Post on 14-Mar-2023
Mainstream and Mexican American-Themed Picture Books and Students’
Responses to Them in a First-Grade Dual-Immersion Classroom
A Dissertation
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY
Anne Elise Delbridge
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Lori Helman, Adviser
November, 2018
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Acknowledgements
There are many people whom I need to thank for their support, insights, and love. I am in awe of the great thinkers and wonderful human beings with whom I crossed paths in the doctoral program in literacy at the University of Minnesota. First, thank you to my wonderful advisor, Lori Helman. Lori, I would not have finished this dissertation without your support. Thank you for never wavering in your belief that I would finish, despite two babies and a move across the country. Thank you for holding me accountable, for reading my drafts so carefully, and for supporting me at every level. Your work with young bilingual students was what inspired me to apply to the doctoral program in the first place. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee for their generous guidance and support during the dissertation process and for their inspriring courses in the doctoral program. Cynthia, our conversation about cultural markers and themes was key to the design of my study and it was your course on discourse analysis that opened my mind to thinking about literature discussions and identity more deeply. Thank you for always making time to talk with me about my study despite your many other obligations. David, thank you for your guidance with qualitative research. Thank you also for your questions, which have challenged me to think about the implications of my study in new ways. Carol, thank you for your insights related to Spanish language use in general and Mexican American Spanish in particular. Your perspective enhanced my study significantly. I also wish to thank Lee Galda, whose introduction to the work of Louise Rosenblatt inspired this study initially. Lee, thank you for meeting with me to discuss my study and for offering such strong encouragement and support. Thank you also for letting me use your office to nurse my baby during class and for helping me believe that finishing a dissertation while being a mother was possible. Other professors at the University of Minnesota also influenced my thinking through their excellent teaching in the doctoral program, especially Tim Lensmire and Deborah Dillon. On a personal level, thank you to my parents, Robin and Rick Polse, for your constant support, love, and encouragement. Thank you for always being willing to come take care of the kids in a pinch and for the many babysitting hours that allowed me to collect data and write. To my sister, Lara Fitch-Polse, thank you for always being willing to listen, and for offering empathy, commiseration, encouragement, and laughter. I love you all so much. Lastly, to my husband, Tim Delbridge, thank you for believing in me and for never wavering in your support. Thank you for work time on the weekends, for listening, for
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talking things through with me, and for a myriad of other things. I love you more than words can say.
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Dedication
To the children in my third grade class my first year teaching at Radcliff Elementary School in Watsonville, CA (2004-05), who taught me more than I could ever teach them. And to Louis and Alan, my two sweet boys.
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Abstract
The education system in the United States continues to fail bilingual Mexican
American students in many ways. To counteract the effects of a subtractive schooling
experience (Valenzuela, 1999) for these students, teachers can support the development
of literary identities of belonging (Fránquiz, Martínez-Roldán, & Mercado, 2011). The
purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which the texts students read may
invite or discourage the development of positive literary identities by contributing to
feelings of belonging or alienation.
The study had two parts. In Part 1, content analysis was used to analyze a set of
18 award winning Mexican American-themed Spanish language children’s picture books
and compare them to a similar number of common, mainstream read aloud texts along
several dimensions, including characteristics of the main character, culturally-important
themes, and cultural values. In Part 2, students in a dual immersion first grade classroom
in California responded to three mainstream and three award winning Mexican American
picture books. Data collected in the classroom included written responses and drawings,
individual discussions, and surveys of children’s book preferences. Four English Home
Language (EHL) students and four Spanish Home Language (SHL) Mexican-origin
students also participated in picture walks and small group discussions.
Findings for Part 1 indicate that the mainstream texts lacked diversity in terms of
main characters’ physical, linguistic, familial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
In addition, the mainstream texts hardly ever provided access to culturally important
Mexican American content themes such as family strength and community, and they
reinforced the culturally incongruent value of individualism. Findings for Part 2 indicate
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that the cultural content of the texts affected students’ oral and written responses in terms
of the students’ willingness or ability to make personal and cultural connections, their
feelings of belonging in the stories, and their engagement during discussions and picture
walks.
Implications from this study are that continual exposure to mainstream books
could easily lead minoritized students to disengage from literary tasks. In addition, the
study highlights the importance of access to culturally relevant texts in the early
elementary grades as a pathway towards the development of positive literary identities in
school.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables ............................................................................................................. viii
Chapter 1: Introduction and Rationale for the Study .................................................. 1
Chapter 2: Literature Review ....................................................................................... 6 Culturally Rich Children’s Literature as Part of a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy ................... 6 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................... 30 The Present Study ................................................................................................................. 31 Purpose and Research Questions ........................................................................................... 32
Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................. 33 Part 1: Textual Content Analysis ........................................................................................... 33 Part 2: Students Interacting with Texts .................................................................................. 48
Chapter 4: Results of Part 1 ........................................................................................ 77 Introduction to the Text Sets ................................................................................................. 77 Main Characters .................................................................................................................... 79 Cultural Markers ................................................................................................................... 85 Cultural Themes ................................................................................................................... 91 Cultural Values ................................................................................................................... 106 Role of School and Literacy ................................................................................................ 114 Summary of Results for Part 1 ............................................................................................ 116
Chapter 5: Results of Part 2 ...................................................................................... 119 Book 1: Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso..................................... 120 Book 2: La señorita Runfio ................................................................................................. 133 Book 3: Un sillón para mi mamá......................................................................................... 142 Book 4: Finding the Music / En pos de la música ................................................................ 151 Book 5: My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito ............................................................... 162 Book 6: Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros .................................... 171 Summary of Results of Part 2 .............................................................................................. 180
Chapter 6: Discussion, Limitations, and Implications ............................................. 205 Discussion of Mainstream and Culturally Rich Texts .......................................................... 205 Discussion of Student Engagement with Texts .................................................................... 211
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Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 220 Implications for Culturally Sustaining Literature Engagement ............................................. 222
References .................................................................................................................. 226
Appendix A. Fields Included in Text Analysis Protocol........................................... 248
Appendix B. Text Analysis Protocol for Additional Coders .................................... 250
Appendix C. Written Response Sheet #1 .................................................................. 253
Appendix D. Written Response Sheet #2 .................................................................. 254
Appendix E. Questions to Ask During Small Group Discussions ............................ 255
Appendix F. Student Interview Protocol .................................................................. 256
Appendix G. Codebook Used in Analysis of Discussion Transcripts and Coded Transcript Excerpt .................................................................................................... 257
Appendix H. Yolanda’s Writing and Drawing in Response to Finding the Music/ En pos de la música .......................................................................................................... 259
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List of Tables
Table 1. Culturally Rich (CR) Text Set ...................................................................... 39
Table 2. Mainstream Text Set ..................................................................................... 41
Table 3. Focal Texts ..................................................................................................... 62
Table 4. Written Connections to Cultural Themes in Focal Texts by Home Language Group ........................................................................................................ 121
Table 5. Number of Personal Connections (and Associated Percentages) Evident in Written Responses by Home Language Group ........................................................ 125
Table 6. Type of Personal Connections in Written Responses by Home Language Group ......................................................................................................................... 126
Table 7. Focal Students’ Affirmative Responses to the Question “Could You Be Part of This Book?” ........................................................................................................... 131
Table 8. Focal Students’ Favorite and Least Favorite Focal Texts ......................... 131
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Chapter 1: Introduction and Rationale for the Study
Latino/Hispanic students make up approximately 25% of the school age
population in the United States, and that number continues to grow (National Center for
Education Statistics [NCES], 2015). In California, over 53% of the total public school
population is Latino, and 83% of the state’s Latinos are of Mexican heritage (Brown &
M. López, 2013). Latino students often struggle in school, as shown by a persistent 25-
point achievement gap in reading that is evident by the fourth grade (Hemphill &
Vanneman, 2011) and a high school dropout rate that is significantly higher than that of
their White, native English-speaking peers (NCES, 2018). Scholars who have
investigated the schooling experiences of Latino students, however, have found that these
differences in achievement are actually the result of an education system that is based
firmly in a White, English-dominant, middle-class ideology. Such a system not only leads
to feelings of rejection and promotes resistance among Latino students, but also
reproduces discrimination and societal inequity (Valenzuela, 1999). This system fails to
recognize or support the development of the cultural and linguistic resources that Latino
students bring to school, and in fact devalues and attempts to strip students of these
resources, an experience that Valenzuela (1999) has termed subtractive schooling.
Approximately 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States speak
Spanish as their primary language (Fry & Passel, 2009). However, despite the fact that
the cognitive and social advantages of bilingualism are well documented, laws continue
to be passed that exclude languages other than English from the classroom, to the
detriment of millions of students. About 87% of Spanish speakers in the United States are
enrolled in English-only school settings (August & Shanahan, 2006) where development
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or maintenance of literacy skills in Spanish are usually not considered. Researchers
estimate that Mexican immigrants who arrive in the United States today can expect only
five out of 100 of their great grandchildren to speak fluent Spanish (Rumbaut, Massey, &
Bean, 2006).
Bilingual education is thought to support an additive, rather than subtractive,
approach and to be more culturally relevant than English-only programs because home
languages are validated when used as the language of instruction (Cummins, 1992).
While bilingual education has many forms, two-way or dual-language immersion
programs in which Spanish and English speakers learn side by side are thought to be
most effective in leading to higher levels of both Spanish and English literacy skills (de
Jong, 2002; Lindholm-Leary & Block, 2010; Lindholm-Leary & Hernández, 2011;
Thomas & Collier, 2002). Dual immersion programs also receive more support from
school districts and surrounding communities than traditional bilingual programs (Valdés,
1997), many of which are being shut down (Menken & Solorza, 2012).
However, dual immersion programs are not a panacea. These programs are still
situated within an English-dominant society and subject to district curriculum mandates
and mandatory high-stakes testing. They also cater to a native English-speaking
population. While English speakers in dual immersion programs are generally celebrated
for their acquisition of a new language, Spanish speakers are expected to learn English
and to learn it quickly (Valdés, 1997). Language ideologies of English dominance often
permeate the dual immersion classroom, standardized tests in English make English
instruction a priority, and Latino students quickly learn to privilege English over Spanish
in social interactions (Potowski, 2004). Because of this, Valdés (1997) cautions that
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simply having access to Spanish as the language of instruction is not the determining
factor in whether a Latino student experiences success in school.
Even when schools spout an official philosophy of multiculturalism, sometimes
classroom practices actually encourage cultural assimilation and discourage heritage
language use for Latino students, equating academic success with assimilation into the
dominant culture (Garza & Crawford, 2005). Valenzuela (1999) laments the “systemic
undervaluing of people and things Mexican” in schools as a reason why youth work to
establish identities that distance them from school culture (p. 20). This distancing can
begin at a young age. While several studies of subtractive schooling practices have been
conducted in high schools (e.g. F. López, 2017; Valenzuela, 1999), literacy practices that
fail to build on students’ home literacy experiences often begin early. Purcell-Gates
(2013) found that the early literacy activities in a Head Start preschool program designed
for the children of migrant farmworkers in California completely failed to build on the
children’s home literacy experiences and required them to speak in English. The children
were seen by their teachers as “damaged and empty vessels,” rather than possessors of
cultural and linguistic knowledge (p. 94). According to Delgado Bernal (2002),
“Although students of color are holders and creators of knowledge, they often feel as if
their histories, experiences, cultures, and languages are devalued, misinterpreted, or
omitted within formal educational settings” (p. 106).
Fránquiz, Martínez-Roldán, and Mercado (2011) assert that “…students’ resilient
literacy identities must be nurtured in order to overcome negative experiences” (p. 109).
These researchers stress that whether students are able to form literacy identities of
belonging is crucial to their academic success.
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In my prior work as a teacher and then as a literacy coach in bilingual elementary
schools, while Spanish literacy achievement was prioritized in the early grades, teachers
did not often talk about the cultural content of the books they read to students. Nearly all
of the books I read aloud in my own bilingual classroom were Spanish translations of
popular English books, many of which were the same books that my parents and teachers
read to me as a child and that were published half a century ago. I continued to see this
pattern in classrooms as a literacy coach as well, from Oso pardo, oso pardo, ¿qué ves
ahí? (Brown Bear Brown Bear; Martin & Carle, 1967) in kindergarten to La telaraña de
Carlota (Charlotte’s Web; White & Williams, 1952) in second grade to Charlie y la
fábrica de chocolate (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Dahl, 1964) in fourth grade.
While many of the “classic” children’s books are wonderful stories, I believe that
when teachers of bilingual Mexican American students do not regularly prioritize or even
consider the cultural content of the texts we read to children, it not only perpetuates a
literary canon that fails to include non-White voices, but promotes the harmful idea that
Mexicanidad (Mexican-ness; Valenzuela, 1999) does not belong in the world of books. It
is unreasonable to expect young students to develop literary identities of belonging in
school when they are continually invisible in their classroom books and when, in fact,
those books may be rooted in a world that is culturally oppressive.
In this dissertation I will analyze the leading Spanish-language Mexican
American children’s literature through the lens of cultural relevance and examine the
ways in which books that are considered culturally rich are qualitatively different from
mainstream texts that are usually included in classrooms. In addition, I will investigate
how English Home Language (EHL) and Spanish Home Language (SHL) students in a
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dual immersion first-grade class engage with Spanish-language texts that are culturally
rich as opposed to those that are mainstream, with the goal of exploring how the cultural
content of children’s picture books might help students see themselves in the texts they
read. I hope that the knowledge gained through this study could ulitmately help teachers
of minoritized students be better prepared to support their students in the construction of
identities of belonging and contribute to a more additive schooling experience for them.
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
Culturally Rich Children’s Literature as Part of a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
The fact that White European literature is simply presented as “literature” in
classrooms leads children who do not identify with this literature to feel continually
“othered” in school (Willis-Rivera & Meeker, 2002). According to Ada (2003), “Latino
children have suffered a great deal from the ways in which their culture… has been
rendered invisible by the mass media and within the school curriculum… This silence…
erodes their self-esteem” (p. xiv).
Culturally rich books are those that “depict(ing) experiences that are explicitly
embedded in a particular culture, with setting, plot, and characters inextricably tied to
culture” (Galda & Cullinan, 2002, p. 278). Culturally rich books can also touch on
themes that are considered universal (e.g., going to a new school or hearing a bedtime
story), yet these books are not universal to the degree that they lose their cultural
specificity (Harris, 1997).
Unfortunately, culturally rich books make up an extremely small percentage of
the children’s books published each year, especially when compared to the percentage of
children in the United States who come from these cultures (Galda & Cullinan, 2006).
While about one quarter of students enrolled in U.S. public schools identify as
Hispanic/Latino (Musu-Gillette, McFarland, KewalRamani, Zhang, & Wilkinson-Flicker,
2016), fewer than two percent of books published each year have significant Latino
content (Galda, Sipe, Liang, & Cullinan, 2014). Of these, about 20% fall into the folklore
genre, leaving an immense need for contemporary realistic fiction for children that is
culturally rich (Ada, 2003; Barrera & Cortes, 1997; Bishop, 1997; Galda & Cullinan,
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2006; Mo & Shen, 2003; Yokota, 1993). According to Ada (2003), “Although each genre
has something valuable to offer children, it is in realistic fiction, especially in
contemporary narrative, that they can see themselves, their friends, and their quest
represented” (p. 49).
Culturally rich books are the most important kind to put into children’s hands
(Cai, 2002; Harris, 1997; Sims Bishop 1982). When teachers incorporate culturally rich
literature of the students in their classrooms, it can serve to promote a culturally relevant
pedagogy that counteracts the negative effects of a demeaning schooling experience
(Ladson-Billings, 1995). The idea of cultural relevance aims to move beyond just
including students’ language and culture in school to actually:
using student culture in order to maintain it and to transcend the negative effects of the dominant culture. The negative effects are brought about, for example, by not seeing one’s history, culture, or background represented in the textbook or curriculum or by seeing that history, culture, or background distorted. (Ladson-Billings, 2009, p. 19) Paris (2012) maintains that a culturally sustaining pedagogy is one that aims to
“maintain heritage ways and to value cultural and linguistic sharing across difference, to
sustain and support bi- and multilingualism and bi- and multiculturalism” (p. 95). This
type of pedagogy moves beyond culturally relevant or culturally responsive teaching,
which may use a student’s culture to provide better access to learning the federally
mandated or legitimized curriculum. In dual immersion settings, for example, teachers
may focus on helping their students learn the required curriculum through Spanish but
fail to sustain their students’ cultures in the classroom. When teachers integrate their
students’ cultural and community knowledge into the literacy curriculum, these funds of
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knowledge “can form the bases for an education that far exceeds what working class
(bilingual Latino) students usually receive” (Moll, 1992, p. 21).
Quality in Culturally Rich Children’s Books
Culturally rich books must be both culturally accurate and culturally authentic.
Inaccuracies in cultural details immediately render a book inauthentic and diminish its
overall quality (Yokota, 1993). For readers who are cultural insiders especially, these
inaccuracies are easy to spot. Cultural authenticity is more difficult to pin down and
define. According to Barrera, Liguori, and Salas (1993), “authenticity of content and
images in children’s literature is essential because inauthentic representation subverts the
very cultural awareness and understanding that such literature can build” (p. 212). Some
researchers feel that attempting to assign a set of criteria by which to determine a book’s
authenticity is futile, especially in view of the inherent complexity and dynamic nature of
culture. Short and Fox (2003) point out that an authentic book is one that simply “rings
true”. They quote Howard’s (1991) description of an authentic text:
Readers from the culture will know that it is true, will identify, and be affirmed, and readers from another culture will feel that it is true, will identify, and learn something of value, sometimes merely that there are more similarities than differences among us. (p. 92) Other researchers have attempted to come up with essential criteria for evaluating
the authenticity of culturally rich texts. These include things such as positive character
portrayal, authentic character relationships, appropriate language use and dialogue,
freedom from stereotypes in text and illustration, and attention to cultural issues (e.g.
Bishop, 1997; Hefflin & Barksdale-Ladd, 2001; Yokota, 1993; Sims Bishop, 1982).
Authenticity is also more likely to be achieved when characters are situated within
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families and neighborhoods, when the story is told from the child protagonist’s
perspective, and when the protagonist’s culture is clear (Sims Bishop, 1982). The
illustrations also play an important role in whether a book attains cultural authenticity
(Smolkin & Suina, 2003). Smolkin and Suina (2003) contend that the illustrations of a
culturally rich text must be culturally conscious and not appear too “mainstream.”
However, Mo and Shen (2003) argue that culturally rich picture books should avoid
complete adherence to the traditional artistic style of the root culture. They assert that in
an authentic picture book’s illustrations, “the specific culture is clearly evident in the art
but is so naturally blended into the book as a whole that it is difficult to exactly identify
those elements” (p. 210).
Linguistic errors are a frequent measure of cultural inauthenticity. Barrera et al.
(1993) found that most of the errors made by cultural outsiders writing about Latinos
came from the misuse of Spanish terms. These errors immediately resulted in a feeling of
inauthenticity for the reader who is a cultural insider. Spanish terms were not only
misused, but were given meanings that did not align with cultural values. For example, a
curandera is a respected healer who uses nontraditional medicine, but one book analyzed
by Barrera et al. (1993) treated the curandera as a witch who was feared by the
characters.
While the accuracy of cultural and linguistic details is important in creating
authenticity, a text may be culturally accurate without achieving cultural authenticity (Mo
& Shen, 2003). Mo and Shen (2003) assert that cultural accuracy refers to things like the
daily practices of the characters, while cultural authenticity is based on whether or not
these daily practices signify the culture’s “central code,” or its core values and beliefs.
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Smolkin and Suina (2003) point out that different members of a culture may judge
authenticity differently because of variation in values, beliefs, and customs within a
culture, however, Mo and Shen (2003) argue that, “when an author’s version of a culture
can be accommodated inside the range of values acceptable within that social group, a
measure of authenticity has been achieved” (p. 201).
Perhaps the worst type of inauthenticity in multicultural literature is stereotyping.
While a group’s relative invisibility in children’s literature can be harmful for a child
(Bishop, 1997; Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Hefflin & Barksdale-Ladd, 2001; Naidoo,
2011), misrepresentation and stereotyping are even worse (Barrera & Cortes, 1997;
Barrera et al., 1993; Bishop, 1993; Cai, 2002; Harris, 1999; Nilsson, 2005). Nilsson
(2005) reviewed 21 studies on the portrayal of Hispanic characters in children’s literature
between 1966 and 2003. All of the studies she reviewed reported finding high incidences
of stereotyped Hispanic characters in terms of living situation (ghetto/lower class
neighborhoods), employment (blue collar), and gender (male-dominant/machista
stereotype). In addition, the high level of variation both within and across the cultures
that have been lumped together under the Latino label often goes unrecognized in
children’s literature, resulting in some books that present a virtual “parade” of non-
specific Latino cultural stereotypes (Barrera & Cortes, 1997; T. González, 2009).
According to Cai (2002), “Stereotypes not only injure dominated cultural groups
mentally, but also breed ignorance and prejudice in children of the mainstream culture”
(p. 71). When students see incorrect, inauthentic, negative images of their culture
continually in literature, it can lead them to develop incorrect notions about their heritage,
in addition to low self-esteem (Nieto, 1997). According to Bishop (1993):
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If literature is a mirror that reflects human life, then all children who read or are read to need to see themselves reflected as part of humanity. If they are not, or if their reflections are distorted and ridiculous, there is the danger that they will absorb negative messages about themselves and people like them. Those who see only themselves or who are exposed to errors and misrepresentations are miseducated into a false sense of superiority, and the harm is doubly done. (p. 43) The issue of authenticity is intertwined with the ethnicity and cultural background
of the author. According to Bishop, Harris, and others, the author’s intentions in creating
a text must be taken into consideration when evaluating cultural authenticity. Authors
who write about their own culture often maintain the goal of, “enhancing the self-concept
of children of color, challenging existing stereotypes and dominant culture assumptions,
and passing on the central values and stories of their own cultures to their children”
(Short & Fox, 2003, p. 17). In contrast, authors who write about cultures other than their
own often seek to “build awareness” of other cultures. These different intentions produce
fundamentally different texts for different audiences and affect the level of cultural
authenticity (Short & Fox, 2003). Barrera and Cortes (1997) found that cultural outsiders
writing about Mexican Americans were more likely to emphasize themes that were not
culturally appropriate, such as individualism. However, Barrera et al. (1993) also found a
few texts written by cultural outsiders that they deemed to have authentically and
sensitively represented the experiences of Mexican Americans, specifically in relation to
the theme of immigration.
Cultural insiders are not only able to write with more cultural specificity, but also
tend to more fully represent the dynamic nature of culture with all its complexities, taking
into account issues of gender, class, race, and power relations (Botelho & Rudman,
2009). Many researchers, such as Campoy and Ada (2011), do not choose to include
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work by cultural outsiders in their analyses of culturally rich children’s literature. By
analyzing the body of work by authors writing about their own specific cultures, it is
thought that scholars can develop a better sense of what constitutes cultural authenticity
in this work (Bishop, 2003; Cai, 2002), as well as gain a better understanding of the
broad range of experience within a cultural group (Harris, 1990; Medina & Enciso,
2002). Indeed, “telling our stories” is one of the main functions of Latino children’s
literature (Ada, 2003). Medina (2006) discusses how the background of the author allows
for sharing of powerful personal experiences in Latino-themed novels such as The Circuit
(F. Jiménez, 1997). Such autobiographical and semi-autobiographical texts can also serve
as testimonios, calling “for collective action through the voicing of personal struggles
situated within larger sociopolitical contexts that transcend time, place, and location”
(DeNicolo & M. González, 2015, p. 112).
Themes in Latino and Mexican American Children’s Literature
The study of the children’s literature of a minoritized group represents “the
periphery of the periphery of the periphery” (T. González, 2009, p. 3). Nevertheless, the
studies that have been conducted in this area continue to show the importance of using
literature that reflects the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of Latino students in U.S.
schools to assist Latino students in developing cultural pride and positive cultural
identities (Ada, 2003; Naidoo, 2011; Naidoo & Quiroa, 2016; Smith, Flores, & D.
González, 2016).
Many scholars draw attention to the fact that ideology is embedded in books for
children (e.g. Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Boutte, Hopkins, & Waklatsi, 2008; Hollindale,
1988; Keys & McGillicuddy, 2014; Stephens, 1992; Sutherland, 1985; Yoon, Simpson, &
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Haag, 2010). Boutte et al. (2008) find that even the kindergarten-level children’s texts
they analyzed often promoted hidden ideologies that were obscured by things attractive to
children and teachers such as fantasy, humor, and skill learning. Stephens (1992) asserts
that children’s literature exposes children to ideologies with the purpose of socializing
them to accept certain cultural values. According to Botelho and Rudman (2009), all
children’s literature is, “a historical and cultural product, inscribed with the dominant
ideologies of a particular place and time” (p. 88). If they are not to reject and feel rejected
by texts or internalize harmful ideologies, students from non-mainstream cultures need
“local literatures” that provide “storytelling voices to speak to them- voices which can
speak within an ideology which for them is coherent and complete” (Hollindale, 1988, p.
15). Such a need can be met when children read culturally rich texts that promote
ideologies that are in accord with those held by their home cultures.
Cultural themes represent broader topics of particular importance to a cultural
group. Cultural themes are more likely than universal themes to be the focus of culturally
rich books (Harris, 1997) and serve important functions. Some can be sociopolitical calls
to action (Medina, 2006; Medina & Enciso, 2002) and some serve to preserve and
celebrate Latino cultures (Ada, 2003). While diversity exists in the values held within
Latino cultures, families, and individuals (Irizarry, 2007), scholars have found certain
themes and values to be especially important across Latino children’s literature, such as
the importance of family love (especially intergenerational relationships), respect, and
Spanish language use (Ada, 2003).
Ada (2003) emphasizes the importance of exposing Latino children to books that
tackle issues of bilingualism and linguistic prejudice. Many Spanish-speaking students
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are urged by their parents to learn English and experience shame of their language at
school; however, they also are faced with the possibility of losing their native language
(and the ability to communicate with close friends and relatives) in their effort to
assimilate into the mainstream American culture (Ada, 2003). Authors can choose to use
non-standard Spanish and English in their work, or to mix the two languages, using
language to express identity and “the complex political and personal process of mixing
and inventing languages” (Medina & Enciso, 2002, p. 44). Language use is also often
taken up as a theme by Latino authors to show characters exploring and inventing their
own identities as bicultural (Medina & Enciso, 2002). However, Chappell and Faltis
found that the experience of “maintain(ing) cross-cultural identities, ways of being,
thinking, acting, and using language within their local communities” was mostly absent
in the children’s books portraying bilingual characters that they analyzed (p. 259).
Alamillo and Arenas (2012) make a distinction between important themes in
Latino children’s literature and those in Chicano children’s literature, even though there
is some overlap. Chicano children’s literature is based in the Chicano movement of the
1960’s and emphasizes issues of social justice and identity, including themes of
immigration, language prejudice, and racism. Chicano children’s books also, “affirm and
validate Chicano experiences in the United States… they are unique in the sense that this
experience is more connected to the indigenous mother culture” (Alamillo & Arenas,
2012, p. 54).
Naidoo and Quiroa (2016) discuss the importance of reading books that tackle
issues of citizenship and immigration to Mexican American students whose families have
recently immigrated. Discussion of these books can help students to understand “what it
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means to be U.S. American and allows opportunities for students to discuss how
deportation influences their lives or the lives of peers” (p. 55). Books about border
crossing and visiting family in Mexico can be especially important for transnational
children, and can even serve as bibliotherapy when students have experienced traumatic
migration (Sánchez & Landa, 2016).
Migrant farm work is another important theme in Mexican American children’s
literature (Beck, 2009; Campoy & Ada, 2011). The vast majority of migrant farmworkers
in the United States are Mexican, and the children of migrant farmworkers are often
failed by a school system that is not set up to support them (Beck, 2009). According to
Beck (2009), “one of the most important reasons for the persistence of inadequate
education for migrants is that their world is not frequently nor honestly depicted in our
popular culture,” including our children’s books (p. 99). He goes on to propose that
seeing the migrant farmworker experience represented in children’s books can help to
engage migrant children in school and encourage non-migrant students to understand
how their own lives are influenced by migrant workers (Beck, 2009).
Cultural themes that have been identified as important in Mexican American and
Chicano children’s literature specifically include immigration and border crossing,
poverty, intergenerationalism (grandparent/child relationships), viewing Mexico as home,
community strength, migrant farmwork, cultural pride, and language issues including
language maintenance and translation (Ada, 2003; Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Campoy &
Ada, 2011; T. González, 2009; Medina & Enciso, 2002; Naidoo & Quiroa, 2016;
Sánchez & Landa, 2016).
16
Smolen & Ortiz-Castro (2000) recommend the use of Latino folklore with
Spanish-speaking and English-speaking children. They assert that folklore, “affirms
Latino children’s heritage by providing them with opportunities to see the world of their
ancestors represented in books. It thereby empowers them with a strong sense of self-
identity and pride in their culture” (p. 566). However, other researchers are wary of using
Latino folklore in classrooms, asserting that the wave of multicultural literature has
tended to rely too heavily on this type of story, creating the impression that Latino culture
only existed in the past. In their study, Nathenson-Mejía and Escamilla (2003) were
careful to seek out and select bilingual books that represented contemporary Latino
experiences and protagonists, rather than relying on folkloric stories. Medina and Enciso
(2002) also excluded Latino books that represented traditional folktales, children with
grandparents, or traditional foods and celebrations from their review. They feel that it is
more important for teachers to include books in their classrooms that “address the
experience of living fully, with difficulty and with joy, in relation to a larger community
and society that is neither homogeneous nor equitable” (p. 36). They argue that it is this
type of book that will help students develop positive Latino identities in a world that
pushes for linguistic and cultural assimilation.
Naidoo and Quiroa (2016) recognize the importance of reading books about
culturally important traditions and themes such as language use, citizenship, and
immigration, however, they also emphasize the need for stories about Latino characters
simply experiencing everyday life. “Students can make candy calaveras to celebrate Día
de los muertos [The Day of the Dead], but they also need opportunities to see Latinos
engaging in daily activities and facing common problems that bilingual youth encounter”
17
(p. 53). Terrones (2018) emphasizes the importance of using picture books in the
classroom that showcase “how Chicanx families do life” (p. 51), reflecting daily life in
families and neighborhoods.
There are three well-respected children’s literature awards that honor books that
positively represent and affirm Latino cultures and experiences (Naidoo, Battle, & Garza
de Cortés, 2011; Smith, Flores, & D. González, 2016). They are the Américas Award, the
Pura Belpré Award, and the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award.
The Américas Award was created in 1993 and recognizes authors and illustrators who
authentically portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. This
award is given annually by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
(CLASP) in the categories of winner, honorable mention, and commended titles that are
recommended for classroom use. The Pura Belpré Award is sponsored by the American
Library Association (ALA) and recognizes Latino writers and illustrators annually whose
work for children “best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience”
(ALA website, 2018). This award was established in 1996 and honors one winner and
several honor books in the categories of narrative (usually young adult titles) and
illustration (picture books) each year. The Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s
Book Award was developed in 1995 by the Texas State University College of Education
to honor authors and illustrators whose work for children and young adults specifically
portrays the Mexican American experience. It awards one or two books each year.
Children’s Literature in Spanish
Ada (2003) details the history of Spanish-language literature for children in the
United States, from the creation of a need for such materials based on the increase in
18
bilingual programs in the 1970s, to the “little boom” in publications of the 1990s that
came with the rise of “whole language” approaches emphasizing the use of children’s
literature in the classroom. Despite increased demand and the existence of several smaller
publishing houses that focus on Spanish-language titles, however, high quality Spanish-
language literature for children is still relatively scarce, especially when compared to the
proportion of students who are native Spanish speakers (Ada, 2003; Naidoo, 2011; Pucci,
1994). Even the books that are recipients of the three Latino children’s book awards
previously mentioned are not always available in Spanish language editions.
Most of the Spanish books in bilingual classrooms are translations of mainstream
texts published in the United States such as Clifford va a la escuela (Clifford Goes to
School; Bridwell, 2010) and Caperucita roja (Little Red Riding Hood) that are not
culturally conscious (Alamillo & Arenas, 2012; Barrera & Cortes, 1997). Literacy
scholars who study the experiences of bilingual Latino students in elementary schools
have noted that,
culturally relevant texts in both Spanish and English are still relatively invisible in literacy programs serving Latino students. It is folly to think that exclusion of such user-friendly content does not have affective and cognitive consequences for children in the short and long run! (Jiménez, Moll, Rodríguez-Brown, & Barrera, 1999, p. 225)
Alamillo and Arenas (2012) found that the bilingual classroom teachers in their
study relied on the Spanish texts from their scripted reading programs, which used
standard Castilian Spanish and were not written by authors of Mexican descent; these
texts did not reflect the Mexican American students’ home language or culture.
Books as Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors (Bishop, 1990)
19
The metaphor of texts as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors has been taken
up by researchers repeatedly in the field of multicultural children’s literature research.
Books that authentically reflect a student’s language and culture have been called
“mirror” books, while those that give the reader a view of another culture are “windows”
(Bishop, 1990). Some window texts can become mirrors, much as we begin to see our
own reflection in a darkening window (Bishop, 1990). In addition, some texts can
function like sliding glass doors, where a reader steps through a window text and into the
story world (Bishop, 1990). Recently, Johnson, Koss, and Martinez (2018) called for
teachers to empower their students to step through sliding glass doors into other worlds as
a way to inspire them towards social action. However, it is easy to see how students
might become disillusioned with continual reading of window texts and disengage; or, to
continue the metaphor, draw the curtains.
Smith, Flores, and D. González (2016) argue that Latino children can connect
with culturally rich texts “in a way not possible through Eurocentric texts” (p. 27). When
students can see themselves represented in texts, they are able to draw on their cultural
knowledge and experience to engage with the texts and make meaning (Athanases, 1998;
Broughton, 2002; Galda, 1998; Thein, 2009). This idea was explored by Athanases
(1998), who found that the students in his study reported connecting more strongly with
books in which they could identify culturally with the characters or situations portrayed.
Lohfink and Loya (2010) also found that the textual elements that bilingual Latino third
grade students chose to connect with in their responses were relevant to the children’s
lived cultural experiences. They concluded that because the children saw their culture
reflected in the stories, they were able to make better sense of the books. McGinley &
20
Kamberelis (1996) found that reading and writing about culturally relevant texts allowed
the African American students in their study to envision new roles for themselves, helped
them negotiate relationships with their families and peers, and enabled them to digest
social issues. The children used reading and writing about culturally relevant themes to
express and affirm their cultural identities.
Students have the ability to draw on their cultural resources to help them make
sense of texts that are unfamiliar. Rosenblatt (1994) says that in order to evoke a poem, or
a meaningful transaction with a text, “the reader draws on his own internalized culture in
order to elicit from the text this world which may differ from his own in many respects”
(p. 56). Broughton (2002) found evidence of her students virtually experiencing the
events of the novel by putting themselves into the characters’ shoes. They were able to do
this by “filling gaps” with their own cultural knowledge and events from their own lives.
Drawing on their prior knowledge enabled them to broaden their own experiences by
virtually living in the story world.
When readers approach texts with certain cultural expectations or ideas, they may
also resist texts that do not conform to their cultural models (Beach, 1995; Rice, 2005;
Thein, Beach & Parks, 2007). Thein (2009) found that an adolescent case study student
used her cultural models from her life outside of school to make sense of her assigned
reading. She was better able to connect with texts that portrayed characters acting in ways
that adhered to her own lived experiences, but resisted engaging with texts in which the
characters’ actions did not coincide with her expectations. Similarly, Möller and Allen
(2000) found that the students in their study critiqued the actions of the characters as a
way to express resistance to the text. These students did not wish to engage with the text
21
when they felt that the characters behaved in ways with which they did not want to
identify. Sutherland (2005) found that the adolescent girls in her study constantly had to
negotiate negative cultural identities imposed on them about what it means to be an
African American woman when reading. These young women wrestled with prevalent
negative stereotypes as they struggled to identify with characters.
Distancing oneself from a text is what Soter (1997) calls “aesthetic restriction.”
Soter found that students may “shut down” when reading something that is so completely
foreign that they can find no entry point for engagement. Aesthetic restriction was shown
in Rice’s (2005) study by the derogatory comments the students made about the
characters, such as “Man, these people are weird” (p. 354). This distancing made it
impossible for the students to engage with the realistic fiction as such. They were unable
to enjoy the stories and became confused and off-task. It also resulted in frequent
misinterpretations of the story, even though the children were accomplished readers.
When Latino students are always asked to engage with texts that are culturally
unfamiliar, it is easy to see how they might find themselves in an almost permanent state
of aesthetic restriction in which it is nearly impossible to make meaning.
Engaging Bilingual Students in Discussions of Latino Children’s Literature
A large part of helping Mexican American students to develop a literate identity is
using high quality native language children’s literature, as opposed to the “highly
prescribed, watered-down curriculum programs” that children are often subjected to in
bilingual programs (Flores-Dueñas, 2005, p. 238). Martínez-Roldán and López-
Robertson have been at the forefront of the study of what happens when primary-grade
Spanish speakers engage in discussions of bilingual multicultural children’s literature.
22
These researchers conducted a series of studies revolving around the implementation of
dialogic bilingual literature circles in López-Robertson’s first and second grade bilingual
classrooms. The impetus for the first study, Martínez-Roldán and López-Robertson
(1999), came from a survey conducted by the first author in which many bilingual
elementary school teachers reported that their students were “too young” to have critical
discussions about literature and that they needed to learn to decode first. The survey
results left the general impression of very low expectations for bilingual students,
especially when it came to reading literature. The researchers initiated bilingual literature
circles with the students in López-Robertson’s first grade classroom with the expectation
that students would engage in critical discussions and in-depth dialogue about the books.
They purposefully selected books in which they hoped the children could see themselves.
The students’ discussions included complex issues such as illegal immigration,
deportation, and racial difference. They also paid close attention to the illustrations as
well as the text, using the pictures to validate their opinions or to prompt a new topic of
discussion. The students connected strongly with the texts, telling personal stories to
explain themselves and make meaning collectively.
Another study from this project grew from the fact that, at that time, Martínez-
Roldán could find no existing studies focusing on literature discussions and response to
literature in bilingual contexts, and these studies continue to be scarce. For example,
Lohfink and Loya (2010) conducted a study that is similar to mine in certain ways. The
researchers read culturally relevant Mexican American themed picture books to bilingual
third graders, led whole-class discussions, and asked the students to respond to writing
prompts that elicited personal connections. However, in this study, the bilingual books
23
were read aloud in English and English was the primary language of instruction and
discussion in the classroom, although students could ask for clarification of words or
concepts in Spanish if they wished. Martínez-Roldán (2003) emphasizes the importance
of access to the native language as a means of learning and the development of a positive
bilingual identity. She asserts that Latino students are often held back from receiving
meaningful instruction until they attain proficiency in English and that this type of
limiting instruction,
rarely considers different ways of knowing and making meaning, such as the use of oral narratives, or the use of quality children’s literature as important aspects of classroom instruction, which may have implications for Latino/a students’ access to learning and participation in schools. (Martínez-Roldán, 2003, p. 492) In her 2003 study, Martínez-Roldán focuses on how one bilingual second-grade
student used oral personal narratives during literature discussions to take on various
identities and engage in a meaning-making process that allowed her to position herself as
both a skilled student and a recent immigrant who was still deeply tied to her country of
origin. These oral personal narratives represented an important meaning-making tool for
this student, yet she only engaged in this practice when participating in a group with other
Spanish-dominant students. Although only seven years old, the bilingual literature
discussions in this study were also a forum in which the students discussed issues of
racial and linguistic discrimination such as what it means to “stand up for your rights.”
Later, López-Robertson (2012) conducted another study in which she explored four
bilingual second-grade girls’ personal stories during bilingual literature discussions. She
emphasizes the importance of storytelling as a way for bilingual students to make sense
of classroom texts while also making sense of their own lives and experiences.
