Final Course Post

My knowledge of diverse literature has changed a little bit. But at the same time, I learned so much about different types of literature that I had never read before. I really enjoyed the blogging because I had the opportunity to share things that I did get to in class and I will be able to look back at this in a few years and remember what books were and how I can use them in my future class.

Overall, I am impressed that we read so many different genres and different books that were written in different ways, because I have never picked up some of those genres. I really had the opportunity to experience diverse literature in both the way it is written and the way I read it.

When I first came to class, I was nervous because of the course pack and how much information that it contained. I wondered how we would get through all of it and I also wondered what use it would be to me. I will be able to use the information in the course pack to evaluate different literature, to get books that will relate to different units that I want to do.

I really liked this course because we actually read diverse literature and spent only a week on each which gave us time to focus on several different genres. I really wish we could have focused on picture books or short stories more because I feel that will help me out in the future especially with teaching special education.

My favorite book was either Bronx Masquerade or Al Capone does My Shirts, because Bronx Masquerade was writing in different points of view and Al Capone focused on disabilities which I am really interested in.

Al Capone Does My Shirt

While reading Al Capone Does My Shirt, I kept thinking does this book portray the person or the disability first. At the end of the book, I came up with the idea that the book portrays the person, Natalie, and then the disability, autism because Natalie is described in detail with what she likes to do and a very little about her disability. While working on my paper, the only question I could think of is does this book portray traits of autism as generalizations or stereotypes? I based the question of the Cortes' article but also used Claiming Disability by Linton and also The Joan K. Blaska Collection of Children’s Literature Featuring Characters with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses by S. Williams, C. Inkster, and J. Blaska. These articles all give background to what Gennifer Choldenko had in mind when writing Al Capone Does My Shirt.

After turning in my paper, I thought of another question, does the book portray the person then the disability or the disability then the person?

Also, how does having a person with a disability in your family affect what you can do? Moose many times has to give things he likes to do up in order to take care of Natalie. But at the same time, he builds a really strong relationship with her.

I personally like this book and think that it gives readers a positive view of a person with autism. I also think that it is a great book to go back and talk about values with students, because Moose has things in his life that he wants to do but slowly, he sees whats more important. I would recommend this book to others who want to bring in an underrepresented genre into their classroom.