Overview
The first activity of this unit introduces students to the definition of a narrative and then presents students with the opportunity to explore different examples of narratives about multilingual, immigrant and refugee populations in textbooks, books and other media. Students will use critical thinking skills to analyze the narratives to assess their potential impact on identity. Students will decide if the source demonstrates a positive sense of identity through accurate representations or if it causes harm by presenting biased or inaccurate narratives.
Fictional narratives with multilingual, immigrant, or refugee protagonists can serve an important role in reaching students who may appreciate reading about characters portrayed as having gone through similar experiences and have similar feelings. It can also be used to educate native-born students about what their peers’ lives are like. These positive effects only occur if the portrayals of multilingual people, immigrants, and refugees are complex, multifaceted and accurate, while simplistic or negative images could potentially cause unwanted friction between students.14
For example, in many fiction books about immigration or refugees, children are excited and happy to come to the United States, which might not be the case for all students. For immigrant and refugee students to continually receive the narrative that the only emotions they should experience are happiness and gratitude can cause them to feel as though missing home, wanting to return, or not liking the United States, are flaws or negative feelings that they should not experience. For United States citizens, especially native-bornWhite students, to only see that same narrative about immigrants and refugees being happy about coming to the United States, might cause them to be offended by an immigrant or refugee classmate’s lack of enthusiasm because the narratives shown to them create the expectation that all immigrants and refugees are grateful and thrilled to be here. By identifying, analyzing and discussing the effects of narratives, a sense of community can be created where all students are able to express their identity and feelings.
Procedure
To begin, the teacher will curate a list of materials that students will analyze based on their English language proficiency level (see sample list). Students will be given time to look through, read, watch, and spend time thinking about what messages these materials send. They can do this individually or in small groups. Another option is for the teacher to select different pieces to share with the class as a whole group. After this exploratory period, initial observations and reactions will be discussed and recorded on a class document.
Next the teacher will select mentor texts to model identifying the message of a narrative. I have chosen to use the book Other Words for Home, by Jasmine Warga, but you can do this with texts of your choice. Once students are able to identify the message the teacher will begin to work through some of the discussion questions listed below. The goal is for students to understand that narratives can be used to help people identify with a person or experience in a text. It can be representative of certain people and can provide positive images to those who read it. Conversely, if the narrative is incorrect, or if too many texts repeat the same narrative, people might generalize or stereotype about different groups of people.
It is important to discuss the ways that narratives have been used uphold White supremacist ideas within the United States. For example, if reading about the Pilgrims, one might get the impression that the Native Americans who lived on the land before they arrived were offering their land freely for the Pilgrims to take because of the way that some texts narrate the story. Over time, hearing this narrative repeatedly, and even creating a holiday to commemorate this story, has Whitewashed this part of American history to be a happy period of time full of friendship and community, despite the fact that Indigenous Peoples were displaced, abused, and killed. This happens in relation to the Standard English language as well, as many textbooks show White students in the pictures as the ideal English speaker. The words, phrases, and way of using English in these textbooks does not represent all English speakers and it is important for students to understand that there is a connection between this “valuable” version of English and White culture. It has been used to exclude other races and groups of people from opportunities because it stigmatizes other forms of English like African American English or accented English. Bringing this into class discussions will help students to think critically about future encounters with texts and other media.
Students will then practice the skills they were shown in the previous lessons by selecting a text or media source at their comfort level to make an inference about multilingual people, immigrants or refugees. They can repeat this activity with texts or media sources that feature Standard English as well.
Possible Discussion Questions
These are some suggested questions that can be posed to students for discussion or writing prompts. The questions encourage students to think about who is writing the text, what message they wanted the reader to receive, and why. By encouraging students to separate the intended message from the message that they actually receive, students will practice critical thinking skills that help them understand that narratives tell stories and that stories have power to affect society, for positive or negative.
- Who is the author of this text? / Who is the creator of this content?
- What narrative do you think the author/creator wanted to share?
- How might the author’s/creator’s cultural background have affected their narrative?
- What narrative did you receive from the text/content?
- Does this narrative match your experience?
- What might you change about the text/content to make it reflective of your experience?
- Does the narrative harm others (ex. multilingual people, immigrants, refugees, People of Color)? In what way?
- If the narrative harms others, how would you counter this narrative?
Content and Language Objectives:
Beginning
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Intermediate
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Advanced
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After watching selected videos or looking through picture books and images in textbooks, students will be able to record observations (verbally or in writing) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by the authors of those materials about multilingual, immigrant, and refugee students.
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After reading picture books and short prose chapter books, students will be able to record observations (verbally and by writing short sentences) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by the authors of those materials about multilingual, immigrant, and refugee students.
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After reading informational texts, like news articles, and fiction texts, like chapter books, students will be able to record observations (verbally and by writing short paragraphs) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by the authors of those materials about multilingual, immigrant, and refugee students.
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After watching selected videos or looking through picture books and images in textbooks, students will be able to record observations (verbally or in writing) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by those materials about Native Standard English speakers and American citizens.
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After reading picture books and short prose chapter books, students will be able to record observations (verbally and by writing short sentences) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by those materials about Native Standard English speakers and American citizens.
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After reading informational texts, like news articles, and fiction texts, like chapter books, students will be able to record observations (verbally and by writing short paragraphs) and use those observations to make an inference about the narrative presented by those materials about Native Standard English speakers and American citizens.
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Key Vocabulary:
Beginning: see, notice, picture/image
Intermediate: observe/observation, record, multilingual, refugee, immigrant, citizen
Advanced: infer/inference, informational text, article, narrative, native, standard