Francis, Amy, editor Should the United States Be Multilingual?

Francis, Amy, editor.  Should the United States Be Multilingual? 

Cengage(Gale,Lucent,Kidhaven/Blackbirch 2011   119p   23.85  978-0-7377-4893-2            

hs/adult         At Issue (Cengage/Gale/Greenhaven)       VG-BN 

Primary and secondary sources examine the controversial topic of multingualism from a variety of perspectives.

                      Internationally, students graduate with proficiency in multiple

languages.  One in five Americans speak a foreign language at home. But in the

United States, the "melting pot" of nationalities, education is generally

conducted in English and students are rarely proficient in more than one

European language.  To successfully compete in a global economy and to

communicate with consumers at home and abroad, the need for new language skills

has sparked controversy over multilingualism. 

          Watkins gathered engaging essays from primary and secondary sources

representing a variety of perspectives to provide a springboard for research,

classroom discussions, and debate.  Included are bibliographies and annotated

lists of relevant organizations to round out future research.  Articles are

prefaced with succinct summaries, facilitating use by students gathering

background information. 

          Timely and topical, this collection of material addresses many

concerns. Is it time for the United States to officially become multilingual? 

What are the benefits/drawbacks of linguistic diversity? Will steps taken in

this direction divide communities or bring them closer together?

 Welliver, Hilary

Donahue, Jill Lynn. Being Honest (Bilingual).

Donahue, Jill Lynn.      Being Honest (Bilingual).      

Picture Window Books(Capstone)   2011        19.49 978-1-4048-6689-8 

elem              VG-BNes

      Teaching values and morals is the job of the classroom teacher as well as

the parent.  This book teaches children how to be honest by using various case

scenarios and showing how each child resolved the problem by displaying honesty.

      Teaching children to be honest should be a joint undertaking by both

parent and educator, and this book offers both a wonderful opportunity to share

various examples of honesty in well-illustrated format which is creative and

lively!  With its bilingual format of English at the top and Spanish below, each

double-page spread provides an example of something that a child did wrong

followed by his or her confession to whomever was hurt by the accident or

incident.  The colors that the illustrator chose are bold and eye-catching. 

Examples of different case scenarios include the breaking of a vase, an

overpayment for feeding a cat, a purse found on the way to school and a

forgotten baseball bat, to name a few.  After reporting each incident, the

author repeats the child’s name and says that he or she is being honest.  The

repetition is wonderful for early readers, and students will readily relate to

each incident since opportunities to display honesty present themselves often

throughout our day.  The resourceful classroom teacher could use this book to

open a conversation about the value of honesty during morning opening exercises

or during break time.  Another use is to promote writing by having the student

write about a time when he or she was honest.  “Way to Be” includes four

topics:  being caring, trustworthy, honest and tolerant.  

Each book is bilingual English to Spanish, presents simple case scenarios that are resolved by the

author in a positive way and depicts each example using illustrations that are

creative and child-friendly.  Squaresky, Martha