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This resource offers students a chance to engage in guided reading with their teacher. This is linked to a variety of reading and viewing processes such as decoding and meaning making, with the gradual
release of teacher guidance (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983, as cited in Burkins & Croft, 2017).
For Fountas and Pinell (1996, p. 25), guided reading is an “instructional context for supporting each reader’s development of effective strategies for processing novel texts at increasingly challenging levels of difficulty”.

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This resource encourages children to make text to self, text to text and text to world connections. This is an aspect of comprehension that draws on the importance of children making connections between what they already know and what they are learning (Konza, 2003). The importance of this is emphasised in prior knowledge-based learning which supports that when teaching new concepts educators need to help children activate their prior knowledge and connect new ideas to this (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards & Park Woolf, 2014).

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This resource aims to promote children's enjoyment of reading. It involves creating an engaging environment and fun atmosphere where children can interact with books in their interest at their own pace. Research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002, as cited in National Literacy Trust, 2006) shows that reading enjoyment is more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status. Promoting the enjoyment of reading within students can therefore hugely affect childrens overall educational success.

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Audio books for students with learning difficulties

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Audio books for students with learning difficulties

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This resource offers children with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, an opportunity to develop their reading skills through the combination of audio and visual
literacy. Research from Milani, Lorusso and Molteni (2010) shows that the use of audio books significantly improves reading accuracy due to the connection of decoding written words and listening to and following the recordings on a written text. Increased confidence and pleasure in connection to reading was also evident (Milani, Lorusso & Molteni, 2009).

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Browse Our Human Read Audiobooks Collection | Learning Ally

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Audiobooks from Learning Ally help students with dyslexia, blindness, or visual impairments read better. Our audio books include textbooks, literature, and all book genres.

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This resource provides educators with information on how reading and singing connect and how through song children can develop skills needed for reading. This resource utilises a whole language approach to reading. This approach is supported by Smith and Goodman (1968, as cited in Konza, 2003) and involves making constant predications for overall understanding of the text.

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This classic activity takes away pressure away from children and models the role of a reader in linking oral language to visual and written. While reading to the class educators can model the use of specific reading concepts (Konza, 2003). Educators should demonstrate enjoyment when reading because it encourages children to also develop a positive attitude (Willems & Willems, 1979).

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This comprehension resource encourages children to understand charterers traits and their development throughout the text which promotes overall text understanding. Reading comprehension involves both extracting and constructing meaning from the text and encourages children to participate in active reading (Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006). This help children develop comprehension strategies that they can use across a variety of texts (Harris et al., 2006).

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This resource encourages children to recognise and locate structural text features. Skimming is a text processing strategy and its importance is emphasised in the Victorian Curriculum (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2015b VCELY318).

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This resource utilises literal, interoperative and inferential comprehension questions to encourage children to gather information from texts. Post reading questions encourage children to make meaning from the text which is included within Luke and Freebody’s (1999, as cited in Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006) four roles of a reader model. This is also included in the Victorian Curriculum in that students purposely reflect and interact with text (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2015c).

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This resource is ideal for teaching emerging readers’ concepts of print. Concepts of print refer to the awareness of how prints work. For Clay (1993), concepts of print are important for emergent and early reading.

Early concepts of print and print awareness are acknowledged as foundational to literacy development and impact later literacy outcomes (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008; Teale & Sulzby, 1986, as cited in Duke, Martin, Norman, Knight, Roberts, Morsink & Calkins, 2013).
https://www.twinkl.com/resource/roi2-e-19-new-book-cover-design-activity-sheet

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This resource helps children to understand that texts are not neural and authors points of view have the power to position readers. Understanding points of view is an aspect of critical literacy that involves analysing and questioning what children read, hear and view (Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006). It is influenced by the sociocultural model regarding how experiences, context and broader cultural settings influence reading. This concept is supported by Freebody’s and Luke’s (1999, as cited in Harris et al., 2006) research on text analysis practices which involves understanding underlying assumptions with texts that attempt to position the reader.

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This resource can be utilised to help children critically analyse how components of visual information including letters, format, layout and images interact to convey meaning (Hill, 2012). The Victorian Curriculum refers to these components and discussions as visual metalanguage and its importance is included within the curriculum (Victorian State Government, 2018). This activity helps children become ‘text users’ and ‘text critics’ by evaluating the purpose of the advertisement (Freebody & Luke, 1990, as cited in Hill, 2012, p. 87).

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This resource is a worksheet that allows students to reflect on their feelings after having read a text. It focus's on using comprehension and encourages the development of  text-self connections after reading. Freebody and Luke (1990) used the sociocultural theory to hypothesise that reading comprehension is socially and culturally constructed based on previous experiences.

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This resource is ideal for early level primary children to use in reading rotation groups to analyse texts and respond accordingly. This resource is supported by Freebody & Luke (1990) four roles of a reader model, specifically the text user aspect. This resource aligns with many of the Australian Curriculum literature outcomes such as responding to literature, examining literature and literature and context (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority], n.d.b).

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This teaching resource is for use with picture book texts in the classroom.

