(light music) - [Teacher] Why don't we take turns reading a page?

- A scholar named Rudine Sims Bishop talked about windows and mirrors in children's reading experiences.

Mirrors are when children have the opportunity to read texts that have characters or settings or ideas that are familiar to them, that reflect them.

- Come on over and read with me.

We want them to see themselves in the books and things that are meaningful to them so that they can start to understand, what do I see on a regular basis out in the world?

- In the classroom you may notice we have some different languages represented.

We have children who speak Portuguese, Mandarin.

We really wanna focus on the children as individuals.

- [Teacher] Can you find another one?

- Windows are also important.

Making sure that children are able to access different experiences from their own to see people who don't look like them or live in different ways to learn about topics that they don't already know about.

- [Teacher] You pulled a book about police officers.

- One thing that's really important about reading is that it helps us get in the heads of characters who have different life experiences and empathize with them and learn what other people's lives are like.

- It's all groovy.

I went to my son's class and I read books about the Lunar New Year, about the Chinese culture.

It's so nice that I can be there and by reading these books to the kids, expose them to more variety.

- There is rich literature for so many backgrounds, interests, experiences.

Getting some of that literature and bringing it into the classroom or into the home is really something that anyone can do.

It's widely agreed in the field that children need access to mirrors as well as to windows in their everyday experiences in school and at home.

(light music)