I read this at the end of a busy and stressful semester, just now finishing up the final chapters and realizing that many of the ideas deserved more mental attention than I could devote to them at the time of reading. I teach students who have been alienated by the education system, a system based totally on grades, test scores, and college admissions. I see students who have an adversarial stance towards me and the school - the trick is winning them over and engaging them, but breaking down the years of hardened attitudes is difficult - a few "empowering" activities a week during English class is not necessarily going to do it. Even so, we have to try or admit defeat. ( )

A practical, inspirational book offering essays, lesson plans, and a remarkable collection of student writing, all rooted in an unwavering focus on language arts teaching for justice. An excellent resource for colleagues, staff development, teacher education, and school libraries.

Teaching for social justice has become a cornerstone of contemporary progressive education. And while many scholars of curriculum and instruction can agree on what social justice entails and that our teaching and learning should be predicated upon the equitable principles of social justice, few texts offer practitioners a vision of how a curriculum informed by social justice operates within a classroom. This book fills that need.

Drawing upon her rich experience as an English Language Arts teacher working in racially and ethnically diverse communities, Christensen features abundant examples of her own teaching strategies and assignments in this book. She offers ready-to-use templates that can be easily reproduced for the reader’s own classroom, but more importantly, she offers a compelling rationale for the pedagogical value of social justice along with a variety of methods the reader may use to develop lessons, units, and assignments that will meet administratively imposed standards while also promoting social justice and facilitating critical consciousness among students.

The curricular innovations that Christensen suggests will not be easily accomplished. Achieving the kind of trenchant instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy that she describes in this text will require meticulous reflection and intimate knowledge of one’s students and community. Fortunately, Christensen’s text can serve as a solid guide to developing a socially just and pedagogically rigorous curriculum. ( )