Creating learning environments that invite all students to learn through multicultural literature and information technology: the intermingling of cultures, religions, and languages across the United States enriches classrooms, while presenting new challenges to teaching and learning.

How can we shape our curriculum to represent the diversity within our classrooms and society? How can we help students use the vast wealth of information available to them through electronic contexts such as the Internet or E-mail?

These are questions facing teachers as the demographics of their classrooms continue to change, questions that will continue to stretch our talents as we plan and adapt our instruction to be responsive to learners' diversity and changing needs. The intermingling of cultures, religions, and languages across the United States enriches classrooms, while presenting new challenges to teaching and learning.

These are also questions teachers ask as technology continues to transform our definition of literacy (Reinking, 1995, 1998). Electronic texts that learners encounter in hypermedia programs, the Internet, or E-mail require that they create meaning through new styles of text that incorporate print and nonprint forms of communication (Flood & Lapp, 1995; Leu, 1997).

The following article describes how Mrs. Mansfield (Mary), Ms. Bortz (Elaine), and I combined our talents in order to promote students' literacy learning through the integration of multicultural literature and information technology with a reading/writing curriculum. The students in Mary's and Elaine's classrooms, who come from diverse backgrounds, include a large number of African American and European American students and a few Native American, Chinese, Japanese, Latino, Hmong, and Indian children. The economic backgrounds of the students in their classes are also varied, with numerous students receiving free and reduced lunches, as are their academic abilities, with a large number of students receiving additional support through learning resource centers and special education teachers.

The article begins with a description of their literacy curriculum, and then describes how Mary and Elaine integrated technology with their reading/ writing curriculum to increase students' cultural awareness and appreciation of diversity. The article concludes with classroom implications in order that other teachers may see how to adapt these ideas to their own classroom settings and with other electronic contexts.

A Description of the Two Teachers' Literacy Program

To meet the needs of the culturally diverse students within their school, Mary and Elaine design literacy experiences that emerge from students' language and cultural experiences. They believe their curriculum should reflect the diversity within their classroom, so their multicultural literacy curriculum integrates: 1) the languages and cultures of their students, 2) the use of language to generate students' construction of knowledge, 3) students" personal and cultural life experiences and background knowledge with literacy learning, and 4) varied grouping configurations (Diamond & Moore, 1995).

Visitors to the classrooms would see students actively engaged in a variety of literacy activities that evolve from multicultural literature. These activities would include: interactive reading and writing activities, choral reading, reader's theater, mapping and knowledge-generating activities, writing responses to literature, interactive discussions, and creative responses to literature through drama, art, music, or folk dancing.

Mary and Elaine, however, expressed a desire to seek additional information about the cultural histories, traditions, and heritages their students bring to school. They wanted to help the children gain higher levels of cultural knowledge and understanding and to perceive intra- and cross-cultural variability. They believed that accessing information about cultures might enhance understanding of the multicultural stories that they were reading and increase recognition of the cultural traditions, beliefs, or values within the stories. Consistent with Hoffman's (1996) theories, they further believed that students need opportunities to explore cultures in more depth in order to develop an appreciation of their own cultures and those of others.

To address these concerns, Mary, Elaine, and I met together at the beginning of the year to talk about ways to modify and refine their literacy curriculum. While discussing our plans, we decided that information technology, including the use of the Internet and Email, might be one way to access and retrieve current information about other cultures. However, their school district, like many school districts within urban settings (Anderson & Speck, 2001; Neuman & Celano, 2001), had limited access to technology resources and equipment. Mary and Elaine felt fortunate to have a computer in their classroom, even though their computers did not yet provide access to the Internet or Email. (Their school district did plan to provide access to the Internet and E-mail over the next two years.)

Wishing to support their efforts to access cultural information, and recognizing the school district's limited access to technology resources, as well as books, materials, and other resources, I suggested that we begin with Multicultural Links, a hypermedia program. I thought this hypermedia program would be a good temporary resource that teachers and their students could use to access information about varied cultures (see Irwin, Moore, & Stevenson, 1994).

