In recent years, scholars and other educators have encouraged language arts teachers to include LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) issues and texts in their classrooms. Despite these efforts, scholars have pointed out that LGBT perspectives are seldom included in language arts pedagogy. Studies of teacher attitudes toward addressing LGBT…

Concerns for the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and the children of families who so self-identify suggest that teachers may need additional support in fostering classrooms that welcome all students. The field of children's literature has long-standing interests in multiple cultures and the literature…

Neely sought to draw upon her experiences in teaching courses in children's literature, research on global/multicultural education, and her own beliefs in order to design and implement a course on literature written about and after the end of segregation in the United States and Apartheid in South Africa. The course included travel to some of the…

Using a framework grounded in critical literacy, the author describes her 1st-grade students' responses to works of literature that portray the impact of war. When given opportunities to read works of literature that address social justice issues, such as the consequences of war, her primary-age students' written, drawn, and spoken responses were…

Immigrants currently make up over 12% of the U.S. population, with children of immigrants comprising more than 20% of the population. Consequently, English learners are the fastest growing group in U.S. schools today, accounting for 10.5% of the total public school student population in Pre-K through Grade 12 in 2004-2005, a 56.2% increase over…

Seidl and Conley elaborate a set of beliefs regarding transformative spaces, identity-making, and the development of a critical, multicultural identity that inform their approach to multicultural teacher education. They believe that if we expect new teachers to co-construct with their students classroom spaces that allow multiple voices and…

Takes up issues of representation, identity, and authenticity while sharing a list of Asian, Asian American, and Polynesian children's books. Encourages readers to use this list in constructing their multicultural classrooms while simultaneously reflecting on the issues complicating their own review processes. Summarizes eight children's books…

This article affirms the vision of scholars, writers, and educators who have initiated and complicated the authenticity debate. Their discussions have inserted new standards of interethnic understanding within children's literature. In addition, this article enlarges this vision by shifting the selection emphasis from only racial and cultural…

Presents annotations of approximately 80 web sites that range in coverage from idiosyncratic and focused to diverse and comprehensive metasites. Notes categories of sites include: children's literature web guides; trade book publisher web sites; author/illustrator sites (metasites and individual); book review sources and teaching ideas; web sites…

Discusses the development of voice through a specific free-form poetry-writing experience. Suggests a method for teaching poetry that draws heavily on poets from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Shares evidence that this approach to teaching poetry can be the starting point for students developing writers' voice, and suggests ways to move…

Lists professional resources and instructional materials that focus on a variety of forms of children's literature, sharing literature, and responding to literature. (RL)

Discusses concerns (curricular, diversity, and community concerns) teachers have about multiculturalism and multicultural education in the language arts classroom. Discusses also teachers' ideas and solutions to these concerns. (SR)

Shares responses from Violet Harris, Kathy Short, and Yetta Goodman on three questions related to the issue of multicultural tradebooks. Reviews and annotates 18 multicultural tradebooks representing 5 different cultures. (MG)

Presents annotations of 23 books that deal with more than 1 culture, organized into the following categories: (1) multiple cultures, presented separately; (2) multiple cultures, comparisons/contrasts presented; and (3) multiple cultures, interactions between/among cultures. (RS)

Recounts an extended classroom conversation between a fifth grade teacher and her students concerning multiculturalism. Reflects on issues raised in the conversation. Presents samples of students' writing in response to the conversation. Presents excerpts from parents' journals. (RS)