Why Diverse Literature?

Hello!

My name is Michaela Norman and I'm a junior at Michigan State University majoring in both Special Education-LD and Communicative Sciences and Disorders. I enjoy working with children and have all ways wanted to spend my life working with them in some capacity. I became interested in exploring diverse literature after a student of mine told me that the only reason he hated reading was because he had never found a character that resembled him in personality or racial identity. So, I set off on a mission to find a book that he could relate to. It turns out that I was in for a rude awakening because I couldn't find many meaningful books and that's when I realized how important diverse literature is.

Throughout this course I would like to explore what makes meaningful diverse literature, how to incorporate such literature into everyday focus rather than only a unit a year, and lastly I would like to explore the difference between literature that is stereotypical versus authentic.