Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom: A Guide for Teachers

Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom: A Guide for Teachers by Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, Teachers College Press, 2013, 153 pp., ISBN 978-0-8077-5408-5 (paperback)As we teach for social justice, we work toward a better and different future. Our work as educators, combined with efforts to teach for equity and change, is an essential step toward fighting injustice. We can remain resilient in our efforts to teach for social justice by finding hope in the possibility and potential for social change. We can find hope as we see our students learn to question the status quo and work to make change within their schools and communities. We can find hope as we learn to work together as teachers to creatively integrate social justice ideals into the curriculum and navigate constraints such as standardization and accountability. (p. 139)Words like the ones above foster hope for educators to teach in ways that will empower students to make change within their schools and communities. Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath wrote the quote above within the closing of Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom: A Guide for Teachers to recapture the essence of her text-one of empowerment for teacher educators, teachers, and the students they teach. This is a text that guides educators as they navigate the world of teaching social studies for social justice while embedding such efforts within the context of literacy and Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). A rich resource designed for educators (grades 3-8), this book helps teachers use a variety of sources, particularly primary and informational texts, to engage students in new ways of thinking critically about history while also meeting demands of ELA and the CCSS. As a teacher educator journeying back into a secondary classroom, I found this text most helpful in planning curriculum to meet such demands. I am certain that wherever readers are on their journey, they will use this text as a creative roadmap for their curriculum planning based on a social justice foundation.As I read this book, it was refreshing to find that the author never sways too far from the purpose of her text-to help educators teach for social justice. Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath opens the book addressing what it actually means to teach for social justice and paves the way into thinking more about how to integrate it into language arts and social studies. She clearly identifies the intended purpose of language arts taught with social studies to help students interrogate the world as a text, counter historical myths, think for themselves, and take action on their decisions through inquiry, dialogue, and activism (Wolk, 2003). She further highlights that through this conception, students are "agents of transformation in their classrooms, schools, and communities, raising questions of whose knowledge is in the curriculum, and examining foundations of history" (Au, 2009, p. 7). As an education resource, a framework consisting of five tenets-inspiring wonder, painting the picture, application, connecting the past to the present, and facilitating change-is presented, and each chapter of the book is devoted to one of these tenets, offering concrete strategies to translate into practice. Each chapter also provides practical examples that real teachers are integrating into their lessons and shows how these examples are connected to the CCSS.Chapter two of the text, Inspiring Wonder, eloquently unpacks ways to challenge students to be critical thinkers about materials presented to them and to ask questions that lead them to examine the world and scrutinize the information they process on a daily basis. …