Multicultural Picture Book
What Does It Mean To Be Global?
"What Does It Mean To Be Global?" by Rana DiOrio is illustrated by Chris Hill and was published by Little Pickle Press in 2009.
Best Books Award Winner
Benjamin Franklin Award
Nautilus Book Award
Next Generation Indie Book Award
Mom's Choice Award
Teacher's Choice Award, 2011
Source:
http://www.littlepicklepress.com/product/what-does-it-mean-to-be-global/
Evaluation of Picture Book
This book celebrates and honors diversity by showing pictures of children from all cultures. It does not just show the children's skin color but shows their religion and part of the world. This book also demonstrates unique language by showing children using different languages to say "Hello"! Finally, this book invites reflection by giving the students ways to be more "global" and accepting of the world. It lets them think about what they can do to better themselves and their part of the globe!
Rana DiOrio
Chris Hill
Vocabulary and Read Aloud Instruction
I will post the word card that says "Diversity" on the board. Next I will say, "Diversity is going to be one of our vocabulary words for this book. Our other one is going to be "traditions". Can you say 'traditions'? Does any one know what a tradition is? (bolded questions are a part of the 5 critical thinking questions) *wait for answers* "Well a tradition is a belief or custom that your family does! For example, my family eats a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. That is our tradition. Also, in my family, if it is your birthday, we get to go out to dinner and you get to pick the restaurant! That is another one of our traditions! Turn to someone next to you and whisper a tradition that you have at your house!" *give enough time for both to take turns, prompting them by saying "now the next person share"*
"We are going to match some pictures to our two words that are up here on the board! I have 6 cards here! Three go with diversity, and three go with tradition. Where does this card go... *continue on until all cards have been placed*
"Good job guys! Now we are going to learn what it means to be global! First I want to show you what the globe is and show you where we are at on it! *Pull up Google Maps on the computer and zoom way out to show the whole Earth. *
"So this is a picture of the globe (Earth) and We are on it! Does anyone know what country we live in? Does any one know what state we live in? Who knows what city we live in? Review the answers by saying 'So we live in the United States of America, in Wichita, Kansas. We are right here! *type in College Hill so it zooms into the school* Isn't that cool? Now in our book we are going to see some pretty cool places but I am going to show you one of them! *Go to Egypt and the Great Pyramids of Giza* Let the children look at them then say, "Okay! Now we are going to read our book!"
*Read book asking questions along the way!*
"Does anyone remember what this place is called? We visited it on Google Maps! (Great Pyramids of Giza)
"Now that we have read the book and seen all of these amazing places and people around the world, I want to see your part of the world! So what you are going to do is go back to your seat and I am going to bring you a paper! You can draw where you live or you can draw your school because those are your parts of the world! Does anyone have any questions?"
After students have finished drawing, let them share their pictures with their shoulder partner before turning it in!
Reflection
The strengths of the books were what I previously stated, it was simple yet had challenging parts. The read aloud went well! The students were engaged in the questions and were eager to answer. They seemed to enjoy the book and the internet activity that I did with it. It made me feel good that the students wanted to answer questions and were disappointed if they didn't get called on for that question. I will plan a few more questions next time to get more kids to be able to speak out loud and feel accomplished when giving the "right" answers. The vocabulary part seemed to be a favorite to the students. If they got called on about a certain picture and they could tell me if the picture represented diversity or tradition they got to put the magnetic picture onto the board under the correct word! They were all so anxious to see who would be called on next! I would probably add a few more pictures next time too or made it a partner activity so they can all participate at once.
Next time, I would plan maybe an extra activity for the kids that get done early! Maybe something like a center because I had some kids finish early and I just had to let them draw a picture of a family tradition of theirs on the back of their paper. It ended up working out but it is definitely harder to keep them quiet if they are running out of things to do!
Implementing multicultural children's literature that is culturally and linguistically diverse relative to my elementary students has helped me...
It has helped me see my kids as individuals in a sea of them being lumped together as "students". It has helped me get to relate to each of them as they told their traditions and things that made them different from others such as sports likes, their favorite colors, and their favorite foods. It helped me see the importance of giving each of my kids one on one time. I want to get to know what their background and culture is about. I am so excited to get back to the classroom and start making these changes.