24
Goldstein (1995) also used Spanish-language Latino literature to implement a
critical pedagogy framework with Spanish-speaking first and second graders placed in a
special class for students with learning disabilities. She read the books aloud to the
students and encouraged them to respond orally, and then in writing. Goldstein felt that
the books she chose were what prompted the students to open up and share their stories,
and helped them to engage fully in the classroom. The students responded to one page of
Family Pictures/ Cuadros de familia (Lomas Garza, 1990) by eagerly sharing stories of
picking and cooking nopales; these stories ultimately resulted in a class book of recipes.
Another page of the story, depicting a sick woman in bed and the curandera (healing
woman), elicited a more powerful conversation about why so few of the students and
their families had ever been to see an “American” doctor. Other texts opened the door to
discussions of immigration, racism and name-calling, how children can contribute to their
families’ welfare, and community projects. These conversations were sometimes
difficult, as students came to understand that their communities would not always care for
them, and that the school curriculum would not always provide them with answers to
difficult problems. However, taking a critical literacy approach and learning to “read the
world” as well as the word (Freire & Macedo, 1987) empowered these students to bring
their lived experiences into the classroom. Spanish-language Latino children’s literature
was, for this group of marginalized students, the gateway to more meaningful literacy
learning.
In a more recent study, Quiroa (2011) implemented dialogic Spanish-language
read alouds of books with Mexican-American themes with a group of six Mexican-
American first graders. Her findings emphasize the importance of seeing oneself
25
represented in stories and the enjoyment and connection this experience can bring. The
book Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-
Brock, 2002) prompted the students to make spontaneous personal connections to their
daily lives and elicited delight in seeing familiar scenes and characters portrayed.
Students also demonstrated performative responses (Sipe, 2008) in which they inserted
themselves into the story and acted things out physically and wrote responses that drew
on personal experiences and elements from the text’s illustrations. Quiroa discusses the
importance of not only using books that represent important social issues, but also those
that elicit a sense of connection and familiarity, joy and laughter.
Working with older elementary students who were recent immigrants to the
United States from Mexico and El Salvador, Medina (2010) investigated how the
students collectively and discursively produced their identities across multiple spaces in
their responses to bilingual literature about border crossing, and how they identified with
these texts. The literature discussions evolved into storytelling sessions in which the
students shared stories in a dynamic, collective, and creative manner, responding to each
other and making intertextual connections. However, students could not find a place for
their stories within their English-dominant classroom. They felt that their stories would
be neither welcomed nor understood, and that the concept of “English” represented not
only the language of instruction and interaction in the classroom, but also the tone and
content of ideas and curriculum there. When exposed to stories that did not subscribe to
an “English” linguistic or cultural point of view, the students were free to not only
connect with the literature, but also to incorporate their own lived experiences into a
literacy event. Medina (2010) concludes with a call for a “reading across communities”
26
pedagogy in which acceptable responses to literature are not constrained and it is
recognized that “students’ identities, histories, and imaginations are at the core of how
they understand literary events” (p. 58).
Most recently, Osorio (2018) implemented literature discussion groups which she
called “culture circles” in place of the regular basal reading program in an effort to
implement a more humanizing pedagogy (Freire, 1970) in her bilingual second grade
classrooom. In small groups, students read and discussed a set of culturally relevant
books with generative Mexican American themes, including familism and bilingualism.
Osorio found that students began to connect personally with their reading in a way that
enabled them to move beyond reading the word to reading the world (Freire, 1970). In
this study, the dialogic discussions and the texts themselves played key roles in the
implementation of humanizing pedagogy that allowed students to connect with
characters, share personal stories, explore and problematize sociopolitical issues
important to their community, and read critically to challenge cultural stereotypes.
Multicultural Literature for White Students
Nieto (2004) emphasizes that multicultural education is for all students, not only
those of color or those from underrepresented groups. Incorporating the literature of
minoritized groups into the curriculum has long been considered an important aspect of
the multicultural education movement, whose aims include “promoting appreciation and
respect for diversity, giving rise to critical inquiry, and ultimately developing a
commitment to the democratic ideals of equity and social justice” (Bishop, 2007, p. xiv).
Reading a multicultural book can be like looking through a darkening window. At
first, you look through the window to another world, but gradually, as the light changes,
27
you begin to see yourself (Bishop, 1990; Galda & Cullinan, 2002). Despite the many
claims that White students can develop empathy and an appreciation for diversity through
exposure to characters who come from different cultures, however, there is still a need for
more evidence as to whether and how this actually happens (Louie, 2005). It can be
unproductive for White students to believe that they can relate and apply any experience
they encounter in a book to their own life in order to understand it (Lewis, 2000). To
illustrate this, Thein, Beach, and Parks (2007) give the example of a White student
believing that he can fully understand a character’s experience of surviving slavery
because he experienced playground bullying.
In addition, White students may resist engaging with multicultural literature when
it pushes them to acknowledge other perspectives, especially regarding racist histories
and minority groups’ experiences of oppression (Thein, Beach, & Parks, 2007). Dressel
(2003) found that exposing eighth graders to multicultural literature did not prompt them
to question their cultural values or to see issues from the perspectives of the culturally
diverse characters. Louie (2005) found that some White high school students in her study
showed evidence of empathy along several dimensions after reading a Chinese-themed
novel while other students did not. The context in which a multicultural book is read,
including how the book is introduced, what sort of background information the students
have about the culture they are reading about, and what kinds of discussions and
reflection the students engage in can all affect the level of connection students feel with
the characters, as well as their willingness to question their own values and beliefs.
Most of the studies that have been conducted in this area have not taken place in
the primary or lower elementary grades. However, Quintero (2004) asserts that using
28
multicultural literature in the early elementary or preschool classroom combined with a
“problem posing” curriculum facilitates the early development of critical literacy skills
(Quintero, 2004). It may be that students are more open to understanding other
perspectives and beliefs at a young age, pointing to the value of exposing children to
multicultural literature at a young age.
Reading and Cultural Identities
McCarthey and Moje (2002) describe a reader’s identity as multiple, and as
occurring within particular spaces and situations. Using language, we constantly build
and enact our identities in the “here and now,” and those identities shift according to what
roles we take on and how we position ourselves in relation to others (Gee, 1999, p. 18).
Students can construct and explore their identities in relation to story worlds when
reading, and they can construct and explore them in social situations when they discuss
those texts with their peers (Broughton, 2002). Enciso (1994) found that fifth grade
students were constantly performing and enacting their cultural identities in relation to
each other and to the characters in the book during their discussions of a text with racial
content. In addition, McCarthey (1998) found that readers positioned themselves in
different ways in different literacy situations, thereby showing that identities are shifting
and context-based. However, she found that certain identities that are more familiar may
be taken on more often and therefore seem to be stable or non-fluctuating.
Mexican American children often form identities that locate them in a space
known as borderlands, and this ideology also informs the writing of Latino authors and
illustrators (Alamillo & Arenas, 2012; Medina & Martínez-Roldán, 2011). The concept
of Borderlands was developed by Anzaldúa (1987) in a work that is considered
29
foundational in Latina feminist studies; it represents both a place and a feeling of being
neither completely from here nor there. The borderlands are the place between two
places, whether geographic, psychological, linguistic, or cultural. The idea is similar to
that of Nepantla (Mora, 1993), which is a Nuahatl word meaning an “in-between space.”
For Latino students, literature can provide a space to explore the ways in which their
identities are multiple and hybrid, and a chance to see bicultural identities represented in
a positive light (Alamillo & Arenas, 2012; Campoy & Ada, 2011). Alamillo and Arenas
(2012) assert that dual identities for Chicano children are not usually validated in schools,
but that authentic Chicano children’s literature can “provide that pathway by which
Chicano children will be able to search and authenticate their own identity” (p. 61).
According to Fránquiz, Martínez-Roldán, and Mercado (2011), using such literature in
the classroom can also help Latino students (and teachers) develop literary identities of
belonging.
Ferdman (1990) defines cultural identity as “an image of the behaviors, beliefs,
values, and norms… appropriate to members of the ethnic group(s) to which we belong”
(p. 182). However, not all members of a certain ethnic group construct their cultural
identities in similar ways and culturally similar students can have very different responses
to literature. Brooks (2006) found many different ways of responding to culturally
familiar texts among her ethnically similar participants. While one student felt that the
texts made him proud of his cultural heritage, another was repulsed by the victimization
portrayed. In addition, Quiroa (2004) found that culturally similar Mexican American
students in her study responded differently to the culturally relevant books she read,
based on their personal backgrounds and experiences.
30
Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in sociocultural theory wherein literacy learning is socially
and culturally mediated and students can author themselves by constructing cultural and
literate identities (Enciso & Ryan, 2011; Vygotsky, 1978). For young children, this type
of learning occurs especially through oral interactions with peers and teachers (Sipe,
2008; Vygotsky, 1978). However, these constructions of literacy and identity are
influenced by pervading ideologies of unequal power and life opportunities (Luke, 1991)
and larger politics of oppression (Freire & Macedo, 1987). Lewis, Enciso, and Moje
(2007) argue for a reframing of sociocultural literacy research to “better address the
issues of power, identity, and agency” (p. 2). According to Gutierrez and Larson (1994),
sociocultural critical pedagogy studies must examine larger hegemonic structures in
schools, but also how these processes influence everyday interactions and activities
among individuals in classrooms.
Rosenblatt's (1978/1994) transactional theory of reading also informs this study.
Rosenblatt aimed to redirect attention towards the important role of the reader in his
transaction with text. In order to have a meaningful transaction with text, or what
Rosenblatt refers to as “evoking a poem,” she tells us that the reader brings to the text her
personality and all of her past experiences. She brings her creativity, her interests and
preoccupations, and her sense of self as it exists at that particular place and time. It is
implied that this includes the readers’ identity as a cultural being, though Rosenblatt does
not delve into the role of culture or ethnicity in great depth. She does say that, “the reader
always approaches the text with a set of culturally acquired assumptions, values and
ideas” (Rosenblatt, 1994, p. 171). The texts in turn also influence and shape the reader’s
31
sense of self and her imagined possibilities, offering both guidance and control as readers
participate in literary events and work to make meaning (Rosenblatt, 1994). Rosenblatt
offers the analogy of the text as a mesh bag, capable of changing shape to accommodate
different interpretations but nevertheless providing a boundary or outline of possible
realms of response. Within a reading event, readers can adopt participatory or spectator
attitudes, either identifying with characters or stepping back to observe, or switching back
and forth between the two (Rosenblatt, 1994). Readers can more easily take on a
participatory attitude and identify with characters when they fit “our preconceptions, our
needs, our own conscious or unconscious potentialities” (Rosenblatt, 1994, p. 67).
According to Sipe (2008), “We have a great deal to learn about how culture, race,
ethnicity, and socioeconomic status both enable and constrain response to literature, and
thus shape literary understanding” (p. 241). Brooks and Browne (2012) argue that a
culturally-situated theory of reader response is needed in order to “examine the ways
literary interpretations are influenced by readers’ ethnic backgrounds as well as the
cultural milieu embedded in the stories they read” (p. 76). These researchers assert that
readers assume certain culturally-grounded positions when reading and responding to
culturally relevant texts, and that the cultural content of the texts themselves affects
which positions readers assume.
The Present Study
While a small number of studies have examined the benefits of engaging bilingual
Latino students with culturally relevant literature in the early elementary grades, no
studies have compared how the same students experience the mainstream texts that they
read every day. In so doing, I wanted to help develop a deeper understanding of how the
32
cultural content of texts contributes to or constrains the construction of positive cultural
and academic identities for minoritized students. In addition, I could not find any studies
that explored students’ responses to culturally rich literature in a dual immersion setting,
which provides the opportunity to explore and compare how students from different
cultural and linguistic backgrounds respond to the texts.
Purpose and Research Questions
The purpose of this study was to understand more fully the ways in which English
Home Language (EHL) students and Spanish Home Language (SHL) students engage
with culturally rich (CR) and mainstream children’s picture books in a dual-language
first-grade classroom in California. It is my hope that insights gained from this study
have the potential to counteract the subtractive tendency of American schooling for
Mexican American children (Valenzuela, 1999). My guiding research questions are as
follows:
1. In what ways are culturally rich Mexican American children’s books
qualitatively the same and different from mainstream texts commonly
read aloud in dual language classrooms?
2. How does the cultural content of a text affect students’ reading
responses, if at all?
In order to answer these two questions, I designed a two-part study, with Part 1
focusing on textual content analysis and Part 2 investigating student responses to the texts
in oral and written form. In the next chapter I describe these two parts in detail.
33
Chapter 3: Methodology
Part 1: Textual Content Analysis
Content analysis “is a conceptual approach to understanding what a text is about”
(Beach et al., 2009, p. 130). In literacy research, content analysis can be used to lead a
researcher to understand the meaning behind a text as well as patterns located within a
text or a group of texts (Hoffman, Wilson, Martínez, & Sailors, 2009). In this part of the
study, I used content analysis to highlight the ways in which a set of award winning,
culturally rich children’s books differs from a similar set of mainstream texts along
certain dimensions.
Researcher Background
Literary content analysis is necessarily subjective in that my own background
experiences color my view of the world and therefore my perceptions of these texts.
Hoffman et al. (2009) remind us that “texts have no qualities without a reader” (p. 40).
As such, and especially as a cultural outsider, I think some description of my background
characteristics and potential biases is called for.
Professional. I currently work part-time as a lecturer at a state university where I
teach courses in literacy foundations and literacy methods for diverse populations. I am a
former teacher and literacy coach in bilingual classrooms in California and Minnesota
where nearly all the students were either Mexican American or White. It was through
these experiences that I gained empathy for the bilingual learners in my classrooms,
especially those who struggled in reading. I became aware of how some students had, by
third grade, already developed a resistance to school. These students, however, could be
34
moved by stories they heard read aloud. At the same time, I slowly began to feel that
perhaps the stories that I loved were not exactly what they needed.
Cultural. I am a middle-class White female with Scottish, English, and Russian
Jewish ancestors who immigrated to this country many generations ago. I am married to a
man and we have two young children. Because of these traits, I am considered a member
of the mainstream culture in this country. I am conscious of the many privileges I have
been afforded both because of my whiteness and my socioeconomic status.
I cannot consider myself part of the Mexican American community. While I have
visited Mexico as a tourist (visiting a friend who was teaching at the American School
there), I have never lived there, nor do I have close friends or family members who are
Mexican American. My experience with the Mexican American community has always
been as an elementary school teacher of Mexican American children in the United States.
Linguistic. I grew up speaking only English and began learning Spanish as a
second language in high school. Because of an inspiring teacher who pointed out the
benefits of bilingualism, I went on to major in Spanish Literature in college and studied
abroad for one year in Spain. After college, I earned a bilingual cross-cultural language in
academic development (BCLAD) teaching credential and Master’s degree from the
University of California and went on to teach in bilingual classrooms (both transitional
bilingual and dual-immersion program models). I subsequently lived and worked for two
years in rural Paraguay as a Peace Corps Volunteer where I was immersed in a mix of
Spanish and Guaraní but spoke almost entirely Spanish. As a graduate student, I worked
to develop and revise early literacy assessments in Spanish. I consider my Spanish
language abilities to be strong, but I also have language weaknesses; these include a non-
35
native accent, slower-than-native speed, and a lack of familiarity with some Mexican
colloquialisms.
According to Neuendorf (2002), quality content analysis research must make
explicit the variables to be focused on for analysis, the sampling procedure for text
selection, the methods used to identify a coding scheme, and a second coder to increase
reliability. I will now address each of these issues.
Variables for Analysis
I selected the variables for analysis in this study in order to better understand the
cultural content embedded in the texts read to young children, with the understanding that
this content has important consequences for students. With the goal of answering RQ 1, I
analyzed a group of culturally rich award winning Mexican American children’s books
and a similar number of Spanish-language mainstream texts commonly found in dual-
language classrooms with attention to their cultural content in the form of cultural
markers, themes, and values. In an effort to better understand the possible constraints of
the selected texts, in other words, their “mesh bags,” (Rosenblatt, 1994) I operationalized
RQ 1 (In what ways are culturally rich Mexican American children’s books qualitatively
the same and different from mainstream texts commonly read aloud in dual language
classrooms?) in the following way:
A. How do the main characters compare across the two text sets (one culturally
rich and one mainstream) with respect to age, gender, ethnicity, family
structure, location, and socioeconomic status (SES)?
36
B. Which Mexican American cultural markers, cultural themes, and cultural
values identified in the research literature are represented in the culturally rich
books, and to what degree?
C. Are these same elements present in the mainstream books, and if so, to what
degree?
Text Selection
In this section I describe the criteria by which I selected the books to analyze
within each text set (culturally rich and mainstream).
Culturally rich (CR) text set. Researchers recommend that teachers who feel
hesitant about judging cultural authenticity should turn to culturally specific children’s
book awards as reliable resources for finding CR books for their classrooms (Galda et al.,
2014; Landt, 2006). I began my search for CR books by compiling a list commended by
the award committees of the three most prestigious awards for Latino children’s literature
published in the United States: the Américas Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and the
Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. Because of my focus on
lower elementary grades, I chose to only include picture books in my analysis, though
each award also honors young adult titles. I compiled a database of all award winning,
honor, or commended picture books for all three awards, published between 1996 and
2016. This preliminary list contained approximately 240 books. I then narrowed down the
list to include only books that fit with the following three selection criteria.
First, the texts had to be available for purchase in bilingual or Spanish-language
editions. My study focuses on students in bilingual learning environments where
emphasis is placed on native language literacy for Spanish speakers. The school where
37
the study took place adheres to a 90/10 dual language immersion model in which core
literacy instruction in first grade occurs solely in Spanish, so I needed to find books
available in Spanish-language editions. Disappointingly, about half of the 240 books
were only available in English.
The second selection criterion related to genre. I chose to focus on realistic fiction
books featuring child protagonists because this is the genre that most easily allows
children to identify with characters and the stories may closely mimic students’ lived
experiences (Galda et al., 2014). Galda et al. (2014) define the realistic fiction genre as
“plausible stories (are) about people and events that could actually happen” (p. 221). Ada
(2003) states that family fiction stories are the most needed for Latino children and also
the least available. This scarcity was confirmed in my text selection process because only
about 50 books fit the realistic fiction genre. Historical fiction/biography, folktale, and
poetry were the other most common genres represented.
The third selection criterion was that the protagonist of the texts be Mexican
American. This was to ensure that the books contained significant Mexican-American
cultural content so that the students in this study would be more likely to identify with the
characters in the stories. This also ensured cultural specificity. Historically, some
children’s books have tended to lump many distinct Latino cultures together, making for
stories and characters that feel inauthentic to cultural insiders (Barrera & Cortes, 1997). I
did not require that the authors and illustrators of the texts identify themselves as
Mexican American to be included in my analysis, although the Pura Belpré award is only
given to Latino/a authors and illustrators and the majority of the award recipients do have
38
Mexican cultural roots, according to their professional bios online and on the book
jackets.
A total of 18 award-winning Mexican-American CR books fit all three selection
criteria. That is, out of 240 award winning, honor, or commended Latino picture books,
only 18 (seven percent) were realistic fiction books featuring a Mexican-American
protagonist available in Spanish-language or bilingual editions. Of those, only five of the
books actually won an award or honor; the rest were commended titles recommended for
classroom use by the Américas Award. Table 1 shows the 18 books in the CR text set.
Mainstream text set. In order to answer RQ1, I also needed to select a
comparable number of mainstream texts for analysis. I wanted the mainstream text set to
represent the texts bilingual children would typically encounter during classroom read-
aloud sessions in the early elementary grades. In order to determine popular classroom
read-aloud texts, I combed through books lists such as the Caldecott Award winners and
honor books, National Book Awards, School Library Journal’s (SLJ) Top 100 Picture
Books (2012), Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice Book Awards, Horn Book
Award Winners, Reading Rainbow booklist, National Education Association (NEA,
2007) Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children, Scholastic Teacher’s Top 25 Picture Books
(nd; the most recent book listed was published in 2015), and Amazon book
recommendations, checking for texts available in Spanish language editions. I also
looked through my own Spanish picture book collection as a former teacher and literacy
coach in bilingual classrooms.
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Table 1. Culturally Rich (CR) Text Set
Book Title (Author & Illustrator, Year of Publication) Latino Children's Book Award(s) Received
Abuelita Full of Life/ Abuelita llena de vida (Costales & Avilés, 2007) Américas Award Commended
The Birthday Swap (¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997) Américas Award Commended
Braids/ Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009) Américas Award Commended
Carlos and the Skunk/ Carlos y el zorrillo (Stevens & Arnold, 1997) Américas Award Commended
Chave’s Memories/ Los recuerdos de Chave (Delgado & Symank, 1996) Américas Award Commended
The Christmas Gift/ El regalo de Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000) Américas Award Commended
Finding the Music/ En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcao, 2015) Américas Award Commended
First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; Perez & Casilla, 2002) Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book
From North to South/ Del norte al sur (Colato-Laínez & Cepeda, 2010) Américas Award Commended
Grandma and Me at the Flea/ Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) Américas Award Commended
Hip, Hip, Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day!/ ¡Ajúa, ya llegó el chubasco! (Rivera-Ashford & Johnsen, 2007) Américas Award Commended
I love Saturdays y domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002) Américas Award Commended
Icy Watermelon/ Sandía fría (Galindo & Howard, 2001) Américas Award Commended
Lucha libre: The Man in the Silver Mask (Garza, 2005) Américas Award Commended
My Diary From Here to There/ Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002) Américas Award Commended, Pura Belpré Author
Honor Book
My Tata’s Remedies/ Los remedios de mi Tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015) Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book, Américas Award
My Very Own Room/ Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) Américas Award Honorable Mention, Tomás Rivera
Mexican American Children's Book Award Winner
Nana’s Big Surprise/ Nana, ¡qué sorpresa! (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2007) Américas Award Commended
40
While I had originally planned to select only award-winning mainstream texts, in
the end I decided that it was more authentic to compare the CR books with those the
children in my study would actually encounter in their classroom. To that end, I asked the
classroom teacher for a list of books that she frequently reads aloud to her class. She
directed me to her “read aloud” bookshelf, and from there I gathered a list of Spanish-
language fiction texts. There were 25 books on the shelf, two of which were nonfiction
and two that were not available in Spanish editions. There were also two books on the
shelf that have been commended by a Latino book award, (although none that were
realistic fiction or featured a Mexican American protagonist). Three others related to a
program on healthy living. I decided to include books featuring animals as the characters
as these are representative of the texts typically read in the lower grades. In fact,
according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, about half the picture books
published in 2015 depicted non-human characters. This left 16 Spanish-language
mainstream fiction read aloud texts to be used for analysis. They included four Caldecott
Medal and Honor books, five ALA Notable Books, seven NEA Teachers’ Top 100 Books
for Children, two Scholastic Teacher’s Top 25 Picture Books, and seven that were
included in the SLJ’s Top 100 Picture Books list. The books in the mainstream text set
are listed in Table 2.
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Table 2. Mainstream Text Set
Title of English Edition (Date of Publication) / Title of Spanish Edition (Date of Publication) Author & Illustrator Awards and Lists
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972) / Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso (1989)
Judith Viorst & Ray Cruz ALA Notable; NEA Top 100; SLJ Top 100
A Chair for My Mother (1982) / Un sillón para mi mamá (1994) Vera B. Williams ALA Notable; Caldecott Honor Chrysanthemum (1991) / Crisantemo (1993) Kevin Henkes ALA Notable; NEA Top 100; SLJ Top 100 Clark the Shark (2013) / Simón el tiburón (2014) Bruce Hale & Guy Francis The Cow That Went OINK (1990) / La vaca que decía OINK (1994) Bernard Most Duck on a Bike (2002) / Pato va en bici (2002) David Shannon ALA Notable; SLJ Top 100 First Day Jitters (2000) / ¡Qué nervios! El primer día de escuela (2006) Julie Danneberg & Judy Love Frog and Toad are Friends (1970) / Sapo y sepo son amigos (2001) Arnold Lobel ALA Notable; Caldecott Honor; NEA Top 100;
SLJ Top 100 The Giving Tree (1964) / El árbol generoso (1988) Shel Silverstein NEA Top 100; Scholastic Top 25; SLJ Top 100 How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? (2007) / ¿Cómo van a la escuela los
dinosaurios? (2007) Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
Kiss Good Night (2001) / ¡Un beso de buenas noches! (2001) Amy Hest & Anita Jeram The Kissing Hand (1993) / Un beso en mi mano (2002) Audrey Penn & Ruth E. Harper NEA Top 100; SLJ Top 100 The Little Red Hen (1985) / La gallinita roja (1987) Lucinda McQueen Miss Rumphius (1982) / La señorita Runfio (1996) Barbara Cooney National Book Award; NEA Top 100; SLJ Top
100 Swimmy (1963) / Nadarín (1969) Leo Lionni Caldecott Honor; NEA Top 100 Syvester and the Magic Pebble (1969) / Silvestre y la piedrecita mágica
(1990) William Steig Caldecott Medal; Scholastic Top 25; SLJ Top
100
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Data Analysis
Based on the research questions, I created a protocol for analysis with the goal of
describing each group of texts in more detail (see Appendix A for categories included in
the Text Analysis Protocol). The protocol was designed with attention to the following
variables of interest: characteristics of the main character, cultural markers, cultural
themes, and cultural values.
I began with analysis of the CR text set; however, I used the same protocol to
analyze the books in the mainstream text set (RQ1C). Boutte et al. (2008) looked for
evidence of aspects of African American culture in district required reading lists and
found that the books mostly lacked any connection to students’ cultural values. In relation
to my study, the presence of Mexican American cultural themes and values such as
intergenerationalism and community strength in the mainstream texts could represent a
possible way for students to connect with texts that may not appear to be culturally
relevant at first glance, whereas a lack of these themes and values could present what
Boutte and colleagues (2008) termed “invasive literature” (p. 955).
Preliminary reading. I first conducted a preliminary reading of each book where
I read the books closely in English and Spanish. At this point I wrote a short summary of
each text, referring to the text often, and took notes about my general impressions of the
book. These notes were written from my personal perspective as a teacher considering
texts to read in a bilingual classroom; they tended towards noting anything that could be
potentially problematic. For example, I often pointed out differences between the Spanish
and English versions of the texts. I also noted the publishing and language information
for each book, including when the English and Spanish editions were printed. After the
43
initial readings, I returned to the texts to look for characteristics of the main character,
cultural markers, cultural themes, and cultural values.
Characteristics of the main character. Section 1 of the protocol was devoted to
characteristics of the main character. For each book, I noted the main character’s
ethnicity, immigrant status/generation, skin tone and hair color, gender, family structure,
location, and SES (RQ1A). These are important because they affect the likelihood that
children will identify with a character or “see themselves” in the story.
While not a characteristic of the main character per se, in this section I also noted
each text’s narrative style or point of view. When a text is narrated from the point of view
of the main character, it becomes easier for the reader to see the world through his or her
eyes (Stephens, 1992). In addition, stories that are autobiographical or semi-
autobiographical, “telling one’s personal story,” hold an especially important place in
Latino children’s literature (Ada, 2003, p. 47). I noted whether the books were written as
first, second, or third person narratives and whether there was any indication that the text
was autobiographical.
Cultural markers. Cultural markers are salient cultural details that are of
significance to the reader who is a cultural insider and surface repeatedly in a culture’s
literature base (Sims, 1982). These markers are important because they serve to create a
cultural world for the reader. I looked for cultural markers in the text or illustrations in
seven categories: traditional Mexican food, traditional Mexican clothing, Mexican décor,
terms of address, Mexican music/entertainment, traditional medicine, and Mexican
cultural celebrations. While it is important to note that there can be a tendency to rely on
a “cultural parade” of cultural markers to the exclusion of a realistic portrayal of
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authentic characters in Latino children’s literature (Barrera & Cortes, 1997), Ada (2003)
and others note the importance of “celebrating and transmitting the richness of the
culture” as a function of said literature (p. 53). Because the texts selected for analysis had
passed rigorous inspection by the award committees, I trusted that the cultural markers in
these texts were placed there for the reason given by Ada and not simply to ‘add flavor.’ I
rated each text as either having or not having each cultural marker from the protocol
(RQ1B).
Cultural themes. I also looked for evidence of eight cultural themes, as identified
in the research literature (RQ1B). Cultural themes represent broader topics of particular
importance to a cultural group. Salient cultural themes in Mexican American children’s
literature included in my protocol were drawn from the research literature and included:
immigration, poverty, intergenerationalism (grandparent/child relationships), Mexico as
home, community strength, migrant work, cultural pride, and language issues, (Ada,
2003; Botelho & Rudman, 2009; Campoy & Ada, 2011; T. González, 2009; Medina &
Enciso, 2002; Naidoo & Quiroa, 2016; Sánchez & Landa, 2016). These themes I rated on
a three-point scale as either not evident (0), somewhat evident (1), or a primary content
theme of the text (2). In addition, because of the literacy focus of this study, I noted the
role (if any) of education and literacy in the texts.
Cultural values. My protocol included the same three-point scale for two cultural
values. Cultural values are part of a culture’s “central code” (Mo & Shen, 2003, p. 203).
While not stagnant, cultural values make up a perspective or worldview that is acceptable
to a cultural group (Mo & Shen, 2003). Stephens (1992) asserts that children’s literature
is one way that children are socialized to accept certain cultural values, therefore it is
45
important to closely examine the cultural values embedded in the texts read to children
(RQ1B).
The two values included in the protocol were identified by Knight et al. (2010) as
key values linked to Mexican American and mainstream American cultures according to
multiple Mexican American focus groups across the country. First, I looked for evidence
of familism, which is a primary value in Mexican American culture (Caldera, Velez-
Gomez, & Lindsey, 2015; Knight et al., 2010). Familism includes using the family as a
source of emotional support, feeling obligation to family, and using the family as a
referent (Knight et al., 2010), as well as a source of joy (Riojas Cortez & Cataldo, 2016).
“Family connection, interdependence, and closeness are integral parts of the Mexican
American culture influencing individuals’ beliefs and actions through their importance”
(Caldera, Velez-Gomez, & Lindsey, 2015, p. 9).
Second, individualism was included in the protocol as a mainstream value (not
Mexican American). According to Caldera et al. (2015), “American value orientation is
generally characterized as individualistic, and Mexican Americans’ value orientation is
characterized as being collectivistic” (p. 9). Individualism includes the valuing of gaining
independence, prioritizing the achievement of personal success, and valuing competition
(Knight et al., 2010). Mexican American families generally prioritize the maintenance of
family relationships over children acquiring independence (Caldera et al., 2015).
After evaluating each text using the protocol, I then examined each set of books
(mainstream and CR) according to each dimension of the protocol. This allowed me to
describe each set of texts in depth and to look for similarities and differences between the
two types of books in each area.
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Second Coder
Content analysis can never be a completely objective process, despite my best
efforts to be descriptive. Because I bring my own background to all my reading
experiences (Rosenblatt, 1994), and especially because I am not a Mexican American
cultural insider, I sought to establish higher credibility through a member check (Patton,
2002). I sent an email out to a list of recent graduates from the bilingual teacher
credential program at the local university asking for volunteers to analyze two award-
winning bilingual children’s books that they could then keep for their classrooms. I hoped
to include results from three additional coders (six books) and I met with and gave books
to three volunteers; however, only one person actually completed the analysis.
The additional coder, Itzel (all names are pseudonyms), is a native Spanish
speaker who was born in Los Angeles, California to parents who immigrated from
Mexico as young adults. She was a first-year teacher in a bilingual fifth-grade classroom
in California at the time of the study. Itzel and I met to discuss the project and I gave her
the two books to analyze and keep for her classroom. She completed her analysis
independently and mailed her protocol sheets back to me; we then corresponded once
more via email regarding any areas where her responses differed from mine. See
Appendix B for the second coder’s text analysis protocol.
Itzel’s analysis of the books Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres &
Alarcão, 2015) and Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera
& De Lucio-Brock, 2002) corresponded exactly with mine except for a few points which
I will mention here. First, Itzel marked that immigration was evident as a secondary
theme in both books because the families are immigrant families. Similarly, she felt that
47
“Mexico as home” was evident as a secondary theme in both stories because the
characters are of Mexican descent. However, we agreed that neither of these themes were
evident as primary content themes in either text. While I had been looking for explicit
mention of immigration or border crossing, or character dialog about traveling to Mexico,
missing Mexico, or moving from Mexico as was evident in other texts in the CR text set,
Itzel’s response redirected my attention to the fact that CR texts can bring to the forefront
the themes of immigration and feeling that Mexico is home even without taking those
themes up as plot events in the storyline; this will be discussed in the Results section.
Additionally, Itzel felt that individualism in the form of gaining independence was valued
in both books because the child characters wandered through the neighborhood and the
flea market without adult supervision. However, she marked “no” for the two other
aspects of individualism as a value (valuing competition and personal achievement, and
valuing material success over other things). I interpreted this wandering as showing that
the main characters were cared for by the community members, but I can see how it
could also be considered a display of independence, and the EHL students in the study
commented on it as well. I have included this in the Results section and I also looked
back through the other CR texts for instances of children doing activities unsupervised by
adults that I may have missed in my initial analysis but I did not find any other examples
of this.
I greatly appreciated Itzel’s insider perspective on the texts she analyzed. On her
discussion protocol, she also noted several ways in which the two texts reminded her of
her own childhood and her family members. During our initial conversation, she
lamented the scarcity of CR texts in her own education. When I asked her to list some of
48
her favorite books as a child, she noted The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 1969) and
Corduroy (Freeman, 1968), but added, To be honest… I didn’t read much in the upper
grades. Itzel felt that the two CR books would be greatly enjoyed by her bilingual fifth-
grade students and she was excited to share the books in her classroom.
I was also excited to share the books with students. In the next section, I outline
the design and methodology for Part 2 of the study, which took place in a first-grade
dual-immersion classroom.
Part 2: Students Interacting with Texts
In order to answer RQ 2 (How does the cultural content of a text affect students’
reading responses, if at all?), I sought to understand how students in a first-grade dual-
language classroom responded to three mainstream and three CR books read aloud. All
students in the classroom responded to each book on paper through drawing and writing,
and eight focal students participated in small-group picture walks and oral discussions
that I facilitated. I operationalized RQ 2 in the following way:
a) Which aspects of the texts do students choose to write about and discuss?
b) What personal connections and connections to cultural content are evident in
the students’ responses? What evidence is there of distancing or resistance?
c) Do students prefer texts that are culturally relevant?
d) How do students construct their cultural or school identities during
discussions of the texts?
Site Selection and Entry
Cesar Chávez (C.C.) Elementary School (all names are pseudonyms) is the only
dual-language public school in the small school district in California where this study
49
took place. I approached the school via an email to the school principal and met with him
to discuss my dissertation project in the spring of 2016. At the time, the school was in its
first year of transitioning from a 50/50 immersion model to a 90/10 program model,
meaning that kindergarten was the only grade to have literacy instruction not segregated
by home language. I wanted both Spanish and English-speakers to participate in my
study, so the principal recommended that I work with a first-grade class the following
fall. He connected me with a teacher who he felt would be a good fit for the study; she
had been serving as the school’s literacy coach for the past two years but was returning to
the classroom in the fall and was seen as an instructional leader at the school.
I met with the teacher, Ms. Diaz, shortly thereafter to discuss the project and how
it might fit with her regular literacy instruction. She agreed to allow me to conduct the
study in her classroom. We met once more when school started in the fall of 2016 to
establish a schedule. She wanted to protect the students’ regular guided reading group
time and felt it would be best for me to come to the classroom on Friday mornings during
a time that she regularly had set aside for “catch up” in reader’s or writer’s workshop.
Permission slips were sent home with the students in English and Spanish that described
the project and all students returned their permission slips.
Description of Community, District, and School
The study took place in a mid-sized college town in California. According to the
Census Bureau estimates for 2015, the town’s population is approximately 46,000 with
85% identifying as White and about 13% Mexican origin (16% total Hispanic/Latino).
The town is surrounded by a large amount of agricultural production which necessitates
manual labor in the fields year-round, but workers in agriculture mostly live in
50
surrounding communities in the southern part of the county, rather than in town. Because
of its location between mountains and ocean, the town is a beautiful place to live but also
very difficult to afford; median home price is double that of the nation.
The school district serves 7,600 students and includes ten elementary schools,
seven of which are located in the town itself. Thirty-seven percent of students in the
district receive free or reduced-price meals and 13% are designated English Learners.
Approximately 60% of district students are White and 25% are Hispanic/Latino.
C.C. Elementary is housed in an old building located near the university campus
and a large public park, and not too far from downtown. It enrolls 550 students; 57%
identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino and 38% White. According to the school’s
accountability report card, 46% of the students at C.C. are economically disadvantaged
and 44% are classified as English Learners. Sixty percent of students in grades 3-6 met or
exceeded standards on the state test (CAASP) in English Language Arts in 2015-2016.
However, in grade three only 25% of Hispanic/Latino students met or exceeded ELA
standards while 94% of White students did so, and this trend continued throughout the
upper elementary grades.
The non-White majority population at C.C. is a rarity in a town where cultural
diversity is not plentiful, making the school a magnet for those who are interested in an
experience of cultural diversity for their children, as well as those invested in
bilingualism. Admission to C.C. Elementary is determined strictly through a lottery
process. The lottery is divided by home language, with the goal of admitting an equal
number of native Spanish and English speakers in kindergarten each year. Since the
school is the only option for dual language education in the district, and because of the
51
growing popularity of language immersion programs, every year there is a long waitlist
of English speakers who are not admitted. Many students (both English and Spanish
speakers) travel from neighboring communities to attend.
The school recently adopted Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study in reading as their core
literacy program (Heinemann, 2015), along with the rest of the school district. This
curriculum follows a reader’s and writer’s workshop format and relies on core mentor
texts and a model of learning as apprenticeship wherein students learn to view themselves
as readers and writers. C.C. school employs an instructional coach as well as a reading
intervention teacher, demonstrating that they prioritize literacy education.
Description of Classroom and Teacher’s Role
Ms. Diaz’s classroom is one of four first-grade classrooms at C.C. Elementary.
Though it was early in the year when my study was conducted, the walls were already
covered in student artwork and writing. Anchor charts were posted around the room,
reminding students how to be “super lectores” (super readers) as well as “super
ciudadanos” (super citizens). The students had personal book boxes containing books in
Spanish at their reading levels that they used during independent reading time, when they
would often read with a partner as well. Students had easy access to supplies for writing
and drawing and were free to make their own artistic creations after they finished their
work.
Ms. Diaz was supportive of the study but did not participate as a researcher. She
usually sat with the students and listened during the read aloud sessions and she
facilitated the writing and drawing sessions by keeping the students on-task while I met
with the discussion groups. She also collected the students’ writing as they finished and
52
asked them to tell her about what they had written. As they talked, she jotted notes for me
on sticky notes. Ms. Diaz discussed the focal students with me on one occasion when we
were alone in the classroom because of a different schedule, but usually she resumed
teaching when I finished my sessions, meaning that we did not have frequent
conversations.
The read-aloud portion of my study was conducted in the classroom meeting area,
where I sat in the teacher’s chair and the children sat in rows on the rug in front of me.
They moved to their desks for writing and drawing, which were arranged in clusters of
six or seven. I met with two small groups of four focal students at a kidney-shaped table
at the back of the room for the discussion groups.
Ms. Diaz remained true to the 90/10 language immersion model and consistently
used only Spanish with the students during my time in the classroom. I never asked the
students to use one language or the other, yet they were aware of the language
expectations in the classroom and usually remained in Spanish. The English-speaking
students were obviously proud of their Spanish language skills and Spanish was
privileged as the language of the classroom. During one of my classroom sessions, Ms.
Diaz was conducting assessments in another room and there was a substitute teacher who
only spoke English in the classroom. Even then, the English-speakers decided that they
wanted to speak Spanish at the discussion table. Throughout the study they helped each
other by providing words in Spanish and monitored each other’s language use, sometimes
severely (a student once told another that he was going to be “in trouble” for writing in
English).
Identification of Focal Students
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Ms. Diaz’s class contained 22 students, 11 boys and 11 girls. Thirteen students
were English dominant and nine were Spanish dominant, but only six Spanish-dominant
students were identified as English Learners by the school. Before beginning data
collection, I asked Ms. Diaz to identify eight focal students for the study. I requested four
students who were English dominant and White, and four who were Spanish dominant
and Mexican American. I also asked for students who would be likely to understand the
Spanish read aloud and who would be comfortable talking to me and to each other. I
wanted both male and female students. At that time, however, only 11 students had
returned their permission slips to participate in the study so Ms. Diaz simply chose eight
students from the 11 who fit my criteria as closely as possible.
