Interactive read alouds (IRAs) present an opportunity for early elementary educators to support their students’ academic skills as well as social development. Conducting IRAs with narrative texts, in particular, showcases how academic and social skills work together to support children’s reading comprehension alongside social development. When IRA instruction targets higher-order reading comprehension skills such as inference-making around characters’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, students draw on their emerging Theory of Mind (ToM; i.e., a socio-cognitive skill that refers to the ability to identify another’s mental state) skills. In this article, we aim to provide a framework for earlygrade educators to leverage and support students’ emerging ToM skills to facilitate inferencing making as part of IRAs in order to support students’ overall comprehension and social development.

Research suggests that English learners (ELs) with learning disabilities (LD) may benefit from culturally responsive evidence‐based instructional approaches. ELs with LD often present with learning challenges that influence language acquisition and literacy development. One way to address the distinctive proclivities of these students is to consider the importance of culturally responsive evidence‐based instruction that can elevate student understanding and academic achievement. This article explores the integration of two theoretical frameworks: culturally responsive practices and high‐leverage practices. It then outlines the importance of teacher introspection as an instructional foundation and identifies several strategies for ELs with LD by centering instruction around linguistic assets and cultural values in combination with effective instructional practices. The article concludes with a call to action for teachers to tailor instruction based on students' cultural and language assets, in combination with effective instructional practices to enhance student learning.

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The development of more culturally competent special education teachers is integral to striving for a more equitable education system for all students. However, the development of cultural competency around disability as diversity, especially from an intersectional lens, is often underrepresented in teacher preparation programs. As a result, if it is included at all, it is often at the discretion of individual teachers willing to incorporate such content into their teacher preparation classes. For teacher educators who are searching for ways to infuse disability as diversity content into their coursework, critical disability studies provides a framework for implementation by supporting teacher candidate’s critical reflective practice. In adopting such a framework, teacher educators can better target the development of cultural competency in their special education teacher candidates. As such, the aim of the present article is to provide a method of instruction to support the development of critical reflective practices in special education teacher preparation programs.