Reading for Justice

This book illuminates methods for drawing upon young adult literature to facilitate students’ critical literacies and to prompt social action in their local and broader communities.

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This book illustrates how middle level English language arts teachers can draw upon young adult literature to facilitate students’ understanding of issues of oppression and allow them opportunities for social action. Each chapter centers on one novel that represents a contemporary topic including the refugee crisis, Indigenous rights, trauma, and bullying. In each, authors provide pre-, during-, and after reading strategies for teaching that connect the social issues in the texts to students’ lives and to the world around them. Research, writing, and digital literacies are emphasized throughout. Authors also include topics for teaching at the intersections of the focal topic with other areas of social justice. Finally, they provide a multitude of avenues for student action, emphasizing the need to move readers from understanding and awareness to asserting their own agency and capacities to effect change in their local, national, and global communities. Additional resources are also included as extensions, such as documentaries, young adult literature companions for study, connected music, and supplementary lesson plans.