The set contains 12 cards, in six colour-coded categories, exploring:

Use these classroom task cards to help students comprehend classic and contemporary children's literature.

You may like to print out these cards and laminate them for your students to choose from. These activities can be completed in groups or as a whole class activity.

Read more about our Literature Study Task Cards over on the Chalkboard blog!

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Australian Curriculum alignment

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Literature Study - Lower Primary - Task Cards Teaching Resource - Teach Starter

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This teaching resource is for use with picture book texts in the classroom. The set contains 12 cards, in six colour-coded categories, exploring: Use these classroom task cards to help students comprehend classic and contemporary children's literature. You may like to print out these cards and laminate them for your students to choose from.

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This resource utilises play to teach reading skills such as letter identification and interpreting visual cues. It introduces children to different text types including lists for letter and word recognition. Learning literacy through play is supported by Fleer (2017) who emphasises that through play children are able to experiment, demonstrate agency and take risks in a supportive environment.

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This resource can be utilised in water play to teach phonemic awareness and letter recognition. This activity can be differentiated to meet the needs of all children. The Early Years Learning Framework includes the importance of utilising natural materials, such as water, for learning (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009). Water provides opportunities for sensory stimulation and research suggests interacting with natural materials can have a calming effect on children and improve concentration (Victorian Department of Education and Training, 2013).

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This resource requires students to be text users and to identify different genres of books in their environment (Freebody & Luke, 1990). This resource encourages students to explore different types of texts and their purpose. Identifying and understanding that texts incorporate different structures depending on its purpose and context is a consistent standard for reading and viewing throughout the Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.a)

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Lesson plan to model use of reading cues and text processing strategies

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Lesson plan to model use of reading cues and text processing strategies

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This teaching resource offers a lesson plan to encourage students to use certain skills such as re-reading, reading on and using illustrations, to help them problem solve and understand unknown words and definitions in a text. This resource is supported by Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2015a) content description VCELY256. Is also supported by Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development theory that states children will learn more when they first receive guidance from or collaborate with, a more knowledgeable other.
Please note: video can be accessed by clicking the 'download' arrow button.

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The honey ant readers’ resource offers Aboriginal-English speaking Indigenous Australians, texts to assist in teaching Standard Australian English, through stories, songs, illustrations and rhymes that reflect Indigenous culture. This resource focuses on learning phonemic awareness to develop reading skills. This is supported by the bottom up theory which suggests that children’s reading development is sequential and they must first acquire phonemic awareness before learning to decode and then read fluently (Gough, 1978 cited by Konza, 2003).

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Reading Books Archives - Honey Ant Readers

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This resource assists children in developing text to self-connections. Through developing genuine text to self-connections children can more effectively contextualise new information and hence understand what they are reading (Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006). The importance of text to self-connections are based on the constructivist theory of learning which supports that individuals utilise their prior knowledge and beliefs to construct new knowledge and understandings (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards & Park Woolf, 2014).

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Five minute word challenge and word wall

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Five minute word challenge and word wall

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This educational resource assists students in building their vocabulary. Sinatra, Zygouris-Coe, and Dasinger (2012) believe that for vocabulary to be learnt effectively, it should be exposed in different contexts such as written, seen and heard and to explicitly teach word’s meanings. For Hart and Risley (1995, as cited in Hills, 2012) and Snow, Burns and Griffin (1998, as cited in Hill, 2012), vocabulary is highly important in a child’s ability to read and overall success in school.

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This information communication technology (ICT) resource helps children develop numerous reading skills. Skills range from letter recognition to grammar, fluency and comprehension questions. When paired appropriately with teaching, ICT resources can be powerful in supporting student-centred active learning and provide children with opportunities to practice and review learning concepts or expand on the curriculum (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards & Park Woolf, 2014).

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ABC Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities.

And it really works!

Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

Your child can learn to read right now. Register now to start your FREE trial!

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Learning to Read for Kids | Learn to Read with Phonics | Free Trial

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ABC Reading Eggs is the online reading program that helps children learn to read. Hundreds of online reading lessons, phonics games and books for ages 2-13. Start your free trial!

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This resource offers a tactile approach to building phonemic awareness using offsets and rhymes. This activity encourages children to look for patterns in words and supports children's understanding that individual phonemes can change entire words (Madwell, Wary, Minns, Giffiths & Coates, 2017). Madwell et al. (2017) states that phonemic awareness isn’t a natural ability and must be explicitly taught within literacy. The importance of phonemic awareness for reading is highlighted in the ‘code breaker’ role within Freebody and Luke (1990, as cited in Hill, 2012, p. 87) four roles of a reader model.

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This resource helps children recognise and become familiar with sight words. Learning sight words involves building connections between graphemes and phonemes and recognising the link between visual and verbal literacy (Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006). As children recognise sight words their reading fluency increases because they are no longing decoding all words and can use other techniques such as analogizing or recognising words from memory (Goswami,1986, as cited in Ehri, 2005).

