Just some final thoughts...

As I'm sitting here the night before our last class, I have come to thinking how much I've gotten out of this class. I was browsing through all the readings that we have gone over throughout the semester and I realized how many different groups we've focused on. Because of this class, I would feel more comfortable picking out a multi-cultural library for my elementary class. I am just now realizing how many different groups of people we should recognize when talking about diverse literature. Before this class, I would have only based my thinking on ethnicity or race. I would not have necessarily thought of including literature about disabled or homosexual groups. I feel that it is now the time that we should be exposing students to these groups as well as latino/a, asian american, african american, native american, etc. This class has given me confidence in not only chosing what groups to bring to the forefront but also which books would be good to include. Studying the different awards has provided me with positive resources for well written and legitimate books. Also, after many weeks of debate and discussion, I feel that I would prefer not only books written by insiders, but ones written by those with right intentions. From this class I have learned to look for those intentions and to be critical of authors. It has definitely prepared me for a tough world in which we will all be teaching our future.