by Steven Engelfried<\/p>\n
One of the many interesting things about being a children\u2019s librarian is that there are always opportunities to do \u201cextras.\u201d\u009d <\/span>I think of extras as activities related to the field, but not necessarily part of the real job. <\/span>Some you might even get paid for, which means you can\u2019t use work time to do any part of them. <\/span>For me those include doing puppet shows for other libraries and birthday parties, and an occasional paid article. <\/span>Which actually works out fine for me most of the time: <\/span>they do take up precious weekend and evening time, but on the other hand, I don\u2019t have to feel guilty that I didn\u2019t clean the gutters last weekend because \u201cI was working.\u201d\u009d <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n Once in a while an \u201cextra\u201d\u009d project can be a bit more of a handful than I hoped, though. <\/span>A few years ago I taught a course on Children\u2019s Literature for Elementary School Teachers for the first time, and that was a whole lot of extra. <\/span>I hadn\u2019t taught before, but I did know the subject and although it was a ton of work, it ended up going pretty well. <\/span>Next time I get the chance, I thought, it will be easy. <\/span>Just repeat the best parts and improve the not-best parts.<\/font><\/p>\n I\u2019m getting that second chance this summer. <\/span>Kind of. <\/span>I will<\/em> be teaching a class, but this time the topic is \u201cMulticultural Literature for Elementary School Teachers.\u201d\u009d <\/span>Which is a very different kind of challenge. <\/span>My theme for the earlier course was pretty much: <\/span>\u201clet\u2019s look at all the great children\u2019s book and figure out effective ways to share them with kids.\u201d\u009d <\/span>And that kept us very busy. <\/span>This time it won\u2019t be so simple. <\/span>I have<\/em> read a lot of multicultural books, but haven\u2019t thought that much about the field of multicultural education, which is filled with theories, clashing philosophies, and plenty of controversy. <\/span>So now, besides reading and rereading multicultural books, I\u2019m also reading textbooks and academic articles and scholarly arguments. <\/span>My commute on the light rail, which used to be a time to relax and read for pleasure (mostly short books with big print), is now a time to study and take notes and read to learn (mostly long books with tiny print). <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/span>It\u2019s not what I\u2019m used to, but I have to admit it\u2019s pretty interesting. <\/span>I\u2019m learning a lot: <\/span>everything from countless and varied definitions of what multicultural literature is to the crucial differences between \u201cliterary reading\u201d\u009d and \u201cmulticultural reading.\u201d\u009d <\/span>So far I seem to be coming up with more questions than answers, but I\u2019m okay with that. <\/span>If teaching a class meant you had to know all the answers, I would be in big trouble.<\/font><\/p>\n Meanwhile, I\u2019ve vowed not to read anything (besides picture books) that doesn\u2019t fit into a multicultural literature category for the next few months. <\/span>And so far I\u2019m doing pretty well. <\/span>I slipped a bit when I read The Willoughbys <\/em>(but it was so short!), and have already given myself advance permission to read the new Hillary McKay and Diana Wynne Jones books that are due out soon, because I know I will anyway. <\/span>But other than those exceptions, I\u2019m having a great time discovering new multicultural titles and older ones that I had missed, plus rereading some standards (Zeely <\/em>is still a great book!); and a not- so-fun, but still rewarding time reading all of that scholarly stuff with the small print. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have read a lot of multicultural books, but haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t thought that much about the field of multicultural education, which is filled with theories, clashing philosophies, and plenty of controversy. So now, besides reading and rereading multicultural books, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also reading textbooks and academic articles and scholarly arguments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[22,16,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-literature","category-professional-reading","category-slice-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}