Selecting Diverse Literature for Interactive Read-Alouds

The purpose of this chapter is to explain how a course, Teaching of Reading and Writing, uses its key course assessment to enhance preservice teacher candidates' appropriation of diverse children's literature. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of the Teaching of Reading and Writing course and the key course assessment, an interactive read-aloud with a diverse book. Additionally, the authors provide a rationale for why exploring and using high-quality diverse literature is intentionally embedded within the assignment. The chapter also includes a description of how the authors support their teacher candidates' appreciation of diverse children's literature through scaffolded instruction and text evaluation. The authors share their candidates' experiences with the interactive read-aloud as well as successes, challenges, and next steps for this assignment.