Using multicultural read aloud books to support student understanding of character education themes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using multicultural read aloud books during character education lessons in a second grade classroom. Six character education themes were paired with six multicultural picture books. Prior to reading these texts, students were asked to explain what they already knew about the targeted character traits in a writing activity. After reading, students discussed with a partner and then shared their thoughts with the whole group. Students completed a post-reading activity, by writing to explain what they learned about that character trait from the story. It was found that utilizing multicultural literature during character education lessons yielded positive results. Students demonstrated a deeper understanding of the themes after reading. Additionally, students made meaningful text-to-text and text-to-self connections with the selected mentor texts. Finally, students applied the learning of these traits into other classroom situations. Implications for today\u27s classroom and suggestions for future research are discussed