Yesterday I was finally able to meet with my supervisor (which reminds me that I now need to email her again to set up another meeting for next week), and although she claims she didn’t get any of the 6 emails I sent her, she does have a really good plan of attack for me and is okay with me going home to finish my work (I’m going to rot in the in-between for lying about the seriousness of my mom’s brain tumor, but I have decided that I am okay with that). Her strategy for getting everything written and turned in on time is to give the students she is supervising homework for each week. I’m all for this as it keeps me on schedule and keeps me accountable for the work that needs to get done.

Among the first bits of homework is coming up with three possible titles for our dissertation. This one has me stumped. I know why I am choosing to undertake the research, and I am well underway with my theory and literature, but I can’t think of a title to save my life.  I figure since I can’t think of anything, maybe one of my 7 readers can. I need a title that gives a good vision of the paper that I am writing. Something catchy, but informative…something that will allow the readers to know what they are getting into so they can skip to the next paper.

Here are the details of my research:

I’m going to be using critical literacy and the concept of the language of power to examine two books, Chato’s Kitchen by Gary Soto and Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse by Judy Schachner. I will be examining both the text and the pictures of both of these stories and discuss how the choices made in terms of language used, structure of the story and the choice of illustrations affects the way in which children view the Mexican culture. Part of the disucssion will focus on the importance of teachers critically analysing the books that they are presenting to their students, and how the right choices will help their students become strong intercultural citizens.

This was the title I used on the proposal I had to turn in, but it is crap:

Skippyjon Jones in Chato’s Kitchen: A Theoretical Study on the Importance of Portrayal of Mexican Culture in Children’s Literature

The problem with this title is that the project this title suggests is one that I would not be able to complete in a matter of months. It also lacks the info that the research is aimed at how critical literacy will help teachers when deciding what books they will teach in their classroom.

So I need to come up with some new possibilities to take to my meeting on Wednesday. I am prepared to bribe my readers into helping me, so the person who comes up with the best title will get an awesome Scottish present…..and by awesome I mean haggis flavored chips.