Description of Focal Students
There were two boys and two girls in each group of four students. Six of the eight
focal students were six years old at the beginning of the study, one turned seven before its
completion, and one was already seven years old when we began. As previously
mentioned, the school adhered to a program model in which core literacy instruction
occurred solely in Spanish in the primary grades. Therefore, all reading instruction and
reading assessments given in first grade were in Spanish and students’ reading levels and
guided reading groups given here refer to reading abilities and activities in Spanish unless
otherwise noted. The teachers used the Spanish Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark
Assessment System (Sistema de evaluación de la lectura; Heinemann, 2014) to determine
the students’ reading levels. Although the English speakers were read to by their parents
at home in English, Ms. Diaz did not think that any of the students could read in English
independently yet.
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Spanish Home Language (SHL) focal student group. All students in the SHL
group were born in the United States to parents who immigrated to this country from
Mexico, except for one student whose father was from Mexico but whose mother was
born in the United States.
Yolanda. Yolanda is a lively and intelligent little girl with an expressive face and
two silver teeth in front. She turned six years old four months before the study took place.
At the time of the study, she lived in a neighboring community with her parents, her
younger sister, three older brothers, and her uncle who had recently arrived from Mexico.
Ms. Diaz told me that Yolanda’s two oldest brothers (ages 12 and 13) had only recently
been reunited with the family from Mexico. Yolanda’s mother worked at a hotel in
housekeeping and her father worked as a cook in two different restaurants. Yolanda said
that she would like to work in a hotel when she grows up, like her mother. Yolanda had
been to Mexico twice to visit family and had once crossed the border into Guatemala. She
had watched her brothers and her uncle as they acclimated to their new lives in the United
States.
Yolanda reported that she liked to read and that she read at home to her younger
sister who was four years old. She said that her favorite book was The Three Little Pigs,
but I do not know to which version she was referring; she said that she did not have the
book at home but that she read it in class in kindergarten. Ms. Diaz placed Yolanda in the
highest guided reading group, based on her Spanish reading assessment. Ms. Diaz told
me that Yolanda’s parents were very committed to their children’s education and that
they were very responsive. She stated that even though Yolanda’s English language skills
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were on the lower side, she was not worried about her educational achievement in the
long run because she has such supportive parents.
Verónica. Verónica is an outgoing and vivacious girl who was almost seven at the
time of the study. She often dressed in flashy outfits that included accessories such as
faux fur collars and arm warmers, feather boas and cowboy boots. Ms. Diaz reported that
Verónica often “tested” adults and that she had been known to make up stories about her
home life. At the beginning of the study she had some trouble staying on-task during
discussions. Verónica’s father was from Mexico originally but her mother was born in the
United States. According to Ms. Diaz, the family often spoke English at home and,
although Verónica is bilingual, she was often resistant to speaking Spanish in the
classroom. Verónica’s father occasionally filled in as a substitute teacher at the school
and Verónica stated that she would like to be a teacher when she grows up. She had been
to Mexico once to visit her paternal grandparents. She said that if she could travel
anywhere in the world, she would like to go to India.
Verónica reported that she liked to read and that her mother read to her at home in
English. Her Spanish reading instructional level was “E”, which was approaching
expectations for her grade level, and she was part of a middle-level guided reading group.
Ms. Diaz reported that she had lower fluency and accuracy levels but excellent
comprehension.
Javier. Javier, a six-and-a-half-year-old boy, had a bounce in his step, a
mischievous grin, and was eager to please. He always came to school impeccably dressed
and with his hair styled. Both of Javier’s parents are from Mexico. At the time of the
study, his father worked for a car insurance company and his mother did childcare. He
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was very excited during our interview to tell me that his family would be taking a trip to
Mexico over the winter vacation and that he was going to bring toys “for the poor
children.” Javier stated that he would like to be a soldier when he grows up. He was part
of an after-school soccer team and sometimes worried that soccer practice would be
cancelled when it rained.
Ms. Diaz told me that Javier’s father frequently came to the classroom as a parent
volunteer to help with various tasks (filing, cutting, laminating, etc.). Javier stated that he
liked to read and that his parents often told him to read at home. He said that his favorite
book was Gingerbread Pirates (Kladstrup & Tavares, 2009); this book is not available in
Spanish. Javier was in the second-highest Spanish guided reading group, reading on level
for his grade or slightly above.
Rafael. Rafael had shoulder-length curly hair that he twirled while he talked. He
often went off on long unrelated tangents during our discussions, on one occasion
describing how much he loved when it rained because he could jump in the puddles with
his rain boots and catch raindrops on his tongue. When asked what he would like to be
when he grows up, he rattled off the following pursuits: designer, doctor, dog trainer,
work at Jamba Juice, and performer; this last occupation was, “so I can make lots of
money.” Rafael’s mother worked in housekeeping at a hotel in town and she was taking
an English class at the local community college. Rafael took the school bus home and
“watched his tablet” until his mom arrived home from work. His father was not living
with them at the time of the study, and Rafael alternated between talking a lot about his
father and saying that he didn’t have a father. He said that he had never traveled to
Mexico or anywhere else.
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Rafael reported that he liked to read but that he did not have books at his house;
Ms. Diaz sent books home from school for him to read. Ms. Diaz assessed Rafael’s
instructional reading level at B, which, according to the Fountas and Pinnell grade level
expectations, means that he was a full grade level behind. He was part of the lowest
guided reading group and was not yet able to write independently at the time of the study.
English Home Language (EHL) focal student group. The EHL group was
composed of White native English speakers who were born in the United States to non-
immigrant parents, except for Brianna who was not White. Ms. Diaz placed Brianna in
this group because she was a native English speaker and not culturally Mexican
American.
Ava. Ava is tall with fair skin, blue eyes and long blond hair. At the time of the
study she lived in town with her parents, her younger brother, two cats, one dog, and four
chickens. Her mother was a faculty member at the local university and her father was a
teacher in a neighboring community. Her parents were born in California and Oregon.
After school, Ava sometimes went to drumming class or to soccer practice and she liked
to have play dates on the weekends. Ava had been to Hawaii, Oregon (for river rafting),
San Diego, and Montana on vacation with her family. She had never been to Mexico.
Ava reported that when she grows up, she would like to be a scientist.
Ava was the least talkative of the focal students and seemed to feel the least
confident in her oral Spanish abilities. She was also on the quieter side when speaking in
English. She reported that she liked her parents to read to her in English at home and that
her favorite book was Frog and Toad (Lobel). Ava was part of the middle-level guided
reading group, along with Verónica and Oliver.
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Oliver. Oliver is short, blond and wears glasses that he was always pushing back
up his nose. He has a sweet and calm disposition. At the time of the study, he lived with
his parents and one younger brother in a neighboring community. Both of his parents are
from California originally and met at the local university. Like Javier and Ava, Oliver
played soccer after school. He said that when he grows up he would like to be a doctor so
that he can earn lots of money and talk to people who speak Spanish and English. He had
travelled to Oregon, Hawaii, and San Francisco with his family. He said that he would
like to travel to Mexico, but he was not sure if they speak Spanish or English there.
Oliver was the only focal student who replied that he did not like to read, saying
that it was “too hard” and that he “can only read a little bit.” However, he then proceeded
to talk about how much he liked a book that his friend had given him because it was
funny and a chapter book. He also said that his mom really liked to read and that she read
to him at home. Oliver was part of the middle-level guided reading group.
Brianna. Brianna turned seven years old during the time of the study. She was
placed in the English-speaking group because of her home language but she does not
appear White. Her father was adopted by Americans from Brazil as a child and Brianna’s
physical appearance indicates that she has both Black and White parents. She was born in
the southern Midwest and reported that she had been back to visit her grandparents and
cousins. Her parents were recently separated at the time of the study and she and her
younger brother spent time living with each of them. Brianna enjoyed doing gymnastics
and horseback riding after school and she said that she would like to be a horseback
trainer when she grows up. Her parents both worked in restaurants.
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Brianna was reading at grade level in Spanish and was part of the second-highest
guided reading group, along with Javier. She reported that she did not have a favorite
book but that she read with her parents in English.
Ian. Ian is a confident, well-mannered, and articulate boy who often wore a
baseball hat. He was the oldest student in the focal groups, turning seven the spring
before the study. At the time of the study, Ian lived with his parents and older sister about
30 miles from C.C. elementary. His mother was a school music teacher and his father
worked in a music store. Ian said that he would like to be a musician and fix guitars like
his dad when he grows up. He had traveled to the East Coast to visit family and had been
to Legoland and Disneyland on vacation. He also played soccer and baseball after school,
depending on the season. He enjoyed having pancakes with his family every Sunday,
playing in the neighborhood, gardening, guitars, and music. If he could travel anywhere
in the world, he would go to Jamaica, where his parents recently vacationed.
Ian was reading above grade level in Spanish, placing him in the highest guided
reading group, along with Yolanda. He told me that he enjoyed reading in Spanish and
that he could read “a little” in English, but that his parents bought him books in both
Spanish and English. His favorite book was Super Fly (Doodler, 2015) in English. Ian
was the most articulate in Spanish of the English speakers and always had something to
say during our discussions; he would at times dominate the conversation, but was not
pushy. From what I observed, Ian was the star of the classroom. In one instance, Ms.
Diaz used his math homework as an example to the class of going above and beyond the
assignment. His name was always in the highest column on the behavior chart, and I
observed that he was often instructed to “give himself points” on the chart.
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Selection of Focal Texts for Read Aloud and Response
From the 34 books I analyzed in Part 1 of the study, I chose three focal CR texts
and three focal mainstream texts for use in Part 2. The three focal CR books I selected for
use in the classroom were Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão,
2015), My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), and Grandma
and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002). I
chose these books because they represent characters to whom I hoped the children could
relate. I looked for Mexican American child protagonists who seemed to have been born
in the United States or to have come as children, and who lived in California. I looked for
some variety in terms of protagonists’ gender and SES. Most importantly, I wanted
stories and illustrations that would be engaging for a first-grade audience. While the texts
selected were on the longer side, I felt that their beautiful illustrations and engaging plots
would be sufficient to hold the interest of the students. Finding the Music / En pos de la
música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) was commended by the Américas Award. My Very
Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) won the Tomás Rivera
Mexican American Children’s Book Award and received an Honorable Mention from the
Américas Award. Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera &
De Lucio-Brock, 2002) was also commended by the Américas Award. Two of these
books had been used in similar studies previously. Quiroa (2011) found that the bilingual
students in her study saw themselves and their families reflected in Grandma and Me at
the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) and that this
text inspired joy, and Lohfink and Loya (2010) found that the Mexican American third
graders in their study were able to connect personally to many aspects of My Very Own
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Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000). These three texts were available
only in bilingual editions (Spanish and English within the same volume).
For the three focal mainstream texts, I chose to read the Spanish language editions
of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Viorst & Cruz, 1972),
Miss Rumphius (Cooney & Porter, 1982), and A Chair for My Mother (Williams, 1982). I
chose these texts mostly because they are children’s classics that are often read aloud in
classrooms and they feature human children as main characters. Alexander and the
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Viorst & Cruz, 1972) has sold more than
seven million copies and was an ALA Notable Book. It is also on the NEA’s Top 100
Teacher’s Choice list and the SLJ Top 100 Picture Books list. Miss Rumphius (Cooney &
Porter, 1982) was the winner of the National Book Award and was also on the NEA’s
Top 100 Teacher’s Choice list and the SLJ Top 100 Picture Books list. Lastly, A Chair
for My Mother (Williams, 1982) was an ALA Notable Book and a Caldecott Honor
Book. These three texts are readily available and easily affordable in Spanish-language
editions, making them often part of the text collections in bilingual classrooms. They are
realistic-fiction texts, approximately the same length as the CR focal books, and contain
stories and pictures that are appropriate for a first-grade audience. The six focal texts
used in the classroom portion of the study are listed in Table 3.
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Table 3. Focal Texts
Order Title Awards and Lists
Book 1 Alexander y el día terrible,
horrible, espantoso, horroroso
ALA Notable; NEA Top 100; SLJ Top 100
Book 2 La señorita Runfio National Book Award; NEA Top 100; SLJ Top 100
Book 3 Un sillón para mi mamá ALA Notable; Caldecott Honor
Book 4 Finding the Music/ En pos de la
música
Américas Award Commended
Book 5 My Very Own Room/ Mi propio
cuartito
Américas Award Honorable Mention, Tomás Rivera
Mexican American Children's Book Award Winner
Book 6 Grandma and Me at the Flea/ Los
meros meros remateros
Américas Award Commended
Data Collection During Classroom Sessions
My first meeting in the classroom was in September of 2016. At that time, I
conducted a practice session (Session 1) with the goals of introducing myself and getting
to know the students as well as testing the effectiveness of the audio and video
technology in the classroom. In the practice session, I explained to the students that I was
interested in learning about what they thought about various story books and that I would
be reading books aloud to them each week and asking them to write and draw about
them. On this first day, I read Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos (I love
Saturdays y domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002) to the class. In this story, a young girl
spends Saturdays with her English-speaking set of grandparents and Sundays with her
Spanish-speaking set. After reading the text aloud, I asked the students to draw
themselves in either the grandparents’ or the abuelos’ house (wherever they felt they
belonged) and to write about why. I then met with the two groups of focal students and
discussed why they chose to draw themselves in one house over the other, or in between.
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While I was doing this, the teacher walked around and asked the other students about
their drawings and wrote down their words for me on sticky notes. She did this
spontaneously, but I asked her to continue to do it throughout the study as it was very
helpful when deciphering the students’ writing.
I collected data for seven weeks following the practice session (Sessions 2-8),
focusing on a different picture book each week for six weeks and asking the children to
choose their favorite and least favorite books in the last session. During the six picture
book sessions, I collected student response data using picture walks, writing and drawing,
and small group and individual discussions. I also wrote memos and conducted one
interview with each of the eight focal students.
Picture walks. Each week, I first met with each group of focal students so that
they could engage in a short picture walk of that day’s read-aloud book. I added the
picture walk to my study design because I wanted the focal students’ unhampered first
impressions of each text. It also allowed them to engage with the pictures in the text and
to have an idea of what the story was about before the read aloud. During the picture
walks, I read the title of the book to the students and then gave each pair a copy of the
book and asked them to look at the pictures and discuss whatever they saw happening in
the pictures. Although I did not instruct them to do so, most of the time the students took
turns describing what was happening on each page. They did not read the words of the
text during this time. I sat with them as they looked through the books and took notes. I
also answered questions when asked and occasionally asked them clarifying questions
about what they were discussing. I video-recorded the picture walks using an iPad and
audio-recorded them with a small microphone resting on the table. Because it was
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difficult to capture the audio clearly from each pair of students when they were having
two separate discussions concurrently, I placed the video microphone in front of one pair
of students and a digital audio recorder in front of the second pair. This made it easier to
transcribe each pair’s discussion, but I could see both pairs of students captured in the
video. I transcribed all of the picture walks after the conclusion of the study.
Read aloud sessions. Each day after each focal group participated in a picture
walk, the class gathered on the rug to hear me read the picture book aloud. I sat in the
“teacher chair” and read the book to the whole class, reading as clearly and with as much
expression as possible. I would occasionally stop to clarify a particularly difficult
vocabulary word or ask them to do an open-ended “turn and talk” if I could see that their
attention was wandering, but I tried to read the books without many interruptions. The
read aloud sessions lasted around 20 minutes. In sessions 2-4 I read mainstream texts and
in sessions 5-7 I read CR books.
Writing and drawing. Each week after the read aloud, I gave directions for the
students to write and draw about whatever the book made them think about. I passed out
paper showing a thought bubble with lines inside for writing (Appendix C) and space for
drawing on the back. As the study progressed, the directions were always the same but I
encouraged the students to add to and embellish their work. After the first session, I
reminded the students to label their drawings so that I could tell who the people in their
pictures were. After the second session, it became clear that all the students were writing
about their favorite part, even though I had not asked them specifically to do this. I
clarified that they could write about whatever the book made them think about, but that if
they wanted to write about their favorite part, they should also explain why they liked
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that part. After the first two weeks I had to add more lines to the paper because the
students began to write more and needed more space (Appendix D).
The students had about 30 minutes for writing and drawing while I met with the
discussion groups. While the discussion groups were meeting, Ms. Diaz walked around
the room and supervised the other students while they wrote and drew about that day’s
book. She asked the students to tell her about what they had written and drawn when they
turned in their papers and she jotted down their words for me on sticky notes.
Each week, I copied each student’s writing and dictation, along with a brief
description of the drawing, into a spreadsheet that organized the students by home
language group. A few times the students’ writing was illegible; in these cases, I could
only use the dictations to Ms. Diaz.
Small group discussions. After sending the students off to write and draw at their
desks, I met immediately with one of the two focal groups. Having time to write and
draw before discussing the books potentially altered the direction of the small group
discussions, but due to time constraints I was not able to meet with both groups after the
writing and drawing period, therefore I alternated which group I met with first each week.
The discussion groups lasted 10-15 minutes each. After meeting with the first group, I
would send them off to write and draw while I met with the second group. The second
group would share their writing and drawings with me and then we would begin our
discussion.
During the focal group meetings, I led the students in a discussion about the read-
aloud book. I always opened the conversation by asking the students what they thought
about the book (¿Qué pensaron de este libro?). I also had a set of questions that I asked
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the students each time, within the context of the discussion (see Appendix E). These
questions were either answered naturally as part of the spontaneous conversation, or were
used as prompts after the open-ended discussion had run its course. The protocol included
asking what they liked and disliked about the book and whether they felt that they or
someone in their family could be a part of the story. During the discussion groups, I acted
as a facilitator, but tried to keep my personal comments to a minimum. I tried to elicit
elaboration and clarification from students about their comments, and I encouraged
quieter students to participate by asking them what they thought about whatever topic
was being discussed if I felt that someone was dominating the conversation. The
conversation topics frequently wandered and I felt that this was a valid part of the
students’ response, but I redirected the discussion back to the book when I felt we had
gotten too far off-track. I recorded the discussion groups in the same manner as the
picture walks, using the iPad video camera and the audio recorder. I transcribed the group
discussions each week, using the audio and video.
Individual discussions. When time allowed, after meeting with both groups, I
also walked around the room and tried to talk with as many children as possible about
their writing as they were finishing up and transitioning to independent reading. These
discussions were audio recorded (I carried the recorder with me as I moved around the
room) and notes about these conversations were added to the spreadsheet of written
responses each week.
Voting. The last classroom session of the study was dedicated to finding out
which of the focal texts each student liked and disliked the most. I sat at the kidney table
with all six books spread out for the students to peruse and a “voting” sheet where each
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child could circle a photograph of the book they liked the most and wanted to take home
to keep. I also asked them to cross out the book they liked the least. The students came to
the table in pairs to make their choices. I video-recorded the voting sessions and collected
their voting sheets.
Memos. I was not able to take many notes while in the classroom, but after each
session I wrote a memo detailing the events of the day and questions and thoughts I had
about the study so far. These memos were my way of reflecting on each session in the
classroom, and they helped me see ways I could refine the way I led discussions. In the
memos I also tried to clarify my thoughts, reflect on my impressions of the students’
responses to and understanding of the books, and note things that stood out about the
discussions, writing, and drawing (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Interviews. I also conducted one interview with each of the focal students and
one informal conversation with Ms. Diaz in order to gain more information about the
students’ cultural backgrounds and home lives. The student interviews were conducted in
a separate room and the students chose which language they wanted to speak. In the
interviews, I asked the students basic information about their families and about their
interests, both in reading and outside of school (see Appendix F for interview protocol).
Ms. Diaz provided more information about the students and their lives outside of school,
but since it was so early in the year she did not know all the parents personally. She also
shared the students’ reading levels with me.
Closure. My last day in the classroom was early in December. During this
concluding session, I thanked the children for participating in the study. Each child
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received a copy of the book he or she had chosen to take home as well a rubber “I Love
to Read” bracelet.
Analysis of Classroom Data
Because “thick, rich description provides the foundation for qualitative analysis
and reporting” (Patton, 2002, p. 437), my first goal was to create as thorough an account
as possible of how the students in the classroom responded to each of the focal texts,
using all available data sources. I used a nested case study approach for reporting my
data, incorporating several levels of analysis (Patton, 2002). At the finest-grained level, I
analyzed individual students’ responses to the texts. This involved looking at each data
source for each book for a particular student (e.g., Yolanda’s written response to a
particular text), then including all available data sources for an individual on a particular
book (e.g., Yolanda’s writing, picture walk, voting, and discussion of a book), and lastly
looking at individual students’ responses to the two larger categories of text (e.g.,
Yolanda’s response to CR texts). At the next level, I examined group data (e.g., SHL
students’ responses to a particular text). At the broadest level, I collapsed the previous
information to make assertions about how the language groups of students in the
classroom responded to the two larger categories of text (e.g., SHL students responding
to CR texts).
I engaged in this analysis in several stages that occurred both during data
collection and in the months following. In the first stage of data analysis, I treated each
children’s book as its own event, or unit of analysis, with each language group in the
classroom as a separate unit, and the focal groups of students as smaller units within,
while also tracking individual students within the focal groups. This stage began during
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the data collection period, where I transcribed the written responses and group discussion
data immediately following the classroom sessions and began coding the written
responses each week. The second stage of analysis occurred after the conclusion of data
collection. In the second stage, I looked for patterns evident between the two types of
text, collapsing the three books in each category into two larger categories (mainstream
and CR), but still considering each focal group of students as separate units within these
larger categories. In the third stage of analysis, which occurred last, I returned to the
micro-level, examining individual focal students’ responses across the entire study in
more depth. At each stage, I engaged in content analysis of my data sources, using the
sensitizing concepts (Patton, 2002) of personal connection, connection to cultural
content, and identity, which will be discussed further shortly.
As I engaged in data analysis, to increase credibility I used triangulation of data
sources, both using different methods of data collection and drawing on all available data
sources when looking for patterns (Patton, 2002). In addition, I sought to ensure a higher
level of validity by looking for alternate explanations and disconfirming evidence
whenever possible (Patton, 2002). The four main data sources I analyzed for the
classroom portion of the study were the students’ written responses and drawings,
transcripts of the small group discussions, transcripts of the picture walks, and the
students’ votes for favorite and least favorite books. I did all my own transcriptions, using
the transcribing process as an “opportunity to get immersed in the data” (Patton, 2002, p.
441).
Analysis of written responses and drawings. As stated, I began analyzing the
students’ written responses during the data collection period. Each week, after
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transcribing the students’ written responses, drawings, and dictations, I began examining
them for personal connections. I defined personal connections as any time the students
wrote, drew, or talked to the teacher about themselves, their experiences, or their families
in relation to events or characters in the text. After my first coding sessions, I noticed that
there were two distinct types of personal connections evident in the students’ writing, and
I began coding them separately: personal connections to experiences and preferences
(e.g., I liked the part about the new shoes because I like new shoes), and personal
connections in the form of hypothetically imagining oneself in the world of the story
(e.g., If I were Reyna, I wouldn’t break the guitar). I continued coding the written
responses in this manner each week.
After the data collection period, I examined the quantity of personal connections
made by each home language group, as well as the type of personal connection. I also
considered each student’s personal connections over the course of the study, with the goal
to determine whether individual students in each home language group were more likely
to make personal connections to the mainstream or the CR texts. I wanted to be sure to
notice whether certain students were simply more likely to make personal connections
than others regardless of text type. For the focal students, I compared their written
responses to the comments they offered during our oral discussions, looking for
continuities and discontinuities.
I also coded the written responses for evidence of connection to the cultural
themes identified in the text analysis protocol for each book. This occurred in the months
following the conclusion of the data collection period. For example, I identified
community as a primary theme in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres &
71
Alarcão, 2015), so I examined the students’ written responses for connection to the theme
of community. I defined connection to a cultural theme as any mention of an event in the
story that exemplified that theme. For example, when Reyna asks the guitar shop owner
to help her, it exemplifies the theme of community members helping each other, so I
would code any response that mentioned this part of the text as a connection to the
community theme (e.g., I liked when Reyna brought her guitar to the guitar shop to ask
for help). Sometimes the same responses also included personal experiences, in which
case I coded them as both personal experiences and connection to the cultural theme
(e.g., I liked when they fixed the guitar because I like fixing things).
I was also interested in which aspects of the texts the students chose to write
about, so I re-read each student’s written responses for each book and noted patterns in
writing topics. Using this information, I compared the topics chosen by each home
language group.
Finally, using the raw case data for each book, including personal connections,
connections to cultural themes, and writing topics, I composed a narrative description of
the students’ written responses to each text by home language group (Patton, 2002). I
highlighted the focal students’ responses in the narrative descriptions whenever possible
so as to give the reader a more comprehensive view of the focal students.
Analysis of small group discussions. While I transcribed the small group
discussions each week as they occurred during data collection, I did not begin analysis of
the discussion data until the conclusion of the study. I analyzed the discussion data by
each book separately at first. For each book, I watched the video of the discussion while
reading the discussion transcript several times, so as to gain context when using the
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transcript alone subsequently. While watching the video, I added notes about the context
or non-verbal occurrences to the transcript. I then separated the transcripts into discussion
units, inserting a space wherever a new topic of conversation was taken up.
I began analysis of the transcripts by writing notes summarizing each of the topics
covered during each discussion and how each focal student responded to the questions
from the discussion protocol that were asked. These questions usually included asking
students which parts of the book they liked and disliked and whether they felt that they or
someone in their family could be part of the story. I used this information to compose a
narrative summary of each small group discussion for each focal text.
Next, I reviewed the transcript for each text, using the sensitizing concepts of
personal connection and connection to cultural content. With these concepts in mind, I
developed several additional codes upon reviewing the transcripts. In looking for
personal connections, I coded connections that were made spontaneously but also noted
connections that were made based on specific prompting from me. I also coded personal
stories told by the students that did not seem to be connected to the focal book in any
way, as these seemed salient when thinking about how the students were bringing their
own identities and personal stories into the conversations. In looking for cultural
connections, I coded any time Mexico was brought up, including references to culturally
specific Mexican items, traditions, or people, whether in the text or in the children’s lives.
I also coded spontaneous cultural connections even when there was no mention of
Mexico in the focal text (during mainstream text discussions).
Continuing on, I also coded comments the students made about the text that did
not contain evidence of personal connection, as I felt that these comments could also shed
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light on how the students experienced the texts. These codes included times when the
students appreciated or evaluated the text, times when they simply restated something
that happened in the text, and times when they added to or embellished the text. After the
initial round of coding, however, I discarded the “restating” category, as it seemed that
the students frequently restated events from the text because they liked or disliked
something. Restating was collapsed into the “appreciate or evaluate” code.
Lastly, I looked for evidence of identification with the characters in the text, or a
sense of belonging in the stories, as well as the opposite: evidence of resistance or
alienation. In looking for evidence of identification with the characters, I relied on the
students’ responses to my questions such as, “Could you be in this book?” and “Did you
feel like you could be a part of this story?” and “Could what happens in this story happen
to you?” I charted each focal student’s response to these questions for each book. While
there were also comments that indicated that the students were stepping into a character’s
shoes even if they did not state that they felt that they could be part of a text, these were
coded as personal connections. In looking for evidence of resistance, I coded times when
the students were hesitant or refused to answer my questions, times when they blatantly
changed the topic to something unrelated, and times when they were obviously off-task.
There were times when it was difficult to tell if a student felt resistant or was simply
distracted; these instances were coded as possible resistance. My codebook can be found
in Appendix G, along with an example of a page of coded transcript. After coding the
transcripts, I noted each student’s comments in each code category in a spreadsheet
divided by focal text. For example, under “Personal Connections to Text” for My Very
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Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) for Javier, I have entered
“father snores.”
Using this collection on information, I wrote a detailed description of each book
discussion, including salient episodes from the transcripts that illustrated the personal and
cultural connections made by the focal students. In the final stage of analysis, I compared
the discussions of the two language-based groups for each book, and subsequently for
each text type (mainstream and CR), looking for similarities and differences with regards
to cultural and personal connections.
Analysis of picture walks. I added the picture walks to the study design primarily
to allow the students a chance to interact with the texts and become somewhat familiar
with the stories in a more intimate setting before the read aloud session. However,
because pictures are such an important part of creating a cultural story world (Smolkin &
Suina, 2003), the picture walk data proved to be very useful in providing a window into
the students’ recognition of the cultural content of the CR focal texts, so I decided to
transcribe and analyze them.
I transcribed the picture walks at the conclusion of the study, using both the video
and audio recordings for each. I included non-verbal occurrences whenever possible;
these included actions such as page turns, pointing to a particular item in an illustration,
facial expressions, gestures, and grabbing the book or sliding it away. I then combed
through the transcripts, looking for evidence of personal connections as well as
connections to cultural content in the form of cultural markers in the illustrations. I also
noted which aspects of the text the students talked about the most, whether the students
were able to follow the storyline, if there was any evidence of confusion, and students’
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general level of engagement during each picture walk. I then wrote a description of each
picture walk, choosing key interactions that I felt showcased how the students interacted
with each other around each of the books during the picture walks. Together with the oral
discussion and written response data, the picture walks provided another piece of the
puzzle in my interpretation of how the students experienced each text.
Analysis of voting sheets. I used the video recordings of the voting sessions to
note any discussion that occurred among the students that I had not noticed during the
sessions. I used the voting sheets themselves to tally the total number of votes each book
received for favorite and least favorite, and then I separated the votes by home language
group. I also examined each of the focal student’s votes for favorite and least favorite
book, and compared this information with their written responses and oral discussion
comments for each book.
Creating the mini-case studies. I felt that my final analysis could be
strengthened by looking at individual students in more depth. I was drawn to examine the
cases of Yolanda and Ian, both leading participants in the oral discussion groups, because
both were vocal and articulate during the discussions, and both seemed to have a strong
sense of identity in addition to strong literacy skills. Yolanda was very vocal about her
Mexican heritage and, although she was born in California, was the most closely tied to
Mexico of the SHL focal group because her two brothers had only recently moved to the
United States.
In creating the case studies, I attempted to synthesize the students’ written and
oral responses to each text in the study, including their willingness or ability to identify
with the characters in the books and see themselves in the stories, their feelings of
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belonging in the story, as well as their text preferences. In this part of the analysis, I
examined how the students’ participation in academic literacy tasks included or excluded
their cultural and personal backgrounds and experiences.
In this chapter I have described my research design and methods for data
collection and analysis for each part of the study. In the next chapter, I present the results
for Part 1, followed by the results for Part 2 in the following chapter.
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Chapter 4: Results of Part 1
Using the protocol described in Chapter 3, I analyzed two sets of texts based on
several variables of interest related to cultural content. My goal was to answer RQ1: In
what ways are culturally rich Mexican American children’s books qualitatively the same
and different from mainstream texts commonly read aloud in dual language classrooms?
In this section, I share the results of this textual content analysis.
Introduction to the Text Sets
Eighteen culturally-rich books formed the Mexican American Award (CR) text
set. As per the selection criteria, these were family fiction picture books with Mexican
American child protagonists available in Spanish and published between 1996 and 2016.
The CR books were recognized as award-winning, honorable mention, or commended by
the Américas Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and/or the Tomás Rivera Mexican
American Children’s Book Award.
The second set of texts was composed of 16 popular mainstream fictional picture
books pulled from the Spanish read-aloud shelf in the dual-immersion classroom where
this study took place. Ten of the mainstream books were recognized by the Caldecott
Medal, the American Library Association (ALA), the National Book Award, and/or were
included in the NEA’s Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children, Scholastic’s Teacher’s
Choice Top 25 Picture Books, or the New York Times’ #1 Bestseller list. The remaining
six texts were not recognized by an award.
Publishing and Language
The books in the CR text set were published in the United States by nine different
publishers, many of which were imprints or divisions of larger publishing houses. The
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most common publisher of CR books was Lee & Low Books or their imprint, Children’s
Book Press, accounting for nearly half of the CR titles. Fifteen of the CR books were
published in bilingual editions (Spanish and English within the same volume) while just
three were available in Spanish-only editions.
All the mainstream texts were originally written in English and subsequently
translated into Spanish-language editions. The Spanish editions of the mainstream texts
were published between 1969 and 2015 by 11 different publishing houses, the most
common of which was Scholastic or its former imprint Lectorum. Five of the books were
published internationally in Spain, Mexico, or Venezuela. In the case of the older books,
the Spanish editions were often not published until a decade or more after the English
editions. There were no bilingual editions available among the mainstream texts.
Point of View
The majority of the CR books were written as first-person narratives (n = 11),
while seven were narrated in the third person. In addition, six of the CR books were
autobiographical in nature, four of which were also written in the first person. Three of
the autobiographical texts were written by Amada Irma Pérez and illustrated by Maya
Christina Gonzalez; these texts could be read as a series of story vignettes in the author’s
life.
In contrast, only three of the mainstream books were narrated in the first person
while twelve were narrated in the third person. One mainstream text, How Do Dinosaurs
Go to School? (¿Cómo van a la escuela los dinosaurios?; Yolen & Teague, 2007), was
written in the second person. None of the mainstream books showed evidence of being
autobiographical.
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Main Characters
Because children should have the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the
texts they read, and this often happens when they can identify with the main character of
a story, the first section of my text analysis protocol was dedicated to an analysis of main
character characteristics. This analysis was designed to answer RQ1A: How do the main
characters compare across two text sets (one culturally-rich and one mainstream) with
respect to age, gender, ethnicity, family structure, location, and socioeconomic status
(SES)?
Age
In the CR book set, all the main characters were human children. Specific ages
were not usually specified, but eleven main characters appeared to be in the primary
grades (K-3), or five to nine years old. Only First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas;
King Pérez & Casilla, 2004) gave a specific age for the main character by stating that he
was in third grade in school. Two other books gave clues as to age via the number of
birthday candles depicted (one child turned six and another turned seven years old). In six
other CR texts, the main characters seemed to be about ten years old. In Carlos and the
Skunk / Carlos y el zorrillo (Romero Stevens & Arnold, 1997), the main character was
slightly older.
In the mainstream text set, eleven main characters were animals and just five were
people. Five of the animal protagonists were child-aged. Four of these appeared to be just
entering school, or 4-6 years old, and one was slightly older, but still under ten years old.
There were two instances in the mainstream text set where human main characters were
children at the beginning but grew into adults during the story: The Giving Tree (El árbol
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generoso; Silverstein 1964/1988) and Miss Rumphius (La Srta. Runfio; Cooney & Porter,
1982/1996). Only two human protagonists were children throughout the stories, and both
appeared to be about eight years old. These were Alexander in Alexander and the
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Alexander y el día terrible, horrible,
espantoso, horroroso; Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989) and Rosa in A Chair for My Mother
(Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams, 1982/1994). Lastly, in First Day Jitters (¡Qué
nervios! El primer día de escuela; Danneberg & Love, 2000/2006), the main character
was actually an adult but this was not revealed until the surprise ending.
Gender
The CR books portrayed an equal number of male and female child protagonists.
Of the 18 books I analyzed in this text set, nine featured male protagonists, eight featured
females, and Icy Watermelon / Sandía fría (Galindo & Rodriguez Howard, 2001) featured
a group of three siblings equally (two sisters and a brother). There were no CR books that
portrayed nontraditional genders and no texts that notably departed from gender
stereotypes. For example, women were often shown in the kitchen wearing aprons, while
no men were shown cooking or preparing food in the kitchen. However, a few women in
the CR books worked outside the home: one in a restaurant, one as a farm laborer, and
one in a factory.
In the mainstream text set, there were ten main characters who were male and six
who were female. Among the human protagonists, two were male and three were female.
There were no representations of nontraditional genders in the mainstream text set and,
once again, the characters generally behaved in ways stereotypically associated with their
genders. There was one instance where a male character offered toast and packed a lunch
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to his wife in First Day Jitters (¡Qué nervios! El primer día de escuela; Danneberg &
Love, 2000/2006). Aside from this, the men in the mainstream text set were not shown
cooking. Women working outside the home were more common in the mainstream text
set, though the women worked in stereotypically female professions (waitress, librarian,
and teachers). Another exception to the usual gender roles was that in Miss Rumphius (La
señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996), the main character, who is female, grew
old without any mention of falling in love, getting married, or having children. In this
same text, the narrator, a young girl, was depicted with short hair, which I did not find in
any other texts.
Ethnicity
All protagonists in the CR text set were Mexican American, as this was one of the
selection criteria. Nearly all the main characters appeared to have been born in the United
States (or immigrated when they were very young). An exception was the main character
in Amada Irma Pérez’s three books who immigrated as an older child and vividly
remembered living in Mexico. All the main characters’ parents in the CR text set were of
Mexican heritage, except for one parent who was White: the father in I love Saturdays y
domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002). In most of
the CR books (n = 12), the protagonists’ parents appeared to be immigrants1, making the
main characters first-generation Americans. In four of the CR books, the families seemed
to have been established in the United States for a longer period of time. In three of these,
the main character’s grandparents lived in ranch houses in the Southwestern United
1 I counted the parent characters as immigrants if their parents were still living in Mexico or if they were employed as migrant farmworkers.
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States, indicating that the main characters themselves were second-generation Americans
whose parents were born in the United States or came when they were very young.
In terms of physical appearance, all the main characters in the CR text set were
shown in the illustrations with dark brown or black hair. Skin tones used by the
illustrators ranged from pale pink to dark brown. Seven protagonists were light-skinned
(pinkish or orange-hued) and 11 were darker (olive or brown).
None of the human main characters in the mainstream text set had a specific
ethnic background indicated in the text, but all appeared to be White Americans2. All
human protagonists had light skin; two had red hair, one had light brown hair, and one
had dark hair. There was no indication in the mainstream texts of the main characters,
their parents, or their grandparents having been born in another country.
Family Structure
Family structure in the CR books generally adhered to the traditional two-parent
nuclear family model. All CR books featured families with two parents (one male and
one female) except for two. In Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres &
Alarcão, 2015), there was no mention of the child’s father. However, this story took place
on a weekend morning in a restaurant; it could have been that the father was simply at
home or at work. Similarly, in Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask. A Bilingual
Cuento (Garza, 2005), the main character’s mother was not mentioned, but there was no
2 In a recent article in The New York Times following Vera B. Williams’ death, the main character in A Chair for My Mother, Rosa, was said to be Hispanic. I assume this is because of her name and her dark hair, however, I do not see any indication of Latino culture in the text. Rosa’s mother’s name is Sally and her mother’s sister’s name is Ida, which would be very atypical names for a Latino family, and Rosa has not always been an unusual name in the English-speaking world.)
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indication that she was actually absent from the child’s life. Nine CR books featured
families with three to six children, two featured families with two children, and seven
featured children without siblings. In two CR books, Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los
meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) and Abuelita, Full of Life /
Abuelita, llena de vida (Costales & Avilés, 2007), a grandmother lived permanently in
the home. In Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De
Lucio-Brock, 2002), the grandmother was the primary caretaker while the main
character’s parents traveled north to work picking fruit.
In the mainstream text set, half the books did not feature a family at all. Of the
eight families shown, only three were composed of a mother, father, and children. Four
books in the mainstream text set featured mothers but no fathers. Only two of the children
portrayed in the mainstream texts had any siblings and no families were shown with more
than three children. A Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams,
1982/1994) was the only text to show a grandmother living in the home, and no
grandparents were primary caregivers for children.
Location
All main characters in the CR text set resided in the United States, except for one
who immigrated from Mexico during the story. Eleven main characters lived in specific
states or regions of the country (six in California and five in the Southwestern United
States) and three lived in specific cities or towns in California (San Diego, Los Angeles,
and Corcoran); only three were set in the “general” United States. In addition, five of the
CR books took place partly in Mexico. Three of these featured a child crossing the border
from the United States into Mexico for a special event: a shopping trip for birthday party
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supplies in The Birthday Swap (¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997), to visit
extended family in The Birthday Swap (¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997) and
Chave’s Memories / Los recuerdos de Chave (Delgado & Symank, 1996), and to see a
Mexican wrestling match in Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask. A Bilingual
Cuento (Garza, 2005). Two other CR books involved crossing the border under more
serious conditions. In From North to South / Del norte al sur (Colato Laínez & Cepeda,
2010), a child and his father drove from San Diego to Tijuana because his mother had
been deported. In My Diary from Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez &
Gonzalez, 2002), a child immigrated to the United States with her family; this text
described the family’s home town in Juárez, their stay in Mexicali, the border crossing at
Tijuana, and their eventual arrival in El Monte, California.
