Alternative Value Stances in Multicultural Adolescent Literature

The article for this week was very interesting and conveyed relatable facts about how adolescents deal with multicultural literature in different ways. "High school students may have difficulty interpreting characters' practices because they are not familiar with the cultures portrayed in these texts." This particular passage from the article shows a side of teaching multicultural literature that is often overlooked. We teach multicultural literature to expose students to cultures other than their own, yet when we teach these texts, we automatically assume that students will understand those different cultures simply from reading about them. In truth, the lifestyle of today's typical adolescent often causes students to have difficulty in understanding cultures hundreds or thousands of years old. Take, for example, Esperanza Rising. Many students used to today's technology and lifestyle would have some difficulty fully understanding the lifestyle of a poor Mexican immigrant. In order to help students more fully understand the context of these texts, we as teachers must give students a wide range of opportunities to understand the cultures spoken of in these texts. Activities in which students can try to look at life through the eyes of the characters or extensive historical backgrounds of the time and area in which the texts take place are just a few examples of ways in which teachers can help students grasp a more full understanding of the texts they read.