Project: Children L.E.A.D. Children Learning Early to Appreciate Diversity
Project Children Learning Early to Appreciate Diversity (L.E.A.D.) is dedicated to providing multicultural educational resources to teachers, students and trainers. We hope you find the resources useful in developing lessons for your classroom students.
Vincenne Revilla Beltrán, Ph.D., professor of education at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa., established Project Children LEAD in 1999. The project began as part of a University course taught by Dr. Revilla Beltrán Beltrán in the Department of Education at Point Park University. As part of the course requirements, pre-service teachers were asked to develop lesson plans based on the Project Children LEAD themes for kindergarten children. The goal was to teach the children early to appreciate diversity. Each lesson plan had to incorporate the Pennsylvania Academic Standards and had to be developmentally appropriate for the young learners.
The thematic approach utilized in Project Children LEAD encouraged pre-service teachers to apply the principles of diversity education in an authentic setting with the kindergarten children. Since its inception in 1999, Dr. Revilla Beltrán Beltrán has refined the program and has continued to develop her work with pre-service teachers and kindergarten children. To date, the curriculum has been implemented with K-8 students.
In 2004, Dr. Revilla Beltrán collaborated with teachers from the Point Park University Children's School and developed Project Children LEAD lesson plans for the following age groups:
A collaboration with a homeless children's shelter resulted in the delivery of the Project Children LEAD curriculum to elementary and middle school students.