None of the mainstream books provided a specific location for the characters.
Many characters lived in the general United States, while other books that featured
animal characters took place in a generic forest, farmyard, or ocean setting. None of the
characters in the mainstream text set crossed a border into another country.
Socio-Economic Status (SES)
Ten CR books featured families where poverty was not an issue. In these books,
the families lived in nice homes, had cars, cooked meals, and purchased items such as
party supplies without money being mentioned. In the other eight CR books, the families
struggled with poverty to various degrees. Most of these families could be classified as
working poor, where parents worked in fields or factories to make ends meet. Two books,
however, featured extreme poverty in migrant farmworker families.
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In the mainstream text set, four of the five books representing human characters
portrayed upper- and middle-class families who could afford to travel, bought homes,
went to the dentist for a checkup, and bought new clothes and shoes without mention of
money. A Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams, 1982/1994) was the
only mainstream text that portrayed a working-class family. No families were shown
living in extreme poverty. In the five books featuring animals behaving as humans, the
characters wore nice clothes and lived in picturesque neighborhoods; lack of money did
not surface as an issue.
Sections two, three, and four of the text analysis protocol were dedicated to
answering RQ1B: Which Mexican American cultural markers, cultural themes, and
cultural values identified in the research literature are represented in the culturally-rich
books, and to what degree? and RQ1C: Are these same elements present in the
mainstream books, and if so, to what degree?
Cultural Markers
Section two of the text analysis protocol was concerned with cultural markers.
Cultural markers are clues included in the words or illustrations of a text that give readers
information about the story’s cultural milieu. The seven categories of Mexican American
cultural markers I looked for in the texts were: traditional Mexican food, traditional
Mexican clothing, Mexican décor, terms of address, Mexican music and entertainment,
traditional medicine, and Mexican cultural celebrations. The CR texts were rich in
cultural markers, in both texts and illustrations.
Traditional Mexican Food
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All but four of the 18 CR books featured traditional Mexican food. Traditional
foods held a special place in the CR story narratives as well as in the illustrations. The
most common traditional prepared foods featured in the texts or illustrations in the CR
text set included homemade tortillas (featured in seven books, or n = 7), hot chocolate
with cinnamon (n = 5), pan dulce (Mexican sweet breads; n = 4), salsa (n = 3), and
tamales (n = 3). Other traditional foods that appeared only once in the CR text set were
guacamole, corn on the cob with chile, mango popsicles, enchiladas, tacos, churros,
huevos rancheros, eggs with nopalitos, papaya juice, horchata, jamaica drink,
empanadas, chimichangas, and chicken mole.
Besides characters eating traditional Mexican foods at meals, traditional food also
appeared in other ways in the CR texts. Three books featured a Mexican-style open air
market where fruits and vegetables such as jalapeños, mangos, and papayas could be
purchased. Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De
Lucio-Brock, 2002) described the different types of chiles and their uses in different
foods (pasilla for mole, colorado for enchiladas, etc.). Three other CR texts featured
families who grew vegetables in a garden, such as corn, chiles, beans, pumpkins, and
tomatoes. In The Birthday Swap (¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997), the main
character’s older sister was shown eating a tomato like an apple.
Ten of the CR books lovingly featured a mother, grandmother, or aunt cooking
traditional Mexican food for the family. This cooking of traditional foods nourished
families physically, but also emotionally. For example, in From North to South / Del
norte al sur (Colato Laínez & Cepeda, 2010), the main character expressed how much he
missed his mother by telling her that his father’s tortillas were not as good as hers, letting
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her know that her absence had left a large hole in his life. The main character in Braids /
Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009) bonded with her grandmother through songs and
stories while her grandmother was teaching her to make homemade tortillas and salsa.
The loving relationship between the main character, Juanito, and his grandmother in
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock,
2002) was established in the opening scene when he woke up early on a Sunday morning
to the delicious smells of his grandmother cooking breakfast for him. In addition, two CR
texts featured female relatives who cooked traditional and celebratory food for a living.
The mother in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) cooked
in a Mexican restaurant in California and the main character’s aunt in The Birthday Swap
(¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997) baked and sold cakes for special occasions
in Mexico.
There were only two instances where prepared foods that would not be considered
traditional Mexican foods appeared in the CR text set. In The Birthday Swap (¡Qué
sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997), bacon, eggs, and Cheerios were shown at
breakfast time and in I love Saturdays y domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los
domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002), the main character ate pancakes for breakfast at her
English-speaking grandparents’ house. However, this was shown in contrast to the
huevos rancheros she ate with her abuelos (Spanish-speaking grandparents), so it was
positioned as a mainstream, or not Mexican American food.
No traditional Mexican foods were portrayed or mentioned in the mainstream
texts. Food items featured in the mainstream books included chocolate chip cookies, tea,
apples, oranges, toast, macaroni and cheese with ketchup, sandwiches, cake, and juice
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boxes. In addition, although the characters were sometimes shown eating meals, none of
the characters were shown cooking in the kitchen.
Traditional Mexican Clothing
All but three of the CR books featured one or more characters depicted in some
item of traditional Mexican clothing. The main characters, however, wore mainstream
clothes, probably because Mexican American children are less likely to wear traditional
Mexican clothing than their parents and grandparents. Traditional Mexican clothing
shown included rebozos (Mexican shawls) and Mexican aprons, as well as more
elaborate mariachi and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) costumes.
No traditional Mexican clothing was shown in the mainstream books.
Mexican Décor
Two thirds of the CR books showed homes with traditional Mexican décor such
as Mexican tiles and Mexican cooking apparatuses like the molcajete (mortar). The
kitchen in Braids / Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009) included cast iron skillets
hanging from the wall alongside a bunch of dried chiles and a decorative parrot sitting on
a perch. Seven books included traditional Mexican religious items in the homes, such as
altars to honor deceased loved ones, Day of the Dead skeletons, Virgin Mary icons, and
rosary beads. When the grandmother in Abuelita, Full of Life / Abuelita, llena de vida
(Costales & Avilés, 2007) moved in with her grandson José, he had to “move his
dinosaurs over to make room for her candles.” Even before the arrival of his grandmother
from Mexico, however, José’s room included lucha libre dolls and a lucha libre poster,
cowboy boots, and a soccer ball, in addition to the more traditional American mainstream
dinosaur toys and baseball bat.
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There were no traditional Mexican items of décor represented in the mainstream
texts. Homes were decorated in classic American fashion. In Alexander and the Terrible,
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso,
horroroso; Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989), Alexander’s messy room included a skateboard, a
toy train, a snare drum, and a football. The house in First Day Jitters (¡Qué nervios! El
primer día de escuela; Danneberg & Love, 2000/2006) included floral wallpaper,
hardwood floors, and traditional antique wooden molding. There was no evidence of
religious items in the homes in the mainstream text set.
Terms of Address
All but three of the CR books used traditional Mexican terms of address. Parents
often addressed their children as mijo/a or mijito/a (my son or daughter) or querido/a
(dear) and children addressed their parents as Mamá (Mom) and Papá (Dad). In addition,
children often addressed their grandparents as Tata and Nana (informal names for
grandfather and grandmother) in addition to Abuelo/a (Grandfather/Grandmother) and
Abuelito/a (Grandpa/Grandma). Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) also included a nickname that the main
character’s friends called him: Pelón (Baldy).
In the mainstream text set, on the other hand, only three books featured any terms
of address: dear (querida) and sweetie (cariño) in First Day Jitters (¡Qué nervios! El
primer día de escuela; Danneberg & Love, 2000/2006), beautiful (linda) in A Chair for
My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams, 1982/1994), and Mommy (Mami) in The
Kissing Hand (Un beso en mi mano; Penn, Harper, & Leak, 1993). In Kiss Good Night
(¡Un beso de buenas noches!; Hest & Jeram, 2001), terms of address were noticeably
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absent. In this text the mother was attempting to soothe her son while putting him to bed,
yet she always called him by his name, Sam, when addressing him.
Mexican Music and Entertainment
Traditional Mexican music or entertainment were featured in the majority of the
CR books (n = 12). The most frequent reference in this category was to mariachi music,
which was mentioned in three texts. Other references included salsa music, dancing
pasodoble, telenovelas (Mexican soap operas), lotería (Mexican bingo), traditional
Mexican songs, the Mexican comedian Cantinflas, and lucha libre.
None of the mainstream books mentioned traditional Mexican music or
entertainment.
Traditional Medicine
Only two CR books referred to traditional Mexican medicinal practices, including
the use of specific herbs to cure headaches, fever, and burns. These were Grandma and
Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) and My
Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015). Passing
down traditional medicinal healing practices from one generation to the next is the
primary theme of My Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford &
Castro L., 2015).
None of the mainstream texts contained reference to traditional medicinal
practices.
Mexican Cultural Celebrations
Eight of the CR books referred to Mexican cultural celebrations. These included
Christmas in The Christmas Gift / El regalo de Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000), San
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Juan’s Day in Hip, Hip, Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day! / ¡Ajúa, ya llegó el chubasco!
(Rivera-Ashford & Johnsen, 2007), two references to quinceañeras in Grandma and Me
at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) and My
Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015), Day of
the Dead decorations in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão,
2015), and three birthday celebrations that included traditional cultural elements in The
Birthday Swap (¡Qué sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997), Braids / Trencitas
(Contreras & Lindmark, 2009), and I love Saturdays y domingos (Me encantan los
Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002). Two of the birthday celebrations
included the breaking of a piñata and two included the words to the traditional birthday
song Las Mañanitas.
There were no representations of Mexican cultural celebrations in the mainstream
text set.
Cultural Themes
Section three of my text analysis protocol was dedicated to looking for evidence
of eight cultural themes identified as important in Latino children’s literature research:
immigration, poverty, intergenerationalism, Mexico as home, community strength,
migrant farmworkers, cultural pride, and language issues. I rated each theme as either
primary, secondary, or not evident in the text.
Immigration
Immigration was referenced or implied in nearly every CR text because it was
part of the families’ histories. In some texts, the characters were recent immigrants; in
others, their parents or grandparents had immigrated. However, the immigration process
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itself was a primary content theme in just two of the CR books. My Diary from Here to
There / Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002) told the story of a young
girl’s immigration journey through her eyes. This text actively rejected the classic
American Dream ideology so often portrayed in books and media representations of
immigration (Chappell & Faltis, 2007). The main character loved her life in Mexico and
missed her friends and relatives dearly when she had to move. In addition, although she
successfully and legally immigrated to the United States, the immigration process was
fraught with tension. Her father, who was a U.S. citizen, had to go across the border
ahead of the rest of the family to secure green cards for them. This took longer than
expected and the mother and six children had to stay with relatives, moving on whenever
they felt they had overstayed their welcome. The main character worried that they might
not be able to reunite with her father, in addition to worrying about adapting to life in a
new country. Crossing the border itself was also anxiety-inducing as the main character
feared that she would be separated from her brothers if she did not hold on to their hands.
At the end of the book, she found ways to adapt to her new life in the United States, but
she was happiest to discover ways to keep Mexico alive in her heart and to maintain
relationships with those she left behind.
Immigration was also a primary, but unhappy, content theme in From North to
South / Del norte al sur (Colato Laínez & Cepeda, 2010). This book highlighted the
constant uncertainty and lack of power that comes with being an undocumented
immigrant. In the story, a young boy’s mother failed to come home from work one day
because she had been deported. The boy and his father had to visit her at a shelter in
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Tijuana. It was unclear even at the end of the book when, if ever, she would be able to
return to her family in San Diego.
Although immigration was not the primary content theme, one text in which
immigration was an important secondary theme bears mentioning as well. In My Very
Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), as in many of the texts in the
CR text set, immigration was present in the story because it continued to affect the lives
of the characters even months or years after they had immigrated themselves. This text
also included the immigration process itself by featuring relatives and friends who would
stay with the family while they looked for places to work and live in the United States
after crossing the border.
Immigration was not a theme in any of the mainstream texts and did not affect the
character’s lives. The only time immigration was mentioned at all in the mainstream text
set was in Miss Rumphius (La señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996) when the
narrator said that her great aunt’s grandfather came to America in a large ship a long time
ago.
Poverty
Poverty was a primary theme in three of the CR books, two of which told the
story of migrant farmworker families. In these two families, poverty was extreme. The
main character in First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez & Casilla,
2004) dreamed of having a house with hot water and separate rooms for cooking, bathing,
and sleeping. All seven members of the family in The Christmas Gift / El regalo de
Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000) slept on one mattress. For several years, the main
character had been hoping for a ball for Christmas, but his parents could not afford to get
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him one. My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) was the
third CR book in which poverty was a primary theme. This text, which did not depict a
migrant farmworker family but rather a family that was newly established in the United
States, told the story of a girl who shared a bedroom with her five brothers and longed for
a space of her own. The family uses coupon stamps they have saved up to purchase a new
lamp for her makeshift “room,” which is a corner of the house sheltered by flour sacks.
Six other books in the CR text set also took up poverty as a theme, though it was
secondary. The theme of poverty surfaced in various ways in these texts, including
having to pay for things little by little in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres
& Alarcão, 2015) and valuing previously used toys and other items, or the idea that “old
can be new” in Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De
Lucio-Brock, 2002).
Poverty was largely absent from the mainstream texts but it was a theme in one. A
Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams, 1982/1994) portrayed a
working-class home with a single mother who supported herself, her daughter, and her
mother on a waitress salary. When their home burned down in a fire, they relied largely
on the generosity of their neighbors to outfit their new apartment. In this book, the plot
revolved around saving coins in a jar to buy a new armchair. Slowly but surely, they were
able to save enough extra money to buy a brand-new chair from the furniture store, and
they did not pay in installments. This type of optimistic working-class poverty contrasted
sharply with the poverty shown in the CR text set where the most extreme case involved
characters who were forced to look for food in the supermarket dumpsters.
Intergenerationalism
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Eight CR books featured intergenerationalism in the form of grandparent-
grandchild relationships as a primary theme, making it one of the most common primary
themes in this text set. Three books in which intergenerationalism was a primary theme
centered around a grandmother visiting from Mexico. The grandmother characters in
these texts were portrayed as beloved and respected elders who had an important cultural
influence on the grandchildren. They also took on the role of friend, confidante, and
source of emotional support. The grandmothers showered their grandchildren with love;
they played and danced with them, braided their hair, and cooked delicious meals for
them. In Abuelita, Full of Life / Abuelita, llena de vida (Costales & Avilés, 2007), the
grandmother introduced her grandson to traditional Mexican food, songs, and customs, as
well as the Spanish language. She essentially brought the Mexican culture into a
somewhat Americanized home. However, not all her activities were geared towards
cultural transmission; she was also shown sitting on the floor playing an American board
game and taking the main character to the park for ice cream cones. Similarly, in Braids /
Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009), the grandmother brought traditional Mexican
cooking, traditional Mexican songs, the traditional Mexican game lotería, and the
tradition of oral storytelling to her granddaughter. She also cultivated an emotional
closeness with her granddaughter and made her proud of her capacities as a writer. Braids
/ Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009), and Nana’s Big Surprise / Nana, ¡qué
sorpresa! (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2007) showed emotional closeness between a grandmother
and her granddaughter and how, even across long distances, a grandparent’s love could
be a source of comfort, personal validation, and support.
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Juanito’s grandmother also provided this type of support for him in Grandma and
Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), though
as his primary caregiver rather than a visitor from Mexico. She assured him that he was
loved and cared for even when his parents were not able to live at home.
In Icy Watermelon / Sandía fría (Galindo & Rodriguez Howard, 2001), the mutual
joy felt by the children and the grandparents that came from spending time together was
the primary theme. In this text, the grandparents lived close by (presumably in the United
States) and visited their grandchildren every weekend. The entire family (three
generations) sat on the porch and told family stories and jokes. In I love Saturdays y
domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002), the main
character’s joy in spending time with her grandparents was clear, as was the element of
cultural transmission.
In My Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L.,
2015) and Hip, Hip, Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day! / ¡Ajúa, ya llegó el chubasco! (Rivera-
Ashford & Johnsen, 2007), intergenerationalism was once again a primary theme, though
the focus was on cultural transmission in the grandparent-grandchild relationship. In both
of these texts, grandfathers passed down important Mexican cultural beliefs and traditions
to their grandchildren. These grandparents lived permanently in the southwestern United
States.
Three other CR books included intergenerationalism as a secondary theme,
meaning that only seven books did not feature a grandparent’s relationship with a
grandchild. Chave’s Memories / Los recuerdos de Chave (Delgado & Symank, 1996) is a
book dedicated to relating the story of a young girl who went to visit her grandparents’
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ranch in Mexico and enjoyed participating in the activities of daily life there. Even
though the main character’s emotional relationship with her grandmother was not the
focus of this text, visiting her grandparents’ ranch was a formative experience. The
grandfather’s role in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015)
also played an important role in the story, although he was no longer living. The mother
in this book treasured the memories she had of her father and missed him very much. Her
daughter understood the importance of these memories, as evidenced by her panic when
she accidentally broke the grandfather’s vihuela (Spanish guitar). Finally, in My Diary
from Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002),
intergenerationalism played an important role in the story when the grandmother urged
the main character not to forget her cultural and linguistic heritage when she moved to
the United States.
In the mainstream text set, none of the books centered on a child’s relationship
with a grandparent. Only two books featured intergenerationalism, and it was as a
secondary theme. In Miss Rumphius (La señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996),
the young protagonist sat on her grandfather’s knee at the beginning of the story and
heard stories about his past. He planted the seed for what would turn into Miss
Rumphius’ life plan, but he was not a focus of the book or even a primary character; in
fact, he only appeared on two pages. Secondly, in A Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para
mi mamá; Williams, 1982/1994), the main character’s grandmother lived with the family,
but the girl’s emotional relationship with her grandmother was not part of the storyline.
Mexico as Home
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I rated “Mexico as home” as a primary theme for two texts in the CR text set. The
two texts in which it was a primary theme were both semi-autobiographical stories
written by Amada Irma Pérez. In My Diary from Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta
allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002), the main character was firmly attached to her home in
Juárez and did not want to leave Mexico to come to the United States. At the end of the
story, she was forced to come to terms with the fact that she had to adjust to a new life in
a new country, but Mexico still felt like home; she refused to forget her former friends,
her Spanish language, or her life there. The main character in Nana’s Big Surprise /
Nana, ¡qué sorpresa! (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2007), who represents the same girl a few
years later, reminisced about Mexico nostalgically, longing to see the Mexican market
and remembering her grandfather who recently passed away. Despite the fact that she had
lived in the United States for longer, Mexico still seemed to feel like home. When her
grandmother came to visit from Mexico, it was as if she brought “home” to her
granddaughter because she embodied the memories she had of her former life in Mexico.
Mexico as home surfaced as a secondary theme in seven CR books. In The
Christmas Gift / El regalo de Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000), the father referred to a
visitor as paisano (fellow countryman), acknowledging a shared home country, and in My
Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), the United States was
referred to as “this new country,” a relatively new home. In The Birthday Swap (¡Qué
sorpresa de cumpleaños!; López, 1997), the main character seemed to feel equally at
home in the United States and Mexico. She lived very close to the border with family on
either side and was able to easily travel back and forth between the countries without
fear, which is unfortunately not a reality for most children today.
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Although most of the main characters in the CR books appeared to have lived in
the United States for as long as they could remember, there was still evidence in several
texts of strong ties to Mexico, especially when relatives were still living there. Several
characters lamented the distances between themselves and their loved ones in Mexico and
sought to keep their cultural ties to Mexico alive by engaging in activities such as writing
letters and singing traditional Mexican songs.
Two books in the CR text set, however, pushed back on the idea of Mexico as
home. The main character in First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez &
Casilla, 2004) stated that he felt proud to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school and
proud to be norteamericano (North American). In From North to South / Del norte al sur
(Colato Laínez & Cepeda, 2010), the main character felt that Mexico was not home when
his mother was sent there without him and against her will. For him, home was San
Diego.
Not surprisingly, none of the mainstream texts showed any evidence of characters
feeling that Mexico was home. The characters in the mainstream texts did not struggle to
feel at home in the United States. They did not feel conflicted about where home was,
and they did not have relatives living in Mexico (or any other countries).
Community Strength
Community strength was the primary theme in three CR books and a secondary
theme in three others. In the texts where community strength was a primary theme,
characters went from one community member to the next, giving or receiving help of
some kind. In Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De
Lucio-Brock, 2002), the vendors at the flea market all knew each other and each had
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something to offer the other, be it a recipe, a blanket, or healing herbs. The children ran
freely from booth to booth, playing and doing errands for the grown-ups. The flea market
was a space of tight-knit community where its members found friendship and support. In
Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), the main character
traveled through her neighborhood while trying to find someone to help fix her deceased
grandfather’s vihuela. The community members with whom she came in contact had
known her grandfather, and they offered her assistance as well as gifts: a beautiful
sombrero, an old photograph of her grandfather, and a recording of his mariachi band.
She not only felt comfortable in her neighborhood, but saw its community members as a
network of support that was always available to her. In My Tata’s Remedies / Los
remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015), a constant stream of relatives
and neighbors showed up at the grandfather’s door with various maladies needing
attention. The grandfather was a community healer. He not only cured his patients using
ancient medicinal practices, his wife then invited them to stay for a snack of empanadas
and hot chocolate. This was another example of a text that showcased community
members taking care of each other.
In the three CR books where community strength was a secondary theme,
characters drew strength and friendship from people around them, though it was not the
main focus of the plot. For example, in From North to South / Del norte al sur (Colato
Laínez & Cepeda, 2010), the mother introduced her son to the other people living in the
deportation shelter as her friends, though they had only met recently. The women and
children at the shelter planted flowers together and gave and received support from each
other during an extremely difficult time. In The Christmas Gift / El regalo de Navidad
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(Jiménez & Cotts, 2000), the father helped a fellow worker who asked for assistance,
even when he could barely afford to feed his family. In each of these texts, the characters
turned to the people around them in times of need.
Community strength surfaced only once in the mainstream text set, and it was as a
secondary theme. In A Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá; Williams,
1982/1994), most of the neighborhood showed up when the characters moved into their
new apartment after their old home had burned down. They brought pizza, furniture,
curtains, and other items in a show of community strength and neighborly generosity.
However, none of the community members were individually identified as characters in
the text; they were not named nor did they have dialogue. The man who contributed a bed
to the new home was simply referred to as “the old man next door” (el señor mayor que
vivía al lado), whereas nearly all the community members in the CR texts had names. For
example, the owner of the music store in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres
& Alarcão, 2015) was Don Antonio, the man who worked at the hardware booth in
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock,
2002) was Señor Raya, and the women at the deportation shelter in From North to South /
Del norte al sur (Colato Laínez & Cepeda, 2010) were Doña María and Josefa. These
characters came to life in the CR texts as important pieces of the story, and were not
simply a backdrop for the main characters.
Migrant Farmworkers
Migrant farm labor was a primary theme of two CR books. The Christmas Gift /
El regalo de Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000) was originally part of Jiménez’s (1997)
memoir The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child. The second text, First
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Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez & Casilla, 2004), was based on the
childhood experiences of the author’s husband. As mentioned, both books portrayed
extreme poverty and highlighted some of the difficulties that children of migrant
farmworkers face. Both main characters felt some sadness and isolation, while at the
same time feeling proud of their parents and a strong love for their families.
Migrant farmworkers were present in two additional texts in the CR text set,
although they were not a primary theme. In Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros
meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), the main character’s parents
traveled north to pick fruit, though he remained at home with his grandmother. And in
My Diary from Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002),
the main character’s father worked picking grapes and strawberries in Delano, California
while he waited to obtain green cards for the rest of his family. In a letter to his daughter
he wrote about César Chávez and the fight for farmworker’s rights. Once the rest of the
family arrived in the United States, however, the father found a job in a factory and no
longer worked in farm labor.
Migrant farmworkers were not represented in the mainstream text set in any way.
Cultural Pride
Cultural pride was a primary theme for five books in the CR text set and a
secondary theme in ten additional books. The only books that I did not rate cultural pride
as a theme were those that did not showcase many cultural markers. I rated cultural pride
as a primary theme when a main part of the story seemed to be to transmit pride in the
Mexican culture to the reader, which Ada (2003) states is an important function of Latino
children’s literature. In Hip, Hip, Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day! / ¡Ajúa, ya llegó el
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chubasco! (Rivera-Ashford & Johnsen, 2007), for example, the plot of the story revolved
around the grandfather relating the cultural traditions associated with San Juan’s Day to
his grandchildren, who were an eager audience. Similarly, in My Tata’s Remedies / Los
remedios de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015), by the same author, a young
boy asks his grandfather to teach him traditional herbal healing methods, with the hope
that he could continue the family tradition by becoming a healer. Both books aimed to
fulfill the goal of transmitting pride and knowledge about Mexican American culture in
the Southwest to the reader. In Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), cultural pride pervaded the book, though
the goal of teaching the reader about the culture was not as explicit. Cultural markers in
this text abounded, and the characters were happy and proud of their way of life and
cultural heritage.
I rated cultural pride as a secondary theme when cultural markers in the text were
plentiful and were given a positive role in the story. For example, in Abuelita, Full of Life
/ Abuelita, llena de vida (Costales & Avilés, 2007), the tangible elements of Mexican
culture that the grandmother brought into the main character’s home were portrayed as
improvements, even gifts, to the family, but the primary theme of the story was the boy’s
relationship with his grandmother.
I did not find evidence of cultural pride in the mainstream text set. There were
also no books that aimed to teach the reader about cultural traditions or depicted cultural
knowledge being passed down from one generation to the next.
Language Issues
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Language issues were present in six of the CR texts but were only a primary
theme in I love Saturdays y domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada &
Savadier, 2002). This story took up the issue of childhood bilingualism directly. The
protagonist spoke Spanish with her abuelos and English with her grandparents, and she
loved them both. Her bilingualism represented two distinct cultural sides of her life that
were both important parts of her identity and cultural heritage.
In the five CR texts where I rated language issues as a secondary theme, the
complexities of bilingualism surfaced in various ways. In three texts, the English
language was portrayed as an obstacle for the characters to surmount. Access to English
in these texts was viewed as a necessary step towards success in the United States. For
example, in From North to South / Del norte al sur (Colato Laínez & Cepeda, 2010), the
main character’s mother had been taking English classes before she was deported. In
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock,
2002), one of the vendors at the flea market needed to obtain a letter in English to give to
his landlord so that he would fix the roof.
Although these texts positioned English as the language of power, the importance
of maintaining the home language (Spanish) was also present in the CR text set,
sometimes within the same story. For example, the main character in My Diary from
Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002) worried that she
would not be allowed to speak Spanish at school and that other children would make fun
of her accent if she tried to speak English. In this same text, however, during the main
character’s sentimental goodbye with her grandmother, the grandmother made her
promise never to forget her home language. Maintaining the ability to speak Spanish was
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clearly part of maintaining a connection with extended family and her own cultural
heritage as Mexican. In Abuelita, Full of Life / Abuelita, llena de vida (Costales & Avilés,
2007), the grandmother spoke only Spanish to her grandson even though she could
communicate in English when she had to. In this text, speaking Spanish was again part of
maintaining a cultural identity, even when it was not strictly needed for daily
communication with extended family. Another text recognized the conflicting pressure to
assimilate into mainstream culture by speaking only English. In First Day in Grapes
(Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez & Casilla, 2004), the main character worried that he
would be bullied at school because he “spoke Spanish sometimes.”
Within the language theme I also looked for evidence of fluidity in language use
in the form of translanguaging or language mixing within the texts themselves. More
specifically, I looked for the presence of Spanish words in the English texts and English
words in the Spanish versions. Including Spanish words in a thoughtful way in an English
edition has been found to lend cultural authenticity and specificity to a text (Barrera &
Quiroa, 2003). I found that all 18 CR books included at least one Spanish word in the
English versions, and often many words. However, only five CR books contained English
words in the Spanish versions, and they were few (sometimes just one word). I love
Saturdays y domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier,
2002) was the only book to use translanguaging consistently in both versions. This text
was not published in a bilingual edition, but it portrayed a bilingual child who used
English with one set of grandparents and Spanish with the other. In order to make this
text authentic, both languages were used in the text. Some English words were even used
in the Spanish edition without translation, making it clear that the book was intended for
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a bilingual audience. I did not find this type of translanguaging in any of the other CR
books.
None of the human characters in the mainstream text set spoke a language other
than English, and so they did not wrestle with language issues. They did not try to learn
new languages and they did not feel that their native language was in jeopardy in any
way.
Language issues in general surfaced in the mainstream text set in one book that
featured animal characters: The Cow That Went OINK (La vaca que decía OINK; Most,
1990/1994). In this story, a cow who could only say “oink” and a pig who could only say
“moo” were ostracized and laughed at by the animals who made the usual sounds. The
two outcasts eventually became friends and taught each other to make the target sounds;
essentially, to become bilingual. Although the end of this book states that the bilingual
animals had the last laugh because they were the only ones who could speak two
languages, the happy ending fell flat for me. Throughout the book the two animals who
made the incorrect sounds were depicted alone and in tears. Even the roosters and horses,
who presumably could not moo or oink themselves, laughed at the animals simply
because they spoke differently. This text seemed to send the message that speaking a
different language is funny, wrong, and isolating. It had unsettling cultural implications
as well as none of the cows welcomed the pig who said “moo.”
Cultural Values
Section four of the text analysis protocol focused on the examination of two
contrasting values generally assumed to be held by Latino cultures and mainstream
culture, respectively: familism and individualism.
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Familism
Valuing love of family has repeatedly been found to be an important theme in
Latino children’s literature, but familism itself as a value is also embedded in many of
these texts even when it is not an overt theme. The importance and strength of family
love was a primary content theme for 13 of the CR books I analyzed, as well as a
secondary theme for four more, meaning that only one book did not take up family
strength and love as a plot theme, and all of the books in the CR text set showed evidence
of familism as a cultural value. Knight et al. (2010) have worked with Mexican American
focus groups across the country to further define cultural values of this population. They
have defined familism as a Mexican American value that includes three components:
valuing the family as a source of emotional support (close relationships), valuing
obligation to family including the importance of caregiving, and relying on the family to
define oneself. I analyzed the books in each text set for evidence of each component of
familism.
Familism in the form of valuing the family as a source of emotional support was
prevalent in the CR text set. Every book in this set showed a family where close
emotional relationships were evident. The children who found themselves in difficult
situations turned to family members for support and encouragement, and family members
brought each other joy. For example, in My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez
& Gonzalez, 2000), the main character turned to her mother when she felt discontent. At
her mother’s instigation, the whole family worked together to make her a room of her
own, despite the limited space in their home and limited financial resources. They moved
furniture, painted walls, borrowed a bed from an uncle, and cashed in coupons in order to
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make her space cozy and beautiful. The grandmother in Grandma and Me at the Flea /
Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) kept her grandson happy
while his parents were away by providing not just physical care, but love. She treasured
his poetry, taught him songs, and helped him become part of a rich community of people
who cared about him. Even in the direst of circumstances, such as in The Christmas Gift /
El regalo de Navidad (Jiménez & Cotts, 2000), the families in the CR text set took care
of each other emotionally. Even though the parents in this book could not afford to give
the main character, Panchito, what he wanted for Christmas, Panchito realized that his
parents were doing the best they could and that having a close-knit family was more
important than material possessions. Rather than show his disappointment upon opening
his gift, he hugged his parents and thanked them for the small bag of candy, realizing that
it was an offering of love.
Obligation to family, including the importance of caretaking, was also evident in
the CR texts, though to a lesser degree. The clearest example of this form of familism
was the main character in First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez &
Casilla, 2004), who felt a strong obligation to his family. His mother made it clear that
his job was to go to school, and his obligation to do well in order to honor his family was
evident throughout the story. Obligation to family in the form of caretaking was also
evident in two texts in the CR text set when one grandmother moved in with the family
and another cared for her grandchild while the parents were away.
Familism in the form of using family members to define oneself was also clearly
evident in the CR text set. As they learned about their culture from their grandparents, the
main characters were able to form a clearer picture of who they were. In Braids /
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Trencitas (Contreras & Lindmark, 2009) and Nana’s Big Surprise / Nana, ¡qué sorpresa!
(Pérez & Gonzalez, 2007), the main characters learned to further define themselves by
identifying with their grandmothers. On the final page of Braids / Trencitas (Contreras &
Lindmark, 2009), the main character wrote her grandmother a letter that said, “We are
two of a kind. Just like our braids and ribbons! Our stories, like our braids, bind us
forever” (Somos tal para cual, así como las trenzas y las cintas. Nuestras historias, como
nuestras trenzas, nos unen para siempre). The main character in I love Saturdays y
domingos (Me encantan los Saturdays y los domingos; Ada & Savadier, 2002) was very
young; even so, she was beginning to develop a cultural identity, based on the cultural
experiences she had with each set of grandparents each weekend.
In the mainstream text set, familism was weaker and often completely absent.
Only half the books featured a family at all, only two included grandparents, and only
two featured a child who had siblings. Family strength and love was a primary theme in
three books in the mainstream text set, however, and it was evident as a value in six. In
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (Silvestre y la piedrecita mágica; Steig, 1969/1990),
familism was apparent when the main character’s parents were devastated by his
disappearance. It was evident that their family shared a close emotional bond and that
they relied on each other for emotional support. In two other books in the mainstream text
set, Kiss Good Night (¡Un beso de buenas noches!; Hest & Jeram, 2001) and The Kissing
Hand (Un beso en mi mano; Penn et al., 1993/2002), the primary theme was a mother’s
reassurance of her love for her child. These books both conveyed valuing the family as a
source of emotional support by portraying mothers who reassured their children (one bear
and one raccoon) when they were nervous or having trouble falling asleep.
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In Chrysanthemum (Crisantemo; Henkes, 1991/1993), familism was not a
primary content theme but it was evident when Chrysanthemum’s parents provided
ample emotional support. They constantly reassured her that she was perfect, despite
what her classmates told her at school. However, Chrysanthemum was not content with
her family’s high opinion; she needed her classmates’ acceptance as well in order to be
happy. In other texts in the mainstream text set, such as Frog and Toad Are Friends
(Sapo y Sepo son amigos; Lobel, 1970/2001), the main characters relied on friends for
emotional support, caretaking, and companionship, rather than family members.
Obligation to family was evident in the mainstream text set in Miss Rumphius (La
señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996) when the main character made a promise
to her grandfather that she would make the world more beautiful and felt compelled to
carry out her promise. In addition, in A Chair for My Mother (Un sillón para mi mamá;
Williams, 1982/1994), the grandmother lived with her daughter’s family. This was the
only text in the mainstream text set to show caretaking of an extended family member.
The only evidence of valuing the family as a referent in the mainstream text set
was in Miss Rumphius (La señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996) when the main
character used her grandfather as a referent when she planned her life to follow in his
footsteps. The other characters in this text set did not seem to define themselves based on
their families.
In some books in the mainstream text set, familism as a value was noticeably
absent. For example, in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
(Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso; Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989),
the main character’s family did not provide emotional support when he was having a bad
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day. In this book, Alexander did not find emotional support from his brothers; they
fought physically and called each other names. He did not find emotional support from
his mother, either. Whereas the main character’s mother in My Very Own Room / Mi
propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) worked hard to rearrange things for her
daughter when she was unhappy, Alexander’s mother simply told him that, “some days
are like that” (alugnos días son así). While the mother in My Very Own Room / Mi propio
cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) was depicted lovingly embracing her daughter, no
physical affection was portrayed in the illustrations in Alexander and the Terrible,
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso,
horroroso; Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989). Throughout the text, his mother’s facial
expressions in the illustrations were either angry, frustrated, or oblivious to her son’s
difficulties.
Individualism
Individualism was felt to be a mainstream value (not Mexican American) by the
Mexican American focus groups in Knight et al.’s (2010) study, and this was reflected in
the CR text set. Individualism includes a desire to separate oneself from others through
competition and personal achievement, valuing gaining independence, and valuing
material success over other things like personal relationships (Knight et al., 2010).
Valuing competition and personal achievement was evident in just two CR texts.
In First Day in Grapes (Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez & Casilla, 2004), the main
character hoped to win a math competition at school and tried to do well so that his
teacher would like him. However, the motivation to do well in school also came from the
main character’s desire to honor his family. In Carlos and the Skunk / Carlos y el zorrillo
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(Romero Stevens & Arnold, 1997), the main character wanted his female friend to notice
“how brave and smart he was becoming” (lo valiente e inteligente que se estaba
haciendo), representing a desire to separate himself from other possible suitors. I did not
find any other evidence of valuing competition and personal achievement in the CR text
set.
In Carlos and the Skunk / Carlos y el zorrillo (Romero Stevens & Arnold, 1997),
Carlos also seemed to value gaining independence, in that he was eager to show that he
could catch a skunk by himself. In addition, in Finding the Music / En pos de la música
(Torres & Alarcão, 2015), the main character takes it upon herself to go out into the
neighborhood to try and fix the vihuela on her own and in Grandma and Me at the Flea /
Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), the children run around
the flea market by themselves. However, this wandering could also be interpreted as a
portrayal of the strength of community in that the children feel cared for by their
neighbors, rather than as an assertion of childhood independence. In other CR texts, the
characters seemed not to value independence. For example, in My Very Own Room / Mi
propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), it would be easy to assume that the main
character wanted independence from her family; however, all she really wanted was a
little elbow room. Once she had her own physical space, she immediately invited her
brothers in to hear a story. Another example was in My Tata’s Remedies / Los remedios
de mi tata (Rivera-Ashford & Castro L., 2015); the main character was eager to learn a
skill from his grandfather but did not express any hurry to become independent from him.
The families in the CR text set also did not value material success over more
important things like family relationships, even though they struggled with poverty.
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There were no instances where characters compromised their families in order to earn
more money, though they worked in difficult conditions in order to provide for them.
Individualism was much more evident in the mainstream text set, especially in the
form of valuing personal achievement and competition. The main character in Clark the
Shark (Simón el tiburón; Hale & Francis, 2013/2014) was described right off the bat as
“the biggest and the fastest” (el más grande y fuerte) and Swimmy only survived because
he could swim faster than his brothers and sisters in Swimmy (Nadarín; Lionni,
1963/1969). Alexander spent much of his day comparing what he had to what his
brothers had in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
(Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso; Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989)
and Chrysanthemum laughed when her classmate forgot her lines in the school play in
Chrysanthemum (Crisantemo; Henkes, 1991/1993). The duck in Duck on a Bike (Pato va
en bici; Shannon, 2002) showed off his cycling skills to all his neighbors, and the hen in
The Little Red Hen (La gallinita roja; McQueen, 1985/1987) triumphantly ate the bread
she made in front of her friends without sharing.
The importance of gaining independence was also evident in the mainstream text
set. For example, in Miss Rumphius (La señorita Runfio; Cooney & Porter, 1982/1996),
the main character set off alone to see the world as soon as she was able, without mention
of her family. The main character Swimmy (Nadarín; Lionni, 1963/1969) was the only
survivor after a larger fish ate the rest of his school. He quickly accepted that he was
alone and began to enjoy the wonderful sights and adventures that the sea had to offer.
Material success in the form of prioritizing earning money over other things like
personal relationships was evident in one mainstream text. In The Giving Tree (El árbol
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generoso; Silverstein, 1964/1988), the main character exploited his best (tree) friend in
order to make money.
Role of School and Literacy
School literacy was decidedly absent in the CR books. Only First Day in Grapes
(Primer día en las uvas; King Pérez & Casilla, 2004) featured a child physically going to
school. There he encountered a supportive teacher, an intimidating bus driver, and two
bullies. This character, Chico, was proud of his quick math skills, which were developed
outside of school by adding up crates of fruit. Chico did not like to write; as a third
grader, he worked hard to squeeze out four short sentences to please the teacher. He
wanted to be a race car driver and believed that going to school was useless, but he
continued to attend out of a sense of duty to his family. Success for Chico in this book
came when he liked his teacher, managed to stand up to the bullies, and got a few
friendly words from the bus driver. His main concerns as a migrant child were fitting into
his new social environment and fulfilling his obligation to his family. His attitude
towards the usefulness of school in general, and literacy in particular, did not change
during the course of the story.
