Socially Responsible Literacy

This book offers a new vision for teaching literacy to adolescents that moves beyond reading for its own sake and toward reading as a way to motivate students to connect with their world. The authors draw on the voices of adolescent readers to discover how teachers can encourage their students to explore their identities, face injustices, and contribute to their communities. Readers learn how to incorporate the core issues of a socially responsible pedagogy into their own curricula to support strong literacy skills across the content areas. Each chapter includes reflection questions that move the reader toward personal and professional development, along with classroom applications that provide specific strategies and ideas for engaging literacy projects.

This dynamic book:

• Outlines a socially responsible pedagogy that will assist teachers in creating meaningful experiences to motivate even the most disengaged students.
• Takes a critical approach to teaching and learning that recognizes the importance of explicitly addressing issues of power and identity.
• Examines effective school-wide models that promote a climate of responsibility toward the larger society.

Paula M. Selvester is a professor of teacher education and teaching international languages in the School of Education at California State University, Chico.

Deborah G. Summers is a professor of secondary adolescent literacy and the director of the School of Education at California State University, Chico.

“The ideas and reflections that come with each chapter guide teachers and students to specific roles and responsibilities that generate respect and hope.”
—From the Foreword by Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University

“From someone who has worked with struggling readers at the secondary level for 20 years, I can say this text offers teachers a whole new vision. It moves teachers away from teaching reading for its own purpose to seeing reading as a way to motivate students to engage in reading as informed citizens.”
—Rita Mulholland, associate professor and Fulbright Scholar, School of Education, Richard Stockton College