This practical book shows how veteran, justice-oriented social studies teachers are responding to the Common Core State Standards, focusing on how they build curriculum, support students’ literacy skills, and prepare students to think and act critically within and beyond the classroom. In order to provide direct classroom-to-classroom insights, the authors draw on letters written by veteran teachers addressed to new teachers entering the field. The first section of the book introduces the three approaches teachers can take for teaching for social justice within the constraints of the Common Core State Standards (embracing, reframing, or resisting the standards). The second section analyzes specific approaches to teaching the Common Core, using teacher narratives to illustrate key processes. The final section demonstrates how teachers develop, support, and sustain their identities as justice-oriented educators in standards-driven classrooms. Each chapter includes exemplary lesson plans drawn from diverse grades and classrooms, and offers concrete recommendations to guide practice. Book Features: Offers advice from experienced educators who have learned to successfully navigate the constraints of high-stakes testing and standards-based mandates.Shares and analyzes curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching the Common Core, including lesson plans teachers can use in their own classrooms. Examines a range of philosophical and political stances that teachers might take as they navigate the unique demands of teaching for social justice in their own context. “This inspiring book invites us into conversations that cannot help but to make our teaching more collective, impactful, and profound.” —Kevin Kumashiro, University of San Francisco “This is a must-read book for practicing and aspiring educators interested in learning how to teach justice-oriented, critical social studies.” —Brian D. Schultz, Northeastern Illinois University “At a time of increasing pressure on teachers, this book provides practical approaches from teachers, for teachers to teach within the confines of the Common Core without compromising rigor, integrity, or social justice.” —Tyrone C. Howard, director, UCLA Black Male Institute, UCLA

Elementary-aged children are often positioned as not developmentally ready to learn about race, racism, and injustice. Yet, the classroom materials used in most schools misrepresent history, withhold knowledge about racial injustice, or fail to uplift stories of resilience and resistance. For almost a decade, this groundbreaking resource has been one of the most highly used textbooks in justice-oriented social studies methods courses for grades 3-8. The author has thoroughly revised her bestseller to provide additional lessons that are more deeply situated within the current context of converging pandemics--COVID-19, racism, and impending environmental catastrophe. Grounded in the daily realities of public schools, Agarwal-Rangnath shows teachers how to use primary and other sources that will offer students new ways of thinking about history while meeting language arts standards for information text proficiency and critical thinking. Educators will also learn how to teach language arts and social studies as complementary subjects. New for the Second Edition: More concrete connections between theory and practice. Additional lesson examples that are centered in today's context of converging pandemics. Reflection questions that challenge readers to think about ways to navigate curricular constraints and standardization in the classroom.

Explores the value and impact of implementing social action and social justice activities in the elementary classroom. Includes a discussion about how teaching social studies for social justice relates to standardized testing and state curricula and offers classroom activities, teaching ideas, and a list of children's books, curriculum materials, and websites.

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

In this book, a group of student teachers share their candid questions, concerns, dilemmas, and lessons learned about how to teach for social justice and social change. This text provides powerful examples of how they integrated diversity within a teacher education program--an excellent model for educators who are seeking ways to transform their teacher education programs to better prepare teachers to work effectively in multicultural classrooms.

Practice What You Teach follows three different groups of educators to explore the challenges of developing and supporting teachers' sense of social justice and activism at various stages of their careers.

Learn how to enact justice-oriented pedagogy and foster students’ critical engagement in today’s history classroom. Over the past 2 decades, various scholars have rightfully argued that we need to teach students to “think like a historian” or “think like a democratic citizen.” In this book, the authors advocate for cultivating activist thinking in the history classroom. Teachers can use Teaching History for Justice to show students how activism was used in the past to seek justice, how past social movements connect to the present, and how democratic tools can be used to change society. The first section examines the theoretical and research foundation for “thinking like an activist” and outlines three related pedagogical concepts: social inquiry, critical multiculturalism, and transformative democratic citizenship. The second section presents vignettes based on the authors’ studies of elementary, middle, and high school history teachers who engage in justice-oriented teaching practices. Book Features: Outlines key components of justice-oriented history pedagogy for the history and social studies K–12 classroom.Advocates for students to develop “thinking like an activist” in their approach to studying the past.Contains research-based vignettes of four imagined teachers, providing examples of what teaching history for justice can look like in practice.Includes descriptions of typical units of study in the discipline of history and how they can be reimagined to help students learn about movements and social change.