Literacy outside of school played a role in several books in the CR text set,
however. The main characters in My Diary from Here to There / Mi diario de aquí hasta
allá (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2002) and Nana’s Big Surprise / Nana, ¡qué sorpresa! (Pérez &
Gonzalez, 2007) both wrote in diaries, and the protagonist in My Very Own Room / Mi
propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) sought out library books as an essential
component in completing her new “room.” Notably, all three of these books are by the
same author, who is a former elementary school teacher. In Grandma and Me at the Flea
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/ Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), the main character
wrote original poems in a notebook in his spare time. In Braids / Trencitas (Contreras &
Lindmark, 2009), the main character taught her grandmother to read using lotería cards.
This enabled her to read the stories the main character liked to write and they also began
to exchange letters. All of these characters used reading and writing outside of school to
enhance their lives. Interestingly, none of the books in the CR text set took up the issue of
learning to read and write in both Spanish and English.
In the mainstream text set, six books took place entirely or partly at school and
school played a central role in these texts. In two of them, the plot revolved around how
to behave correctly in school, principally by playing nicely with friends and being quiet
and respectful in class. Two other books were about feeling nervous about the first day of
school. Literacy did not play a central role in any of the mainstream texts. In Clark the
Shark (Simón el tiburón; Hale & Francis, 2013/2014), Clark was excited about reading in
school, but when he expressed this his teacher told him, “Less shouting, more reading”
(menos gritos y más lectura). In How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? (¿Cómo van a la
escuela los dinosaurios?; Yolen & Teague, 2007), one page featured a teacher reading
aloud to the class. The text on this page read, “Does he stir up the classroom by making a
noise?” (¿Revuelve la clase? ¿Hace ruido y alborota?) On this page, the teacher looked
angry, the dinosaur looked bored and sleepy, and the two children shown were giggling at
the noise the dinosaur made.
Out of school literacy surfaced briefly and only twice in the mainstream text set.
In Kiss Good Night (¡Un beso de buenas noches!; Hest & Jeram, 2001) the young bear
main character and his mother knew all the words to a bedtime story by heart, and in The
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Kissing Hand (Un beso en mi mano) (Penn et al., 1993), the main character raccoon likes
to read books at home and his mother tells him that he will get to read new books at
school.
Summary of Results for Part 1
In this section I present a brief summary of the results for each text set.
CR Text Set
Most of the CR texts were written in the first person and several were
autobiographical. All main characters were Mexican American children; half were male
and half were female. Nearly all the children came from two-parent nuclear families with
parents who immigrated from Mexico, and most of the children had siblings, sometimes
up to five. The texts adhered to traditional gender roles. All the protagonists had dark hair
and more than half had dark skin. The books mostly took place in specific locations in the
United States, most often in California, but several also featured trips across the border
into Mexico for various reasons. Nearly half the families depicted struggled with poverty
to some degree.
The CR texts contained abundant cultural makers, in both text and illustration. All
the CR texts featured at least one cultural marker and eight of the texts featured cultural
markers in five or more of the seven categories. Traditional Mexican food, terms of
address, and Mexican clothing were the three most common cultural markers found.
Mexican décor, music and entertainment, and cultural celebrations were also abundant.
Traditional medicine was the least common cultural marker, only found in two CR books.
Overall, the CR text set was rich in cultural themes. In fact, all but two books
emphasized one of the focal cultural themes as its primary content theme. The most
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common primary content theme in the CR text set was family love, featured in thirteen
books, followed by intergenerationalism specifically as a primary theme in eight books,
and cultural pride as a primary theme in five. Community strength, immigration, poverty,
Mexico as home, migrant farmworkers, and language issues were also present as primary
content themes in one to three texts each. In addition, these culturally relevant themes
often surfaced in the CR texts even when they were not the primary focus. For example,
immigration was referenced or implied in nearly every CR text because it was part of the
families’ histories.
The cultural value of familism was strong in the CR text set. All books in the CR
text set showed family members who loved and supported one another. Some also
showed obligation to family and the family as a referent. Individualism was less evident
in the CR text set, but there were a few instances where the characters may have valued
gaining independence. Competition surfaced briefly in just two texts, and individualism
in the form of valuing material success over other things like personal relationships was
not evident in the CR text set. School literacy was only featured in one CR book, and not
in a very positive light. Literacy outside of school, however, was evident in several texts.
Mainstream Text Set
The mainstream stories were mostly written in the third person and none were
autobiographical. In terms of main characters, none were Mexican American. Most were
animals rather than people. Most protagonists were male and only one text showed a very
slight departure from stereotypical gender expectations. The child characters in the
mainstream text set came from upper- and middle-class families (with one exception) and
most did not have siblings. None came from immigrant families or spoke a language
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other than English and all human protagonists had light skin. Half the families did not
include a father figure, and only one book featured a grandparent. None of the
mainstream books provided a specific location for the characters, but all took place in the
“general” United States.
The mainstream text set also contained no Mexican cultural markers and very
limited access to themes and values that are important to Mexican American culture.
Family love was apparent in the mainstream texts, but mostly in the texts with animal
characters. Familism was evident in some texts that portrayed human characters, but was
also lacking in others. Many mainstream texts portrayed the mainstream value of
individualism, especially in the form of competition. While several texts took place in
school settings, literacy did not play a major role in any of the books in this text set.
In the next chapter, I will present my findings for Part 2 of the study.
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Chapter 5: Results of Part 2
In this chapter I present my findings for the classroom portion of the study where
I examined how first-grade students in a Spanish-language learning environment
responded to three mainstream texts and three CR texts through writing and discussion.
The goal of this portion of the study was to answer my second research question: How
does the cultural content of a text affect students’ reading responses, if at all?
Each day of data collection, I first met with two groups of four focal students
during which time I invited them to conduct a short picture walk of that day’s read-aloud
text. In analyzing these data, I examined the videos and transcripts of the picture walks to
see which aspects of the texts the children chose to discuss; I focused attention on
cultural elements, as well as whether students seemed to connect with the texts
personally. I also discussed each text in depth with the eight focal students after the
reading. I analyzed the videos and transcripts of the post-reading discussions, once again
looking for personal connections and connections to cultural themes and content.
All 22 participating students responded in writing to each text after the read aloud
sessions, except any who were absent on a given day. I analyzed the students’ written
responses to each text, looking for evidence of personal connection as well as
connections to cultural markers, themes, and values. In looking for personal connections
to text in the written responses, I noticed that they fell into two categories. The first type
occurred when the students directly referenced personal preferences or experiences in
relation to the text, such as, YO LE GUSTA EL PARTE CON LAS SAPATOS PORQE YO
LE GUSTA LOS NEVAS SAPATOS (I like the part with the shoes because I like new
shoes) or, “Su mamá vino y estaba enojada su mamá y eso me ha pasado” (His mom
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came and his mom was mad and that has happened to me). This type of personal
connection can be considered a “mirror” experience, where students see their lives
reflected in the book. The second type of personal connection occurred when students
extended or inserted themselves into the story or described how they would act in the
character’s shoes, such as, YO VOI ALLUDAR CANNDO ALLI UN PROBLEMA SI AII
FEGO EN UNA CASA O UNA ESCUELA O VOI ALLUDAR A PERSONAS SI SU CASA
TENE FUEGO (I will help when there is a problem if there is fire in a house or a school
or I will help people if their house is on fire). This type of personal connection represents
a “sliding door” experience, where students can step into the story world.
In the following sections of this chapter I present a description of the students’
written and oral responses to each text, focusing on personal connections as well as
connections to cultural elements. The texts are presented in the order in which we read
them during the study, beginning with the mainstream texts. Both because of the young
age of the students and because the English home language (EHL) students in the
classroom were attempting to write and speak in their second language, significant
grammar and spelling errors are present. I have preserved the students’ original words
exactly as written or spoken, with English translations provided in parentheses. Written
responses are notated in capital letters. Spanish words are italicized. Following my
review of the results of students’ responses to each picture book, I will summarize the
results by sub-question for RQ2.
Book 1: Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroroso
This book is a translation of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very
Bad Day (Viorst & Cruz, 1972). This classic text, hereafter referred to simply as
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Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1972/1989), tells the story of a young boy who wakes up
with gum in his hair and continues to have things go wrong for him all day long. It is a
humorous book with a universally relatable theme (who hasn’t had a bad day?); the plot
and language are relatively simple, and I thought it would be an ideal text for our first day
of written response. The main character, Alexander, is a White middle class boy with red
hair and strong emotions living in an unspecified American town circa 1970. Alexander…
(Viorst & Cruz, 1972) is an ALA Notable Book and is recommended as a Teacher’s
Choice book for read-aloud by the NEA and a top picture book by SLJ (Table 3). Before
the read-aloud session I was not aware that this book was made into a major motion
picture in 2014, but a few of the children expressed that they were familiar with the
movie. This text did not show evidence of any of the Mexican American cultural themes
or markers when I analyzed it using the text analysis protocol (Table 4).
Table 4. Written Connections to Cultural Themes in Focal Texts by Home Language Group
Title Primary MA Content Themes
Evidence of Themes in Written Responses
SHL Students EHL Students
Alexander… None N/A N/A La señorita Runfio None N/A N/A Un sillón para mi mamá Family, Poverty 2 (25%) 2 (15%) Finding the Music … Community, Family 7 (88%) 9 (69%) My Very Own Room … Family, Poverty 3 (38%) 6 (55%)
Grandma and Me at the Flea …
Community, Intergenerationalism* 3 (43%) 4 (33%)
*Cultural Pride theme not counted
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Picture Walks
I provided little instruction and no teacher modeling for how to conduct the
picture walks. I simply asked the students to look at the book in pairs and to talk about
what they saw happening on each page.
Spanish home language (SHL) focal students’ picture walks. Because
Verónica arrived at school late, another SHL student (Araceli) came to my table to do the
picture walk with Yolanda. The two girls easily took turns describing what happened on
each page, as commanded by Yolanda who kept track of whose turn it was. They
described what Alexander was doing on each page, often adding that he was mad.
Yolanda described the page where Alexander is picked up by the carpool by saying, “Yo
veo que se van en un carrito. Y que el niño todavía está enojado. Que tiene un chicle
pegado en su cabeza [heh]. Tu turno.” (I see that they are going in a little car. And that
the boy is still mad. That he has gum stuck on his head [heh]. Your turn.) The two girls
did not hesitate to add their personal opinions, but they did not appear to “step in” to the
text or make personal connections. Yolanda’s first comment upon turning to the first page
of the text was, “Yo veo que el niño está bien bravo. Y tiene un cochinero en su cuarto
[giggle]. Tu turno.” (I see that the boy is very wild. And he has a pigsty of a room
[giggle]. Your turn.)
Javier and Rafael were very animated as they completed the picture walk
together. Javier frequently pointed to something on the page, shouting “¡Mira! ¡(M)ira,
(m)ira, (m)ira!” (Look! Look, look, look!) After turning each page, he frequently began
by saying, “Ah, mira, me gusta esta página también.” (Ah, look, I like this page too.) The
two boys commented often about Alexander’s facial expressions, sometimes imitating the
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expressions themselves. The boys especially liked Alexander’s skateboard and
commented on the number of toys in his room. Javier said, “Otra patineta yo veo. Tiene
ochenta y mil.” (I see another skateboard. He has eighty and a thousand.) Javier once
talked back to the mother character in the text who is scolding Alexander, saying, “¿Me
regañas? ¡Pshh!” (Are you scolding me? Pshh!) It was not clear whether Javier was
providing dialogue to go along with the pictures, or if he was speaking as Alexander
himself. Javier also sometimes embellished the situations depicted in the text, adding
high drama with lots of humor. For example, when Alexander is shown crying with pain
after being tripped by his brother, he narrated, “¡Está llorando, está gritando a las
policias que vengan y que lo lleven a la carcel [laughing]!” (He’s crying, he’s yelling for
the police to come and take him to jail [laughing]!)
The SHL students did not have any trouble deciphering what was going on in the
pictures; the only errors that occurred were when Javier identified the car as a taxi and
Alexander’s muffin as a papaya, and it’s possible in the case of the papaya that he was
just being silly.
English home language (EHL) focal students’ picture walks. During their
picture walk, Ian and Oliver were very focused on describing what was happening to
Alexander and how he was feeling on each page. The two boys added many details to fill
in the story line, such as noting that Alexander was the only one who had a cavity at the
dentist and saying that he was embarrassed when he had to turn in a blank piece of paper
at school. They did not step into the character’s shoes, but they focused on trying to
determine the reason behind his actions, as illustrated by the following exchange.
Oliver: El está muy triste. (He is very sad.)
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Ian: ¿Por qué? (Why?) Oliver: No sé. ¿Es triste o ... ? (I don’t know. Is he sad or…?) Ian: Es (He’s) um, embarrassed. Oliver: Embarrassed. Ian: De no sé. Es embarrassing um... [turns page]. (Of I don’t know what. It’s embarrassing um… [turns page]). Ava was absent on the day we read this text and Verónica arrived late, so
Verónica and Brianna did their picture walk together even though Verónica was usually
part of the SHL group. They were in a very silly mood and spent a significant portion of
the time talking about Alexander’s pants falling down, although this does not happen in
the text. Verónica was actually quite absorbed in examining the pictures in the text,
however, and used her voice to speak for Alexander, using English and saying things
like, “Owww, my foot hurts! It’s horrible! [laugh] Owww, they dropped me on the
floor!”, showing her ability and willingness to step into the character’s shoes. She and
Yolanda both declared that Alexander was bad. Verónica said, “Oh my, he’s a bad, bad
kid.” Brianna seemed to be more interested in talking with Verónica about things other
than the text, such as a large blister she had on her hand from bar practice at gymnastics
class.
Written Responses
In total, seven out of 20 students (35%) made a personal connection to this text
during the whole-class writing and drawing period, three SHL students and four EHL
students (Table 5). Some commonalities across language groups were evident in the
responses. Nearly all the written responses to this text began with some variation of either
A MI ME GUSTÓ CUANDO… (I liked it when…) or MI PARTE FAVORITA ERA… (My
favorite part was…), showing that even at the beginning of first grade, the students had
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already internalized a standard format for written response to text. This pattern continued
throughout the course of the study.
Also, nearly all students wrote that they enjoyed when bad things happened to
Alexander, showing an appreciation for the entertainment value of this text. For example,
Araceli wrote, A MI ME GUSTO CUANDO HSU ERMANO LE YAMO CRAIBEIBI. (I
liked it when his brother called him crybaby.) Four students (two EHL and two SHL),
however, criticized the brother characters for fighting. An example of such a response
was, LOS NIÑOS ESTAN UN POCITOS MALOS Y PELIADO Y TAMIEN DIJO CE NO
JUGARA. (The boys are a little bad and fighting and also she said not to play.) Although
much of the book takes place at school, none of the students wrote about events that
happened in the classroom. I will now present a summary of the students’ written
responses by dominant home-language group.
Table 5. Number of Personal Connections (and Associated Percentages) Evident in Written Responses by Home Language Group
SHL Personal Connections
EHL Personal Connections
Total Personal Connections
Alexander… 3 (43%) 4 (33%) 7 (35%)
La señorita Runfio 1 (14%) 3 (30%) 4 (24%)
Un sillón para mi mamá 4 (50%) 4 (31%) 8 (38%)
Finding the Music / En pos de la música 4 (50%) 2 (10%) 6 (29%)
My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito 4 (50%) 4 (36%) 8 (42%)
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros 3 (43%) 4 (33%) 7 (39%)
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SHL students’ writing. Nine SHL students were present but Rafael turned in a
blank piece of paper and another student missed most of the read aloud, leaving seven
written responses in this group. The most common topics written about in response to this
text by the SHL students were when Alexander got gum in his hair (n = 3) and when the
brothers in the story were fighting (n = 3). Three out of the seven SHL students (43%)
who wrote about this text made a personal connection (Table 5), two to personal
experiences (mirror connections) and one who extended the story world into her life
through a “sliding door” type of connection (Table 6). However, neither of the personal
connections were included in the written responses; both were made during their
dictations to Ms. Diaz. One student recalled a time when he had had gum stuck in his hair
and Araceli said that her mother was once mad at her when she was fighting with her
brother.
Table 6. Type of Personal Connections in Written Responses by Home Language Group SHL Personal Connections EHL Personal Connections
Title Mirror Sliding Door Mirror Sliding Door Alexander… 2 1 4 0 La señorita Runfio 0 1 3 0
Un sillón para mi mamá 0 4 4 0
Finding the Music / En pos de la música 2 2 2 0
My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito 2 2 4 0
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros 2 1 4 0
Despite the fact that I met with the SHL group to discuss this text before they
completed their writing, none of the SHL focal students wrote personal connections in
their written responses except for Verónica, and hers was far removed from the events of
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the actual text. She chose instead to extend the text’s meaning. Her response, SI TU ASES
UN MALA DIA NO ESTA VIEN TU DIA MALA SI O NO PIESA ABLA SI ABLA NO YO
TEGO BIEN TU SI TU NO (If you do a bad day it isn’t good your bad day yes or no think
say yes say no I have good you yes you no), showed her connection of the words “bad
day” to her behavior at school. She explained to me that she and her sister report to their
mother on whether they have had bad or good days at school and that they are rewarded
for good behavior.
EHL students’ writing. Four out of 12 EHL students (33%) made personal
connections to this text in their responses (Table 5). Three of the personal connections
were to life experiences: Ian and Madison remembered times when they fell and scraped
their knees and another EHL student said that sometimes his mother forgets to put dessert
in his lunchbox. The fourth personal connection was a personal preference: Oliver wrote
that he liked the part when they bought shoes because he likes new shoes. Oliver was the
only student to include his personal connection in his writing, however; the rest were
made during dictations to Ms. Diaz. All 12 EHL students chose to write about things that
happened to Alexander. Ian wrote, YO ME GUSTO CUANDO ALEXANDRA LO HICE
CHREP Y LUEGO CAYO EN EL FANGO PORQUE ERA MUY MUY MUY MUY MUY
MUY CHISTOSO. (I liked it when Alexander tripped and then he fell in the mud because
it was very, very, very, very, very, very funny.) In fact, there was only one student in the
class who did not seem to find this book enjoyable. This EHL student wrote, ERE UN
BÍY TRIB POR QEU TUS ELMNOS GARO DOROS LO COSAS Y ESTO ERE TERIBE.
(It was a terrible day because his brothers got all the things and that was terrible.)
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Although I did not meet with the EHL focal students until after they had
completed their written responses, all but Brianna made personal connections to this text
in their writing or dictations.
Discussions
I met with the SHL group first to hear their thoughts on the story while the rest of
the students worked on their written responses, supervised by Ms. Diaz.
SHL focal students’ discussion. When I first sat down at the kidney-shaped table
with Javier, Rafael, Yolanda, and Verónica, I asked the students what they thought about
the book I had just read aloud to the class (“¿Qué pensaron de este libro?”). Javier
responded, “Yo nada.” (I [thought] nothing.) Some talk about finding pencils for writing
ensued and then I tried again with the same question. This time, it was Yolanda who
responded, “Yo no pensé nada.” (I didn’t think anything.) At this point the students
began flipping through the book; Javier and Verónica were laughing and arguing over
whether there was an elephant in the text. I asked, “¿Alguna vez han tenido un día así
terrible?” (Have you ever had a terrible day like that?), and this opened the discussion.
Rafael said that he had a stomach ache that morning. Javier said that he had soccer
practice and they would have to cancel it if the coach didn’t show up. Yolanda launched
into a story about her younger sister’s “día espantoso” (scary day) at preschool, where
she was frightened by some kids who threw water on her. She emphasized that, in
contrast to the book title, her sister’s day was “sólo espantoso” (just scary). She went on
to tell us that her sister did not cry, but that she did develop the flu and a cough. Rafael
said, “Yo también tuve un día espantoso” (I also had a scary day), and the students were
then eager to jump into a discussion of scary things, sparked by the word espantoso
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(scary or frightening) in the title of the Spanish version of this text. Rafael reported that
he was afraid that there were wolves at his house and Yolanda said that her little sister
was afraid there were tigers in their yard. She also told a story about a time when the
bathroom door closed all by itself, leading her to believe that there was a ghost in her
house. Javier said that this happened at his house too. Yolanda and Javier became very
serious about ghosts; Yolanda said, “No, sí, Rafael, de veras.” (No, yes, Rafael, really.)
The students were eager to share personal stories, but did not connect their personal
experiences to Alexander’s. The word “scary” is not part of the title of this text in the
original English version, and I believe it is somewhat misleading. Although espantoso
can also mean dreadful, it is a less common use of the word.
After this detour, I tried to bring the discussion back to the book by asking the
students if they had a favorite part. With some pressing from me to elaborate on their
responses, Verónica and Yolanda made connections from the book to their own lives.
Verónica said that she liked when the characters got new shoes. When I asked why she
told me that she likes the new shoes at Target. Yolanda said she liked it when they got
prizes from the cereal boxes because she never gets a prize in her cereal. Javier reported
that he liked Alexander’s invisible drawing and Rafael liked when the brothers were
fighting; although neither boy could say why, it appeared that they enjoyed those parts of
the book because they were entertaining and not because they were reminded of their
own lives. The SHL students’ small-group discussion was loud and lively, with lots of
side conversations, laughing, flipping pages, and fighting over the books.,
After the writing period, I checked in with three of the focal students in this group
about their writing and asked them if they felt that they or someone in their family could
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be in this book. Yolanda said that she could not be in this book (Table 7) but that maybe
her brother could be because he likes to scare people; she was still very focused on the
word espantoso. Verónica said she doesn’t like bad days because she doesn't get anything
from her mother but that both she and her sister have bad days at school sometimes. She
felt that her sister could possibly be in the book because of this. Javier told me that he did
not like this book because of the fighting. He felt that the boys’ fighting was not up to
professional standards, citing his knowledge of Mexican wrestling on television. He said,
“Están peleando muy feo. No luchadores. Como pow pow pow, bum bum bum. De Benito
Juárez.” (They are fighting very ugly. Not [like] fighters. Like pow, pow, pow, bum,
bum, bum. Like on Benito Juárez.) Despite his criticism, it was clear that Javier enjoyed
this book, and at the end of the study he chose it as his favorite (Table 8). His comments
about Alexander’s toys and invisible drawing indicated that he admired and perhaps
envied Alexander to some extent. However, he said that he didn’t feel that he could be
part of the story (Table 7).
EHL focal students’ discussion. At the table with me were Ian, Oliver, Brianna,
and, because Ava was absent, Madison (a White EHL student who is in the lowest
Spanish reading group). The EHL students started off by reading their written responses
to me one at a time. Oliver wrote that he liked when they got new shoes because he likes
new shoes, Ian and Madison both liked when Alexander fell down in the mud because
they thought it was funny, and Brianna wrote that she liked when he got gum in his hair.
When I asked if there was anything they didn’t like about the book, Brianna responded
that she didn’t like it when the brothers were pushing each other because “it was mean.”
Madison agreed.
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Table 7. Focal Students’ Affirmative Responses to the Question “Could You Be Part of This
Book?”
Alexander
…
La señorita Runfio
Un sillón para mi mamá
Finding the
Music…
My Very Own
Room… Grandma and Me…
SHL students
Javier X X X Rafael N/R* X X X
Verónica X X X Yolanda X X N/R
EHL students
Ava N/R X X Brianna X
Ian X X X X X X Oliver X X X X
* No Response
Table 8. Focal Students’ Favorite and Least Favorite Focal Texts
Favorite Least Favorite
SHL students
Javier Alexander… My Very Own Room …
Rafael La señorita Runfio Alexander…
Verónica Finding the Music … La señorita Runfio
Yolanda Finding the Music … Alexander…
EHL students
Ava My Very Own Room … Un sillón para mi mamá
Brianna Alexander… My Very Own Room …
Ian La señorita Runfio Un sillón para mi mamá
Oliver Finding the Music … Alexander…
I then asked if the book reminded them of anything. Ian described a time when he
sustained a head injury. I asked whether they could be part of the book. Brianna said “no”
and Oliver said “yes” but neither could elaborate. I asked whether someone in their
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family could be part of the book. Oliver immediately replied that his younger brother
could be in the book because he is “rough” and can tackle him. Brianna said that she
would not want to be in this text because she wouldn’t want gum in her hair or to fall
down. Madison said that she and her family didn’t write the book so they couldn’t be in
it, showing a lack of understanding of the question. Ian, however, jumped in to show that
he could in fact be part of this text.
Ian: Yo sé. Mi hermano y yo podemos ser en este libro porque hermana y yo tiene fights. Um, we get in fights. Cuando, como en todos los días. (I know. My sister and I can be in this book because my sister and I have fights. Um, we get in fights. When, like on every day.)
Finally, I asked if Alexander’s life was like theirs. Madison said that her life is
harder than Alexander’s because her sister “terrorizes” her and she has three bad dogs.
Ian said that there are bullies in his neighborhood who threw a piece of pizza at his door
once and got in a lot of trouble. At the very end of the conversation, Brianna held up her
blistered hand for me to see, saying with a grin, “Una cosa terrible es este.” (A terrible
thing is this.) Although none of the students made particularly deep connections, the
connections made by the EHL students showed that they could easily connect the events
in the text to their own lives.
Preferences
Three SHL students in the class (all boys) chose Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz,
1989) as their favorite book, including Javier. Interestingly, all three of these students
also chose My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) as their
least favorite book. Four SHL students in the class chose Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz,
1989) as their least favorite book, including Yolanda and Rafael (Tables 8 and 9).
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Table 9. Classroom Students’ Favorite and Least Favorite Focal Texts
Favorite Book Least Favorite Book
SHL EHL Total SHL EHL Total
Alexander… 3 4 7 4 4 8
La señorita Runfio 1 2 3 1 1 2
Un sillón para mi mamá 0 0 0 1 3 4
Finding the Music / En pos de la música 4 4 8 0 1 1
My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito 1 2 3 3 1 4
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros 0 1 1 0 1 1
Four EHL students in the class chose this text as their favorite, including Madison
and Brianna, making it the second most popular text in the study. Four EHL students,
including Oliver, chose it as their least favorite book, making it also the book that
received the most votes for least favorite. During the small group discussion, the EHL
focal students seemed to find Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) extremely funny and to
enjoy it more than the SHL focal students, with the exception of Javier, who seemed to
delight in Alexander’s toys, invisible drawing, and feisty mannerisms, and chose this text
as his favorite (Tables 8 and 9).
This book received the most votes overall (in either direction). It was also the first
book we read and therefore the first book shown on the voting sheet, which could have
had an effect.
Book 2: La señorita Runfio
This is a translation of Miss Rumphius (Cooney & Porter, 1982). The book tells
the story of Miss Rumphius, who grows up in a town by the sea, goes off to see the
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world, and comes back to live by the sea only to wonder how she will keep a promise
made long ago to her grandfather to make the world more beautiful. She eventually
decides to do this by scattering lupine flower seeds throughout the countryside. The
narrator, who is Miss Rumphius’ grandniece, knows that she too must make the world
more beautiful when she grows up and the text ends with her wondering how she will
accomplish this. This book has been a popular choice among teachers since its release in
1982. It was a National Book Award winner and is on the NEA’s (2007) and SLJ’s Top
100 lists (Table 3). The main character, Miss Rumphius, is an upper-class White female
with red hair that eventually turns gray and then white as she grows from a girl to an old
woman.
According to my analysis using the text analysis protocol, this text has no
evidence of MA cultural markers (Table 4). It does show some evidence of
intergenerationalism and familism, though neither are primary themes.
Picture Walks
I met with the EHL focal students first and they were already beginning to be
more familiar with the routine. Once again, I asked them to look at the pictures and to
talk about what they saw and what was happening in the story.
EHL focal students’ picture walks. Ian and Oliver once again chose to sit
together for their picture walk. The boys took turns eagerly describing what they saw on
each page, with Ian sometimes jumping in to correct Oliver’s Spanish. Their talk with
this text tended more towards naming things on each page rather than attempting to
narrate a storyline or determine character emotions, most likely because the vocabulary in
this book is more challenging for a language learner than Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz,
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1989) as it does not focus on the everyday routine. For example, Ian said, “Yo veo un, un
barco, yo veo un um yo veo un hmmm ¿qué veo? Veo un painting y veo un persona. Tu
turno.” (I see a, a ship, I see an um, I see a… hmmm what do I see? I see a painting and I
see a person. Your turn.) When I asked what they thought was going to happen in this
text after the picture walk, they were able to tell me that the main character traveled a lot
and that she got very, very old.
Brianna was contentedly flipping through the pages of the book talking about
what she saw until I intervened and asked her to let Ava have a turn to say something as
well. She did so, but still maintained physical control of the book, sliding it towards Ava
when it was her turn and then pulling it back quickly. Brianna was quick to identify the
places to which Miss Rumphius traveled. The pictures show her on a tropical island,
climbing a snow-covered mountain, and riding a camel. Brianna said, “Y mira, está en la
nieve [turns page back], y mira que está en Hawaii [turns page] y mira que está en, um
Africa.” (And look, she’s in the snow [turns page back], and look, she’s in Hawaii [turns
page] and look, she’s in, um Africa.) When I asked what they thought the book would be
about after the picture walk, they also said that she would be traveling a lot.
SHL focal students’ picture walks. Yolanda and Rafael sat together for their
picture walk. Yolanda jumped right in, creating a humorous story loosely based on the
pictures she saw. On the first page of text, a little girl with red hair dressed in a fur-lined
overcoat and a beret-style hat is staring out over the snow-covered rooftops of what
appears to be a New England port town in the horse and buggy era, looking out over the
handrail at the sea and the ships. Yolanda said, “Yo veo que esta niña quiere caerse. Pa’
el suelo [laughing].” (I see that this girl wants to fall. To the ground [laughing].) On the
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second page of the book, there is an American Indian figurine shown outside a cigar
shop. Yolanda identified the statue as una señora (a woman) who wanted to enter the
store. The third page of text shows young Miss Rumphius sitting on her grandfather’s
knee in front of the fireplace. Above the mantel is a painting of a ship in a storm. Yolanda
continued to embellish the pictures with a dramatic back story and Rafael followed along,
elaborating.
Yolanda: Y aquí veo que este señor se está abrazando a la niña que no le conoce [laughing]. (And here I see that this man is hugging a girl who doesn’t know him [laughing].)
Rafael: Y yo veo que, que el papá de ella se murió en este tormenta. (And I see that, that her dad died in this storm.)
They discussed the pages where she travels around the world, but after Miss
Rumphius is shown in bed with long gray hair, they became committed to the idea that
she was a witch. This idea persisted to the end of the book, where they concluded that she
was trying to poison the children of the neighborhood.
Yolanda: Yo veo que esta señora está bien embrujada y que está engañando a estos niños. (I see that this woman is bewitched and that she is trying to trick those kids.)
Rafael: Y yo creo que esta bruja está engañando a los niños y lo, y quiere que se mueran. Y, y le están dando una de estas galletas venenosas. (And I think that witch is tricking the kids and that, and she wants them to die. And, and she’s giving them those poisonous cookies.)
When I asked what they thought the book would be about, Yolanda began telling
me that a witch was tricking the children; however, I had to interrupt her to dismiss
Verónica from the table for off-task behavior and Yolanda then quickly changed her
answer, saying that she thought the children in the story were picking lots of flowers for
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their mothers. To each other, Yolanda and Rafael said that they don’t like flowers,
although Yolanda wrote in her written response that she does.
Javier and Verónica worked together on the picture walk and had a difficult time
staying on-task. Javier began in a silly mood, pointing to each picture and exclaiming,
“Taa daaa!” Verónica then grabbed the book and began describing what she saw in the
pictures; however, when Javier became absorbed in listening to the other pair of students,
Verónica decided she needed to step up her game if she was going to hold his attention.
She proclaimed, “And that guy is pooping into the sea!” and continued to invent a story
based on bathroom language until I intervened. Later, she became very focused on
finding the cat in the pictures and proclaimed that the cat was escaping to Africa, despite
lack of evidence to support this theory. Javier then began imitating everything Verónica
said until finally she started hitting him with the book and I sent her away from the table.
This picture walk was not very productive.
Written Responses
After reading the book aloud to the class, I asked the students to once again write
about what the book made them think about. I also asked that if they chose to write about
their favorite part, they should tell me why they liked that part. This resulted in several
students who added PORQUE ES CHISTOSO (because it’s funny) to the end of their
writing, but also some who made more thoughtful justifications. Unfortunately, five
students were absent the day we read La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996),
making it the day with the lowest attendance.
Four out of the 17 students (24%) made personal connections to this text, one
SHL student and three EHL students (Table 5). The overwhelmingly most popular topic
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to write about across both home language groups was when Miss Rumphius scattered
flower seeds around the countryside. As an example, Yolanda’s written response was, A
MI ME GUSTO QUADO PLANTA LAS FLORES PORQUE ERAN AZULES Y
MORADAS Y TABIEN ME GUSTO LA PARTE DONDE KRESIERON LAS FLORES. (I
liked when she plants flowers because they were blue and purple and also I liked the part
when the flowers grew.) Although this part of the text was the climax of the story, it did
not exemplify intergenerationalism or familism, which were only secondary themes.
Several students also had a strong reaction to when Miss Rumphius was called “Esa Vieja
Loca” (That Crazy Old Lady) in the text, and chose to write about that.
EHL students’ writing. Three out of ten EHL students (30%) made a personal
connection to this text (Table 5), and two were focal students who had discussed their
personal connection to this text with me prior to writing (Oliver and Ian). Oliver wrote
that he and his parents like flowers and Ian wrote that he plants flowers with his mother,
which we had discussed during the small group discussion. The third EHL student told
Ms. Diaz during his dictation that he planted seeds with his mother, though he did not
include this in his writing or drawing.
Most of the EHL students (n = 7) chose to write that they liked when Miss
Rumphius scattered the flower seeds. Brianna wrote that she liked when the people in the
book called Miss Rumphius “Loca.” One EHL student wrote that she liked when the
main character was painting with her grandfather, showing the only connection made to
intergenerationalism.
SHL students’ writing. None of the seven SHL students present on this day
made a connection to a personal experience with this text. However, Rafael made a
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personal connection in the form of extending the story’s meaning into his own life (Table
6). Although he was only able to write half a sentence in his written response, in his
dictation to Ms. Diaz he completed his thought, saying, “Cuando yo este grande yo voy a
recoger la basura para que el mundo no este sucio.” (When I grow up I will pick up
trash so the world isn’t dirty.) Rafael was also the only SHL student who chose this text
as his favorite at the end of the study.
Four of the SHL students chose to write about Miss Rumphius throwing flower
seeds, two of whom mentioned the colors of the flowers. Two SHL students wrote about
when she was called “Loca.” I did not see evidence that the SHL students connected with
the themes of intergenerationalism or the value of familism in their written responses,
which is not surprising, given that these were not primary content themes.
Discussions
After the read aloud, I met with the EHL students first to discuss this text,
followed by the SHL group of focal students.
EHL focal students’ discussion. This was a somewhat short discussion. The
students all said that they liked when Miss Rumphius planted the flowers. Ian talked
about planting flowers with his mother. He said that he felt that his mother could be in the
book because she likes to buy flowers from the store and bring them home. Brianna was
focused on the traveling, as she had been during the picture walk. She said, “Yo voy
escribir, um, ella encanta, um, plantar, y, um, le gusta travel.” (I am going to write, um,
that she loves, um to plant and, um, she likes to travel.) However, she did not wind up
writing about traveling in her written response, despite expressing her intention to do so.
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Brianna, Oliver, and Ava did not feel that they or their family members could be
in this book. They said that, although their mothers do like flowers, they do not like them
“tantas” (as much) as Miss Rumphius. When I asked if there was a part of the book that
they did not like, Ava said that she did not like that the grass in front of Miss Rumphius’
house was brown and Oliver said that her house was ugly because it was old. Brianna did
not like when Miss Rumphius was in bed with a sore back because her room “está un
mess” (it’s a mess). Seemingly out of the blue, Ian related that he would be traveling to
the east coast to visit his grandparents for Christmas. It is possible that the illustrations in
this text were reminiscent of the town where his grandparents live, but he did not say so.
The students did not seem very excited to discuss this text and were calm and slow in
their responses.
SHL focal students’ discussion. The SHL students came to the table excited to
show me how much they had written in their responses. Javier wrote that he liked when
Miss Rumphius threw seeds. I asked him why and he said that he liked it because she was
“loca” (crazy). When I asked if he felt that he or someone in his family, such as his
mother, could be in this book, he seemed to become slightly offended and said that his
mother was not loca. I asked if he thought that Miss Rumpius was actually loca and he
replied that she was. He seemed hesitant to use this word to describe someone, almost
apologetic. Yolanda then read her response, in which she said that she liked the flowers
in the book because she likes the color blue. When I asked if she felt that her mother
belonged in the story she replied, “Sí, porque está bien loca [giggles]. Con mi papi pues
sí es.” (Yes, because she is very crazy [giggles]. Well, she is with my dad.) She then
launched into a discussion of her father’s drinking habits at the restaurant where he works
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and how upset this makes her mother. Rafael chimed in immediately, saying that his dad
used to come home very late and very drunk and his mother would scold him.
Rafael and Verónica also shared their written responses. Neither elaborated much,
although Rafael seemed proud of his response that he could make the world cleaner by
picking up trash; his response was written on a post-it by Ms. Diaz. Verónica wrote that
she liked the flowers in the book because they looked pretty but replied that she did not
feel that she or her mother could be part of this text.
I then asked if they liked it when Miss Rumphius traveled around the world and
the following exchange occurred:
Annie (Researcher): ¿Les gustaron cuando ella viajó? ¿Por todo el mundo? (Did you like it when she traveled? All around the world?) Yolanda: ¿Qué? (What?) Annie: Ella viajó a muchos lugares lejanos. (She traveled to many faraway places.) Javier: Muchos lugares. (Many places.) Yolanda: A mí no. A mí me gustó cuando- (I didn’t. I liked it when-) [taps her written response paper] Javier: No, yo no fui en [inaudible]. Yo fui en México. (No, I didn’t go to [inaudible]. I went to Mexico.) Yolanda: Eso es lo que iba a decir. (That’s what I was going to say.) Annie: ¿Tú has viajado a México? (You’ve been to Mexico?) Yolanda: Yo también- (Me, too-) Rafael: Yo también. (Me, too.) Javier: Yo también. Con mi carro. (Me, too. In my car.) Rafael: ¿Sí sabías que mi mamá y yo somos de México? (Did you know that my mom and I are from Mexico?) Annie: ¿Sí? (Oh?) Yolanda: Yo fui en México. Pero en avión. (I went to Mexico. But on a plane.) Verónica: Yo fui a México en mi carro. (I went to Mexico in my car.)
The students then engaged in a lengthy conversation about which of their relatives
lived in Mexico, who had visited there, and who had been baptized there. Although I
showed interest, their preference for this topic above all others was clear. Despite this
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lively conversation, none of the students wrote anything about their families in their
written responses to the text.
Preferences
Two EHL students in the class chose this text as their favorite, including Ian, who
made a personal connection to this text, and no EHL students chose it as their least
favorite. Rafael was the only SHL student in the class who chose this text as his favorite,
and he was also the only one who made a personal connection to it. Verónica was the
only SHL student in the class who chose this book as her least favorite (Tables 8 and 9).
Book 3: Un sillón para mi mamá
This is a translation of A Chair for My Mother (Williams, 1982). It is another
classic text that can often be found in elementary school classrooms. It tells the story of a
family whose home burns down in a fire. In their new home, the family saves coins in a
large jar until they can buy a beautiful new armchair where the mother can sit when she
comes home from long days serving tables. It is a Caldecott Honor book and an ALA
Notable book (Table 3). The main character, Rosa, has white skin and black hair worn in
two braids down her back. This text is the least mainstream of the mainstream texts,
mainly due to the fact that it portrays a family headed by a working-class single mother.
It also shows strong evidence of familism and contains several of the cultural themes
from my text analysis protocol: family, poverty, community, and intergenerationalism,
although only family and poverty were rated as primary themes (Table 4). It does not
contain any MA cultural markers.
Picture Walks
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Continuing the pattern of alternating the group I met with first, I saw the SHL
students before the EHL students for the picture walks and discussions of this text.
SHL focal students’ picture walks. Javier completed the picture walk with
Rafael this time, as I searched for the pairing that would yield the most on-task behavior.
