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The purpose of my unit is to explore the growing linguistic diversity in our society and schools, in order to propose a different and more productive way of approaching the issue. I will use children's literature that focuses on stories of survival in a symbolic way. Even if the characters of the stories, fictional or non-fictional, must die, the stories and the ways the protagonists think are eternal. With children who come to the United States without the English language, rather than continuing to view linguistic diversity as a problem to be corrected, we must change our thinking and consider it an asset for our classroom and for society in general. I explore this in two languages: Spanish and English, introducing English as a second language but also honoring and preserving their first language.
(Recommended for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science, grades K-4.)