What is Heritage Speaker

When we teach, we must look beyond the students in front of us and at the environment in which students will eventually live and work. Teachers in K-5 institutions in major urban centers face language barriers when engaging with parents. Preservice teachers and second language learners need practical, applicable experience in connecting with parents and improving their shared reading strategy. Instructors need to include authentic, culturally diverse children's literature into the teacher candidates' world. Instructors can apply classroom knowledge to provide a product to solve a problem for current teachers. Benefits in this community engagement project are numerous for all the players involved. This chapter details a community engagement project that includes lesson plans to integrate culturally diverse children's literature, lesson plans for instructions in interactive read alouds, provides research-based evidence behind the benefits of interactive read alouds, culturally diverse literature, and parent/students interactions for translations.