The current conversation about the need to promote diversity in literature, spearheaded by the We Need Diverse Books Tumblr Campaign and reinforced by Friday afternoon’s Twitter conversation, was the perfect impetuous to introduce Diversity/Multicultural Literature Circles to Ellen Falcinelli’s LA students. I had purchased a selection of multicultural books from Junior Library Guilds back list titles a couple of months ago to support Peg Mitchell’s request for implementing Literature Circle learning experiences in her LA classes. I chose multicultural titles to create a thematic unit that could also serve to foster our students’ openness to and appreciation of cultural differences.

Ellen and I are extremely excited about the potential for this unit of learning. We plan to create a research or simulated research component by allowing students to analyze and synthesize informational resources related to their fiction  reading. We also hope to create opportunities to meet the authors of their books to discuss their thoughts.