Planning Curriculum That Is Multicultural

Reflection 6.3 Textbook Tally
The book I used to research multicultural representation in children's textbooks is titled Reading- New Beginnings by Scott Foresman. This text was recently used for a 2nd grade classroom. After looking through all the pictures I found that the representation of males and females was about equal. The final count according to race/ehnicity was: White Americans-22, African Americans-10, Latino Americans-7, Asian Americans-5, Arab Americans-3, Disabled Americans-2, and American Indian-1. Based on this representation, it is clear to me that this reading curriculum is based on the points of view of White Americans. The knowledge that we share with our students is based on a limited point of view that may be biased due to the narrow viewpoints of the group of people who are putting the curriculum together. This is unfair that some groups have to feel left out and that they feel they aren't important enough to be included. I can include the students in my class who do not have much representation in the textbooks by providing supplemental books that include people that they can associate themselves with. I can also supplement the under representation by hanging posters that display other groups, sharing stories about great achievements made by others that they can relate to, and playing music that is popular in different groups around the world.