I explained how Multicultural Links interconnects information through text, graphics, or sound, as do other hypermedia programs. Users can access information about people and their cultures as they interact with maps, pictures, music, and familiar phrases in different languages (see Figure 1). As Mary and Elaine began to explore Multicultural Links, they saw how students could make meaningful connections between the cultural information and the multicultural stories they were reading in class. They also noted that the multi-modal forms of text addressed the varied needs and learning styles of their students, who come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Mary and Elaine realized that learning how to access and retrieve information with Multicultural Links might be a welcome intermediary step for their students, who would begin using the Internet in the next few years if all went as planned. Once they learned how to navigate with this hypermedia program, they could use the same skills with the Internet later.

Helping Students Become Comfortable With Technology and Multicultural Links

Since Mary's and Elaine's students had very limited experiences with technology, we decided to begin this school year with a demonstration of Multicultural Links. We linked the computer to the overhead projector, so that the computer screen could be easily viewed by all. While modeling how to use the program, we simultaneously showed students how the program worked and how to access information about the cultures they would be exploring in their multicultural books.

For example, after reading and talking about the story Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, by John Steptoe (1988), Mary "took" her class to Zimbabwe, the setting of the story. After viewing the map and its geographical features, she modeled how to click on "More" to explore various topics about the country, such as its flag, language, clothing, foods, or music. As she and her students continued, they listened to Zimbabwe's national anthem, learned how to say "hello" in one of the languages spoken in Zimbabwe, and learned about the clothing and lifestyles of the people.

Once students saw how the hypermedia environment worked, they were eager to begin. Since she had a large class and only one computer, Mary directed her students to work in pairs at the computer station, which was located in the back of the classroom. As the pairs, who were of differing abilities, navigated together, they reminded one another how to maneuver the mouse, where to click, or what to do next. They took turns reading the text, helping one another pronounce words as needed. Once they finished, they enjoyed printing out a copy of the screen to place in their learning logs where they recorded three things that they learned. Students especially liked having the freedom to choose how they browsed through the program and what subjects they wanted to investigate. For example, Paris and Cedric, who wanted to find out more about their African heritage, selected Egypt and Kenya; Jenny and Kristie wanted to explore China after reading the Chinese folktale The Empty Pot, by Demi (1990); Tim and Andy decided to "visit" Romania; and Nicole and Keysha wanted to read about famous African Americans in the biography section. The students' own interests, questions, or cultural backgrounds governed their decisions. An example of Andy's log follows:

Today I used the class cumputer. I looked up my country Romania. I looked up the capital Bucharest. My fiernd Tim has the same birthday and year as me. But Tim was born at 11:00 clock p.m. and I was born at 6:00 clock p.m.

Cedric's log describes what he learned about Swaziland:

Today I learned more about Swaziland. I learned that thier infant mortality rate is 115 out of every 1,000 infants die. I learned about thier life expectancy. Thier life expectancy is 56 years. I learned about Swaziland education. Thier years compusory are none.

In order to monitor those needing assistance at the computer station, Mary trained three students to become her "computer experts." In this way, she would not be interrupted when students needed help. Moreover, the students learned to solve problems themselves. Mary also displayed a schedule that identified the pairs who were to work together, their scheduled computer time, and the sequence to follow. The transition went smoothly as each pair quietly invited the next pair to the computer station. Having scheduled times further ensured everyone equal access to the computer.

Integrating Multicultural Links With a Thematic Unit on Cinderella Countries

Elaine similarly guided the use of Multicultural Links at a computer station in her classroom. After her 5thgraders explored Multicultural Links, Elaine began integrating the program with her reading/writing curriculum through a thematic unit that she called Cinderella Countries. Knowing there are many versions of the Cinderella story, Elaine felt that this unit would help her students appreciate the rich diversity within their classroom (Pang, Colvin, Tran, & Barba, 1992). She believed that the Cinderella stories, as well as other folktales, might stimulate her students to investigate their own cultural heritages and understand the cultural histories and traditions of their peers.

After reading and discussing the various versions of the Cinderella story from countries around the world (e.g., Cinderella, by Perrault (1985); Korean Cinderella, by Climo (1993); The Rough Faced Girl, by Martin (1992); Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, by Steptoe (1988); or The Brocaded Slipper, by Vuong (1982)) with her students, Elaine helped them see similarities and differences among the folktales and cultures by having students complete the Cultural Story Map (see Figure 2).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

To further extend her students' cultural knowledge, Elaine then had them sign up to work in cooperative groups of four or five students of differing abilities to research a "Cinderella Country." Working in pairs, the 5th-graders located their Cinderella Country on maps. After they investigated their country, its geographical location, and its features, they printed out a copy of the map for their group folder. Next, they searched for information about their country.

