ABSTRACT
This chapter offers insight into the integration of global perspectives into classroom units and examines a range of cultural perspectives within the theme of the diversity of languages and stories in the world. These insights are based upon a yearlong action research project with eight teachers from an urban multilingual elementary school in middle Tennessee. The chapter focuses on lessons learned in a first-grade classroom where diverse languages and stories played a central role in the curriculum across the year. These experiences grew out of the challenge of integrating intercultural perspectives while balancing the demands of Common Core Standards, including close reading and a mandated basal curriculum. The grant project provided teachers with book bins filled with global literary and informational texts that were carefully selected around themes related to social justice.
