Using Nonfiction for Civic Engagement in Classrooms: Critical Approaches

by Vivian Yenika-Agbaw (Editor), Ruth McKoy Lowery (Editor), Paul H. Ricks (Editor)

Overview

This book acknowledges the existence of high quality nonfiction children’s literature that may serve as a basis for conversation about civic engagements and our roles as global citizens. It touches on our social history, and offers ideas for how educators might be able to engage readers in healthy and useful dialogues on what it means to be human and how nonfiction texts attempt to reconstruct this reality in this quest to recognize our collective humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475842340
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/22/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	140
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Vivian Yenika-Agbaw is professor of children’s literature and literacy at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park. She teaches courses on children’s and adolescent literature.

Ruth McKoy Lowery is professor of literacy and associate chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University. She teaches courses on children's literature and literacy education.

Paul H. Ricks is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at The Pennsylvania State University, where he currently teaches children’s literature courses.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Critical Conversations: Approaches Some Authors Have Adopted to Address
Social Issues
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw

Chapter 2:You Too Can Make a Difference: Young Civil Rights Activists
Terrell A. Young, Barbara A. Ward, and Deanna Day

Chapter 3: Advocating for Immigrant Experiences in Nonfiction Literature
Ruth McKoy Lowery, Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko and Cody Miller

Chapter 4:Teaching for Social Justice: Nonfiction Texts and Multi-genre Writing
Ann Berger-Knorr and Mary Napoli

Chapter 5:Sixth Grade’s Inquiry into the World War II Japanese Internment Camps
Yoo Kyung Sung and Junko Sakoi

Chapter 6:Critical Conversations Using Native American Autobiographies
Paul H. Ricks

Chapter 7:Biographies as Bibliotherapy: Using Nonfiction to Help Boys Overcome
Bullying
Lunetta M. Williams and Kelly C. Scott

Chapter 8:Creating Spaces for Critical Conversations on Issues of Social Justice
Mary Ellen Oslick, Terri Robertson and Melissa Parks

Chapter 9: Helpful Resources to Engage Children in Conversations on Social Issues in
Nonfiction Literature
Suzanne Chapman, Mario Worlds, and Soowon Jo

Contributors’ Biography

Editorial Reviews

Reading this book feels like participating in a seminar in social justice literature. The authors present a wide variety of voices that make readers eager to dive into the examined texts. Chapter by chapter, readers will gain inspiration and courage to modify their teaching. Classroom by classroom, this book will help change the world.

Janet Wong

Facts…or alternative facts. Now is an era when critical reading of nonfiction texts is vitally important, a need which this timely volume addresses. Its nine chapters focus on some of the most pressing issues of our time—racism, immigration, bullying—framed by critical lenses and demonstrated through teaching examples and current, noteworthy nonfiction titles. A new important resource for both classroom practitioners and teacher educators who empower students to strive for social justice!

Barbara Lehman

This book is a timely, much-needed resource for teachers who seek to engage their students in examining the issues of equality and power that we all face in today's complex and interconnected world. Using nonfiction literature as a springboard, teachers can tap into the examples and strategies provided to promote critical inquiry and dialogue in the safe space of their classrooms. The authors show teachers how to spur students to dig deeper into a wide range of social justice topics, using a problem-posing stance to investigate point-of-view, subjectivity, and accuracy of nonfiction literature.

Gail V. Ritchie