We observed that students still enjoyed having a choice in their inquiries. We also noted that the "user-friendly screen" allowed them to collaboratively read the texts, helping one another pronounce words and talk about the information. Students also enjoyed hearing the languages and songs of the people from their "Cinderella Country," seeing artwork of children, and viewing cultural artifacts.

Once the pairs completed their rotation at the computer station, they returned to their desks and recorded three things they learned about their country--about its culture, people, history, or geography--in their learning log. Early on, the texts just seemed to consist of the new facts they were learning. Gradually, the students' log entries became longer, with more details and information about the country, the people, and the people's cultural beliefs and values. Laura's entry is displayed below:

Most people in china travel by foot or bicycle. China has 15 major seaports and 180 minnor seaports. A junk is one kind of boat used on the river. Land scape painting has been done in China for over 2,000 years. They felt that art sould be beautiful.

Students especially looked forward to sharing what they learned with their class at the end of the day. In addition to being motivational, the interactive discussions, guided by Elaine, allowed all of the students to learn more about other cultures and begin to perceive similarities and differences among them.

Over time, we also observed that students began to perceive linkages between what they were learning and the setting, characters, events, and themes of the various folktales they were reading. For example, after hearing Laura's log entry, students looked at the ways the Chinese portray the landscape in some of the Chinese folktales they were reading. Elaine helped the students understand the close connections between nature and art in the Chinese culture. She talked about their respect for nature and their desire to re-create its beauty through art.

After searching for information about their individual Cinderella Countries, the students were ready to research their cultures more thoroughly. The cooperative groups met to decide what topics each member of the group wanted to study in more depth. When the pairs returned to the computer station, they investigated their specific topic, read the information together, and printed out copies of the information for their folders.

Before her students began writing about their topics, Elaine and I determined that the students needed help in learning how to paraphrase information. This would prevent students from plagiarizing text and help them understand how to conduct research appropriately from the start. Using an overhead copy of text describing Italy, Elaine modeled the process for her students. She began by having students read the text and then talk about the information within the text. Next, she removed the overhead transparency, replacing it with a blank overhead transparency, and asked students to think about ways to relate the information. After listening to several students verbally restate the information, she selected various students' wording and began recording their sentences on the transparency. "Let's see ... Jamai shared ... Italy, a peninsula in the continent of Europe, is a small country ... then Shannon told us ... Rome is the capital." Soon, a new version of the text was recorded and students saw how to paraphrase words. They also discovered that they might have more interesting ways of stating the information, as seen below:

Italy, a peninsula, is a small country in Europe surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Rome is the capital of Italy. There are four other major cities called Naples, Pisa, Venice, and Milan. Three rivers run through Italy. They are the Arno River, Po River, and Tober River.

To reinforce understanding of the process, Elaine then distributed a copy of text about transportation in Italy. After reading the selection together, she encouraged them to think about the important ideas therein. Once they decided as a class what the important ideas were, they underlined these ideas with a colored marker. Next, they talked about ways to paraphrase the ideas. The students were now ready to turn their papers over and explain the ideas in their own way, forming a paragraph. When they shared their paragraphs with one another, they discovered that the same information can be relayed in many ways.

Students followed this process as they investigated their topics for their "Cinderella Book." Using pencil and paper, they completed their rough draft. Then, they typed their drafts on a computer.

Students also took pride in publishing their work. Creating illustrations to accompany the texts was challenging and fun. Finally, each group met to decide on the name for their Cinderella Book and to prepare an authors' page on which everyone shared something about their Cinderella Countries. The books were then published. Vangchai's text is displayed below.

In Vietnam there are four main rivers. Their names are Hongha, Da, Mekong and Mekong Delta rivers. There are four main cities. There names are Hanoi, Haipohong, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. You should see some of the food they eat like rice and fish. They only eat Chicken, ducks and geese on special events or weddings. They love fruits and vegetables almost everybody knows that bamboo, soybeans, are popular. They like sweet potatoes, corn and here are some of their favorite fruits: bananas, mangos, and coconuts. In Vietnam they call soup PHO and they love to buy snacks from venders. Their religons are not like ours. Here are some of their religons: Roman Catholic, Protestent, Muslim. Their natures are clouds, tree and rivers. That's all that I can tell you about Vietnam and the rest will be for later.

