Abstract
I designed this project based on my experiences and knowledge in working in elementary schools, and I have created a curriculum guide that is focused on California first grade classrooms. My curriculum guide offers strategies to implement multicultural education and have students and teachers become more culturally aware. The significance of having multicultural education in our classrooms is to have curriculum that is relatable to students and their cultures, and my guide focuses on bringing in multicultural literature into the classroom. There are thirteen different themes in my guide and each theme has multicultural literature that focuses on that theme. This will encourage more student involvement, further communication among students, and bring a sense of community to the classroom. Multicultural education changes the classroom environment in a positive way, having students come together and learn about each other. With diversity growing, schools and teachers need to be able to find ways to teach multicultural education in their classrooms. With mandated curriculum and teaching to the state standards, teachers are pushed to teach to the test at the end of the school year. If teachers can bring in multicultural education and teach with the students interests, students will become more involved and want to learn. My curriculum guide is designed to teach culture to first grade students for them to understand more about themselves and each other. In first grade, students are becoming more socially aware and learning about each other, and I want my students to learn about culture and become more culturally aware.