Date of Defense

4-26-2017

Date of Graduation

4-2017

Department

English

First Advisor

Jill Hermann-Wilmarth

Second Advisor

Amy Bentz

Third Advisor

Aaron Brossiet

Keywords

Multicultural Literature, Critical Literacy, Social Justice, Inquiry

Abstract

This paper argues for the use of multicultural literature in the classroom, and puts forth a unit plan that uses critical literacy in an English 11 classroom, though it can be readapted to fit other grade levels. Bishop (1990) describes multicultural literature as a set of windows, that people use to view the experiences of others, and mirrors, that reflect and validate peoples’ experience, a core principal in this paper. Critical literacy is comprised of four dimensions (Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002) that allows for analyzing literature in a different and meaningful way. The final part of this paper details a five phase unit plan that has students inquiring into different cultures using Jigsaw groups (Aronson, n.d.).

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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