Do students see themselves in the curriculum?

What stories are you reading to the children? Do they see themselves in some of those stories? If you don't know, go to the library, look for books. There are lots of resources on now that didn't exist before on multicultural children's literature. Try to find the best books and use bilingual books. So maybe if you don't read the language, maybe you can have the kids read the part in their language and you can read the part in English. There are many ways to change the curriculum so that it is more inclusive and people see themselves in the curriculum.

Lydia and I never saw ourselves in the curriculum until I was a master's student. I never even had a Puerto Rican teacher and certainly no content. The only content I had was, I think there was a mention of Operations Bootstrap in Puerto Rico when I was in high school or maybe junior high school, but most of the kids didn't know what that was. I didn't know what it was. I had to read about it. It was the industrialization of the island of Puerto Rico in the 1950s, but otherwise I never saw anything about Puerto Rico. And I think that would've helped me feel more at home, especially when I got to Erasmus Hall High School, where I got an excellent education, but never quite felt at home. And I think both are important.