Cultural Flannel Board Story

My fellow classmate, Kristina Dimini, inspired me to blog about the topic of creating cultural flannel board stories.  Here are some of my thoughts:

Throughout the process of creating a cultural flannel board story, I feel I am one step closer to bringing multiculturalism into my classroom.  As a teacher in today’s world, it is important to promote diversity and understanding of these varying cultures within my classroom.  Choosing the story Lon Po Po by Ed Young, has allowed me to understand that not everyone sees the world the way that I do.  Just because I know a version of The Little Red Riding Hood, does not mean that all children with varying backgrounds will relate to the same version.  Children who are learning English need to feel connected to the literature in some way, and by using culturally relevant stories, the success rate of that student can be greatly increased.  Also, I feel it is important to not only recognize the diverse cultures in my classroom, but it is equally important to celebrate them.  By bringing multicultural literature into the classroom, all the students are able to learn unique features of varying cultures.
Although a large amount of work goes into creating a flannel board story, in the end I think it is highly worth all the time and effort.  I do not consider myself an artistic person, so this assignment has really helped me to believe that I do not have to be an amazing artist to create eye-popping flannel pieces.  Throughout this process, I have tested my patience, as I made more than one mistake creating the flannel pieces.  I read numerous folktales and fairy tales of other countries, and found many that I wanted to do.  It was hard to pick just one, and the main reasoning behind choosing Lon Po Po by Ed Young was I knew it was a story that I could use numerous times in my classroom, as children are able to compare and contrast the unique features of two different cultures.  As I bring in folktales through units, as it  appears in the Evergreen Curriculum Language Arts Guide, this story will be very beneficial.

I do, however, feel as though computers will be taking over the classroom, and digital literacy will be more appealing to the students.  With this thought in mind, I find myself wondering if spending endless hours creating a flannel board story was really worth it.  However this does bring the important aspect of oral reading into the classroom.  I find it very interesting that there are ways to connect both technology and flannel board stories.  This is done by using the felt pieces to tell the story and recording my voice using voice thread.  This is shown on my fellow classmate, Dionne’s blog.  I think it is great to be able to combine both aspects of learning into literature.