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DIY Literacy:  KABOOM! Sight Word Game (LIBRARY MAKE)

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This valuable resource offers students immediate support from their peers when engaging in shared reading together. This enables students to focus on vocabulary and phonemic awareness. This resource is supported by Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of zone of proximal development in that children need to have their learning scaffolded by a more knowledgeable other.

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This resource engages children to practice the three areas attributed to fluency; accuracy, rate and expression through singing a text (Konza, 2016). Singing texts rather than reading word by word strengthens fluency and fosters a higher level of engagement and motivation for reading (Douville & Wood, 2001 cited by Patel & Laud, 2007).
https://www.lyrics2learn.com/how_to_use.php

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This resource offers a game that can be used to encourage early phonemic awareness in children who have English as a second language. Research from Yeung, Liu and Lin (2017) shows that phonemic awareness is essential for learning English, whether it is a first or second language because one needs to decode words into sounds in order to read English words.

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Bean Bag Letters: Developing Phonemic Awareness Through an Engaging Game

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This ICT resource can be used to encourage independent reading for children of all ages. Independent reading builds fluency and a child’s motivation to read (Hill, 2012, p.191). This resource provides children with a variety of fiction and non-fiction books to explore and choose using their own agency.
Using an ICT to promote literacy development such as reading provides many opportunities to extend vocabulary and can motivate children who find it difficult to read (Van Scooter, Ellie & Railsbeck, 2001, as
cited in Voogt & McKenney, 2007).

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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This resource encourages students to read with fluency by scooping up words into phrases rather than reading word by word. When students read with fluency, attention to the syntax and punctuation develops which improves their comprehension of the text (Hill, 2012, p.191). Cullinan (2000) supports that children are more likely to enjoy what they are reading when they can read fluently and understand the text.

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This pin offers students from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to participate in independent, shared or guided reading with texts they can relate to. This promotes text to self-connections (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997). Text to self connections enable students to relate the text to their own life and experiences to develop a clearer understanding of what the text is about, thus making them more engaged (Tovani, 2000).

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This post contains affiliate links, if you click through them I will earn a commission. You can learn more here.

Books are such a wonderful way to introduce kids to the world and teach them about important topics. The world is full of so many different kinds of people and families. Learning about cultural differences and cultural diversity can be a lot of fun. Add these books to the 10 Cultural Diversity Activities For Elementary Students to create a fun cultural unit!

These children's book on diversity are a great starting point to introducing kids to the topics of diversity, race and tolerance.

Children's Books About Diversity

Don't forget to check out my other favorite children's books lists.

Please note that affiliate links are used in this post. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

We're Different, We're the Same was written by Bobbi Kates and illustrated by Joe Mathieu. In this book from Sesame Street, readers are introduced to the idea that all the parts of us are the same, but also can be different. This is a great way to introduce the idea that something can have similar and different qualities.

The Colors of Us was written and illustrated by Karen Katz. When a little girl named Lena decides to paint a picture of herself, her mother teaches her that all of her friends and family have different shades of color for their skin.

Shades of People was written by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly. This book uses simple text and colorful photographs to introduce young readers to the many different shades of color that skin can be. This is a great toddler children's book about diversity.

The Sandwich Swap was written by Queen Rania Al Abdullah with Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Lily and Salma are best friends who do everything together. When they get into an argument about their sandwich choices, they learn an important lesson about accepting differences and learning from one another.

We All Sing With the Same Voice was written by J. Philip Miller and Sheppard M. Greene and illustrated by Paul Meisel. This illustrated version of the popular Sesame Street song shows that kids all over the world may be different, but they are also incredibly similar.

I hope you enjoyed this list of my favorite children's books about diversity.

Do you have any favorites? Leave a comment below!

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This post contains affiliate links, if you click through them I will earn a commission. You can learn more here. Books are such a wonderful way to introduce kids to the world and teach them about important topics. The world is full of so many different kinds of people and families.

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This resource is ideal for engaging students who may find it hard to listen and prefer to talk during shared reading. This resource can be used as a class activity before, during and after reading a text. It
explores text structures and features, focusing on comprehension strategies such as predicting, connecting, visualising, questioning, and summarising. For Allington and Johnston (2002, as cited in Harvey & Goudvis, 2007) classrooms that encourage conversations, discussions and ‘purposeful talk’ between peers after reading, are high achieving literacy classrooms.

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Shared reading supports children in developing a variety of literacy concepts. Educators design lessons to focus on specific concepts (Hill, 2012, p. 83). Shared reading utilises aspects of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory include the zone of proximal development and scaffolding. This involves educators supporting children through prompts which extends them from their point of actual development to a point of potential development (Vygotsky, 1978, as cited in Woolfolk & Margetts, 2016).

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This resource encourages children to make predictions about the plot and characters by inferring from images. This supports children’s abilities to critically analyse the illustrations within texts and understand how illustrations can confirm, contradict or disrupt words (Harris, Turnbill, Fitzsimmons & Mckenzie, 2006).
In regard to reading and viewing the Victorian Curriculum emphasises the importance of children at
all levels developing skills to understand, interpret, critically analyse, reflect, and enjoy visual images (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2015c).