Voices of American Teens Project Helps Young Adolescents Explore Cultural Diversity

Abstract

Yes, I like corridos, I answered. He then picked up a trumpet, blew on it and handed it to me. sound gave me goose bumps. I knew that sound. I had heard it in many corridos. How would you like to learn how to play it? he asked. He must have read my face, because before I could answer, he added, I'll teach you how to play it during our lunch hours. day I could hardly wait to get home to tell Papa and Mama the great news. As I got off the bus, my little brothers and sisters ran up to meet me. They were yelling and screaming. I thought they were happy to see me, but when I opened the door to our shack, I saw that everything we owned was neatly packed in cardboard boxes. (Jimenez, 1993, pp. 30-31) seventh grade students had listened attentively to an audiotaped version of The Circuit by Jimenez, and they sat silently as they heard these final sentences describing Panchito's short-lived excitement ignited by his teacher's offer of trumpet lessons and quickly extinguished by the scene that greeted him at home. One student, however, could not sit silently after hearing these words. That sucks, she responded loudly. Panchito's experiences as a young migrant worker in California had evoked this outcry from one of the young adolescents in my reading class because she had connected emotionally with the main character in the story. This vignette demonstrates one of the intended outcomes of the Voices of American Teens project. As a seventh grade reading teacher, my instruction and text selection were always grounded in the belief that students should be exposed to texts representing a variety of perspectives. Multicultural short stories that featured universal adolescent themes (e.g., friendship, family relationships, emerging independence) were used to capture students' interest and to challenge them to view lived experiences through a cultural perspective different from their own. High-quality adolescent literature would expose students to many facets of cultural diversity, hopefully preparing them to function in a school, community, and society that are becoming more diverse (Hobbs & Stoops, 2002). Norton (2005) provided further support for the use of multicultural literature: Positive multicultural literature has been used effectively to help readers identity cultural heritages, understand sociological change, respect the values of minority groups, raise aspirations, and expand imagination and creativity (p. 2). This article describes the Voices of American Teens project in which seventh grade reading students were engaged with multicultural short stories. steps taken to select texts and prepare materials for the projects are explained, and the project's implementation is described. Examples from students' projects and written responses demonstrate how young adolescent readers connected with the characters to learn about cultural diversity. Preparation for the project text selection process was critical to the desired outcomes for this project. stories needed to be chosen on the basis of students' reading abilities, my knowledge of their interests, and established criteria for the selection of multicultural literature (Louie, 2006; Martinez & Nash, 1998; Taylor, 2000). Not only should the content of the short stories expand students' knowledge about various cultures and encourage them to connect with the characters, the selections needed to address the wide spectrum of reading abilities and learning preferences evident in the reading classes. Consequently, the project needed to be structured in a manner that would provide sufficient support for all students and allow them opportunities to make choices and construct their own learning. Selecting texts In searching for texts that would broaden the background knowledge of my middle school readers, I looked for anthologies that contained short stories depicting the lives of the teens in a culturally authentic manner. …