Tasha's Cinderella Country was France:

The languages of France are: French, Breten, German, Flemish, Italian, Basque and Catalan. Some of the female names are: Nicole, Veronica, Alica and Anna. Some of the male names are: Paolo, Pierre, Jean, Jacques and Andre. The numbers in French from 1-10 are un=one, deux=two, trois=three, quatre=four, cinq=five, six is the same, sept=seven, huit=eight, neuf-nine, dix=ten. The most common spoken language is French.

Integrating Multicultural Links With a Thematic Unit on Japan and China

Since she had several children of Asian descent in her class, Mary decided to integrate a thematic unit on Japan and China with her reading / writing curriculum. She began her thematic unit with the novel Sadako

and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Coerr, 1977). While reading the story, her class used Multicultural Links to build background knowledge about Japan and Japanese lifestyles. As the 4th-graders began exploring the maps, they quickly recognized the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. They also gained additional knowledge about the housing, arts and crafts, and religious beliefs of the Japanese people. These explorations increased students' understanding of the story and its vocabulary, particularly words associated with the Japanese culture (e.g., bed quilts, tatami mats, and Peace Day). Antone's understanding about the Japanese people's tastes in foods is shown below.

People eat western style to in Japan. The young kids like pizza and hamburger and they like spaaghetti and fraid chicken. There are many drive thru Restaurants to go to. I learned that Japan is in Asia.

To extend the students' knowledge and appreciation of the Japanese culture as they continued reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Mary and her class also read other picture books from the Japanese culture. Examples of stories included: The Painter and the Wild Swans, by Clement (1986); The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks, by Paterson (1990); Tree of Cranes, by Say (1991); Magic Fan, by Baker (1989); and A to Zen: A Picture Book of Japanese Culture, by Wells (1992).

After reading these stories, Mary introduced the Chinese culture to the 4th-graders through Multicultural Links and the story In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, by Lord (1984). Once again, the 4th-graders kept learning logs about their explorations.

To help her students see the differences and similarities among the Asian cultures, Mary then had her students choose a topic to investigate and compare from the two cultures. Next, Mary had her students complete a Venn diagram. As Daniel completed his diagram, he discovered that both the Chinese and Japanese people enjoyed basketball, soccer, and volleyball. He also learned of differences between the peoples. For example, many Chinese people also enjoy calisthenics, badminton, ping-pong, and shadow boxing; in contrast, many Japanese enjoy sumo wrestling, weaving, ceramic art, and racing miniature sailboats.

The class continued to read about China. Examples of other stories they read included: The Empty Pot, by Demi (1990); Liang and the Magic Paintbrush, by Demi (1980); The Enchanted Tapestry, by San Souci (1987); Chasing the Moon to China, by McLean (1987); and Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year, by Waters (1990).

As a culminating activity, Mary had her students complete an adaptation of a BioPoem about China or Japan, using word processing tools. One can see how much Daniel learned about the people of China, their country, their beliefs, and lifestyles (see Figure 3).

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Implications for Literacy Learning

Opportunities for literacy learning evolved in multicultural contexts in Mary's and Elaine's classrooms. The multicultural teaching strategies they used easily can be applied to new contexts and different classrooms. For example, teachers and students who have access to the Internet can use it to retrieve cultural information about multicultural stories. While navigating through the Internet, students can keep learning logs and publish informational books about their country. They can further analyze and synthesize information, viewing both intra- and cross-cultural variability, as they express this knowledge through BioPoems or Venn diagrams.

Other exciting opportunities can evolve as students dialogue with children around the world or interview culturally diverse scientists, mathematicians, geologists, authors, or musicians through E-mail. These connections will help heighten their own self-esteem and broaden their understanding of culture. According to Hoffman (1996), such activities will help students acquire a knowledge base from which to look at culture through genuine experiences.

Hypermedia and multimedia software are expanding quickly. Wiggleworks, by Scholastic, for example, uses multimedia formats that allow students to read, write, take notes, and manipulate texts from various cultures. Through multimedia profiles, students encounter culturally diverse mentors and authors in the workplace or hear music and songs from people in different regions of the world. Spanish-speaking students have the opportunity to read, write, and manipulate texts in their first language, since the program is available in Spanish. Other possibilities for accessing information through multimedia software include Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia, World Book Encyclopedia, Webster's Exploring Nature, and World Atlas (Edwards, 1999).