Javier was very focused on counting things in the pictures. He began by counting birds on
the first page, then coins on the second page, and even began counting the floor tiles on
the page showing the characters in a bank. He did not attempt to connect the pictures with
a storyline, nor did he step into the character’s shoes. Rafael participated in the counting
as well, and also did not focus on providing a plot.
I had a talk with Verónica about her behavior after the last picture walk and she
came to the table determined to do her best. She began by describing what she saw
happening on the first page, “Ella está aquí y quiere a, a, a hacer adentro de el um, um
shop y ella dice, ‘Okay, puedo abrirlo para ti.’ ¿Que tú piensas?” (She is here and she
wants to, to, to get inside the um, um shop and she says, ‘Okay, I can open it for you.’
What do you think?) Verónica remained focused, quiet and serious throughout the picture
walk. She persisted in speaking careful Spanish even though she seemed more
comfortable in English, and even provided dialogue for the characters. Yolanda and
Verónica took turns describing what was happening on each page, as was Yolanda’s
custom. Verónica continued to provide thoughtful descriptions as well as dialogue for the
characters, while Yolanda seemed less engaged. She seemed preoccupied with checking
to see if they would finish their picture walk before the other pair of students, and at one
point even shut the book and jokingly said, “Ya acabó.” (It’s finished.) However, she was
also capable of inventing a plausible storyline to accompany the pictures, and at times did
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so. At one point, she correctly inferred, “Ella le compró un sillón de la rosa… No, ella le
compró un sillón para que su mamá descansara.” (She bought a chair with roses… No,
she bought a chair so that her mom could rest.) On the page where the main character and
her mother run towards her uncle, Yolanda said that the characters were running from a
man who wasn’t the girl’s mother or father; this was the second time she brought up an
unknown man trying to engage with a child during the picture walks.
Neither pair of SHL students discussed the house fire at length, although they did
notice it. Verónica said, “Aquí vio su casa y está, no está muy bonita porque había
fuego.” (Here she saw her house and it’s, it’s not very pretty because there was a fire.)
Yolanda did not comment in reply.
EHL focal students’ picture walks. Ava and Brianna conducted their picture
walk together again. Ava was more assertive and more vocal on this day, frequently
demanding her turn to talk and hold the book. The two girls described what they saw on
each page, spending the most time discussing the jar for saving money. They both gasped
upon turning the page and seeing the jar completely full of coins. They also discussed the
house fire and shopping for chairs.
Ian and Oliver worked to come up with a story to explain the pictures. They
concluded that it was the shop that burned down and not the family’s home.
Ian: El fuego um, um burnt down el shop y luego no pueden buy it. Y es que están building it y yeah yo pienso que están building it... right? (The fire um, um burnt down the shop and then they couldn’t buy it. And it’s that they are building it and yeah I think that they are building it… right?) Oliver: Yo pienso que está building, (a)garrando más um, stuff. (I think that they are building, getting more um, stuff.) Ian: And now, and since they fixed it, they have lots of money. Oliver: Yes, yes, yes.
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Ian: Y luego tiene dolores aquí [pointing], y puede buy stuff aquí [page turn] y um luego aquí (And then they have dollars here [pointing], and they can buy stuff here [page turn], and um then here)… she bought those and now they’re playing in it and now their house is all, looks really good cuz they had enough money to buy stuff [looking at illustration of furniture store].
Written Responses
Eight out of 21 students (38%) made personal connections to this text, four EHL
and four SHL students, making it the only book with equal numbers of personal
connections from each home language group (Table 5). The four EHL students all made
connections to personal experiences or preferences while the four SHL students made
connections by extending the story’s theme into their own lives. The most common topic
covered in the students’ written responses was the house fire, though it was taken up in
different ways.
SHL students’ writing. Four out of eight SHL students (50%), including Rafael
and Verónica, made personal connections to this text by inserting themselves into the
world of the story, even though none of them made connections to personal experiences
(Table 6). All four included their connections in their writing as well as in their
dictations. Rafael stated that he would not like it if there were a fire at his house, showing
an ability to identify with the situation portrayed in the text. The other three SHL students
wrote that they would help people if their houses caught on fire or if they needed money.
For example, Verónica’s response was YO VOI ALLUDAR CANNDO ALLI UN
PROBLEMA SI AII FEGO EN UNA CASA O UNA ESCUELA O VOI ALLUDAR A
PERSONAS SI SU CASA TENE FUEGO (I am going to help when there is a problem if
there is fire in a house or a school or I will help people if their house is on fire).
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Six of the eight SHL students wrote about the house fire, all but one saying that
they didn’t like it. These responses to the fire showed an awareness of the actual damage
that a fire can cause, rather than enjoyment of the fire from a standpoint of entertainment.
Javier wrote, LA PARTE FAFORITA LO QUE ME GUSTO ES CUADO QUE ESTÁN
COMPRADO EL SION DE FLORES I LA PARTE NO ME GUSTO FUEGO PORQUE
EL FUEGO PUEDE QUEMAR LAS CARETRAS (The favorite part that I liked is when
they are buying the flowered chair and the part I didn't like fire because the fire can burn
the highways). Two SHL students wrote that they liked when the family bought the chair,
but none wrote about the jar for saving coins.
None of the SHL students commented on the fact that the grandmother in the
story lives with the family or connected to the theme of intergenerationalism in their
responses, which was not a primary theme. However, in the responses that positioned the
students as helpers there was evidence of connection to the cultural themes of poverty
and community members helping each other. For example, one SHL student wrote,
CUANDO ESTE GRADE YO LE VOY A DAR DINERO A LAS PERSONAS Y TAMBIEN
LES VOY A DAR COSA CE NESESITEN Y ALLUDARELES DE PROBLEMAS (When I
grow up I will give money to people and also I will give them things that they need and
help them with their problems), showing that this text sparked a connection to his
awareness of both poverty and the responsibility of community members to help one
another (Table 4).
EHL students’ writing. Four out of 13 EHL students (31%) made personal
connections to something that happened in this text (Tables 5, 6). The personal
connections made by the EHL students were to the experiences of sitting in a bean bag
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chair (Ian), riding in the back of a pickup truck, playing with toy firetrucks (Oliver), and
liking money (Brianna). Two of these connections were included in the written responses
and two were added during the dictations to Ms. Diaz. None of the EHL students inserted
themselves into the world of the story by stating what they would do in the characters’
shoes, and none of the personal connections connected with the cultural themes identified
in the analysis protocol, though other written responses did.
While all except for one of the SHL students who wrote about the house fire
expressed that they did not like it, three EHL students seemed to enjoy the part with the
fire. For example, one EHL student wrote, MI PATE FAVOITO ES KUADO EL CASA
ESTAVA EN FUEGO Y LOS PERSONAS ESTAVAN KORIEDO PARA SUS VIDA (My
favorite part is when the house was on fire and the people were running for their lives).
Oliver, however, stressed in his response that he likes fires, but only “fake” ones.
None of the EHL students wrote about intergenerationalism, which was not a
primary theme. One EHL student, Blake, connected to the secondary theme of
community by saying that he liked when the neighbors helped each other. In his dictation
to Ms. Diaz he said, “Mi parte favorito es cuando los personajes ayudan a la familia.”
(My favorite part is when the characters help the family.) Blake’s responses to the books
from this time forward in the study consistently had to do with people helping each other
and being “buen ciudadanos” (good citizens), which was a focus of the social studies unit
the class was studying at the time.
Four EHL students wrote that they liked when the jar of coins was full. Two
students’ responses included an awareness of the theme of poverty (Table 4) but did not
express an awareness of community responsibility. One was Brianna’s dication to Ms.
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Diaz, “Están practicando para agarrar dinero porque necesitan sillas. Porque yo le
encanto dinero cuz you can buy things.” (They are working on getting money because
they need chairs. Because I love money cuz you can buy things.) However, two other
EHL students wrote about the jar of coins without reflecting any understanding of the
theme of poverty, or the role that money plays in a family’s living situation. One said,
“Mi parte favorito es cuando la botella de dinero esté muy full porque es chistoso. Es
muy funny porque si agarra más está overfill y necesita uno más.” (My favorite part was
when the jar of money was full because it was funny. It was really funny because if they
got more it would overfill and they would need another one.)
Discussions
I met with the SHL students first to discuss this text. The SHL students’
discussion had little to do with the actual text.
SHL focal students’ discussion. Rafael began the discussion by saying that the
house in the story burned to ashes and was then immediately reminded of his baby
brother’s ashes, who was stillborn.
Annie: ¿Qué pensaron del libro? (What did you think of the book?) Rafael: Que la, que la señorita Runfio está loca. (That the, that Miss Rumphius is crazy.) Annie: No, no, de éste libro. (No, no, of this book.) Rafael: Oh. Que la casa se quemó y fue ceniza. Oh, ¿sabes que? Mi, mi, yo tenía un hermanito pero se murió porque no tenía un, un cerebro, solo tenemos en casa pero es ceniza. (Oh. That the house burned down and it was ashes. Oh, do you know what? My, my, I had a little brother but he died because he didn’t have a, a brain, we just have him at home but he’s ashes.) After Rafael added more details to this sad story and the students asked him
questions, Javier described a fire that he saw in the mountains and Verónica told us that
her baby brother had touched fire and died. Later, I tried to confirm whether this was true
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with Ms. Diaz. She told me that Verónica sometimes invented stories about her home life
and that she had not heard about a baby dying, but she was not intimately acquainted with
the family.
When I brought the discussion back to the book, it immediately returned to the
fire. Yolanda and Javier believed that somebody had purposefully set the house on fire,
even though this was not implied in the text. When I asked if they felt that they could be
part of the story, Javier, Rafael, and Yolanda replied that they could not, because if they
were in the story they could be burned by the fire. While nobody in the story is actually
burned, this implies that the students were able to put themselves into this story’s world,
but were reluctant to do so.
Yolanda: Yo no puedo estar en el libro porque yo me podía quemar, por eso. (I could not be in this book because I could get burned, that’s why.) Annie: Mmm. ¿Pero alguien se quemó? (Mmm. But did anyone get burned?) Yolanda: No. Pero yo sí me podría. (No. But I could.) Verónica then stated that she could be in the book because if she were, she could
help the people, showing a different way to enter the world of this story. Verónica also
wrote this in her written response. However, the other students did not add to the
discussion of people helping one another. In fact, Yolanda questioned this response,
thinking that Verónica must have misunderstood my question, and restated it to her in
English, “Verónica, she said if you could be part of the book.” Rafael was so captivated
by the page in the book that shows the fire that he announced that he was going to copy
all the words from that page onto his response sheet. At the end of the discussion, Javier
said that this book made him think about a time when there was a tsunami.
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The SHL focal students seemed familiar with the possibility of disaster striking.
They did not bring up the community members who helped the family in the story and
they did not discuss poverty in relation to this text. The jar of money, which was a focus
of the story and of the EHL students’ discussion, was never mentioned.
EHL focal students’ discussion. The EHL students began by reading their
written responses to me. Ava started out, saying that she liked when the family had lots of
money so that they could buy a house, showing a misunderstanding of the text but an
awareness of the role that poverty can play in a family’s living situation. When I asked
her to elaborate, Ava and Brianna both said that they liked it when the family got lots of
money because they themselves like money. Ava said that she did not like the part when
the family doesn’t have money. Ian then stated that he liked it when they went shopping
for a chair because he likes beanbag chairs. He told a story about sitting in a very
comfortable bean bag chair at his uncle’s beach house.
Oliver’s written response brought up the topic of the fire. He said that he likes
fires because he has a toy firetruck that he likes to play with at his house. Brianna was
slightly shocked by this comment.
Brianna: You like fires?! [showing him the illustration] Oliver: Pero no los real ones… Solamente los fake ones. (But not the real ones… Just the fake ones.)
None of the students except Ian were anxious to place themselves or their families
in this book. Ian said that he could be in this book because he has a piggybank where he
saves his coins. Ava said that she and her family could not be in the part with the fire.
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Oliver also felt that he could not be in the part with the fire because he wanted to keep his
family safe, but he said that he could be in the part when they have a lot of money.
Oliver: No, no. Yo no puedo, um, mi mamá puede y yo y mi papá y mi hermano porque yo puede hacer en el parte cuando tiene mucho dinero en este parte [pointing to full jar]. No el parte de este, um, este… (No, no. I can’t, um, my mom can and I and my dad and my brother because I can be in the part when they have a lot of money in this part [pointing to full jar]. Not in the part, um, this part…) Annie: ¿Sólo en esta parte? (Just in this part?) Oliver: Sí. (Yes.) Annie: ¿Por qué? (Why?) Oliver: Porque la fuego puede mm, destroy you, y yo no quiere que ese pasar a mí. (Because the fire can mm, destroy you, and I don’t want that to happen to me.)
The students agreed that they did not like the fire and that they did like it when
the family had a lot of money. The theme of community members helping each other did
not come up during the discussion.
Preferences
None of the students chose Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994) as their
favorite book at the end of the study (Table 9). One SHL student in the class chose it as
her least favorite book. Additionally, three EHL students, including Ava and Ian, chose it
as their least favorite (Tables 8 and 9).
Following the three mainstream texts, the students responded to three Mexican
American award-winning CR books.
Book 4: Finding the Music / En pos de la música
Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) tells the story
of a young girl who goes on a quest through her neighborhood hoping to mend her
deceased maternal grandfather’s vihuela (Spanish guitar), which she has accidentally
damaged. It was commended by the Américas Award in 2016 (Table 3). Many of the
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students loved the cover illustration on this book, which shows the main character,
Reyna, wearing a traditional mariachi sombrero and playing the guitar. The music itself is
depicted flowing from the instrument in colorful swirls and flowers. While all the CR
books were published more recently than the mainstream books, this text was the most
current of all the books used in the study and was only available in glossy hardback
edition. The main character, Reyna, is a light-skinned Mexican American with long
flowing brown hair from what appears to be a middle-class family headed by a single
mother. According to my text analysis protocol, community was a primary theme in this
text (Table 4), and intergenerationalism and poverty were also present. The cultural value
of familism was strong in this text. Cultural markers included traditional food, traditional
clothing, traditional décor, terms of address, and traditional music. Four of these were
evident in the illustrations alone (food, clothing, décor, and mariachi music).
Picture Walks
This was our first day reading a CR book. I met with the EHL group first to
conduct the picture walk.
EHL focal students’ picture walks. Upon opening the book, Brianna
immediately ascertained that the mother in the story works in a restaurant, but she did not
comment on any of the foods that were shown in the illustrations. I asked her what type
of restaurant she thought it might be and she replied, “breakfast.” Both she and Ava then
worked to construct a story narrative around the main character bringing the guitar to be
fixed. Ava said, “Yo veo que um, brought it to la store, um shop y la niña es, um, la
abuelo estaba fixing los wires porque es wiggly.” (I see that she brought it to the store
um shop and the girl is um the grandfather was fixing the wires because it’s wiggly.)
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Ian and Oliver also focused their picture walk on the topic of fixing the guitar.
Oliver noticed that the mother was preparing food, but did not identify it as Mexican, “Yo
pienso que la mamá está cortando la, um, dinner, y ella está comiendo el, um, dinner.” (I
think that the mom is cutting the, um, dinner, and she is eating the, um, dinner.) Neither
pair of EHL students commented on any of the visible cultural markers in the text.
Although they discussed the guitar at length, they did not connect it with mariachi music.
Both pairs of EHL students noticed that this book was printed in English as well as
Spanish, rather than only Spanish.
SHL focal students’ picture walks. If I had any doubts that the bilingual
students would notice the difference between the mainstream texts and the CR texts, they
were erased the moment I saw the look in Javier’s eyes when he walked up to my table
and saw Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), exclaiming,
“¡Woa! ¿Cuál [libro] es éste?!” (Woah! Which [book] is this?!) After I read the title and
quickly explained what “en pos” means, Verónica opened the book and gasped upon
seeing the illustration on the first page.
Verónica: Ooooh. ¡Este es… este es mexicano! (Oooh. This is… this is Mexican!) Yolanda: [Reads] En pos de la música (Finding the Music) Verónica: ¡Me-xi-ca-no! (Mex-i-can!)
The students immediately recognized the wall décor at the restaurant and
associated it with Mexican mariachi music and the cultural celebration of Day of the
Dead, which they then easily and spontaneously connected to their own lives.
Javier: ¡Hay mariachis! (There are mariachis!) Annie: ¿Sí? (Oh?) Verónica: ¡Los mariachis! (The mariachis!)
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Yolanda: Acá hay muchos, el Día de los Muertos (Here there are a lot, the Day of the Dead) Verónica: De mariachi ([dressed like] mariachi) Yolanda: Casi va a ser el Día de los Muertos. (It’s almost Day of the Dead.) Annie: Sí, es cierto. (Yes, that’s true.) Verónica: Sííí. (Yesss.) Yolanda: Y la otra vez nos hicieron pan. (And last time they made us bread.) Verónica: Oooh. ¡Me gusta el pan! (Ooooh. I like the bread!)
Unlike some of the other picture walks where the SHL students strayed far from
what was shown in the illustrations, here they worked to come up with a narrative that
matched (and did so). Yolanda guessed that the photograph shown is of the main
character’s father and that he was a mariachi musician. She predicted that the main
character would also become a mariachi musician, after seeing her wearing the traditional
sombrero, and she proudly interrupted the other pair of students to tell them her
prediction.
Rafael came to the table wearing his sweatshirt on his head with the sleeves
hanging down like hair, pretending to be a grand lady. Javier, however, was so interested
in this book that he resisted all Rafael’s attempts to be silly during the picture walk and
was intent on figuring out the storyline. He said the word “mariachi” nine times during
the picture walk and was extremely excited about the music, the mariachi outfits, and the
guitars.
Javier: Ah, aquí se está poniendo la gorra de mariachi. Y aquí mira tiene, oh, la guitarra, mira. La guitarra [turns page]. Y aquí fue a donde estaba la guitarra y yo quiero que [inaudible] esta y es muy feo pues, los mariachis, esta está bonita verdad, mira, mira, él es mariachi, va a estar muy bonito. (Ah, here she is putting on the mariachi hat. And here look, she has, oh, the guitar, look. The guitar [turns page]. And here she went to where the guitar was and I want [inaudible] this one and it’s very ugly, the mariachis, this one is pretty, right, look, look, he is a mariachi, he is going to be pretty.) Rafael: ¿Tú sabías que…? (Did you know that…?) [whispers in Javier’s ear]
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Javier: [Ignores him] Mira, ella tiene la música ella. Ella tiene la música ella. ¡Ella tiene la música!¡Luego está hablando de los mariachis esta! (Look, she has the music, she. She has the music, she. She has the music! Then she’s talking about the mariachis!)
For the first time, at the end of the picture walk, without my even asking, Javier
concluded that he could indeed be part of this book, based on the characters depicted in
the illustrations.
Javier: Oh, sí puedo estar, sí puedo estar, sí puedo estar… (Oh, I can be in this, I can be in this, I can be in this…) [flipping pages] Rafael: Oh, yo sí puedo estar, puedo, yo puedo estar porque yo puedo estar con una peluca como así. (Oh, I can be in this, I can, I can be in this because I can be wearing a wig, like this.) [pointing to Reyna and flipping his sweatshirt sleeve like hair] Javier: ¡Aquí estoy yo, aquí estoy yo! (Here I am, here I am!) [beaming, pointing to a little boy in the restaurant illustration]
Written Responses
Six out of 21 students (29%) made personal connections to this text, four SHL
students and two EHL students, making it the first text to which more SHL students
connected than EHL students (Table 5). The two most common topics chosen by both
groups of students in their written responses were when Reyna received the sombrero as a
gift and when she went to the music shop to have the guitar fixed. Both events in the text
reflect the cultural theme of community members helping one another, and the sombrero
is a cultural marker.
EHL students’ writing. Only two out of 13 EHL students (8%) made a personal
connection to this text, the lowest rate by far (Table 5). One was Oliver, who consistently
made a personal connection to each text by writing that both he and his parents liked
something from the book (in this case, sombreros). The other personal connection made
to this text by an EHL student came from the illustration, where he drew a restaurant he
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visited while traveling in Baja California. This response showed that this student was
aware that the book contained Mexican cultural content and that he connected it to his
own experience traveling in Mexico. However, he did not include an explanation or a
personal connection of any kind in his writing or his dictation, where he simply said, “Yo
pensé que fue a un guitar shop y try to fix el guitar. Pensé que fue de mucha música.” (I
thought that she went to a guitar shop to try and fix the guitar. I thought it was about a lot
of music.) None of the other EHL students showed that they were aware that this text
contained Mexican cultural content, although Ava colored her drawing of Reyna brown
while making the teacher in her drawing white-skinned (this corresponds with what is
depicted in the book). Besides Oliver, the other EHL focal students did not write about
personal connections, despite having discussed the text with me prior to writing.
Four EHL students wrote that their favorite part was when the main character
brought the guitar to the guitar shop and five wrote that their favorite part was when the
main character was given the sombrero; both of these events exemplify the community
theme (Table 4). In addition, two EHL students explicitly wrote about the theme of
community, by stating that they liked that the people in the story helped the main
character. One wrote, MI PATE FAVORITO ES KUADO LA MAESTRESTA LE DIO EL
SODREDDO A LA NIÑA Y LA MAESTRA DE MUSIK DIJO KE LO PUEDE YUDADR
(My favorite part is when the teacher gave the sombrero to the girl and the music teacher
said that she can help her). The other was the same student, Blake, who chose to write
about the community members helping the family in Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams,
1994).
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One EHL student (Madison) wrote that she liked that the grandfather was a
mariachi musician because it was surprising. This was the only explicit mention of the
grandfather or intergenerationalism, but this was a secondary theme. None of the EHL
students wrote about poverty but it was not a strong theme in this text.
SHL students’ writing. Four out of eight SHL students (50%) made personal
connections to this text (Table 5). Two SHL students inserted themselves into the story in
some way (Table 6). One wrote that he would like to sing the traditional Mexican song
from the book: ME GUSTA LA CASION Y ESTAVA VIEN BONITA Y YO LA CIERO
CATAR (I like the song and it was very beautiful and I want to sing it). The other was
Yolanda, who said in her dictation to Ms. Diaz that she would like to play the guitar from
the story. The girl she drew in her picture is wearing a sombrero and holding a guitar; the
guitar and the sombrero are both labeled and the girl is labeled both REINA (Reyna) and
YO (I); her writing and drawing can be found in Appendix H.
Two other SHL students made connections to personal experiences (Table 6). One
wrote, A MI ME GUSTO CUAANDO LE DA EL SOMBRERO Y CUANDO LE DA LA
FOTO A MI ME GUSTARON PORCE A MI ME GUSTA LOS MARIACHES Y PORCE A
MI ME GUSTA LOS SOMREROS DE MARIACHIS (I liked when they gave her the hat
and when they gave her the photo I liked those [parts] because I like mariachis and
because I like mariachi hats). His picture includes a drawing of himself with his father
and a mariachi band. The other was Javier, who wrote that he liked when they fixed the
guitar because he enjoys fixing things. While these responses reflect a connection to
personal experiences, they also show a connection to the cultural theme of community
(Table 4). In fact, all but one SHL students wrote about when Reyna received the
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sombrero or when she went to fix the guitar; both of these events were directly related to
the theme of community members helping one another.
None of the SHL students mentioned the grandfather directly. Araceli was the
only student to show an awareness of the (secondary) role that poverty played in the story
in her response. She wrote that Reyna would have liked to receive money to help her fix
the guitar, but instead she received a sombrero.
Discussions
Because of the SHL students’ dramatic response to this text during the picture
walk, I was especially excited to hear what they had to say after the read aloud. However,
I first met with the EHL students.
EHL focal students’ discussion. When asked what they thought about this text,
Ava replied, “Muy feliz. Y después estaba muy triste y después está muy feliz.” (Very
happy. And then it was very sad and then it is very happy.) Brianna added that the mother
in the story is not angry with Reyna, even though Reyna thinks she will be. When asked
whether they felt that they could be in the story, Ava, Brianna, and Oliver all responded
“no.” (Ian was in the bathroom at this point.) Ava said that she could not be part of this
story because her mother is not a baker, even though she does enjoy baking at home.
Oliver said the same about his mother, pointing out that she cooks at home but doesn’t
cook “as a job.” Even though her parents do work at a restaurant, Brianna still felt that
she could not be in this book, though she struggled somewhat to explain why. She said of
her parents,
Ellos work in a restaurant pero ellos no, como ellos no quiere como, um, como work there for actually like for, like this book, like she wouldn’t, like she doesn’t, like these kind of restaurants. (They work in a restaurant but they don’t, like they
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don’t want, like, um, like work there for actually like for, like this book, like she wouldn’t, like she doesn’t, like these kind of restaurants.)
Ava said that her mother likes to dance and sing like the mother in the book, but
this did not change her answer (Table 7). It is possible that the students sensed a cultural
difference in this book, though they were not able to articulate it.
When Ian arrived at the table, he said that he felt that he could be in this book
because he found a lucky penny once (the sombrero in the text is supposed to bring
Reyna good luck). He also had a personal connection to the text because his father works
in a music store and knows how to fix guitars. However, when I asked the EHL students
if they felt that what happened to Reyna could happen to them, they all replied “no.” The
EHL students agreed that they did not like when the guitar fell off the wall and cracked
and Ava was especially vocal about saying that she did not like, “cuando ella estaba
triste porque ella estaba triste porque una crack” (when she was sad because she was sad
because of a crack) and she pointed out the illustration that shows the broken guitar. The
students did not discuss the sombrero, which figured prominently in the SHL students’
discussion, nor did they make any connections to Mexico during the discussion.
SHL focal students’ discussion. Yolanda and Verónica arrived at the table first
and both were eager to get to continue working on their drawings; Yolanda was carefully
trying to draw Reyna exactly as she appeared on the cover of the book. When I asked
what they thought about this book, they agreed that they liked when Reyna received the
sombrero, and both girls said that they have similar sombreros at home. When asked if
this story could happen to them, Yolanda was quick to try to convince Verónica that it
could.
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Annie: ¿Ustedes pueden ser parte de este libro? ¿O tu familia? (Can you be in this book? Or your family?) Verónica: No Yolanda: [finger on chin thinking, reaches for book, opens it] I bet you will! Yo voy a ver… (I’m going to see…) Annie: ¿Por qué? (Why?) Verónica: Porque um um (Because um, um) Yolanda: ¡Yo sí! (I can!) [raising hand and waving it] Annie: ¿Sí? (Yes?) Verónica: Yoooo, yo sí. (I…. I can) Annie: ¿Tú sí? (You can?) [Laughing] Yolanda: Yo también (Me too) Annie: ¿Por qué? (Why?) Verónica: Porque um, um, yo sí puedo ayudarle a um a arreglar el guitarra (Because um, um, I can help her to fix the guitar) Annie: Mmm. Yolanda: Yo puedo estar porque me gusta tocar la guitarra. (I can because I like to play the guitar).
While Verónica was the one who stated later that she actually had a guitar at
home, her connection to this text was more removed than Yolanda’s. She changed her
initial response that she could not be part of this book quickly once she heard Yolanda’s
answer, yet her reason for being part of the book was hypothetical, and very similar to her
response to Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994), where she said that she could be
part of the book because she could help the characters with their problem. Yolanda’s
response that she could be in the book because she likes to play the guitar indicated a
more direct feeling of belonging in the text. Later in the conversation, I asked the
question again.
Annie: ¿Qué creen? ¿Puede ser que este libro se trata de ti, Verónica? (What do you think? Could it be that this book is about you, Verónica?) Verónica: Mmhmm [Nods] Yolanda: Sí, Verónica. (Yes, Verónica.) Verónica: Yo puedo a, ser ella y tocar la guitarra. (I can be her and play the guitar.) Annie: ¿Sí? ¿Y tú, Yolanda? (Oh? And you, Yolanda?)
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Yolanda: También. (Me too.) Annie: ¿También? ¿Esto te puede pasar? (You too? This can happen to you?) Yolanda: Mmhm. Pero no voy a hacer eso. (Mmhm. But I won’t do that.)
This time, Yolanda directly urged Verónica to identify with the story and she did
so, restating the connection that Yolanda had made earlier. Yolanda expressed her
enjoyment of this book by trying to get her friend to feel a part of it as well. In addition,
in saying that she could be part of the book because she would play the guitar, but that
she wouldn’t break it, Yolanda showed a willingness to step into the shoes of a main
character that I had not seen in our discussions of any of the other texts, indicating a
stronger sense of belonging.
When Javier and Rafael arrived at the table, Javier said that he liked the part when
Reyna went to fix the guitar. Yolanda said that she liked the sombrero and Javier was
quick to add that it was a sombrero “de los mariachis” (for mariachi musicians). He said
that he could not be the main character because he is not a girl, but when I asked if he
could be the main character in this book if it were a boy, he said that he could (Table 7).
Rafael initially said that he could not be in this text but when Javier said that he could, he
agreed. I then asked Rafael if felt that what happened to Reyna could happen to him and
he said that it could because he has a friend who breaks his toys. This connection was a
bit far removed from the text and led to a tangential discussion about children who don’t
take good care of toys. I brought the discussion back to the book by asking Javier to read
his written response aloud. Javier wrote that he liked when they fixed the guitar because
he enjoys fixing things. He told us that his father has lots of tools and can fix many
things. This led to a debate amongst the students over whose parents have the most tools.
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When I brought the conversation back to the book, Javier was eager to tell me that he felt
that he could be part of this book when the characters are in the restaurant, once again
pointing to the little boy in the illustration that he had identified as himself during the
picture walk.
Preferences
Four SHL students in the class chose Finding the Music / En pos de la música
(Torres & Alarcão, 2015) as their favorite book, including Verónica and Yolanda, and no
SHL students chose it as their least favorite book (Tables 8 and 9). Four EHL students
also chose it as their favorite, including Oliver, making it the most popular of all the
books used in the study. Only one student (Blake, an EHL student) chose it as his least
favorite.
Book 5: My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito
My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) is the first
book of three semi-autobiographical tales written by Amada Irma Pérez, a third-grade
teacher in California, and beautifully illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. In this
book, a young girl whose family has recently immigrated to the United States from
Mexico shares a room with her five brothers and longs for a space of her own. Her family
pitches in to help her create a small “room” in a corner of the house behind a curtain of
flour sacks where she can sleep and read in peace. This text was the winner of the Tomás
Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award and received an Honorable Mention
from the Américas Award (Table 3). The main character’s physical appearance suggests
some indigenous heritage; she has jet black hair, light brown skin, high cheekbones and a
wide nose, with dark brown eyes and pink lips. Her family is poor—her father works the
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night shift at a factory—and they live somewhere in California, presumably close to the
border. According to my analysis with the text analysis protocol, poverty and family are
primary themes of this text (Table 4), and immigration and “Mexico as home” are
secondary themes. The cultural value of familism is strong in this book. The only cultural
marker contained in this text is the use of terms of address, which is not visible in the
illustrations.
Picture Walks
This was the second CR book used in the study. Continuing the pattern of
alternation, I met with the SHL students first to conduct the picture walk.
SHL focal students’ picture walks. Yolanda and Javier were taken with the
illustrations in this text. They commented on the colorful lines and swirls, and they
gasped when they turned to the vivid illustration of the mother hugging the main
character. When the other pair of students finished much faster, however, Yolanda began
to invent a silly narrative to go with the pictures. Upon Rafael’s declaration that they
were finished, Yolanda said, “¡Ah, they’re finished! Yo veo que aquí ella, ella quiere
convertir a estos niños en zombis [laughing].” (Ah, they’re finished! I see that here she,
she wants to change these kids into zombies [laughing].) They were also fascinated by
the English text in the book, and attempted unsuccessfully to sound out some of the
words, giggling at the nonsense words that came out of their mouths when they tried.
They did not develop a congruous plot line to go with the illustrations in this text.
As stated, Verónica and Rafael finished their picture walk very quickly. They
began well, with Verónica using the title to get her started with a narrative.
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Verónica: Ella quiere su cuarto, no los dos, los cuartos de su hermano chiquito y el hermano. (She wants her room, not the two, not her little brother and her brother’s room.) Rafael: Y ella, la hermana no quiere que nadie se duerma con ella. (And she, the sister doesn’t want anyone to sleep with her.) Verónica: Sí. Y ella está, su mamá vea que ella está ahí. (Yes. And she is, her mom sees that she is there.)
About halfway through the book, however, Rafael took over the narration while
Verónica turned the pages. If Verónica tried to jump in and add something to Rafael’s
description, he would simply talk over her. He had to talk quickly, however, before she
turned the page. They sped through the book with Rafael giving a brief description of
each picture and Verónica turning pages. While they did not go off-topic or delve into
silliness, there was also little thought put into the plot of the story. Besides the non-White
appearance of the characters, this book did not have any obvious cultural markers
depicted in the illustrations and neither pair commented on the cultural specificity of this
text.
EHL focal students’ picture walks. Ava and Oliver conducted this picture walk
together. They began by working to create a story to match the pictures.
Ava: Yo pienso que estaba dormindo con un te- con un osito y [laugh] el bebé estaba en la mamá’s cabeza [turns page]. Tu turno. (I think that he is sleeping with a te- with a teddy bear and [laugh] the baby is on the mom’s head [turns page]. Your turn.) Oliver: Y… y está waiting para el baño para lavar los manos para a b-- (And… and they are waiting for the bathroom to wash their hands for b-- ) Ava: Breakfast. Oliver: Breakfast.
However, as they got further into the book, they began to simply describe what
they saw on each page, without trying to tie it into a plot.
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In a similar manner to Rafael and Verónica, Ian and Brianna also zoomed through
their picture walk with this text. They seemed to be competing for a turn to talk, rather
than working together, and they frequently talked over each other or struggled for control
over the book. They also did not focus on creating a coherent plot for the story, or
comment on any cultural markers.
Written Responses
In total, eight out of 19 students (42%) made personal connections to this text,
three SHL students and four EHL students, which was the highest rate of overall personal
connection (Table 5). Several students commented on some aspect of the family love
portrayed in this story in their responses, such as when the family members helped the
main character make her room, or when the main character read books to her younger
brothers.
SHL students’ writing. Four out of eight SHL students (50%) made personal
connections to this text (Table 5). Four students, including Rafael, wrote that they would
like to have their own rooms. One also mentioned that he liked it when the main
character read books to her younger brothers because he loves to read (Table 6).
Two SHL students, including Verónica, wrote that they liked the beautiful lamp
that the main character chose, but did not discuss the role that poverty plays in purchasing
the lamp (the family uses stamp coupons that they have saved). Yolanda wrote about the
beautiful colors of the paint they used to paint the main character’s room. This was the
fourth time she included her preference for a color in her written responses. Two other
SHL students simply wrote that they liked it when the main character got her own room.
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Araceli wrote that she liked when the family members all came together to help
the main character, picking up on the primary theme of family (Table 4) and the cultural
value of familism. MI FAVORITO PARTE ERA CUANDO ELLA QUERIA UNA
CUARTO PORQUE ELLA NO QUERIA DORMIR CON SUS SEYS ERMANOS SO
TODO LA FAMILIA AYUDARON A ASER LA CUARTO PARA ELLA Y TAMBIEN MI
PARTE FAVORITO ERA CUANDO ELLA QUERIA UNA LAMPARA Y UNA MESA Y
UNAS LIBROS Y CUANDO ELLA DORMIO SOLITA. (My favorite part was when she
wanted a room because she didn’t want to sleep with her six brothers so the whole family
helped to make a room for her and also my favorite part was when she wanted a lamp and
a table and some books and when she slept by herself.) One other SHL student wrote
about his own sister sleeping with him when she is afraid. Javier was the only student
who wrote about the father working at night, showing a possible awareness of the poverty
theme. None of the SHL students mentioned Mexico or immigration in their written
responses, which were secondary themes.
EHL students’ writing. Four out of 11 EHL students (36%) made personal
connections to this text, including Oliver, Ian, and Ava (Table 5). Oliver wrote about his
family’s sleeping arrangements. Another EHL student said that she wants her own space
because her brother talks and keeps her awake. This was the only incidence where an
EHL student seemed that she might be making a personal connection in the form of
stepping into the story, but then she connected it back to her own personal experience in
her justification (Table 6). Ian connected to this text by writing that his family comforts
him when he is unhappy, thereby connecting to the theme of family strength and love that
was so evident in this text (Table 4). By this point in the study, Ian knew that I would ask
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him if he could possibly be in this text. He wrote, YO SI PUEDO ESTAR EN ESE LIBRO
PORQUE MI FAMLIA AYUDA A MI COMO CUANDO YO LLORRA MI FAMILIA
DICE ESTÁ BIEN ESTÁ BIEN Y LUEGO YO NO LLORRA MAS Y TENGO UN
CUARTO Y SOLO YO DORME EN MI CUARTO. (I could be in this book because my
family helps me when I cry my family says it’s okay it’s okay and then I don’t cry
anymore and I have a room and only I sleep in my room.) Ava wrote that she liked it
when the main character reads to her little brothers because she likes it when her mother
reads to her.
In addition to Ian’s response, one other EHL student wrote that she liked when the
mother in the story hugged the main character, showing that she absorbed the primary
theme of family love in this text (Table 4). Familism was also evident in Madison’s
response, MI FAVORITO PARTE ES COMO TODO EN EL LIBRO BAT MI FAVORIT
PARTE ES CWANDO EL FAMILIA HEPT CON EL KWARTO DEL DE EL NIÑA (My
favorite part is like everything in the book but my favorite part is when the family helped
with the girl’s room), and in three others, including Ava’s, who wrote that they liked
when the main character read books to her younger brothers. None of the EHL students
wrote about Mexico, poverty, or immigration in their responses.
Five EHL students, including Brianna and Oliver, wrote that they liked it when
the main character got her own room. One EHL student mentioned the beautiful lamp in
the story, but without reflecting an awareness of the role that poverty played in the
purchase of the lamp.
Discussions
I met with the SHL students first to discuss this text.
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SHL focal students’ discussion. Javier sat down at my table and immediately
told me that he could be part of this book because he sometimes snores, just like the
father in the book. Yolanda said that she could not be in this book, but Javier disagreed,
saying, “A ver, ¿por qué no puedes? A ver, ¿por qué no puedes? Mira, sí puedes, mira.
Aquí, mira la niña.” (Let’s see, why couldn’t you? Let’s see, why couldn’t you? Look,
yes you can, look. Here, look at the girl.) Yolanda then demanded the book and began
flipping through, looking for the part that she could be in. Javier and Rafael continued to
point out each illustration of the main character as Yolanda was flipping the pages, telling
her that it could be her. (Yolanda and the main character have similar appearances.) She
brushed them off and continued to look for her favorite part, saying that she could only
be in the part where they mix the paint to make the color magenta, although she also did
not deny it when Javier said that she could hug her mother like the girl in the picture
(Table 7). When I asked her if what happened to the girl in the story could happen to her,
she shook her head “no” emphatically.
Verónica stated that her favorite part was when the main character bought a lamp
because it was pink and had crystals. She said that the story could not be about her
because she doesn’t like boys; she only has two sisters (no brothers). Rafael initially
brought up zombies again, but when pressed he said that this story could happen to him
because he would like to sleep in his own room. He also appeared to enjoy identifying
with the illustrations in the text, flipping the pages and commenting that he likes to put
things in his mouth like the characters who are licking stamps on one page, and saying
that he wouldn’t like to have a baby at home who could crawl on his face. When asked if
there was a part of the book that they didn’t like, Rafael brought up the baby crawling on
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the main character in bed. Javier also enjoyed looking at the illustrations, and was
especially captivated by the yellow houses on one page that he said looked like fire. He
related that his cousins don’t have a bed and have to sleep with their parents, showing an
awareness of poverty that was not present in the EHL students’ discussion.
The discussion ended where it began, with a discussion of snoring. Yolanda said
that she didn’t like it when the main character’s father snored because, “Mi papi siempre
ronca.” (My daddy always snores.) Verónica and Rafael said that their parents snore as
well and all the students began making snoring sounds. Yolanda asked if she could
borrow the book so as to get the exact color of magenta correct in her drawing and the
discussion concluded. The students did not bring up any direct connections to Mexico in
relation to this text.
