authentic international children’s and adolescent literature as well as ways of engaging students with these books in classrooms and libraries.

PEN: A Global Literary Community http://www.pen.org/ Weblist.me/beyond-the-canon Multiple sites with international literature resources

Final Thoughts:If our students are to understand different cultures, become the global citizens we want them to be, then they should be given the opportunity to read books from around the world—fiction, memoirs, and non-fiction. That starts with the decisions we make in our classrooms and we’re advocating a widening of the range of texts our students read—so they are indeed “reading the world” in our classrooms.

Visit us on the web at:

www.AsiaSociety.org/Education