Good morning class! Today we will be reading Too Many Mittens!

Each day in Mr. Clark's first grade class, the class reads a book. Emily, Eudora, Wahaj, and Justin are the students in Mr. Clark's class.

Jake and Colin said "No! I want to play in the snow!"

Every time Mr. Clark started to read, Eudora and Wahaj noticed none of the characters looked like them.

How come there's no girls that look like me?

I don't like this book

"... The End!"

Emily and Justin love when Mr. Clark reads because it feels like they are in the story, the characters are so similar to them.

I'm just like Jake!

Mr. Clark noticed that Eudora and Wahaj were not engaged during the past few story times. He asks his friend, Mrs. Smith what he should do.

Eudora and Wahaj don't like my stories, what should I do?

Have you tried books that celebrate different cultures? Students need to feel represented and other students can learn this way so that the books aren't just mirrors of one experience, but also provide windows to other experiences (Flores, et. al., 2021). You should incorporate more diverse books into your classroom.

"The books we use offer a valuable opportunity to bring our students' languages, cultures, histories, and voices into our classrooms" (Flores, et. al., 2021).

That is a great idea!

Mr. Clark listened to Mrs. Smith's ideas and realized he could incorporate students' funds of knowledge and connect them to content-area literacy (Flores, et. al., 2021.

Our social studies lesson this week is on culture. maybe I can have the students talk about their culture and then find a book that highlights diverse cultures....

The next day, Mr. Clark came to school with lots of books and let the students choose which ones they wanted the class to read.

I want to read the story about Eid because my family celebrates that!

That sounds like a great idea Wahaj, can you tell the class more about how you and your family celebrate Eid before we read the book?

Wahaj shared how his family celebrates Eid before the class read the book. This is an example of how funds of knowledge can be used as an asset within the classroom.

We celebrate Eid at the end of Ramadan. I love sharing meals with family and friends after we pray!

Cool!

My family does the same thing for Christmas!

Mr. Clark loved how all the students engaged with Wahaj. He wondered if Mrs. Smith had any more ideas for the classroom.

What else can I do to help student engagement? Eudora liked Wahaj's story but didn't like the read aloud in class...

Mr Clark went to visit Mrs. Smith for advice.

One of my students doesn't like the class read alouds, what can I do to help get her engaged?

Have you tried using multimodal texts?

What are multimodal texts?

Multimodal texts are different media forms that help promote literacy. It can be a written text, an audio, visuals, or even spoken language!

Wow! I'll have to try that. How can I use multimodal texts? Why do you use multimodal texts?

Multimodal texts are "digital and non-digital. Both have advantages and create rich opportunities for language and literacy learning. The use of digital texts additionally helps students to develop digital literacies" (Generating Digital Bilingual Multimodal Texts, 2023). I like to use a video alongside a story. After the lesson, students can work to create a poster to show what they know! You could also have them create a podcast!

Mr. Clark started the next day by having students watch a video and examine online sources about the life cycle of a plant.

I know! After the seeds are planted they start to germinate!

Can someone tell me one fun fact that they learned from the video?

Mr. Clark was so happy to see that Eudora was engaged in the lesson. He wanted to continue using multimodality and develop diverse literacies.

Let's create a poster — draw each stage and write a description underneath your picture!

"The use of students' drawings as illustrations is a productive starting point. This can be helpful with younger students or students who are unfamiliar with digital technologies" (Generating Digital Bilingual Multimodal Texts, 2023).

I love to draw!

Emily, Eudora, Wahaj, and Justin worked on their poster. Mr. Clark was excited to see how much fun they were having while developing their writing and synthesizing skills.

Plant Life Cycle

Over the next couple of weeks, Mr. Clark continued to incorporate diverse books into his lessons and implemented multimodal texts in a variety of forms.

References