Book Description

"Current research indicates a changing student population. Along with a change in population, there is also a change in the interpretation of the "American Dream". This change is attributed to the increase in the immigrant population. With the population change, comes variations to the once simplified "American Dream" definition. A number of educators have conducted studies to determine the best methods to teach students about the beliefs of the many cultures that make up our country. Currently, there have been attempts in secondary education to include occasional multicultural samples in the literature courses. Some teachers have used the "holiday" approach and designed multicultural units around them. For example, the "holiday" concept involves teachers only reading, or making reference to multicultural literature during a specific holiday, such as Dr. King's holiday, or African American history month. There has been concrete evidence showing that using a pluralistic method of teaching multicultural literature is very successful in reducing racial stereotypes, and educating students about the belief systems of many minority groups. Because high school students are limited in their exposure to a variety of ethnic groups, there is a serious concern about their lack of education and resulting negative attitudes toward minority groups. Student's beliefs about ethnicity tends to be limited to a few of the social studies classes, and most influenced by the mass media. In my study, I wanted to determine, that students would recognize the beliefs and values of minority groups and abandon cultural stereotypes when they learned about other ethnic groups through literature experienced in Literature Circles. American Writers II students explored diversity through cooperative literature circles. Students learned from each other to increase their diversity tolerance. At the conclusion of this study, students were able to share knowledge of cultural groups, and express open and positive view of the ethnic groups they stereotyped before the project began"--Abstract.