Having access to multicultural books, resources, or technology by itself is not sufficient. Teachers must follow a process approach to learning, which includes providing meaningful contexts for learning that emerge from the students' cultural and personal experiences (Au, 1993; Delpit, 1995; Diamond & Moore, 1995). When we shape our curriculum to represent the diversity within our classroom, our nation, and the world, we create a learning environment that invites all students to learn. As learners begin to use technology to access, retrieve, analyze, and synthesize cultural information, multicultural understanding and literacy learning are heightened and strengthened (Anderson & Speck, 2001; Diamond & Moore, 1995; Snyder, 1999).

What we are able to do is not dependent on computer availability, the capability or quality of the computers and software, or access to the Internet. We cannot wait for the future (Travers, 1999). We need to begin with multicultural curriculum transformations, finding ways to access materials and resources through our community and libraries. As Mary and Elaine have done with their classes, we need to take risks and imagine ways to lay a foundation for genuine, in-depth cultural experiences.

References

Anderson, R., & Speck, B. (2001). Using technology in K-8 literacy classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Au, K. (1993). Literacy instruction in multicultural settings. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

Diamond, B., & Moore, M. (1995). Multicultural literacy: Mirroring the reality of the classroom. New York: Longman.

Edwards, W. (1999). Making moves with information technology: An information technology center works closely with the resources center in a small school. In J. Hancock (Ed.), Teaching literacy using information technology (pp. 78-88). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Flood, J., & Lapp, D. (1995). Broadening the lens: Toward an expanded conceptualization of literacy. In K. Hinchman, D. Leu, & C. Kinzer (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy research and practice (pp. 1-16). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

Hoffman, D. (1996). Culture and self in multicultural education: Reflections on discourse text, and practice. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 545-569.

Irwin, M., Moore, M., & Stevenson, J. (1994). Enhancing a multicultural program through hypertext links. Computers in the Schools, 10, 255-280.

Leu, D. (1997). Caity's question: Literacy as deixis on the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 51, 62-67.

Neuman, S., & Celano, D. (2001). Access to print in low-income and middle-income communities: An ecological study of four neighborhoods. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 8-26.

Pang, V., Colvin, C., Tran, M., & Barba, R. (1992). Beyond chopsticks and dragons: Selecting Asian-American literature for children. The Reading Teacher, 46(3), 216-223.

Reinking, D. (1998). Introduction. In D. Reinking, M. McKenna, L. Labbo,

& R. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (p. xi). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Reinking, D. (1995). Reading and writing with computers: Literacy research in a post-typographic world. In K. Hinchman, D. Leu, & C. Kinzer (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy research and practice: The 44th yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 17-33). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

Snyder, I. (1999). Using information technology in language and literacy education: An introduction. In J. Hancock (Ed.), Teaching literacy using information technology (pp. 1-10). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Travers, J. (1999). Everything is connected: An information technology program comes together. In J. Hancock (Ed.), Teaching literacy using information technology (pp. 66-77). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

References of Children's Literature 

Baker, O. (1989). The magic fan. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Clement, C. (1986). The painter and the wild swans. New York: Dial.

Climo, S. (1993). The Korean Cinderella. Mexico: HarperCollins.

Coerr, E. (1977). Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. New York: Dell.

Demi. (1980). Liang and the magic paintbrush. New York: Henry Holt.

Demi. (1990). The empty pot. New York: Henry Holt.

Lord, B. (1984). In the year of the boar and Jackie Robinson. New York: Harper & Row.

Martin, R. (1992). The rough-face girl. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

McLean, V. (1987). Chasing the moon to China. New York: Redbird.

Paterson, K. (1990). The tale of the mandarin ducks. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Perrault, C. (1985). Cinderella. New York: Dial.

San Souci, R. (1987). The enchanted tapestry. New York: Dial.

Say, A. (1991). Tree of cranes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Steptoe, J. (1988). Mufaro's beautiful daughters. New York: Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard.

Vuong, L. (1982). The brocaded slipper. New York: J.B. Lippincott.

Waters, S. (1990). Lion dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year. New York: Scholastic.

Wells, R. (1992). A to Zen: A picture book of Japanese culture. Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio.

Peggy Moore-Hart is Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti.