An extensive discussion of literacy education in multicultural schools is designed to help teachers help students develop language competencies through integrated multicultural themes and topics based on relevant children's literature. The first part looks at the foundations for language and literacy: the role of culture, family, and society in learning, and factors in and conditions for literacy learning in the multicultural classroom. The second part addresses preparations to teach in a multicultural classroom, including development and organization of multicultural curricula and the structuring of the classroom environment for language and literacy learning. Part 3 addresses additional issues in the multicultural education program, including facilitation of language and literacy learning, use of multicultural themes in literature, multicultural social studies topics, and student evaluation. Supplementary notes for teachers are appended, on the following subjects: developing a multicultural theme using realistic fiction; developing and presenting a content topic; making a formal analysis of a student's reading development; recommended books for multicultural teaching themes and topics, organized by cultural group and grade level; trade books useful for planning language development activities; and recommended books for new readers. (MSE)