Read-Alouds with Heart: Grades K-2 Literacy Lessons That Build Community, Comprehension, and Cultural Competency

"Build a classroom community that centers children and honors their identities with thoughtfully chosen multicultural picture books. These mentor texts are more than just 'mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors' -- they're jumping-off points to important conversations that guide children to explore identities; identify problems, resolutions, and themes; understand characters' and others' perspectives; and more. This resource: invites teachers to reflect on their own identities and how they connect with others; shares teaching strategies that support community and literacy learning; features multicultural picture books and standards-based lessons that provide reading strategies and discussion prompts that build children's cultural competence, social-emotional skills, and comprehension skills; guides teachers to transfer the strategies and lessons to other mentor texts." --