As teachers, one of our responsibilities is ensuring (to the best of our ability) that all of our students feel seen, heard, and represented in our classrooms. This is true not only in the types of assignments and assessments we do, but also in the texts we study. This is where adding some diversity in American Literature (or any context) comes into play.
Over the last year or so, I’ve been doing some work on revamping my curriculum shifting away from a more chronological approach to a more thematic one. Luckily, I’m at a school where I have complete curriculum autonomy (a fact I’m still getting used to – and one that has led to a lot of “Ooh. What if we did *this*?” moments. But that’s a story for another day).
One of the shifts I’ve made as I’ve been reworking my curriculum is centering texts around Essential Questions, or EQs. If you’re not familiar with EQs, Brave New Teaching has a great podcast episode about them.
For American Lit, our EQ is “To what extent does literature serve as mirrors and windows into life?”. Using a semi-broad EQ like this allows me to bring in multiple perspectives and voices, since the American Lit curriculum has traditionally been woefully heavy on the ODWG (old, dead, white guys).
The Problem with a Nondiverse Curriculum
In my almost 15 years of teaching, I’ve had students that spanned races, ethnicities, socioeconomic status, and experiences. The problem? Many schools I’ve worked at had mandated curriculum/scope and sequences – or at least highly-suggested-we’ve-always-taught-this texts. And the majority of those texts were from one specific viewpoint.
Texts that celebrated different voices were the focus doing X History/Heritage Month, but not regularly included in the curriculum – except for maybe MLK’s “I Have a Dream” . I don’t recall ever doing anything for Hispanic Heritage Month, or Indigenous People’s, or AAPI Heritage Month; in fact, I’m not sure I knew they existed.
By denying our students access to these different perspectives, we’re (a) denying them the opportunity to practice empathy and make connections and (b) promoting one voice/perspective over another.
Looking for some ideas on how to increase diversity? Keep reading to see how I’m (attempting to) do this.
Ways to incorporate diversity in American literature (or any curriculum)
Incorporate Authors from Various Backgrounds
One of the most common ways to increase diversity is to add to your existing curriculum. If, like me, you have autonomy – even if it’s limited – this is a relatively easy step. Take a look at your texts.
- Do you have any common themes?
- Are you focusing on a specific time period?
- Can you look at contemporaneous authors (which is actually one of our standards here in FL) and how they treat specific topics?
For example, in my English 3 classes, we’re using Ruta Septys novels as whole-class texts. Septys is Lithuanian-American and provides a different perspective in her historical fiction novels than most of my students are familiar with. My regular English class is reading I Must Betray You, looking at the ideas of rebellion and progress, before addressing those same ideas in speeches by America’s Founding Fathers.
Teaching the concept of the American Dream? Pair The Great Gatsby or Of Mice and Men with Their Eyes Were Watching God . All take place in roughly the same time period but focus on different subsets of society.
Other ideas:
- Explore the concept of identity with Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, Trevor Noah’s “Chameleon” (from Born a Crime), or vignettes from The House on Mango Street.
- Introduce multicultural American experiences with The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri), The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros), or Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie).
Use Poetry to Highlight Marginalized Voices
One of the benefits of using poetry is the length. If you don’t have a lot of time, poems are a perfect way to include diverse voices.
When possible, I like to use paired poetry, either pairing several poems that have similar themes – such as “Mother to Son”, “Still I Rise”, and “Caged Bird” (all about overcoming adversity) – or poems with the longer texts we’re reading.
During our “What’s America’s story and who gets to tell it?” unit, my students did a comparison of Langston Hughes’ “I, Too”, Claude McKay’s “America”, and Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”.
Other ideas:
- Use Joy Harjo, Joseph Bruchac, and Louise Erdrich to explore the Native American experience
- Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance poets to compare/contrast with The Great Gatsby
- Use spoken word poetry, like Elizabeth Acevedo’s “Afro-Latina” to discuss identity
Incorporate Contemporary Texts
This is another mindset shift that I’ve made over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong. I love the canonical works as much as the next person. But I’ve started to accept that today’s students aren’t always as excited about those texts as I am.
Pairing contemporary texts by authors such as Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, Elizabeth Acevedo, or Tiffany D. Jackson with more traditional/canonical texts allows students to practice many of the same literary analysis skills and make connections to their own lives. Pairing contemporary and canonical texts is a great way to show that some struggles and themes transcend time (another reason to organize your units by EQs).
Contemporary texts can also take the form of different media – such as podcasts or TED Talks. Two of my favorites to use are “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and “My Identity is a Superpower” by America Ferrara.
So there you go. Three ways to add diversity to American Literature (or any) curriculum. This is a work in progress for me, but I’m excited to see where it leads.
Do you have any favorite texts that highlight diverse voices? Hit “Reply” and let me know.