EHL focal students’ discussion. Ava began the discussion by proudly reading
her written response, where she said that she liked when the main character reads to her
little brother because she could tell that they liked it, showing a connection to the cultural
value of familism that was so evident in this text (Table 4). “Yo me gusta cuando la niña
estaba leyendo un libro a los hermanos chiquitos y yo ve que los niños le gusta cuando la
niña estaba leyendo a los niños chiquitos.” (I like when the girl was reading a book to the
little brothers and I see that the boys liked when the girl was reading to the little boys.)
When I asked why, she said that she chose to write about that part because she enjoys it
when her mother reads to her. When I asked, however, she said that she felt that she
could not be part of this book because not very many people come to her house, referring
to how crowded the house in the book was. However, later in the discussion she revised
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her answer, saying that when her brother was little he would come to her room and want
her to read to him, so perhaps she could be part of this book (Table 7).
Oliver said that he could be part of this book because he shares a room with his
brother, but he made sure to point out that, unlike in the story, he and his brother each
have their own bed and he enjoys sharing his room (Table 7). When I asked later if what
happened in the book could happen t to him, however, he said that it could not. Brianna
wrote that she did not like when the main character did not have enough space. She said
that she could be in this book because, “Yo le encanta a leer y yo tiene muchos, muchos
personas en mi familia.” (I love to read and I have many, many people in my family.)
However, she clarified that the many members of her family do not live under one roof;
she was referring to her extended family who live in separate homes. She also said that
what happened in the book could not happen to her. Ian also read his written response in
which he said that he could be in this book because his family comforts him when he is
sad, showing an awareness of and connection to the value of familism in this text.
However, he also responded that what happened in this book could not happen to him.
The EHL students agreed that they didn’t like the part where the children were
squished in the bed with the baby crawling on their heads. Ava said, “Es difícil cuando
una bebé estaba en tu cabeza y no puedes breathe.” (It’s difficult when a baby was on
your head and you can’t breathe.) However, Ian pointed out that the baby was very cute
and probably enjoyed crawling on the older kids. There was no mention of poverty,
immigration, or Mexico during this discussion.
Preferences
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Only one SHL student chose My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez &
Gonzalez, 2000) as his favorite text and three chose it as their least favorite, including
Javier (Tables 8 and 9). Two EHL students chose it as their favorite, one of whom was
Ava, who initially chose La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996) but then realized
that it was in Spanish whereas My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez &
Gonzalez, 2000) was in both English and Spanish. Although I offered to bring her a copy
of Miss Rumphius (Cooney & Porter, 1982) in English, she chose to stick with My Very
Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000). One EHL student, Brianna,
chose it as her least favorite text, although it was also the only text to which she admitted
feeling a part of.
Book 6: Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros
This was the last text we read during the study and the third CR book. It tells the
story of a young Mexican American boy named Juanito and his outing to the flea market.
Juanito lives in Fresno, California, his family is poor, and he has dark hair, eyes, and
skin. He is living with his grandmother while his parents have traveled north to pick fruit.
His grandmother goes to the flea market every Sunday morning to sell used clothing and
Juanito accompanies her there. Herrera presents the flea market as a magical world of
wonderful sights, sounds, and tastes of Mexico, peopled by a community of friendly
vendors who know and help each other. This book was commended by the Américas
Award in 2002 (Table 3). According to my text analysis protocol, the strongest cultural
themes in this text are community, cultural pride, and intergenerationalism (Table 4).
Secondary themes of poverty, spirituality, Mexico as home, migrant farmworkers, and
language issues are also evident. The cultural value of familism is strong. Cultural
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markers included in this book are traditional food, traditional clothing, traditional décor,
cultural holiday/celebration, terms of address, music, and traditional herbal medicine.
Picture Walks
There was an English-speaking substitute teacher in the classroom on the day we
read this text because Ms. Diaz was conducting quarterly reading assessments in a
neighboring room. I met with the EHL students first. They decided that even though Ms.
Diaz was not present, they would continue to conduct the picture walks in Spanish.
EHL focal students’ picture walks. Ava and Oliver took turns describing a few
key things on each page of the book and quickly completed their picture walk. Although
they did not say a lot about each page, they were carefully observing the pictures and
trying to piece together a story. Ava noticed Juanito’s facial expression on one page and
commented,
Y veo que hay un abuelo, abuela, con una, um zapato, y el niño no quiero porque um, no estaba so sure. (And I see that there is a grandfather, grandmother, with a, um shoe, and the boy doesn’t want it because um, he wasn’t so sure.)
Brianna and Ian were more competitive for turns to talk, but they also noticed
characters’ facial expressions and tried to describe many details on each page.
Neither pair of EHL students immediately identified any of the many cultural
markers present in the illustrations by name. Ian referred to the chiles and herbs at the
flea market simply as “fruta y otros tipos de cosas” (fruit and other types of things).
Similarly, Ava did not identify the chile peppers, saying “Hay, um, personas comiendo,
um, cosas.” (There are, um, people eating, um, things.) Oliver tried to read the names of
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the chiles for sale at the flea market but was not successful. Brianna mistakenly identified
the large Mexican belt shown in one illustration as a picture frame.
SHL focal students’ picture walks. Yolanda and Javier noticed many of the
cultural markers present in the illustrations. They began the picture walk by easily
surmising that the characters were driving to the flea market to sell clothing, and Yolanda
noticed the rosary beads hanging from the rearview mirror in the grandmother’s van.
Javier immediately identified the chiles at the flea market, saying “¡Ay ya yay, mira,
chiles! Jalapeño, jalapeño, que sea, pero es jalapeño chile.” (Ay ya yay, look, chiles!
Jalapeño, jalapeño, whatever, but it’s jalapeño chile.) Later in the book, he commented
on the chiles in the illustrations again and Yolanda mentioned that her father eats chiles.
Javier said that his father eats them too. They also commented on the belt worn by one of
the vendors at the flea market, identifying it as Mexican.
Javier: Que cinturón tan grandeeee. (What a biiiiig belt.) Yolanda: Mi turno. Oh, mi papi tiene uno de estos. (My turn. Oh, my daddy has one of those.) Javier: A mi también. (Me too.) Yolanda: Es de México. (It’s from Mexico.)
In addition, Yolanda proudly identified jamaica (hibiscus water) in one of the
illustrations.
Rafael and Verónica did not immediately identify any of the cultural markers as
Mexican, but they did make some detailed observations of the illustrations. Once again,
about halfway through the picture walk, Rafael took over the book and flipped through
the pages, quickly describing a few things happening on each, while Verónica sat
listening.
Written Responses
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Seven out of 18 students (39%) made personal connections to this text, three SHL
students and four EHL students (Table 5). Several students wrote about the characters in
the story giving and receiving items, showing an awareness of the events that exemplified
the strong theme of community (Table 4).
EHL students’ written responses. Four out of 12 EHL students (33%) made
personal connections to this text (Table 5), and they were the four focal students. By this
point in the study, it is possible that the focal students had become aware of the fact that I
was interested in whether they could personally connect with the stories, or that they had
been inadvertently trained to do so. Ava wrote that she liked it when the man ate the hot
chile pepper because his face got red and it reminded her of her brother’s face because he
has red cheeks. Oliver also wrote that he liked the part with the chile pepper, because he
and his father like chile peppers, but not the spicy kind. Brianna wrote that she liked the
boots that were sold in the book because she likes to wear boots when she rides horses.
Lastly, Ian’s response was, YO SI PUEDO ESTAR EN ESTE LIBRO PORQUE YO DA
COMO CHICLE A MI NEYBR Y TAMBIEN YO DA JUGETES QUE YO NO QUIERO Y
YO Y MI MAMÁ COMEN CHUROS Y MI PAPÁ FIX COSAS COMO UN GITARRA. (I
can be in this book because I give like gum to my neighbor and also I give toys that I
don’t want and my mom and I eat churros and my dad fixes things like a guitar.) This
response shows an awareness of the theme of community members giving and helping
those in need, as well as an ability to find personal connections to the characters.
Two additional EHL students wrote that they liked when Juanito was given a
blanket, but did not explain why. Another student wrote about Juanito receiving items
without reflecting an understanding of the community theme, saying in his dictation,
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“Where the guy gets all the toys and I like it because it’s really funny.” This was the
same student whose response showed a lack of awareness of the poverty theme in Un
sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994). However, another EHL student wrote about
Juanito being a good grandson because he brought lots of things for his grandmother; he
was the only one to write about intergenerationalism and familism. This was Blake, the
same student who wrote about the community and family members helping each other in
relation to Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994) and Finding the Music / En pos de
la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015).
Four EHL students chose to write about when a man in the text accidentally ate a
hot chile pepper. While the chile was one of the cultural markers in the text, the EHL
students did not write in a way that indicated that they identified it as such. They merely
said that the incident was “chistoso” (funny). While none of the EHL students gave any
indication that they understood that Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) contained Mexican cultural content,
Madison said in her dictation that she liked this book, “because it had a lot of different
things in it, because it discovers people to do stuff,” showing a possibility that she
recognized and appreciated that this text contained cultural content that was different
from the norm. However, a week later when it was time to state preferences, Madison
chose this book as her least favorite of all the texts in the study.
SHL students’ written responses. Three out of seven SHL students (43%) made
personal connections to this text (Table 5), including Javier and Rafael. Javier wrote that
he liked it when they went to the flea market because he could be part of this book. He
wrote, MI PARTE FAVORITO ES CUANDO FUERON AL REMATE PORQUE PUEDO
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SER EL PARTE DEL LIBRO. (My favorite part is when they went to the flea market
because I can be the part of the book.) Javier’s picture shows himself with a big smile
holding up a book, labeled with the words YO (I) and LIBRO (book). Rafael said that he
didn’t like it when the man bit the chile pepper because he wouldn’t want that to happen
to him. The third SHL student wrote, MI PART FUE CUANDO AGARO LA PELOTA
PORCE YO ANTES JUGAVA CON MI PRIMO Y A MI ME GUSTO CUANDO SE
COMIO LAS ENCHILADAS PORCE MI PAPÁ COME ENCHILADAS (My part was
when he got the ball because I used to play with my cousin and I liked when he ate the
enchiladas because my dad eats enchiladas). This response points to an awareness of the
cultural specificity of the text with regards to traditional food, and also seems to illustrate
cultural pride. This particular SHL student wrote personal connections in his responses to
all three CR texts.
Yolanda wrote that she liked it when Juanito gave the grandmother lots of things,
connecting to the themes of intergenerationalism and familism. Two additional SHL
students, including Verónica, also wrote about parts of the text where the characters gave
and received items, showing a connection to the community theme (Table 4). Although
their picture walk clearly showed that Javier and Yolanda were aware that this book
contained elements of Mexican culture, and cultural pride is a strong theme in this text,
their written responses did not contain reference to any cultural markers. While many
students wrote about the incident with the chile pepper, I did not feel that I could reliably
judge whether they did so because of cultural pride, so I did not attempt to tally the
number of responses that showed evidence of connecting to the cultural pride theme.
Discussions
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I met with the EHL students first to discuss this text.
EHL focal students’ discussion. Brianna, Oliver, and Ava all wanted to talk
about when the man eats the hot chile pepper, saying that this was their favorite part. Ian
said that he liked it when the kids gave the toys and other things to the grandmother
because it was a good thing to do. While this may have been a slight misunderstanding
because they don’t actually give her toys, they do bring her many things.
When asked if they felt that they could be part of this book, Oliver replied that he
could because he has candy at his house that is very, very old (Table 4). In the book, the
characters say that “old can be new.” Brianna originally responded that she could not be
part of this book but then changed her answer because she likes to ride horses and she
wears boots for that activity, which were featured in the story. Ava also responded “no”
at first, but then said that her father could be in the book because he likes to fix things.
Later in the discussion, she added that she could be in the book because her grandmother
gives her lots of things. Like the previous week, she seemed to be enjoying discovering
ways to connect with the text.
Ian said that his father likes to fix guitars and that he could be in the book because
he gives gum and toys to his neighbor, perhaps tuning in to the theme of community
present in the text (Table 7). When I asked if what happened to Juanito in the book could
happen to them, however, the students initially replied “no.” Brianna felt that she would
not be allowed to go around the flea market by herself without adult supervision. This
could be an indication that she was aware of the community represented in the text but
did not feel that it reflected her reality. Oliver pointed out that perhaps Juanito is older
than they are and so needs less supervision. Ava felt that it was okay for the kids to be by
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themselves because the grandmother was watching them from her booth, bringing up the
topic of intergenerationalism. Ian then decided that what happened to Juanito could
actually happen to him because sometimes he goes places with his grandmother. He also
said that he and his mother like to eat churros. The conversation did not touch on the
major themes of cultural pride or Mexico as home.
SHL focal students’ discussion. When I asked what they thought about this
book, Yolanda replied that the boy brought lots of things to the grandmother on the last
page. I asked her what that made her think about and she replied, “Así mi mami me
hace.” (That’s what my mommy does for me.) These comments reflected an awareness
of intergenerationalism and familism represented in the texts. However, her comment
also led directly to a story about how her mother gives more things to her little sister, who
she took to Burger King while Yolanda was at school.
Javier asked why the man at the jewelry booth was crying and I explained that he
missed his home town in Mexico. This elicited the following reply from Yolanda: “Hey,
mi mami vive en México y mi papi también.” (Hey, my mommy lives in Mexico and my
daddy too.) While her parents do not currently live in Mexico, her response reflects an
awareness of the fact that Mexico still represents home in her family.
Javier then wanted to share his written response, where he said that he felt that he
could be in this book because he goes to the flea market sometimes (Table 7). Verónica
then shared that her favorite part was the blanket with the peacock on it. She said that she
could be part of this book because she likes peacocks, but when I asked if what happened
in the story could happen to her, she said no. Rafael also said that he could not be part of
the book, saying that he could not sell anything, but Javier and Yolanda said that he
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could. After flipping pages for a long time and saying that the book was loco (crazy),
Rafael decided that his favorite part was the peacock blanket as well.
When I asked if there was a part of the book that they did not like, Verónica
brought up the page where a man eats a raw hot chile pepper. Verónica gave detailed
accounts of the different chiles she had tried, although she did not know their names. She
seemed to be enjoying speaking in English. Yolanda, Rafael, and Javier piped up with
accounts of their experiences eating different chiles as well. The conversation was lively
with lots of laughter.
Verónica: I liked the green one. Annie: You liked the green one? Verónica: Uh huh. But I had to drink water. Yolanda: I ate the red one. Annie: You had to— Yolanda: I ate the red one. Annie: The red one? Rafael: No me gustó esta. (I didn’t like this.) Verónica: Oh my God, that’s… kind of spicy. Annie: Pero hay diferentes tiops, ¿verdad? Rafael: No me gustó esta parte. (I didn’t like this part.) Annie: ¿Cómo se llama? (What’s it called?) Javier: Cuando yo estaba un bebé yo comí de chile. (When I was a baby I ate chile.) Verónica: My mom only eats [inaudible]. Yolanda: Son de los que son flaquitos (They are the ones that are skinny)
After this, Rafael finally managed to get our attention and tell us that he didn’t
like the part with the chile pepper because once he ate chile in a soup and it got on his
hands and it made his face turn red. Javier continued to insist that he ate chile as a baby
and Yolanda concluded that the chiles in the text are the ones used to make salsa roja.
She also told a story about a car that her father bought and fixed up using the same tools
as were shown in one of the illustrations.
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This conversation reflected a sense of cultural pride that was definitely evident in
the text, especially with regard to the chiles. It also touched briefly on Mexico as home
and community members giving each other gifts.
Preferences
Even though the students seemed to enjoy this text and it was the last text we read
and therefore the freshest in their minds, no SHL students chose it as their favorite or
least favorite (Table 9). Only one EHL student chose this text as his favorite (it was
Blake, the student who continually wrote about the theme of community in his
responses). Madison was the only student to choose this text as her least favorite.
Summary of Results of Part 2
In this section, I present a summary of the results of Part 2 organized by sub-
question of RQ2: How does the cultural content of a text affect students’ reading
responses, if at all?
a) Which aspects of the texts do students choose to write about and discuss?
b) What personal connections and connections to cultural content are evident in
the students’ responses? What evidence is there of distancing or resistance?
c) Do students prefer texts that are culturally relevant?
d) How do students construct their cultural and school identities during
discussions of the texts?
Topics for Writing and Discussion (RQ2a)
Which aspects of the texts do students choose to write about and discuss?
Students from both home language groups often chose similar topics for the written
responses. Both SHL students and EHL students were able to engage with mainstream
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and CR stories enough to know which parts they found to be the most exciting and
entertaining, and these parts of the books were almost always what individuals chose to
write about. In addition, the two groups of students generally had similar ideas about
which events in the stories were worth writing about, regardless of whether the texts were
mainstream or CR (e.g., when Alexander fell in the mud, when Miss Rumphius scattered
flower seeds, when Reyna received the lucky sombrero, when the man ate a hot chile
pepper). However, the ways in which the two groups of students wrote about a topic
sometimes differed. For example, the house fire in Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams,
1994) provoked a more serious response from the SHL students, who used this event in
the book to think about the possibility of fire as a serious calamity in a person’s life,
whereas most of the EHL students represented the fire simply as an entertaining part of
the story.
In addition, the events that the students chose to write about had different personal
and cultural connotations for different groups of students. This in turn affected whether
their responses contained personal or cultural connections. For example, a SHL student
who chose to write about when Reyna received the lucky sombrero in Finding the Music
/ En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) did so because this was a pivotal point in
the story and because he likes mariachi music and has a similar sombrero at home, while
the EHL students were less likely to have this type of personal and cultural connection to
the event in the text. I will discuss connections to the texts further in the following
section.
While the topics chosen for written response were largely similar across language
groups, this was not true of the small group oral discussions. Topics varied significantly
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between the two focal groups of students, despite my effort to maintain consistency by
using a discussion question protocol. In the discussions of the mainstream books, the
SHL students were eager to launch into topics that were not directly related to events in
the story, usually fueled by one word from the text that was used as a vehicle to transition
the conversation to another topic, such as espantoso (scary) in Alexander… (Viorst &
Cruz, 1989), loca (crazy) in La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), and ceniza
(ash) in Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994). These words led to discussions about
the students’ fear of ghosts, fathers who came home intoxicated, and deceased siblings,
respectively. My conversations with the EHL students never dealt with such serious
topics and rarely wandered so far from the texts themselves.
Similarly, during the picture walks with the mainstream texts, the SHL students
sometimes preferred to go off-topic. With La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996),
for example, Yolanda and Rafael created a story that was more interesting and dramatic
than what was actually depicted in the illustrations by turning the main character into an
evil witch, and with Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994), Javier and Rafael were
more interested in counting things in the pictures than trying to create a story. This type
of behavior was less evident during the picture walks of the CR text. In contrast, the EHL
students did not create narratives during the any of the picture walks that were not
directly supported by what they saw in the illustrations.
With the CR books, the SHL students were excited to see the Mexican cultural
markers represented in the illustrations, and they were proud that they could identify
them. The cultural markers in the pictures helped them to make spontaneous connections
between what they saw in the books and events from their own lives, and sparked their
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interest in the stories the pictures told. The EHL students were also able to describe what
they saw in the pictures in the CR books using general terms, but they did not comment
on any of the cultural markers depicted in the illustrations and did not seem to be aware
of the cultural content of the texts.
Another notable finding regarding the content of the students’ responses was the
frequency with which the SHL students’ discussions focused on Mexico. Because
Mexico is an important part of the SHL focal students’ lives, regardless of whether
Mexico was represented in the text we were discussing, they often included it in the
discussion. For example, all it took was my mention of the word “travel” in relation to La
señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), and the students excitedly began a discussion
of the various methods by which one can travel to Mexico, who has been there, and
which relatives still live there, even though Mexico is never mentioned in that text. The
SHL students also brought up Mexico in relation to Finding the Music / En pos de la
música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), when, because of the cultural content of
those CR texts, it was more relevant to the literary discussion. Mexico never came up in
my discussions with the EHL students, even when it was a focus of the text at hand.
Connections and Distancing (RQ2b)
What personal connections and connections to cultural content are evident in the
students’ responses? What evidence is there of distancing or resistance? In their written
responses and dictations, the SHL students in the class were more likely to make a
personal connection to the texts than the EHL students overall. That is, the percentage of
SHL students who made a personal connection in their writing or dictation was always
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higher than that of the EHL students, except for when we read La señorita Runfio
(Cooney & Porter, 1996). However, the sample sizes are too small to make claims about
the significance of this. The texts with the highest incidences of personal connection for
SHL students, where half of them made a personal connection in their writing or
dictation, were Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994), Finding the Music / En pos de
la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), and My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez
& Gonzalez, 2000). The text with the lowest incidence of personal connection for SHL
students was La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996). See Table 5.
The EHL students’ rate of personal connection usually hovered around 30%
(about a third of English speakers connected personally with any given text), with the
highest percentage (36%) connecting with My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito
(Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) and the lowest (10%) to Finding the Music / En pos de la
música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015). However, while the EHL students were not able to
connect personally with Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão,
2015) in the same way the SHL students were in their written responses, during the small
group discussions I found that the EHL focal students seemed to enjoy finding ways to
connect personally with the CR texts, even as they recognized that the worlds depicted
were perhaps different from their own. For example, Ava at first felt that she did not
belong in My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), but after
further discussion she triumphantly announced that she could in fact be part of this text
because she reads to her little brother. She then went on to write about this in her written
response and to choose this text as her favorite at the end of the study.
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While the percentage of SHL students who wrote personal connections was
usually higher, the type of personal connection the students made differed by home
language group (Table 6). Only SHL students engaged in the type of personal connection
that involved putting oneself in the shoes of the characters or the world of the story in
their written responses (e.g., If I were in that situation, I would…). These can be
characterized as sliding door connections. In addition, SHL students made this type of
personal connection more frequently with the mainstream books, possibly because
personal experiences did not immediately come to mind upon hearing those stories. With
the three mainstream texts, the SHL students as a group had just two connections to
personal experience or preference (mirror connections) and six to imagining themselves
in the story world (sliding door connections). The latter type of connection usually took
the form of imagining themselves as helpers (e.g. cleaning up the world, giving people
money, and putting out fires). The text that inspired the most connections by imagining
themselves in the story world was Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994).
The SHL students were less likely to connect the events in the mainstream texts to
events in their own lives in their writing, even when they had experiences that were
similar to events portrayed in the book, such as traveling to another country. Only two
SHL students wrote connections to personal experiences to mainstream texts, and both
were in response to Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989). They were more likely to make
connections to events in their own lives with the CR texts. With the CR texts, SHL
students as a group had eight connections to personal experiences or preferences (mirror
connections) and just three to imagining themselves in the story world (Table 6). They
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made the most connections to personal experiences or preferences in relation to My Very
Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000).
The EHL students did not insert themselves into the story worlds in their written
responses, regardless of text type. All of their personal connections were mirror
connections (Table 6). Even when the EHL students were unfamiliar with a story world,
for example, when we read Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros
(Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002), the EHL students who chose to make a personal
connection did so by reaching for a connection to a personal experience rather than
imagining themselves in a character’s shoes. The EHL students had 11 personal
connections to experiences or preferences with the mainstream books, and no mainstream
text received significantly more connections than any other. With the CR books, the EHL
students made ten personal connections, almost the same number.
During small group discussions, the SHL focal students could make personal
connections to the mainstream texts when asked to do so. For example, during our
discussion of Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) all four SHL focal students could talk
about a time when they had a bad day when I asked them to. Additionally, when I asked
Yolanda and Verónica why they liked certain parts of the text, the reasons they gave were
personal connections. For example, Yolanda said that she liked when the kids in the book
got prizes in their cereal because she never gets a prize in her cereal. However, these
personal connections did not transfer to the students’ writing, perhaps because they were
not spontaneous, or because the students did not feel that their personal stories were
important to write about in relation to the mainstream texts. In fact, all but one of the
SHL focal students did not make personal connections to this text in their written
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responses or dictations, despite the fact that I had asked them to make personal
connections during our small group discussion before the writing period. The one SHL
focal student who did make a personal connection, Verónica, made a connection that was
far removed from the actual text. In contrast, three out of the four EHL focal students
spontaneously made personal connections to events depicted in Alexander… (Viorst &
Cruz, 1989) in their written responses or dictations, even without having discussed
personal connections with me beforehand. When the SHL focal students did make
personal connections to the mainstream texts spontaneously during the discussions, they
were almost always far removed from the actual text. For example, Rafael’s story about
his brother’s ashes did not relate directly to Un sillón para mi mamá… (Williams, 1994).
These spontaneous personal stories also never appeared in the students’ writing, perhaps
because the students felt that they were too far removed from the actual texts to be
appropriate topics for writing.
With the CR books, the personal connections made by the SHL focal students
during our discussions were more spontaneous and more closely related to the books. For
example, immediately upon sitting down at the discussion table, Javier declared that he
could be part of My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000)
because he snores like the father in the book. He also chose to write about this part of the
text in his written response. Later in the discussion, he asked his peers if they sleep with
their parents or by themselves, a personal question related closely to the plot of the text.
In contrast, during our discussion of La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1982), his
contribution to the discussion was continually bringing up that Miss Rumphius was loca
(crazy). He was unwilling or unable to imagine himself or anyone in his family as part of
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this story and was not able to engage in meaningful discussion of it. Even during our
conversation of Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989), a text that Javier enjoyed, he did not
make any spontaneous personal connections.
The SHL focal students also made personal connections during the CR picture
walks without any prompting from me. These connections were catalyzed by the
culturally-specific images they saw in the illustrations. While the EHL students did not
make personal connections during the CR picture walks, they were able to make personal
connections to the CR texts during the small group discussions when prompted.
Belonging in the story world. During our small group discussions, I tried to gain
an understanding of whether the focal students felt that they could be part of the world of
the story at hand. I asked them directly whether they could be part of the book, and
whether the events portrayed could happen to them, as a way to gauge the degree to
which they could identify with the characters portrayed and feel at home in the world of
the story. While their answers sometimes changed as our discussion progressed, their
responses were still illuminating. Looking at individual focal students’ responses to the
questions across the entire study, it is possible to gain some insight into the students’
feelings of belonging in the context of each of the books. Their responses are listed in
Table 7. In the case of a student who changed his or her answer, the answer they settled
on at the end of the discussion is shown.
SHL focal students. In the SHL focal group, Javier responded that he could not
be part of any of the mainstream texts and that he could be part of all three CR texts.
Rafael only said that he felt that he could be part of Finding the Music / En pos de la
música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez &
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Gonzalez, 2000) originally, although he was able to find a way to belong in La señorita
Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996) by saying that he could pick up trash. Verónica said that
she could be part of Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994) by helping to put out the
fire, Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), and Grandma
and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002).
However, she said that she could be part of Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros
meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002) because she liked the peacock, but
that what happened to Juanito could not happen to her. Verónica also said that her sister
could be in Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) because she has bad days at school, but
she did not say that she could be part of the book herself. Yolanda felt that she could be
part of Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and My Very
Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), and none of the mainstream
texts. She unfortunately did not respond to the question during our discussion of
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock,
2002).
All four SHL focal students felt that they could be part of Finding the Music / En
pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and all but Verónica felt that they could be
part of My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000). The SHL
students’ facial expressions and comments during small group discussions made it clear
that they liked it when they could feel that they were included in the context of the story.
Javier’s joyfulness upon discovering a boy who resembled him in an illustration of
Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) was a clear illustration
of this, and his joy was also apparent in his written response to this text where he drew a
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smiling self-portrait holding up a copy of the book. Yolanda’s feeling of satisfaction upon
finding a character with whom she could identify also showed up in our discussion and
when she drew herself as Reyna in her written response.
EHL focal students. In the EHL focal group, Ian said that he could be part of
every book we read in the study (Table 7). Ava, on the other hand, initially responded
that she could not be part of any of the books. In the two last discussions of the study,
however, she revised her initial answers later in the discussions, finding ways to identify
with the last two texts: My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez,
2000) and Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De
Lucio-Brock, 2002). She was unfortunately absent for our discussion of Alexander…
(Viorst & Cruz, 1989). Oliver said that he could be part of Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz,
1989), Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994), My Very Own Room / Mi propio
cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), and Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002). However, he also said that what happened
in all three CR books could not happen to him. Brianna only said that she could be part of
My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000), because of the large
family portrayed in this text. However, she also said that what happened to the main
character in that text could not happen to her and that her family lives in different houses.
Her statement that she could not be in Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) because she
did not want gum in her hair shows that she was actually able to put herself in that
character’s shoes. Notably, Brianna’s mixed cultural background of White and Afro-
Brazilian was sadly absent from the books used in this study.
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The only book that all four of the focal EHL students said they felt they could be
part of in some way was My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez,
2000), perhaps because having one’s own room is a very relatable topic for a first grader,
despite the fact that this text is not culturally relevant for them. However, three of the
EHL focal students also stated that what happens to the main character in this text could
not happen to them.
Cultural connections. The mainstream texts provided little opportunity for the
SHL students to connect with their cultural backgrounds. However, I did find evidence
supporting the idea that even mainstream texts that contain themes that align with
Mexican American cultural relevance provide more opportunity for students to connect
culturally than those texts that do not. With the one mainstream text that contained more
significant evidence of the themes of family and poverty, Un sillón para mi mamá
(Williams, 1994), the SHL students were slightly more likely to include elements that
reflected those themes in their written responses than the EHL students (Table 4). In
addition, although I did not include secondary themes in the table, three SHL students
(38%) wrote about elements of the story that reflected the culturally relevant theme of
community, which was a secondary theme in this text, whereas only one EHL student did
so. However, in Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) and La señorita Runfio (Cooney &
Porter, 1996) when the Mexican American culturally relevant themes were not primary,
the students did not write about them or bring them up for discussion.
With the CR books, the SHL students had many more opportunities to connect
with Mexican American cultural themes (Table 4). For example, community was a
primary theme in Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and
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nearly all the SHL students in the class (seven out of eight, or 88%) wrote about elements
of the text that reflected the community theme. Most of the EHL students were able to
recognize the community theme in relation to this text as well (69%), reflecting that this
theme was stronger and more central to the story in this CR text.
For the SHL students, cultural markers were also central in facilitating both
personal and cultural connections. The strongest cultural connections evident in the study
came from the cultural markers the SHL students noticed during the picture walks in the
illustrations of Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and
Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock,
2002). Some of the SHL focal students discovered these cultural markers immediately
and independently and they sparked recognition and delight. These cultural connections
then easily led to personal connections as well, as in Finding the Music / En pos de la
música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) when recognition of Day of the Dead decorations in an
illustration led Yolanda and Verónica to discuss their school’s approaching celebration of
this holiday. The Mexican American cultural markers went entirely unnoticed or
unremarked upon by the EHL focal students.
While the mainstream texts did not offer many opportunities for the SHL focal
students to connect with their cultural selves, the students tried to bring their culture into
the conversation anyway during our small group discussions. For example, we discussed
travel to Mexico instead of the events depicted in La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter,
1996) and Javier brought up Mexican professional wrestling in relation to Alexander…
(Viorst & Cruz, 1989). When this happened, the SHL students seemed to be connecting
with their culture, but not with the book. They did not include these cultural connections
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in their written responses, perhaps because they did not feel that they were appropriate to
the literary response task.
Cultural connections made by the students led them to show feelings of cultural
pride during our conversations of the CR texts. For example, the SHL students were
eager to explain their knowledge of chile peppers to me, and to tell me that their school
makes special Day of the Dead bread for all the students. Cultural pride was also evident
during our discussions of the mainstream texts when the SHL students brought up
Mexico, but these conversations were not connected to the books.
Distancing or resistance. While the SHL focal students were usually cooperative
during the small group discussions, and tried their best to comply with my requests for
them to think deeply about these books, at times they clearly wanted to discuss things
other than the texts. These moments could be thought of as moments of distancing or
resistance to the texts, and they mostly occurred when we were discussing mainstream
books. For example, Yolanda placed distance between her life and Alexander’s when she
categorically distinguished between Alexander’s bad day and her sister’s. Resistance to
the books was even more evident during the SHL students’ picture walks, when I was not
as directly involved as a facilitator. The most extreme example was with La señorita
Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), when neither pair of SHL focal students stayed on task.
Notably, the pictures in this text are also the most far removed from the students’ lives of
any of the books used in the study.
The students also showed some reluctance to identify with characters in the texts
when upsetting things happened to them. For example, most of the focal students were
not eager to place themselves in the world of Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994)
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because they did not want to imagine their homes burning down. This was true in both
groups of focal students.
Preferences (RQ2c)
I asked the students to choose their favorite and least favorite text at the end of the
study and they got to take a copy of their favorite book home to keep. The goal was to
answer the question: Do students prefer texts that are culturally relevant?
SHL students. Four SHL students in the class chose mainstream texts as their
favorites and five chose CR texts, showing a slight preference for culturally relevant texts
in this group (Table 9). Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão,
2015) and Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) were the two most popular texts with the
SHL students and Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) and My Very Own Room / Mi
propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) were the two texts that received the most votes
for least favorite from SHL students. Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) seemed to
promote strong feelings of both enjoyment and dislike.
As for the SHL focal students’ choices, Javier and Rafael chose mainstream texts
as their favorites and Verónica and Yolanda chose CR books (Table 8). Verónica and
Yolanda both chose Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015)
even though they were not together when they made their choices. Javier opted for
Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989); even though he said he did not see himself in this
story, he clearly enjoyed it. Rafael chose La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996),
possibly because this was the first text that he found a way to connect with personally and
he was very proud of his response.
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EHL students. Six EHL students chose mainstream books as their favorites at the
end of the study, while seven chose CR books, again showing a slight preference for the
CR texts, which are not culturally relevant for this group, but which do align with the
dual language curriculum ideals in which students are supposed to learn not just the
Spanish language, but about Spanish-speaking cultures (Table 9). Alexander… (Viorst &
Cruz, 1989) tied with Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015)
for most popular with the EHL students. Notably, both SHL and EHL students chose
these two books as their favorites. Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) and Un sillón para
mi mamá (Williams, 1994) were the two books that received the most votes for least
favorite with the EHL group. Once again Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) received the
most votes in both directions.
Two EHL focal students chose mainstream texts as their favorites (Brianna and
Ian) and two chose CR books (Ava and Oliver). Ian originally chose Finding the Music /
En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) but asked to change his vote at the last
minute because his grandmother has Miss Rumphius (Cooney & Porter, 1982) in English
at her house and he thinks it’s “muy bueno” (really good). Brianna chose Alexander…
(Viorst & Cruz, 1989) because she thought it was funny. Ava said that she enjoyed My
Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) but that she also chose it
because it includes the story in English so her mom can read it to her. Oliver did not
hesitate when choosing to bring home Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres &
Alarcão, 2015) although this was not a book that he said he felt part of when we
discussed it. He did not give a reason for his choice (Table 8).
Mini-Case Studies: Identities (RQ2d)
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How do students construct their cultural and school identities during discussions
of the texts? While the SHL focal students obviously have lived experiences in common
with the EHL students, and these can help them relate to mainstream family fiction books
(e.g. going to Target, having a stomach ache), these types of connections only allow the
SHL students to activate part of their identities. Because the main focus of my study was
on children’s literature and the connections students make, I was not able to examine
each child’s identity constructions in all of their complexities. However, the profiles of
these two students highlight the ways in which certain identities were enacted during our
discussions of mainstream and CR texts. In this section I focus on two students: Yolanda
and Ian, who were the two highest achieving readers in the classroom when this study
took place, and who come from very different cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
Yolanda. Yolanda, who is a high-achieving SHL student, fought to include her
family in our small group discussions starting on Day 1, but resisted identifying with the
mainstream books. During our discussion of the first book, Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz,
1989), for example, in her response to my question, “¿Alguna vez alguien ha tenido un
día así, terrible?” (Has anyone had a terrible day like that?), she used the word espantoso
to make a connection to a story about her younger sister’s scary day at preschool that led
the discussion far from the world of the text, as nothing scary happened to Alexander in
the book. Yolanda recognized that she was leading the conversation in a different
direction, by stating that her sister’s day was unlike Alexander’s because it was “sólo
espantoso” (just scary); in doing so, she seemed to be admitting that her personal story
was only tangentially related to the text, but also implying that it was more interesting
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and therefore worthy of discussion. The other students recognized her as a leader,
immediately following suit and telling stories about things that they found scary in their
lives. In this way, Yolanda positioned herself as a capable and talented storyteller, and
brought her personal stories to the forefront of our discussion, but she had to
acknowledge that her story was not related to the text at hand, thereby diminishing
somewhat her status as a high achieving reader. She did the same when we discussed La
señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), using one word from the text to launch us into
a discussion of her father’s drinking habits, which was not a topic appropriate to a
discussion of this text, but which allowed her to bring her family into the conversation.
Yolanda continued to be a leader in our literary discussions, usually the first to answer
my questions, yet she knew that her responses were sometimes not appropriate to the
discussion at hand.
The task of connecting personally with these texts made it difficult for Yolanda to
maintain her identity as one who excels in school tasks and belongs in the world of
academic literacy. In the context of this study, I was asking Yolanda to engage with
picture books that are not culturally relevant, a task that minority students are faced with
every day in schools. While Yolanda was able to do so when asked, as when I pressed for
a connection to her life with Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989), her contributions to the
discussions of mainstream texts indicated that she did not spontaneously seek ways to
identify with the characters. Put another way, these texts did not inspire her to look for
connections to her own life. In fact, Yolanda seemed perfectly content to keep the stories
in the mainstream texts separate from her own life stories. Although she was eager to talk
about her own life, including sharing her cultural background with me and the students in
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our group, she was less eager to talk about the mainstream texts or to draw personal
connections, and it is likely that this disengagement affected her comprehension of the
texts as well.
During the picture walk of La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), Yolanda
twisted the story, adding hidden dangers such as an unknown man and a witch who tricks
children and poisons them. This kind of storytelling could be seen as a form of distancing
herself from the text; Yolanda created a story that was entertaining to her peers, most
likely drawing upon other stories she had encountered in books, media, or television, but
her story had nothing to do with her own life or her loved ones. It was also a form of
rejection of the text at hand, which may have seemed outdated and boring. However,
Yolanda walked a difficult line between distancing herself from the mainstream book and
maintaining her school identity as a high-achiever, one who excels in the academic
setting. When I entered the discussion at the end of their picture walk, Yolanda quickly
changed her tune, telling me that the children in La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter,
1996) were gathering flowers for their mothers (not running from an evil witch).
In Yolanda’s written responses, there was no overt evidence of resistance to
engagement with the texts, but also no connections to her life outside of school. Her
responses were written in complete sentences and included a justification, showing her
technical capabilities as a first-grade writer and her desire to complete the assignment
according to the directions given which positions her as a good student. However, in
terms of content, they usually fell short, reflecting neither connection to the content
themes nor the knowledge of the world that she demonstrated during our discussions. Her
responses to the mainstream texts included that she liked the flowers in La señorita
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Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996) because they were blue and she liked the chair in Un
sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994) because it had pink roses on it. These responses
did not delve beneath the surface, did not reflect awareness of content themes in the texts,
and did not even seem to reflect her actual thoughts about the books. For example, during
the La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996) picture walk with Rafael, Yolanda
actually told him that she does not like flowers. She also could not justify her written
response to Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams, 1994): when Ms. Diaz asked why she
wrote that she liked the chair in the story, she replied, “Me gustan los sillones. Por eso.”
(Because I like chairs. That’s why.) It seems that Yolanda had not found a way to merge
her school identity as a high achiever with her cultural identity as one who possesses
knowledge about two countries and two cultural worlds and stories that are worth telling;
and reading mainstream texts did not seem to help. Her identity as a talented teller of
personal stories with deep connection to her family and Mexico did not carry over into
the written realm, at least not in response to mainstream texts.
During our discussion of the CR texts, however, Yolanda was able to maintain her
school identity as a high-achieving student while also connecting with her own life and
culture. While her contribution to the discussion of the house fire in Un sillón para mi
mamá (Williams, 1994) indicated that she was quite capable of imagining herself in the
world of the story in some respects, it was not until we discussed Finding the Music / En
pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) that she admitted to identifying with a
character, and took pleasure in doing so. During the picture walk, she used her story
knowledge and her cultural knowledge to form a prediction about Finding the Music / En
pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) and felt no need to twist or dramatize the
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story that was shown. This was also the first time that she included any sort of personal
connection to a text in relation to her written response and she elaborated on this response
during our small group discussion, saying that if she were the main character in the story,
she would not break the guitar like Reyna did. When Ms. Diaz asked why Yolanda chose
to draw herself as Reyna, she replied that she would like to play the guitar in the story. In
writing about and discussing this text, Yolanda was engaging with a high-quality
challenging text in a way that called upon her to activate her cultural and personal
knowledge of the world.
