Students will become aware that different cultures may have different traditional stories, cultural values, or ways of life.
Students will learn active comprehension skills: asking questions and making predictions, re-telling details, identifying story elements, making text-to-self connections, recognizing text structure.
Students will practice phonemic awareness skills: rhyming, onset-rhime blending, identifying initial and final sounds, identifying syllables, and phonics skills: identifying letters, matching letter sounds to letters.

In my undergrad and post-grad education, I've studied cultural and linguistic anthropology.  This has given me a good foundation in respect for all cultures and the dynamics of multicultural societies.  I also lived in a non-Western, developing nation for 7 years, further increasing my sensitivity to intercultural and multicultural issues.  As a teacher, I've had the privilege of teaching students from a variety of diverse backgrounds, and experiencing their interest in both books that feature characters like themselves, and that open their eyes to the humanity of characters unlike themselves.  I have done extensive reading and belong to several online discussion groups in order to keep current with best practices for presenting diverse picture books to children.