Building Bridges with Bilingual Books and Multicultural Resources

Book excerpt: This manual provides K-5 educators and homeschooling parents with tools for culturally responsive teaching including lessons to engage dual language learners and families, diversity activities to support literacy and language awareness, and games and resources to promote cultural awareness and understanding. The book includes numerous multicultural lesson plans that use bilingual books and diversity activities to support literacy development and build culturally inclusive classrooms. The lessons meet Common Core Standards and include detailed procedures, assessments, cross-curricular extension activities, and vocabulary-building flashcards. Each lesson incorporates optional ESL activities, accommodations for language learners, and suggestions for involving dual language families. Also included in the book are games, foods, and crafts from around the world; diverse language profiles; handouts to build community in the classroom; and unique holidays to celebrate diversity.Written by multicultural education expert and founder of Language Lizard, Anneke Forzani; Coordinator of the Master's of Education program in Applied Studies and Teaching at West Chester University, Heather Leaman; and two practicing elementary school teachers.