Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom
Teaching for Joy and Justice is the much-anticipated sequel to Linda Christensen’s bestselling Reading, Writing, and Rising Up. Christensen is recognized as one of the country’s finest teachers. Her latest book shows why. Through story upon story, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students’ lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical
Teaching for Joy and Justice is the much-anticipated sequel to Linda Christensen’s bestselling Reading, Writing, and Rising Up. Christensen is recognized as one of the country’s finest teachers. Her latest book shows why. Through story upon story, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students’ lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical literacy skills. Teaching for Joy and Justice reveals what happens when a teacher treats all students as intellectuals, instead of intellectually challenged. Part autobiography, part curriculum guide, part critique of today’s numbing standardized mandates, this book sings with hope — born of Christensen’s more than 30 years as a classroom teacher, language arts specialist, and teacher educator. Practical, inspirational, passionate: this is a must-have book for every language arts teacher, whether veteran or novice. In fact, Teaching for Joy and Justice is a must-have book for anyone who wants concrete examples of what it really means to teach for social justice.
A Cool Drink of Water This book changed my life. Linda Christensen is a goddess, a wonderful pioneer of progressive teaching. She shows you how teaching goes beyond standards and can get at the soul of your students. This book is everything I aspire to be as an English teacher. Everyday when I walk into my classromo, I hope to embody the spirit of this book and this wonderful woman. If you are a teacher that feels uninspired and burned out with lesson plans, bureaucracy, meetings, and grading, read this book to…
Great practical lessons. I will keep this book! Very practical. Tons of great lessons that I can use in my classrooom (the lessons are mostly beneficial for English/Lit or History teachers)
A “must-have” for teachers who want to make a difference I bought this book as a required text for a graduate-level English Education course I am taking this semester, and quickly realized that this is a fantastic text about teaching writing from a social justice perspective.Linda Christensen, a veteran English/Language Arts teacher (or, as she puts it in the introduction, “a social justice educator in a language arts classroom”), enthusiastically shares her classroom-tested ideas for making writing instruction a central part of the…