Book Evaluation

1. Book Evaluation

2. What is this book about? -Is it good literature? -Are the themes and plot well developed? -Is the story culturally accurate? Are the characters authentic? -When read, does the reader gain insight into the target culture?

3. Is the Story Culturally Relevant for your classroom? • Define cultural relevance to students • What are the positive or negative roles of the cultural characters in the story? • Is the cultural dialogue of the main characters relevant and authentic?

4. Learners • Is the story original? • Can it be told without cultural characters? In other words are the cultural figures legitimate or are they token characters? • Is the spectrum of the story broad enough to involve an ethnically diverse classroom room or does the story focus on one specific culture? • If it focuses on only one culture do you have a plan to involve a story focusing on a different culture later on in the curriculum?

5. In Conclusion, as educators, we need to help young people critically question, analyze, interpret and evaluate what they read. • If the story and its topics you have chosen are culturally relevant and authentic a book evaluation will be a fun and challenging task for your students. • The next Slide will introduce 3 Novels from oyate.org that your students can use for a book evaluation.

6. “Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven,” by Alexie, Sherman (great book, I love this author). • “Smoke Signals,” Alexie, Sherman (Saw the movie, haven’t read the book). • “Playing Indian,” Deloria, Philip J. (I think this would be a good title to tie all 3 together, it touches on many of the themes in Alexie’s writings).

7. Setting: I am Freshman and Sophomore Spanish 1 and 2 teacher in Flagstaff, AZ . Most of my students are either Hopi or Navajo. I have gathered together these three books to be read during several learning units over the course of 2 years. The titles will be read in Spanish, if translated sources exist. If not students will be asked to journal about novels in Spanish as well as translate selected portions into Spanish. Role: Instead of your own culture imagine that you are a Mayan or Incan native instead. Audience: Your audience is your fellow Native American classmates. Format: Students must present a convincing argument to fellow classmates on the importance of embracing your culture and also expound on the precarious situation of having one’s cultural heritage diluted by the modern world. Topic: Authentic Indians and “wannabes” and cultural dilution. Strong verbs: Define what it is to become a “wannabe” and how outside influences can dilute cultural heritage. The outcomes of this assignment are for students to critically think about their own culture as well as a native Hispanic culture and how modern society negatively and positively influences both.

8. Teaching in a culturally responsive way requires being able to understand and successfully communicate, without prejudice, the ideals, feelings, norms, rules, laws, thoughts and actions of people of foreign cultures to your students. Or in other words a culturally responsive teacher should appreciate each culture for its own unique characteristics and be able to help his or her students respect and value people from around the world. To incorporate these ideals into an IEFA classroom a teacher must help students grapple with their own Indian identities. Some students might need help understanding and embracing their own culture. A Montana teacher might need to help his or her students define what it means to be Crow, Blackfeet or Salish? Have students define what culture means to them. Define what it means to be a member of a society as a opposed to a member of a cultural group. How does their culture fit into the world as a whole? How can students help keep their culture vibrant and alive in the modern world?