Describe and justify hoe your analysis would improve teaching and learning in the Scenario.

Read/Explore:

. Review the textbook pages of Chapter 5- “Serving Cultrally Diverse Children and Families
* Textbook pages will be provided as your main source.
Link: researchgate.net/publication/254351137_Beyond_the_illusion_of_Diversity_How_Early_Childhood_Teachers_Can_Promote_Social_Justice

Objective: Analyze a children’s book for bias and to evaluate your analysis

Scenario: You are a first-year perschool teacher. You have ” inherited” a large children’s book library from the last year’s teacher. You are well aware of the problem of bias in children’s literature and want to make sure that all books in the library are sensitive to the representation of a diverse society. You decide to conduct an analysis of the books un your library in the representation of a diverse society through the story’s characters.

Focus Assignment:
1. Choose a children’s book that is aimed at a preschool audience. Analyze the book with a focus on the character’s representation of stereotypes, tokenism, and invisibility.

Use the POSITIVE FOCUS 5.3 as your guide it will be provided with the order details.

2. Write your self-evaluation after you have completed your analysis.

Self-Evaluation:
Should be done “after” you have completed the FOCUS ASSIGNMENT:
A. Explain how your analysis addresses the issues in the Scenario
B. Give evidence from the chapter supporting this section( Please make sure to sure your work).

2. Describe and justify hoe your analysis would improve teaching and learning in the Scenario.

Positive Focus 5.3:
In her antibias education blog, Louise Derman-Sparks offers An Updated Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books (2013).
Following is a summary:
Look for stereotypes
—Are underrepresented-group faces depicted as genuine individuals? Do underrepresented-group characters play subservient and passive roles rather than leadership and action roles? Are males the active doers and females the inactive observers?
Look for tokenism
—Routinely seeing only one representative of any group in a book teaches young children who is more or less important. Examples of tokenism include books with only one African American child among many white children or having only one book about children with disabilities among many other books.
Look for invisibility
—What children do not see in their books also teaches them about who matters and who doesn’t in our society. The following people are often invisible in children’s books:
– Families from rural areas
– Low-income workers
– Musicians, artists, and writers
– Children with two dads or two moms
– People of Arab descent
– Families who practice religions other than Christianity
– Families with an incarcerated parent
– Single mothers or fathers
– Homeless families
– Transgender adults and children
Check the story line and the relationships between people
—Do White characters in the story possess the power, take the leadership, and make the important decisions? Do people of color, persons with disabilities, and females function in essentially supporting roles?
Look at messages about different lifestyles
—Are negative value judgments implied about lifestyles that differ from dominant culture? Do books show diversity within cultural groups—various family structures, living environments, socioeconomic conditions, types of work, and gender roles within the family?

Consider the effects on a child’s self-image
—Do your book selections imply that some persons are inferior or superior because of their skin color, gender, family income, able-bodiedness, or type of family structure? Will all of the children see themselves and their family’s way of life reflected in your book collection?
Consider the author’s or illustrator’s background
—If a story deals with a multicultural theme, what qualifies the author or illustrator to deal with the subject?
Check out the author’s perspective
—If a book is not about people or events similar to the author or illustrator’s background, what qualifies that person? Are the author’s and illustrator’s attitude toward story characters respectful? Do the books in your classroom reflect diverse author and illustrator cultural backgrounds?
Watch for loaded words
—A word is “loaded” when it has insulting overtones. Examples of loaded (often racist or sexist) words are lazy, conniving, superstitious, primitive, savage, and backward. Look for use of the male pronoun to refer to both males and females. Although the generic use of man was accepted in the past, it is now considered sexist. The following examples show antibias language: ancestors instead of forefathers; police officer instead of policeman; firefighter instead of fireman; mail carrier instead of mailman.
Look at the copyright date
—The realities of our multiracial society and the concerns of underrepresented groups have changed over the years. The copyright dates, therefore, may indicate how likely the book is to be biased, although a recent copyright date is no guarantee of a book’s relevance or sensitivity