Teaching Globally: Reading the World through Literature

by Kathy Gnagey Short (editor), Deanna Day (editor), Jean Schroeder (editor)

In today’s globally connected world, it is essential for students to have an understanding of multiple cultures and perspectives. In this edited collection, Kathy Short, Deanna Day, and Jean Schroeder bring together fourteen educators who use global children’s literature to help students explore their own cultural identities.
The book lays out why this kind of global curriculum is important and how to make space for it within district and state mandates. Built around a curriculum framework developed by Kathy, the ideas and strategies in Teaching Globally will help teachers integrate a global focus into existing literacy and social studies curricula, evaluate global resources, guide students as they investigate cross-cultural issues, and create classroom activities with an intercultural perspective.
Teaching Globally is filled with vignettes from K–8 urban and rural schools that describe successes and struggles, as well as real examples of students responding to global literature. Extensive lists of book recommendations, websites, and professional books, as well as an appendix of global text sets mentioned by the authors, complete this must-have resource.
 

350 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2016

Reviews

[Brandon Frazer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While admittedly I’m reading this text nine years after its publication, I still got so much value out of this read. Each chapter challenges you to reshape your thinking on children’s literature and how we can wield it as an intentional and powerful tool as educators. I appreciated the “Negotiating School Mandates” at the end of each chapter, but I still do feel like the ideas in this text are not realistic for today’s restrictive classroom settings. I also think that many of the subsidiary skills necessary for our students to engage with international texts can and should be lessons of their own, not necessarily embedded into our standards in English Language Arts. Overall, a great read that I’d recommend for any passionate K-8 educators!