Between Cultures, Between Places Pat Austin, Professor, University of New Orleans

The Role of Children’s Books in the English Language Classroom Literature saves lives. Literature is about understanding how we make sense of our world, our culture, and ourselves. Literature is often the vehicle through which we come to understand others. Books give us insight into who we are and how we live our lives.

Literature is, at its heart, the way we see our place in the world and come to know that we are not alone.

Here’s what I want us all to say to English language learners through books.

If everything feels so very strange in this new place, and you think you’ll never feel comfortable, you are not alone.

If you wish your new teachers and friends could understand the immigrant experience, you are not alone.

If you wish you could just speak your own language and if you struggle with the impossible inconsistencies of English, you are not alone.

Passing Time I study the dictionary because grass and trees do not grow faster just because I stare. I look up Jane: not listed Sees: to eyeball something Spot: a stain Run: to move really fast Meaning: _____ eyeballs stain move. I throw the dictionary down…. (p. 129)

Feel Dumb MiSSS SScott points to me, then to the letters of the English alphabet. I say A B C and so on. She tells the class to clap. I frown. points to the numbers along the wall. I count up to twenty. The class claps on its own. I’m furious, unable to explain I already learned fractions and how to purify river water. So this is what dumb feels like. I hate, hate, hate it. (pp. 156-157)

If you or your parents are undocumented, you are not alone.

If you are the new kid in school, you are not alone.

If you or your relatives are missing the old country, you are not alone.

If your roots are in a country where you’ve never been, and you have no memories, you are not alone.

If you are feeling the sting of xenophobia, that no one trusts you, that you’re different, there is hope for change.

If you wonder what the future holds for you in America…..

THANK YOU!

Bibliography Argueta, Jorge. Somos como las nubes = We are like the clouds Groundwood Books 2016.  Budhos, Marina Tamar. Wendy Lamb Books, 2016. Buitrago, Jairo. Two white rabbits Groundwood Books 2015. Diaz, Alexandra. The only road. Simon & Schuster, 2016. Danticat, Edwidge. Mama's nightingale Dial, 2015. Diaz, Junot. IslandbornDial Books, 2018. Foreman, Michael. The seeds of friendship. Candlewick Press, 2015. Guerrero, Diane. My family divided. Henry Holt and Company, 2018 Herrera, Juan Felipe. Imagine. Candlewick Press, 2018. Lai, Thanhha, Inside out & back again. Harper, 2017 Medina, Juana. Juana & Lucas. Candlewick Press, 2016. Nazario, Sonia. Enrique's journey. Delacorte Press, 2013. O'Brien, Anne Sibley. I'm new here. Charlesbridge, 2015. Staub, Leslie. Time for Earth school, Dewey Dew. Boyds Mills Press, 2016. Tan, Shaun. The arrival. A. A. Levine, 2006. Tonatiuh, Duncan. Undocumented: a worker's fight Abrams ComicArts, 2018. Vargas, Jose Antonio. Dear America: notes of an undocumented citizen. William Morrow, 2018. Watts, Jeri Hanel. A piece of home. Candlewick Press, 2016.