Sunday, October 31, 2010

"Proceed with Caution: Using Native American Folktales in the Classroom"

On Friday I was in Michigan at the Michigan Teachers of English conference where I gave two featured presentations.

In my talk, I referenced an article I wrote about using folktales in the classroom. The article is "Proceed with Caution: Using Native American Folktales in the Classroom." In it, I do a comparison of Penny Pollock's The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella and  "Turkey Girl," a story told at Zuni.  (For those who don't know, Zuni is one of the pueblos in New Mexico.)

In the revised edition From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books, Kathleen T. Horning references "Proceed with Caution." If you don't have a copy of Cover to Cover you should definitely get one.

I've recently learned that "Proceed with Caution" is available online here, so I am providing that link in this blog post. I don't know how long it will be available, so if you click on the link and can't get it, write to me and I'll send it to you via email. It was originally published in Language Arts, an NCTE publication.