April 30th of each year is the culmination of Dia! Diversity in Action.
Also known as El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), Dia! is a nationwide initiative from the American Library Association that helps libraries connect their patrons to more bilingual and multicultural resources.
Continue reading DIA! DIVERSITY IN ACTION
April is a great month for book lovers! Not only do we have Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) Day, there’s also National Library Week and a whole host of reading-related holidays that celebrate books, poems and libraries.
Continue reading April’s Reading Holidays are Perfect for Diverse Children’s Books
The 2020 US Census has been a hot topic in the news* because of a controversial citizenship question. The #CountAllKids campaign wants you to know why it’s absolutely essential that our nation’s children are counted.
Continue reading #CountAllKids – Why the Upcoming Census Matters
Language Lizard and our colleagues at Mantra Lingua UK were honored to support a recent charity initiative of eClinicalWorks, to provide literacy materials to thousands of dual language families in Tennessee. Continue reading Charitable Program Provides Bilingual Books in Spanish, Arabic and Kurdish to Language Learners
Language Lizard is a Proud Sponsor of Multicultural Children’s Book Day on January 27th. Let’s work together to get more books that celebrate diversity into our classrooms and libraries! Check out our previous post on 3 reasons why multicultural children’s books are so very important. Continue reading Multicultural Children’s Book Day – January 27
We’ve written before about the benefits of bilingual books at home and in the classroom. But what about multicultural books, with characters as diverse as our communities are today? There’s a movement to bring attention to the need for more multicultural children’s books, and to bring more of those books into classrooms and libraries. Here are 3 reasons why it’s so important that kids have access to more multicultural books… and how you can help get more diverse books out there. Continue reading Why Multicultural Children’s Books Are So Very Important
The US is a country of many languages. In public schools, about 10 percent (4.5 million) of all kids are English Language Learners (ELLs). Of those ELLs, Spanish is the first language of about 71 percent, but there are hundreds of different languages spoken in US schools. Any one school can have a dozen or more languages spoken by its students.
Schools put different types of learning programs in place to help students transition to speaking English. One example is sheltered instruction, which combines English language development strategies with content area instruction.
American schools typically offer five categories of English language programs. The programs offered at any given school or district depend on school demographics, student characteristics, and available resources. The US Department of Education provides resources to educators working with ELL and foreign born students, such as the Newcomer Toolkit.
Check out the graphic below to learn more about ELL learning in the US. To find diverse children’s books in many languages to support literacy among ELLs, feel free to browse the Language Lizard website.
(Graphic included with permission from Gergich & Co.)
National Reading Month is a great time to try out a new multicultural book with your little ones! Celebrate with fun, diverse children’s books that introduce them to different cultures. And don’t miss out on the Multicultural Stories Giveaway we are co-sponsoring with our friends at I Teach K-2!
Every March, National Reading Month kicks off with NEA’s Read Across America, which celebrates the birthday of the beloved Dr. Seuss. All month long, organizations across the country hold events that celebrate the love of reading, and encourage kids and adults to enjoy new books or re-visit old favorites.
If you’re looking to grow your classroom or personal library by adding great multicultural picture books the kids will love, here are some of our favorites. (Each title is available in English plus your choice of a second language, so kids get to explore a second language, too!)
Each day, something new makes Mimi think of her grandma, whom she misses very much. She misses Grandma’s special Saturday Soup, and her stories of life in Jamaica. Derek Brazell’s colorful illustrations brings this story to life, and make us wish we all had a remarkable grandma like this!
How are new babies celebrated around the world? Tariq’s classroom gets to meet his new baby brother. During circle time, the students share the different ways their families welcome new babies into the world. Na’ima bint Robert brings us a beautiful, thoughtful exploration of cultural and religious diversity through the eyes of our children.
This book by Thando Maclaren takes us around the world, to learn about different foods and traditions. Read about exotic dishes like fajitas, sushi, dhal, roti and more! Explore the diversity in children’s lives and develop a worldwide perspective with this book, which is part of the “Our Lives, Our World” series. Other titles in the series include Brrmm! Let’s Go! and Goal! Let’s Play!
Little Li woke up on a Monday morning, only to discover that his tooth is wibbly wobbly! His tooth went wibble wobble all day, until PLOP! it fell right out. Now what will Li do with the tooth?
This humorous story by David Mills, author of Lima’s Red Hot Chilli and Mei Ling’s Hiccups, explores different cultural traditions associated with losing a tooth. It’s a great story to start a class discussion about customs and shared experiences.
Language Lizard is co-sponsoring a Multicultural Stories Class Library Giveaway… Enter below by April 1, 2017 for a chance to win!
“Woman in Library” by David Niblack via imagebase.net is licensed under CC0 http://imagebase.net/photo/696/Woman-in-Library.html
There has been a lot of discussion and debate regarding refugees, with some people expressing concerns that letting in refugees will increase terrorism, while others fear that the recent proposed limitations imposed by an executive order have caused the US to lose its moral compass. In the midst of this conversation, it can be easy to forget the human faces behind the term “refugee.”
According to international refugee law, a refugee is one who seeks refuge in a foreign country because of war and violence, or out of fear of persecution in his/her country. The United States recognizes persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group” as grounds/requirement from those seeking asylum.
The person is referred to as an asylum seeker until a request for refuge has been accepted and approved. After the protection needs are recognized, he/she is officially referred to as a refugee, and enjoyes refugee status, which carries certain right and obligations, per the legislation of the receiving country.
