The Validity of Teaching Global Literature in the Classroom
Classrooms are now more than ever a heterogenous mix of young people from different backgrounds. These changes require teachers to reflect this diversity in the content that is being taught in the English classroom. By offering global literature or literature with representations of diversity in the curriculum we help students to:
-Examine and reassess their attitudes toward other cultures.
- Develop empathy and treat all students as individuals.
-Foster a respect for cultural difference.
In the grade 11 C English course the ministry of education documents emphasis further developing literacy , critical thinking and communicational skills through analyzing challenging texts (ministry outline). For this reason we feel Yann Martel's Life of Pi is an excellent novel study to introduce into the grade 11 English curriculum. Published in 2001, in 2002 it won the Man Booker Prize and was chosen in 2003 for the CBC Canada Reads. Life of Pi is a novel which reflects the diversity of the Canadian muliticultural identity and is therefore an excellent choice for a novel study at the grade 11 C level.
-Examine and reassess their attitudes toward other cultures.
- Develop empathy and treat all students as individuals.
-Foster a respect for cultural difference.
In the grade 11 C English course the ministry of education documents emphasis further developing literacy , critical thinking and communicational skills through analyzing challenging texts (ministry outline). For this reason we feel Yann Martel's Life of Pi is an excellent novel study to introduce into the grade 11 English curriculum. Published in 2001, in 2002 it won the Man Booker Prize and was chosen in 2003 for the CBC Canada Reads. Life of Pi is a novel which reflects the diversity of the Canadian muliticultural identity and is therefore an excellent choice for a novel study at the grade 11 C level.