Due to changing demographics, our students are coming into schools with diverse life experiences, which do not always reflect the cultural reality of their schools. Given the research on the importance of using literature that is relevant to the students’ background, this study sought to explore how first grade urban students connect to literature that mirrored their personal experiences, but is not always considered appropriate material for classroom read-alouds. It was also of interest to determine how their reading stance, as measured by the type of connections students made, affected their comprehension of the story read. Results indicated that students who assumed an aesthetic stance while listening to the story, and made connections based on direct or vicarious personal experiences, scored higher on the comprehension measures.
 