Yolanda seemed conflicted about her identification with the main character in My
Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000). The information I got
from my conversation with Ms. Diaz leads me to believe that, of all the books we used in
this study, the family in this text probably most closely resembles Yolanda’s. Yolanda
has five children in her family, two of whom were recently reunited with the family from
Mexico, plus an uncle who has recently immigrated from Mexico and lives with them.
Her parents work in low-paying jobs and with the high cost of housing in the area I
imagine that space is probably scarce in their home. In addition, Yolanda’s physical
appearance closely resembles that of the main character in the book. However, while
Yolanda did not actively resist the boys’ assertions that she could be the main character
of the book, she also did not accept them. She screwed up her eyes and emphatically
shook her head “no” when I asked her if what happened in the book could happen to her.
While usually eager to share personal stories, she did not relate any family stories during
our discussion of this text, aside from telling us that her father snores. She instead
focused intently on her enjoyment of the color of the paint the characters use to paint the
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new room and did not offer any acknowledgment of identification with the character
beyond this part of the story, aside from not refusing Javier’s idea that she could hug her
mother like the girl in the book. This refusal was maintained in her written response, MI
PARTE FAVORITA FUE DONDE ERVOLVIERON LOS COLORES ROSITA Y AZUL Y
TABIEN HISIERON COLOR MALLETA CON LA PITURA ROSITA Y AZUL (My
favorite part was when they mixed the colors pink and blue and also made the color
magenta with the pink and blue paint). Even during the picture walk, Yolanda briefly
brought up zombies; although it was just one comment, this was the only CR text where
she engaged in any off-task behavior.
It is possible that the family in My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez &
Gonzalez, 2000) did not remind Yolanda of her own family. However, it seems more
likely that she preferred to identify with Reyna because Reyna represents a more
glamorous version of what it means to be Mexican American. With her long, wavy gold-
brown hair and her sparkly sombrero, her own restaurant and a neighborhood full of
friends, Reyna’s problems are superficial. The deeper problems that come with poverty
and immigration to a new country shown in My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito
(Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) may have felt too close to home for Yolanda, or represented
parts of her life that she did not want to think about or discuss at the time.
Yolanda made it clear that she was activating her cultural identity and thinking
about her family when we read Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros
remateros (Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002). She said that when Juanito gave lots of
things to the grandmother, it made her think about her own mother, and she chose to
write about this in her written response: MI PARTE FAVORITA FUE DONDE SU ÑIÑO
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LE DIO MUCHAS COSAS PORQUE ES MUY AMADLE. (My favorite part was when
her boy gave her lots of things because it’s very nice.) Although she did not include her
personal connection in her writing, this response still indicates a deeper connection to the
text than was evident in her written responses to the mainstream books. In this response,
Yolanda shows her connection to two important themes of this book: community giving
and familism. In this situation again, Yolanda’s cultural and personal knowledge
facilitated her engagement with text and more successful completion of an academic task,
allowing her to activate both her cultural and school identities, and perhaps even begin to
merge the two.
In conclusion, although Yolanda is a native Spanish speaker who reads above
grade-level, during our discussions of texts she sometimes struggled to make connections
to her own life while also including the mainstream (culturally irrelevant) stories that we
read. This led to behavior that seemed off-task, when Yolanda told stories about her life
that did not seem relevant to the literary discussion at hand, or when she invented more
entertaining stories than the ones in the books during the picture walks. In contrast,
Yolanda was able to showcase her world knowledge and maintain her identity as a high-
achieving student when she could easily identify and discuss cultural items in the pictures
of the CR books. These cultural markers facilitated spontaneous and relevant personal
connections during the discussions. In addition, Yolanda’s written responses in relation to
the CR texts then contained evidence of her attention to important cultural themes
embedded in the texts, although she still did not include her personal stories in her
writing.
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Ian. Ian, a high-achieving EHL student learning Spanish as a second language,
was easily able to discuss his life in relation to every text we read. During my time in the
classroom he constantly enacted a high-achieving school identity, showing aptitude as
well as enthusiasm for academic tasks. Much like Yolanda, he was almost always the first
of the group to answer my questions. However, Ian offered his responses with the
confidence that they were relevant to the literary conversation and would be well
received.
Ian found Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) both hilarious and easy to relate to;
when we discussed this text he made connections to sibling rivalry in his family, a time
when he fell and scraped his knee, and bullying in his neighborhood. He told me all about
the flowers he planted with his mother in relation to La señorita Runfio (Cooney &
Porter, 1996), and related in vivid detail his experience sitting in the most comfortable
beanbag chair in the world during our discussion of Un sillón para mi mamá (Williams,
1994). Despite the fact that the mainstream stories we read were in his second language,
the cultural content was familiar and easy for him to connect with. His personal stories
were not as well-told as Yolanda’s; they were halting and lacking in Spanish vocabulary
and correct sentence structure, but Ian persevered, at times painstakingly searching for a
word and at last saying it in English. He was determined to make his point and his stories
were usually directly related to the text we were discussing.
When we discussed the CR texts, Ian was also able to make connections that were
relevant to the texts, using his background knowledge and his understanding of the
stories’ themes. He had prior experience with guitar repair shops that allowed him to
connect to Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), recognized
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the strong theme of family love portrayed in My Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito
(Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) and related it to his own loving family, and discussed the
theme of community members giving gifts to each other in relation to his own charitable
activities in our discussion of Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros
(Herrera & De Lucio-Brock, 2002). It was coincidental that Ian happened to have
extensive experience in guitar repair shops; however, I have no doubt that Ian would have
found another way to meaningfully connect the story to his personal experience in some
way had this not been the case. He never hesitated to reply that he could be part of
whatever book we were reading, and always had a justification for his response ready. Ian
continued to search for connections to the texts even after offering several. At the end of
our discussion of Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera &
De Lucio-Brock, 2002) when the students were getting up from the table, he announced
that he had another connection to share.
Ian felt at home in the world of school literacy tasks. If a connection to his life
was not readily apparent to him in relation to any of the books we read during the study,
he never let on. In addition, Ian’s written responses always coincided with his
contributions to our discussions, showing that he felt comfortable relating his thoughts
about a book both on paper and in front of his peers and teacher. All but one of his
written responses included a connection to personal experience. His cultural identity
seemed to blend seamlessly with his academic identity, even in a linguistically
challenging setting when he was responding to a culturally unfamiliar text.
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Chapter 6: Discussion, Limitations, and Implications
Discussion of Mainstream and Culturally Rich Texts
Most of the books composing the mainstream text set have been recognized
nationally as popular, high quality literature for children (Table 2). These books can be
assumed to be commonly found in dual language classrooms throughout the nation due to
the relative scarcity of Spanish language children’s books, as well as the prevalence of
Scholastic as a supplier of children’s books in Spanish translation. In addition, because
the best-selling children’s books are more likely to be considered for publication in
Spanish editions, the books in the mainstream text set are likely to be found in their
original English editions in mainstream (English-only) classrooms as well. My analysis
shows that these common classroom texts are deficient in several ways in which the CR
texts are not, pointing to valuable benefits of including culturally rich texts in classrooms.
The mainstream text set was especially lacking in family fiction texts, with only
four books featuring human children, all of which were written more than thirty years
ago. Most of the mainstream books featured animal characters, and while it is not
impossible that a child would identify with an animal character’s personality traits,
animal families depicted in illustrations cannot provide a direct mirror for young
children. Since the family fiction genre provides the most opportunity for children to
identify with characters and see their lives reflected in a book (Galda et al., 2014), this
points to a need for more family fiction texts featuring human children living their lives
in the present day in specific locations in the United States (in this case, California).
More importantly, when the mainstream texts I analyzed did portray human main
characters, they hardly ever mirrored the participating SHL focal students’ physical,
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linguistic, cultural, or socioeconomic backgrounds. The child protagonists in the
mainstream books were light-skinned, monolingual, mostly affluent, and not culturally
Mexican American. The families shown in the mainstream books were also different
from the SHL students’ families in that none of them were immigrant families and family
members such as siblings and grandparents were rarely portrayed. In contrast, the main
characters in the CR text set had dark skin and hair, spoke two languages, struggled with
poverty to various degrees, had parents who were immigrants, and had close relationships
with grandparents and siblings, in addition to being culturally Mexican American. These
characters’ realities closely mirrored those of the SHL students in the classroom along
several possible dimensions, making identification with main characters much easier.
The mainstream books also did not include any Mexican cultural markers that
signaled cultural relevance and importance to a Mexican American reader. Since picture
books are heavily dependent on the illustrations to create an engaging story world and
young readers are especially dependent on a text’s illustrations to find meaning when
being read to, visual cultural markers are of particular importance to young children. I
observed this in the classroom portion of my study when the focal students first
encountered Mexican cultural markers in illustrations. The SHL students noticed and
commented on aspects of the illustrations in the CR texts such as culturally similar
characters’ physical characteristics, type of home décor, neighborhoods, and foods. They
quickly and easily identified cultural markers as specifically Mexican, and related these
items to their own lives. Nearly every CR text I analyzed in this study contained abundant
visual cultural markers that provide an immediate invitation for children to link the world
of the story with their own realities.
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Besides allowing for personal identification with main characters and connection
to cultural content, the texts teachers read aloud in classrooms open opportunities for
discussions of the themes they contain, and convey the importance of certain values,
whether explicitly or implicitly (Stephens, 1992). When examined closely, the
mainstream texts presented little to no opportunity for discussion of themes and values
that have been repeatedly identified as important to the Mexican American community.
Only one mainstream text contained any significant evidence of the themes of community
and poverty, and one other contained evidence of language as a theme, making it unlikely
that these themes would become central to classroom discussions or writing projects on a
regular basis.
In stark contrast were the CR texts, where culturally relevant themes such as
family love, poverty, community, intergenerationalism, and cultural pride featured
prominently. The themes of immigration and feeling that Mexico is also home were an
ever-present backdrop for the stories in the CR text set. Full comprehension of these
stories would not be possible without at least some comprehension of the culturally
important themes they contain, making it extremely likely that classroom teachers would
spend time discussing these themes with their students when reading these texts aloud, as
well as asking them to write about them when responding to the texts, thus legitimizing
culturally important themes in the academic environment.
The mainstream texts often emphasized cultural values that the Mexican
American community has deemed not culturally relevant (Knight et al., 2010).
Individualism in the form of competition was especially prevalent in the mainstream text
set. These findings coincide with what Boutte et al. (2008) found when they deemed the
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required reading lists from several districts to be “a steady diet of culturally invasive
literature” for minority students (p. 955). In their study, the books on required reading
lists for teachers did not include African American values and ways of being. In this
study, Mexican American values and ways of being were noticeably absent from the
mainstream classroom texts as well, perhaps with the exception of Un sillón para mi
mamá (Williams, 1994).
In contrast to the mainstream texts were the values portrayed by the characters in
the CR text set, who valued family love over personal achievement, enjoyed spending
quality time with family members, honored their grandparents, and stuck together in the
face of adversity. These themes and values have been identified repeatedly in the research
literature as important for Latino children. If these themes and values could be the focus
of not just one, but most of the texts read aloud to students, it would open the possibility
of a literacy pedagogy that includes, affirms, and sustains (Paris, 2012) minority
students’ cultures.
One could argue that the SHL students’ home culture is partially included in the
literacy curriculum in dual language settings because the texts they read are in Spanish.
Reading in the students’ home language adds a layer of cultural inclusion that is not
found in mainstream classrooms where English is the sole language of instruction.
However, in this study I found that even the Spanish used in the mainstream texts was
less familiar to Mexican American children who were born in the United States than the
Spanish that was used in the CR texts. The mainstream texts were translated into
monolingual, sometimes overly formal Spanish that was confusing at times to the SHL
students in this study. In contrast, the CR texts were written by Mexican American
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authors who were more likely to use the Spanish language in a way that was familiar to
the SHL students. The CR books were sometimes written in both languages by the author
him or herself, or even translated with care by a family member, making it more likely
that the Spanish that was used reflected the actual voices of the characters in the texts.
In addition, nearly all of the CR texts were published in bilingual format: two
languages within the same volume, side by side, while none of the mainstream texts were
available in bilingual editions. In the bilingual books, Spanish words were often included
in the English narration and English words were occasionally incorporated into the
Spanish, though not as often as would accurately reflect the students’ use of
translanguaging. The dual language usage in the CR texts shows that these books were
written mostly for a bilingual audience, which was not necessarily the case for the
Spanish editions of the mainstream texts, which were often printed for sale
internationally, and seemed to be marketed for a Spanish-speaking audience, rather than a
bilingual one.
Ada (2003) states that Latino children need more books that explore the
experience of being bilingual in the United States, and my study corroborates her claim.
There was only one text that directly took up language as a theme in the mainstream text
set, and it portrayed speaking a different language as shameful and isolating. While only
one book in the CR text set focused on a child’s experience of being bilingual as its
primary theme, language issues were present in several texts, including the feelings
associated with learning a new language and the importance of learning and maintaining
Spanish as a heritage language. However, biliteracy, or the ability to read and write in
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Spanish and English, which is a key skill in the growing international job market, was
absent from both text sets.
In addition to valuing bilingualism, the CR texts also validated biculturalism.
While the mainstream texts offered just one cultural orientation (White European
American), the CR texts portrayed a world of cultural and linguistic pluralism that better
reflects the SHL students’ daily experience of living between two languages and two
cultures (Anzaldúa, 1987). While the characters in the mainstream texts for the most part
go about their lives apparently oblivious to other ways of doing or being, the characters in
the CR texts are explicitly situated in a particular place in the United States that is almost
always positioned in relation to Mexico. Even in the simplest CR story in the text set,
Abuelita Full of Life (Costales & Aviles, 2007), which is designed to be read to children
in preschool or the earliest elementary grades, the grandmother arrives from Mexico
bringing cultural influences into the home that explicitly contrast with what was there
before. This juxtaposition positions the family in the book strongly as bicultural, and
shows some negotiations that the young boy must make because of his bicultural
background (e.g., moving his dinosaurs over to make room for her candles), along with
the rewards that come with having two cultures (e.g., delicious traditional cuisine and
beautiful traditional songs). This type of dualistic reality was not found in any of the
mainstream texts.
In conclusion, when children are beginning to form an idea of who they are in the
world, they can look to storybooks to find a mirror (Bishop, 1990). However, when they
do not encounter characters who have similar backgrounds and characteristics, this
becomes much more difficult, if not impossible. In this textual analysis, I found that the
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mainstream texts were not providing an opportunity for minority children to identify with
characters along several dimensions, including the cultural. In addition, the mainstream
texts did not contain themes or values that align culturally with many students’ homes
and communities, presenting little opportunity for the students to make a connection with
the texts, but also limiting the possibility that classroom discussions would tend towards
topics that are important to minoritized students. These findings point to a need for
realistic family fiction texts portraying characters and events that are similar to children’s
lived experiences, a need that can be met by books like those in the CR text set.
While it is disappointing to find that the mainstream texts are lacking in so many
ways, it is also encouraging to know that texts do exist to counteract their deficits. While
not as many are available as would be ideal, a large body of bilingual family fiction texts
are available that emphasize Mexican American cultural themes and values while
offering engaging stories and beautiful illustrations rich in cultural markers. Many of
these books have been commended by knowledgeable award committees and are
therefore easier for teachers to find. The findings of Part 2 of this study support my
argument that these texts are essential for students to encounter frequently in the early
elementary grades.
Discussion of Student Engagement with Texts
The students’ interactions with the picture books in this study reinforce the
importance of access to mirror texts, especially for children in the early grades. The SHL
focal students were more likely to feel that they belonged in the culturally familiar texts
and they could more easily identify with the culturally similar characters. When the texts
contained familiar content in the form of culturally relevant themes, culturally similar
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characters, and cultural markers (in the CR texts), the SHL students were able to make
personal connections that were more meaningful and more directly related to the texts at
hand. Even upon seeing a culturally familiar item in an illustration, two of the SHL focal
students connected the item to their own lives with a personal anecdote about a cultural
celebration at their school. Meaningful personal connections were evident in the SHL
students’ written responses as well, which contained reference to family members and
culturally specific Mexican elements such as listening to mariachi music, in addition to
personal experiences that connected with elements in the text that would not be
considered Mexican cultural markers such as playing baseball and fixing things with
tools.
The SHL students had a more difficult time connecting personally with the
mainstream texts, which remained, for the most part, as windows. Even though they had
experiences that were similar to events depicted in the mainstream texts, such as the
mundane events in Alexander… (e.g., going to the shoe store and arguing with siblings),
they were unlikely to connect the events in the story to their own lives in response to this
book. When I asked questions leading Yolanda to make a personal connection to this text,
she separated her own life from that of the characters even as she made a connection,
saying that she never gets a prize in her cereal box. Making this connection did not seem
to make her feel more a part of the book and she did not include it in her written
response, preferring instead to maintain a spectator stance where she enjoyed the book for
its entertainment value but did not feel that it pertained to her. When the text was too
unfamiliar, as with La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996), even Yolanda, who was
reading at the highest level in the group, resorted to silliness and opted to resist
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acknowledging the storyline depicted during the picture walk, instead creating an
alternate version.
Even though the SHL students sometimes appreciated aspects of the mainstream
texts as entertaining or interesting, they usually said that they did not feel that they
belonged in the mainstream stories. These feelings of not belonging were reflected in
their comments during our small group discussions, which tended to wander far from the
texts at hand. Javier’s interactions with Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1989) and Finding
the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015) provide an illustration of this.
Even though Javier delighted in Alexander’s skateboards and invisible drawing, he did
not feel that he was a part of the story. When asked what he thought about it, his initial
response was “nothing.” Although he was willing to tell a personal story when I asked
him to, he did not relate it in any way to the book. It was only when he saw a character
that reminded him of himself in an illustration in Finding the Music / En pos de la música
(Torres & Alarcão, 2015) that he joyfully proclaimed that he (finally) belonged in a book.
He was eager to share his knowledge of mariachi music in relation to this text, and even
said that he could be the main character if she were a boy. Episodes like this illustrate on
a small scale that continual exposure to mainstream books could easily lead to feelings of
alienation and disengagement from literary tasks while early experiences where students
feel that they are included in the world of books contributes to feelings of belonging in
relation to academic literacy.
It is important to remember that the SHL focal students in this study were eager to
tell personal stories, and that these stories were rich in possibility for connection to
literacy learning. The students especially wanted to discuss their family members’
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occupations and activities, family dynamics, personal fears, and experiences traveling to
Mexico and communicating with family members who live there. Enciso (2011) asserts
that creating a space in the classroom for children’s personal stories allows them to be
recognized in academic settings. The immigrant adolescents in her study did not feel that
their personal stories were welcome or relevant in their regular classrooms (Enciso &
Ryan, 2011). In my study, the personal stories told by the SHL focal students in relation
to the mainstream texts usually seemed unrelated to our literary discussion and could
easily be written off as off-task behavior by a teacher. For example, Yolanda’s story
about her mother’s reaction when her father came home late after drinking too much did
not relate to La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996). She based her personal story on
one word in the text that stood out to her (loca), and her story did not contribute to her
understanding or to the group’s understanding of the text. Based on her picture walk and
her comments during our discussion, Yolanda did not feel that she belonged in this text.
In a regular guided reading lesson, her story would most likely be dismissed by a teacher
as irrelevant, and it is easy to see how, after time, she might stop sharing her personal
stories in an academic setting. Had this text contained culturally-similar characters,
culturally-relevant themes, or more obvious cultural values, it is probable that Yolanda
could have told a personal story that would have been more relevant to the literary
discussion, enhanced her comprehension of the text, and confirmed her life knowledge as
valuable in the literary setting, thus contributing to the development of a literacy identity
of belonging. Similarly, when the SHL students brought up Mexico during discussions of
the mainstream texts, their conversations seemed tangential and irrelevant. When we
discussed the CR texts, however, the SHL students’ knowledge of Mexican culture
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enabled them to make meaningful contributions to the literary discussions and likely
contributed to deeper understanding of those texts as well.
When the SHL students did make a personal connection to a mainstream book, it
was usually in the form of stepping into the story world, hypothetically putting
themselves in the characters’ shoes, or bringing some aspect of the world of the story into
their own life, rather than making a direct connection to a personal experience. This more
removed type of personal connection can be likened to a “sliding glass door” experience,
rather than a mirror reflection connection (Bishop, 1990). Stepping into the story world
through a sliding glass door requires some level of comprehension of the text,
imagination, and the ability to empathize with characters. I found that these connections
usually showcased understanding of the overarching themes or messages of the books as
well. For example, Rafael stated that he could pick up trash to make the world cleaner in
response to La señorita Runfio (Cooney & Porter, 1996). This personal connection did
not require personal experience with the plot events in the text, but showed that he was
thinking about the text’s theme or message and applying that theme to his own life. While
the EHL students had more personal connections to this particular text, their connections
were all to personal experiences planting flower seeds; none mentioned the important
content theme of having a responsibility to make the world a better place or extended that
idea into their own lives.
This type of “sliding door” connection was most frequent with the one
mainstream text that contained more evidence of culturally relevant themes and values.
Nearly half of the SHL students stepped into the world of Un sillón para mi mamá
(Williams, 1994), writing that they would help people who needed money and shelter,
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while none of the EHL students did so. This text is the only mainstream text that contains
significant evidence of the cultural themes of community and poverty, and the SHL
students’ written responses show a connection to those themes. This points to the
possibility that culturally relevant themes and values may make it easier for students to
connect personally with texts even in the absence of culturally similar characters or
cultural markers through a sliding glass door approach: opening the sliding glass door
and stepping into the world of the story.
Throughout the study, the EHL students only connected to texts via personal
experience or preference, using the texts as mirrors to reflect their lived realities. This
difference could be because the EHL students have not been asked to connect with
culturally unfamiliar texts regularly. Inexperience with “window” texts may make them
less adept at looking for sliding glass doors and more used to searching for their own
reflections in books, or connecting to similar characters and experiences. The SHL
students, on the other hand, regularly engage with texts that do not necessarily remind
them of their daily lives, which may encourage the development of a different technique
for personal connection based on imagination, or “what if,” rather than looking to texts as
a mirror.
Multicultural literature is touted as benefiting White students as well as minority
students because it helps them to develop an appreciation of diversity (Bishop, 1997).
However, White students in high school often resist engaging with culturally unfamiliar
literature when it is too far removed from what they know (Beach, 1997). In this study,
about the same number of EHL students made personal connections to the CR texts as to
the mainstream texts. Even when the stories used in the study became culturally
217
dissimilar, many EHL students were able to find connections between events or items in
the texts and their own lives. Perhaps because the EHL students were used to engaging
with mirror texts, they simply continued to look for their reflections, or to adopt a
participant stance, even when the cultural content of the text changed. Their personal
connections to the CR texts often remained at surface level (e.g., Oliver wrote that he
likes sombreros and Ada recognized that she and a main character both read to their little
brothers). Still, admiring and identifying with culturally different characters could be an
important first step towards developing empathy. The EHL students also showed a slight
preference for the CR books as a group. It is possible that early exposure to multicultural
texts on a regular basis could help to develop an appreciation of diversity early on and
lessen resistance to such texts later.
These surface-level personal connections could easily be used as a jumping-off
point for more productive “perspective-taking,” or being willing to consider other points
of view, which should be a goal of exposing mainstream students to multicultural
literature (Thein, Beach, & Parks, 2007). Recognizing the family love portrayed in My
Very Own Room / Mi propio cuartito (Pérez & Gonzalez, 2000) as similar to the love that
his own parents show when comforting him, Ian could be expanding his awareness of
what different families look like and the love that they all share. I would like to think that
if policy makers had regularly engaged with picture books about Mexican immigrant
families as children, the current headlines would not feature Mexican immigrant children
being torn from their parents at the border. However, it is not enough to provide children
with multicultural literature and assume that they will develop empathy and appreciation
for diverse cultural groups (Louie, 2005). Without guidance from a teacher, the EHL
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students seemed to read and enjoy the CR texts in this study without any understanding
of their cultural specificity, much less their sociopolitical message.
While the SHL students immediately recognized the CR texts as culturally
Mexican, the EHL students did not seem to. Although the focal EHL students have been
exposed to traditional Mexican cultural celebrations such as Day of the Dead at their
school, their comments during the picture walks in this study did not indicate that they
recognized any of the cultural markers in the pictures as belonging to this holiday.
Mexico is explicitly referenced in all three of the CR books, yet Mexico never came up in
our EHL focal group discussions. Besides the one EHL student who drew a picture of a
place in Baja California in response to one of the CR texts, none of the EHL students’
written responses contained reference to Mexico either. Without understanding that the
CR texts were culturally Mexican, I doubt that the EHL students could fully understand
these texts, nor could they develop their appreciation for diversity. However, there were
some instances where the EHL students indicated that they were aware that the CR texts
were somehow different from the mainstream texts, such as when Brianna said that her
parents did not work in “these kind of restaurants,” referring to the Mexican restaurant in
Finding the Music / En pos de la música (Torres & Alarcão, 2015), or when Madison
commented that Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros (Herrera &
De Lucio-Brock, 2002) showed “different” things. This points to an emerging sense of
cultural difference that could be developed into a deeper understanding of and
appreciation for such differences through continual exposure to culturally rich texts along
with intentional discussions and guided reflection led by a teacher.
219
In sum, the cultural content of a text does affect how students respond to it,
especially for minority students. Broadly, when the text is culturally rich, culturally
similar students are more likely to feel a sense of belonging in the story, they are more
likely to identify with the characters, and they have more opportunity to connect with
culturally relevant themes and values. When the text is not culturally familiar, or is
culturally mainstream, minority students do not usually feel that they belong in the story,
they are reluctant to identify with characters, they make almost no connections to
personal experiences or preferences that contribute to their understanding, they rarely
have the opportunity to think about and discuss culturally important themes, and their
cultural values are not reinforced (and are perhaps undermined) by the stories.
When minority students continually see themselves in texts, they gain practice
identifying with characters and making meaningful connections to people and events in
their own lives, enriching their understanding. They also gain the opportunity to think
about culturally important issues. Even at a young age, culturally rich picture books can
inspire children to consider the importance of family love, what it means to speak two
languages, and how community members can help each other, for example. In addition,
students gain reinforcement of cultural values. All of this “dancing before the mirror”
(Quiroa, 2011) results in a confident reader who sees herself as someone who belongs in
books, personally and culturally. When, on the other hand, students are unable to find a
“way in” to a text, or continually read literature that does not align with their worldview
or prior experience, they may experience a feeling of disconnect that can be isolating and
rejecting.
220
While it is burdensome and unfair to ask minoritized students to engage with
culturally unfamiliar literature all the time, the flip side is also true. When students
constantly gaze at their own reflections it can be limiting as well. The EHL students in
this study seemed to be less aware of the cultural content of the texts and were more
likely to look to texts as mirrors. It is important for EHL students to also experience
window texts, in which they do not see their reflection, if they are to expand their ability
to take on other perspectives and learn to open sliding glass doors. This type of
engagement with texts pushes students to examine their own values, biases, and beliefs
and supports the development of awareness, tolerance, and understanding of alternate
viewpoints and cultural values (Thein et al., 2007).
All students deserve to be able to connect with texts on a personal level and to
feel that they belong in the world of books from a young age; to see their own lives
reflected in a positive light and to have their cultural values affirmed in print; and to
know that their personal world knowledge brings something valuable to a literary
discussion. They should also be able to step into the shoes of characters who are very
different from themselves and experience taking on other perspectives. The students’
responses in this study illustrate that the development of these complementary literacy
skills is facilitated by exposure to a balance of culturally relevant and culturally
unfamiliar texts in the classroom, or both mirrors and windows.
Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, the students’ written responses tended
towards the concrete, which is to be expected with this age group (Applebee, 1978). This
meant that the students’ writing did not usually focus explicitly on the moral, message, or
221
theme of the stories, although they often wrote that they enjoyed part of the book that
exemplified an important theme. When analyzing the written responses, this made it
difficult to say how much they were understanding or internalizing the story themes, and
how much they just liked certain parts of the books that happened to do with those
themes.
Another limitation of this study was not being able to observe the focal students’
responses to the stories in real time as they heard them read aloud. Ms. Diaz wanted all
the students in the classroom to be able to participate in the study, but she also had
limited instructional time to devote to it. The design allowed me to record the focal
students’ initial responses to the pictures and to hear their thoughts about the books after
the read aloud sessions, but I missed their true initial responses to the words in the books.
Future studies that examine and compare Mexican American and White students’
responses to mainstream and culturally rich literature are needed to determine if the
patterns discerned in this study are evident in other environments. As with most
qualitative studies, my findings are strongly linked to the context in which the study
occurred. Individual personalities played an important role in our oral discussions, as did
the student groupings. New dynamics emerged, for example, when Brianna was paired
with Verónica for a picture walk.
Lastly, labeling the students as either EHL or SHL was somewhat simplistic as
some students surely came from homes that used both languages, and to varying degrees.
Verónica, for example, was obviously bilingual but may have used more English at home
than Spanish. More information about the students’ cultural backgrounds and their
222
language use at home would have been helpful when I was analyzing their responses to
the texts.
Implications for Culturally Sustaining Literature Engagement
My study highlights the ways in which mainstream values and ideologies
permeate American school systems through literacy practices, even in the earliest grades.
While I am a strong proponent of native language literacy instruction as well as language
immersion for English speakers, this study brings to light the fact that the cultural content
of texts is just as important as the linguistic. Seen from this perspective, constantly
reading books like Alexander… (Viorst & Cruz, 1972) in Spanish translation can begin to
feel like a form of colonial socialization. While I know it is far from the intention of
teachers, and especially bilingual teachers, to strip students of their home cultures, a
failure to question the consequences of a steady stream of culturally mainstream books
can contribute to cultural erosion. The surprise and delight that was shown when the SHL
focal students encountered the first text with significant Mexican cultural content in this
study was lovely for me to see, but also saddening. If home cultures are to be sustained in
the classroom, students should not be surprised to find a book that contains obvious
Mexican cultural content at the guided reading table.
This study also has important implications for how students are asked to respond
to literature in the primary classroom. Close examination of students’ written responses
alongside their oral comments reveals that there was often a disconnect between the
students’ writing and what they said during discussions. In writing, the students stuck
close to one particular response format that did not particularly facilitate personal
connection or deeper thought. During the discussions in this study, several of the focal
223
students became more adept at finding ways to connect their own lives to the lives of the
characters in the books, and this was sometimes facilitated by the content of the texts
themselves, but also by the opportunity to practice finding personal connections with
texts during oral discussions and listening to their peers’ stories. Having frequent
opportunities to discuss literary texts with peers and teachers should help students
develop their capacity for deeper thought about textual meanings, themes, and personal
connections. When teachers give students the opportunity to think, discuss, draw, and
write about books frequently, they can also open the possibilities for ways to engage with
and respond to texts beyond “my favorite part,” even in the early grades. Of more
particular concern, the SHL focal students in this study did not seem to feel that their
personal experiences were appropriate to the literature response writing genre. Students,
and especially minority students, need to know that their lives and their stories are
welcome and legitimate in written responses to literature as well as oral.
Through regular exposure to and discussion of culturally rich texts, students can
learn that their lives and their stories are relevant to their literary experiences; they can
experience the power of transactional theory in action, reading as Rosenblatt would have
us read. It is through this transaction that students can create their “poems,” taking
meaning from texts and applying it to their lived experiences to create their own meaning
and interpretations (Rosenblatt, 1994).
Such transactional reading should also include a critical edge (Lewis, 2000).
While there is some value in discovering similarities across cultural differences and the
ability to empathize is a valuable skill, students can also learn to question the cultural
content of texts. Through teacher modeling and literary discussions, students can learn to
224
question the invisibility of certain cultural groups when they read mainstream stories, and
to discover messages about power and values embedded in texts, even at a young age
(McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004). SHL students can also be taught that members of their
culture have contributed beautiful written stories that deserve to be included on classroom
shelves and as a regular part of the literacy curriculum (Ada, 2003), rather than always
asking minoritized students to identify with characters with whom they have little in
common.
Before teachers can be expected to implement a culturally sustaining critical
literacy approach, they need to be cognizant of what types of books are included in their
classrooms, and what messages those texts are sending to their students. It is evident from
my study that young students notice when they can and cannot see themselves reflected
in a book, and that content themes are coming through to students and influencing their
responses to some degree. To put it plainly, it truly matters which books students read.
While it is obviously not realistic to ask teachers to analyze every text they read out loud
to children using an extensive textual analysis protocol, teacher education programs must
prepare future teachers to be conscious of cultural themes and values embedded in texts,
and to be aware of the consequences of their text selections for students’ developing
literary identities. Aspiring teachers can be provided with the necessary resources to seek
out high quality books that address important culturally relevant themes and values for
different parallel cultural groups, in addition to finding texts that represent protagonists
who are similar to their students in terms of ethnicity, age, gender, social class, location,
family structure, and culture. Providing young students with regular access to a wide
variety of culturally affirming texts is one way for educators to resist a system based on
225
dominant ideologies and fight against instigating or perpetuating a subtractive schooling
experience for minoritized students.
226
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248
Appendix A. Fields Included in Text Analysis Protocol
Basic Informaion:
• Title • Publisher, Date • Publisher, Date of English version (if applicable) • Author • Illustrator • Translator • Publisher, Date of Spanish or Bilingual version • Awards • Genre • Spanish only or Bilingual? • Summary of Book
Section 1: Main Character Characteristics
• Location • Gender • Ethnicity • Skin/ Hair • SES • Family Structure • Narration style/ point of view
Section 2: Mexican American Cultural Markers
• Food • Clothes • Décor • Terms of Address • Music/ entertainment • Holiday/ celebration • Medicine
Section 3: Mexican American Cultural Themes
• Immigration • Poverty • Mexico as Home • Community • Migrant Farmworkers • Language • Cultural Pride • Intergenerationalism
249
• Family Strength/ Love
Section 4: Cultural Values • Familism • Individualism
Other
• Spanish words in English text • English words in Spanish text • Traditional gender roles • Role of school
Notes
250
Appendix B. Text Analysis Protocol for Additional Coders
Your name: ___________________________ Date: ___________________ Title of Book: ____________________________________________________________ Section 1: Main character
1. Who is the main character in this book? _____________________
2. What is the main character’s ethnicity or cultural background? _________________________________________________________________
3. How old is the main character (approximately)? ___________
4. What is the main character’s socioeconomic status (SES)? (circle one)
upper class middle class working class poor
5. Where does the main character live? ___________________________________
6. Does this book stick to traditional gender roles? Yes No
If no, please explain here: Section 2: Cultural Markers
1. Is there traditional Mexican food in this book (text or illustrations)? Yes No
2. Is there traditional Mexican clothing in this book (text or illustrations)? Yes No
3. Is there traditional Mexican décor in this book (text or illustrations)? Yes No
4. Is there traditional Mexican music or entertainment in this book (text or illustrations)?
Yes No
5. Is there a traditional Mexican celebration in this book (text or illustrations)?
Yes No
251
6. Is there traditional medicine in this book (text or illustrations)? Yes No
7. Are there traditional Mexican religious items in this book (text or illustrations)?
Yes No
Section 3: Themes
1. Is “family” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
2. Is “immigration” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
3. Is “poverty” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
4. Is “Mexico as home” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
5. Is “community” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
6. Are “language issues” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
7. Are “migrant farmworkers” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
8. Is “cultural pride” a theme in this book? Yes No
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
9. Is “intergenerationalism” a theme in this book (grandparent-grandchild relationships)?
a. If yes, would you say that it is a Primary or Secondary theme?
252
Section 4: Values Which values do you see reflected in this text?
1. Valuing the family as a source of emotional support. Yes No
2. Valuing obligation to family (including the importance of caregiving). Yes No
3. Valuing relying on the family to define oneself. Yes No
4. Valuing gaining independence. Yes No
5. Valuing competition and personal achievement. Yes No
6. Valuing material success over other things (such as relationships). Yes No Do you feel that your students would see themselves reflected in this book? Yes No Anything else you would like to add? Anything you noticed or felt about this book: Thank you so much!
255
Appendix E. Questions to Ask During Small Group Discussions
1. ¿Qué pensaron de este libro? (What did you think of this book?)
2. ¿Qué escribiste? (What did you write?)
3. ¿Había una parte que te gustó más? (Was there a part that you liked the best?)
4. ¿Había una parte que no te gustó? (Was there a part that you didn’t like?)
5. ¿Tú podrías ser parte de este libro? ¿Alguien de tu familia podría? (Could you be
part of this book? Could someone in your family?) and/or Lo que pasó a _____ te
podría pasar a tí? (Could what happened to _____ (main character’s name)
happen to you?)
256
Appendix F. Student Interview Protocol
1. How old are you? / ¿Cuántos años tienes?
2. Where do you live? / ¿Dónde vives?
3. Where were you born? / ¿Dónde naciste?
4. Tell me about your family. Who lives in your house? / Dime acerca de tu familia.
¿Quién vive en tu casa?
5. What does your mom/dad do for a living? / ¿Qué hace tu mamá/papá como
trabajo?
6. Where are your parents from? / ¿De dónde son tus padres?
7. What do you do after school? / ¿Qué haces después de la escuela?
8. What do you like to do on the weekend? / ¿Qué te gusta hacer en el fin de
semana?
9. Do you like to read? Do you read at home? With whom? / ¿Te gusta leer? ¿Lees
en tu casa? ¿Con quién?
10. What is your favorite book? / ¿Cuál es tu libro favorito?
11. What do you want to be when you grow up? / ¿Qué quieres ser cuando crezcas?
12. Where have you traveled? Where would you like to travel? / ¿Has viajado? ¿A
dónde? ¿A donde querías viajar?
257
Appendix G. Codebook Used in Analysis of Discussion Transcripts and Coded
Transcript Excerpt
Codebook
Code Meaning S: Soliciting (Teacher solicits information from students)
PC: Personal Connection (Student makes connection between text and his/her life)
PS: Personal Story (Student relates a personal story or experience that does not seem to be tied to the text)
A/E: Appreciating or Evaluating (Student expresses like or dislike of the text or an aspect of the text, or student makes a comment that evaluates the text in some way without making a personal connection)
CC: Cultural Connection (Student mentions Mexican American cultural content in the text or mentions it in relation to his/her own life)
E: Embellishing (Student adds to the story as written or depicted)
I: Identification with characters/ Belonging (Student responds to the question of whether they see themselves or their family in the text, or whether what happened to the characters could happen to them)
R: Resistance (Student refuses to respond, changes topic rather than responding, or is off-task)
R?: Possible Resistance (Student appears to be resisting, but not enough evidence to say for sure)
258
Coded Transcript Excerpt SHL Group Discussion of Grandma and Me at the Flea/ Los meros meros remateros: Code Dialogue
S A: Okay, ¿qué pensaron de este libro ustedes? (Okay, what did you think about this book?)
Y: Yo pensé donde en la última página que ese niño le dió muchas cosas. (I thought that on the last page that the boy gave her lots of things.)
S A: Sí, ¿y qué te hizo pensar? (Yes, and what did that make you think?) PC Y: Así mi mami me hace. (That’s what my mom does to me.)
S A: ¿Te da muchas cosas? (She gives you a lot of things?) (PC)
PS Y: (Nods) Más a mi hermanito, siempre le lleva a un restauran cuando
nosotros estamos en la escuela. Ayer así le hizo. (More to my brother, she always takes him to a restaurant when we are in school. Yesterday she did that.)
A: Ohh PS Y: Y a mí no. (And she doesn’t take me.)
A: Ohh. (Javier is giggling)
PS Y: It's true. Le dejó al Burger King. (She took him to Burger King.) J: Al Burger King. (To Burger King.) Y: Allá en ## (There in ##) A: Okay
I J: Yo pensé que puedo ser en este parte del libro. (I thought I can be in this part of the book.)
S A: ¿Cuál parte? (Which part?) PC J: En donde fueron al remate porque a veces yo, yo voy al remate.
(Where they went to the flea market because sometimes I, I go to the flea market.)
S A: ¿Oh sí? (Oh yes?) J: Mhm.