Question

For our discussion forum, we will share grade-appropriate books that promote multicultural awareness and appreciation.

Identify one book that you think would be useful in teaching multicultural awareness to primary grade children.

State why you chose the book.

Based on your selected book, explain one learning objective appropriate for primary grade children.

Plan and describe one follow-up activity, and specify materials you would use as part of the activity.

Describe one change you would make to the classroom environment that would reinforce the learning objective.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The “Noddy” books by Enid Blyton would be a good choice for the class. The “Noddy” series is about a little boy named “Noddy” who lives in the fictional “Toyland.” He is a child who easily befriends the other toys. His friends include “Martha-monkey,” “Jessie-bear,” “Mister Plod” etc.

The didactic of these stories is that “Noddy” is able to solve his problems and have fun adventures with his friends who are all so different from each other. They each have their own aesthetics, their own skills and talents. There are very few examples of characters in “Toyland” that actually look similar.

The learning objective would be to teach the children to befriend a child who simply looks different to them. This would put them at ease to socialise with varied children and perhaps take a cue from the book itself.

As a follow-up activity, the teacher could also play tapes of the “Noddy” animated series. This would help the children visualise truly how different each character is and how harmoniously they are able to live, despite their differences.

In order to reinforce the idea, one could even place children in mixed groups of different ethnicities and have them perform communication exercises. For instance, each varied group would have to find out each other’s favourite flavours of ice-cream. This would help them have conversation topics and pick up on each other’s similarities.