Institute Multi-Modal Text Sets

The following text sets were created by the Institute’s planning team as resources for the Institute’s participants. Each set includes 10-15 pieces of literature, audio, video, and primary documents that are conceptually related but provide multiple perspectives on the theme, time period, region, or community being highlighted. Each text set corresponds to one of the days of the institute, and was used to deepen and expand participants’ understanding of the highlighted theme, time period, region, or community.

Text Set #1: Bilingual Books of Indigenous Tribal Nations in the Southwest

Almost all of the bilingual books in this text set are Navajo and published by a small press, Salina Bookshelf. Salina Bookshelf specializes in adult and children’s books around Navajo life. Books about Hopi experiences can be found from other small presses or self-published. Unlike other bilingual books (Spanish/English), these bilingual books prioritize the Native language by placing that language first, a signal that these books are meant to teach Navajo language to Navajo children as part of language revitalization.
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PDF icon Text Set (1.11 MB)

Text Set #1b: Challenging Classic Texts

Read these novels to provide alternative experiences and perspectives to the Eurocentric narratives that dominate U.S. history, such as those found in the Little House books. The following books by Louise Erdrich and Linda Sue Parks are strongly reminiscent of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books in their evocative, detailed depictions of daily life on the “frontier” in the late 1800s, while providing a different lens and set of stories from those typically told about this time period.
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PDF icon Text Set (77.89 KB)

Text Set #2: Representations of Mexico in U.S. Literature

Text set 2: Representations of Mexico in U.S. Children and Adolescent literature is an opportunity to embrace the beauty of Mexico and its people. For many, Mexico is more than just a country it is home; filled with love, sweetness, and hope. Mexico lives within each Mexican individual as they go about their day with passion, love, and hard work. From the youngest newborn child to our abuelitas and abuelitos, being Mexican is pure joy and bliss.
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PDF icon Text Set (10.15 MB)

Text Set #3: Chinese Immigration

This collection highlights books which feature the history of Chinese Americans across North America. Many of these books highlight immigration stories and important places or moments, such as the Angel Island Immigration Station, the building of the transcontinental railroad, and the creation of "paper sons" in response to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
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PDF icon Text Set (5.06 MB)

Text Set #4: Code Talkers, Arizona, & WWII

This collection contains fictionalized as well as true accounts of Native Code Talkers. Diné (Navajo) Code Talkers are the most well known and the subject the most books, but there were Code Talkers from many other Tribal Nations as well. The multimodal online exhibit from the National Museum of the American Indian helps provide important historical context to these stories.
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PDF icon Text Set (316.1 KB)

Text Set #5: Authors' Books

This text set features books by the four authors (and illustrator) from June 28th’s Author Panel: Guadalupe Garcia McCall (All the Stars Denied), Alan Gratz (Refugee), Cynthia Kadohata (Weedflower), and S. D. Nelson (Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story).
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PDF icon Text Set (2.99 MB)

Text Set #6: Latinx Families & Communities

A collection of books, articles, songs, and images that center around Latinx families and communities. The inspiration for this text set came from the themes of family and community present in Songs My Mother Sang to Me. The Latinx population is expansive and diverse in culture. However, for many groups, a commonality between them is the importance and presence of family. This text set celebrates the complexities of family dynamics and the notions of collectivism that hold strength and value for Latinx groups. With that said, this text set dives into experiences we have with family.
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PDF icon Text Set (2.25 MB)

Text Set #7: US-Mexico Borderland and the Children’s & Adolescent Literature on Refugee and Immigrant Experiences booklist

This text set features stories that depict the experiences of living in the US/Mexico borderlands and the crossing of the US/Mexico border. Additionally, explore the extensive booklist of Children's & Adolescent Literature on Refugee and Immigrant Experiences.
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PDF icon US-MX Borderlands (29.64 MB)
PDF icon Refugee Experiences in Children's & Adolescent Literature (136.83 KB)

Text Set #8: Imprisonment of Japanese Americans

This text set follows the journeys and stories of many Japanese Americans in the United States. Follow along to learn more about their stories, experiences, and journeys depicted in the following nonfiction, fiction, novels, and picturebooks.
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PDF icon Text Set (2.74 MB)

Text Set #9: Congo, Tanzania, & Kenya and the Refugee Experiences in African Countries booklist

Picturebooks to provide a context for life in the Congo, Tanzania, and Kenya. These books can be paired with the novels in the upper grades in order to give students a broader understanding of life in these locations beyond the stories of struggle and war that students will find in the novels. Additionally, explore the booklist of Refugee Experiences in African Countries.
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PDF icon Congo, Tanzania, and Kenya (481.86 KB)
PDF icon Refugee Experiences in African Countries (63.03 KB)

Text Set #10: Taking Action & Activism

Taking Action and Activism is a text set that embraces the heart of humanity. Taking action means to use your voice, ideas, writing, bodies, art, and so many other forms of expression to bring awareness as well as change to make the world a better place for everyone. This text set invites readers to think about taking action and activism, by engaging in various stories, strategies, techniques, historical events, poems, and images. The text set is broken down into various categories exploring various forms of what taking action looks, sounds, and feels like.
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PDF icon Text Set (11.24 MB)