Throughout our history, refugees from Albert Einstein to Marlene Dietrich have made a huge impact on our country and the world at large. Here, we discuss just five refugees (some names you may recognize) who are helping make America great.
Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer. She was an immigrant in the U.S, where she started writing novels that have become famous around the world as modern Latin-American classics.
When asked what gave her the drive to achieve, she answered, “Often I had no alternative but to work hard in order to survive and protect my family. I was a political exile and then an immigrant. That makes one strong.”
On September 11th, 1973, Isabel went into exile after her uncle, Salvador Allende, was detained in a military coup. After this incident, Isabel started to receive death threats and shortly found out that her name was on the military blacklist. She fled to Venezuela with her husband and two children. Without a visa or a job, she managed to continue her career as a writer when she became a journalist for a newspaper called El Nacional.
In 1981, when Allende received news that her grandfather was about to pass away, Isabel started writing him letters, in order to feel closer to her family. This manuscript was then turned into her first and best known novel: The House of the Spirits.
Her stories were inspired by families like hers, that live in troubled times, and are caught up in the politics of the day. In 1985, Isabel went to the US as a visiting professor of literature. Today, she is involved in more than 20 organizations that provide support for refugees, and women and children who have been abused.
Luol is a South Sudanese-British professional basketball player who currently plays for the Miami Heat. He was born in 1985, in the middle of the civil war in Sudan. He and his family escaped the fighting when he was young, settling first in Egypt, and later in Great Britain. He had his early education in London, and went on to study in the US before pursuing a career in professional basketball. Deng has previously played for the Chicago Bulls, and is a two-time NBA All-Star.
Jackie Chan is known for his acrobatic fighting style on screen, his use of improvised weapons, creative stunts, and comedic timing. Chan is a star in Hong Kong, and is a refugee who has had a big impact in America’s entertainment industry. This talented actor was born in China, but moved to Australia with his family as refugees of war, fleeing the violence of the Chinese Civil War. He began his career as a stuntman, but soon became a famous actor in the US and around the world.
The 1969 coup, and its bloody aftermath, in Somalia prompted Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid’s family to flee to Kenya. The Somali-American fashion model, actress and entrepreneur was discovered by a photographer. She began her career as a supermodel in the US, and eventually married musician David Bowie, started a cosmetics company, and became active in humanitarian causes.
Sergey Brin is a billionaire engineer and inventor, and currently the wealthiest immigrant in the US. Born in Russia, Brin came to the US at the age of 6, when his family fled to escape anti-Semitic persecution. Brin eventually attended Stanford University to study computer science, where he met Larry Page. Together, they co-founded Google in 1998. It is now the most popular search engine used in the world. Brin is now the president of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Do you know of a refugee who is helping make America great? Comment below and share!
“AMERICA!” by Michael Dougherty is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/a15evT
Right now, our lives are permeated with emotionally charged discourse about political and social upheaval. When you think about how much news media, social media and personal conversations we’re exposed to, it’s very likely our kids and students are aware and possibly experiencing anxiety about what they hear and see going on in the world around them. We all may feel disheartened with the current events that are dividing us as people, and as a nation.
If you’re worried that the children in your life are experiencing stress or anxiety, you first want to acknowledge and address these emotions, as we discussed in a previous post. Then, you can try to direct the conversation to the good that is happening in the world. One way we suggest doing this is to celebrate diversity with our children. When we open our hearts and minds to people of other cultures, we also cultivate a spirit of love and hope, which can lead to strength and healing.
Below are a few ways we can mitigate anxiety for students, your kids and yourself.
As informed adults, we can’t ever “bury our heads in the sand” by turning our backs on current events. It’s, in fact, vitally important that we check in regularly with reputable news organizations because so much is happening in the political and social realm, in such a short amount of time. However, don’t allow yourself to become inundated by what can feel like a flood of information and reactions. Decide how much time a day you want to dedicate to staying informed, then try to stay within that limit.
If older kids are exposed to news or social media directly, work with them to establish boundaries and talk about what they’re hearing and seeing. With younger kids, we need to be wary that their little ears are picking up on our adult conversations. Decide what information you want to convey to them, and be ready to answer their questions in an age-appropriate manner.
One of the best ways to feel better is by doing good for those around you. Find a way that you and your family or classroom can volunteer to make the world a better place. Working selflessly for others can do wonders for your own state of mind. This is also a great opportunity to connect with other people, and build an emotional and social support network.
If you are concerned about the treatment of vulnerable members of society, or discriminatory attitudes, consider supporting causes that reflect your values and help those who could benefit most from your assistance. Working with children to raise funds to support a cause can be empowering, and allow for substantive discussions on important issues.
When you’re feeling stressed out or sad, take a moment for yourself. Think about the good things in your life that you’re grateful for. Take a break and do something just for you – like reading a book, listening to your favorite song or going for a stroll – and just be present in the moment. Meditate or just lie down and rest for a bit! In order to be kind to others, you must first be kind to yourself.
Suggest these strategies to children as well; these are valuable life lessons that will help them navigate future challenges. You can also make use of online resources to find support and recommendations.
We would love to hear the beautiful, thoughtful, brave ways you are making the world a better place! Take a moment to #CelebrateDiversity with us on social media, and keep up the good work!
“World” by Kevin Dooley via Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/9nZaR3
