RM Winter 2017 FINAL

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Reading Matters
Justice Matters
| 10| Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 |
confident in their individual ideas. One specific way teachers can
do this is to utilize literature Talking Circles (Hung, 2015). In a
literature Talking Circle, all students sit in a circle and designate
a talking stick or other object. When asking and responding to a
question, the stick moves around the circle to give each student
an opportunity to answer. The second time around, students share
new insights or reactions to their peers’ ideas from the first round.
This ensures that every child shares their ideas and practices
developing their voice (Baker, 2011; Thacker & Christen, 2007).
To promote a sense of citizenship and a desire to contribute to
decisions affecting their world, instruction should offer students
the opportunity to empathize with a variety of perspectives
(Marshall & Klein, 2009; Ponder & Lewis-Ferrell, 2009). When
students write responses to texts incorporating occasional role-
play by having students write from the perspective of someone
else or even write one piece from multiple perspectives can
help students see multiple perspectives that exist. For research
and journalism reports, students can do projects that are close
to home such as using photojournalism to report news about
their own classrooms, schools, or communities. Service learning
provides a great opportunity for students to learn while doing
that allows them to see themselves as having power to serve and
make change (Jones & Hébert, 2012; Marshall & Klein, 2009).
To promote the development of an equity lens, teacher can
show children how to be critical analyzers and self-reflective.
Teachers can help students critically analyze a picture book
from a perspective of equity. When introducing texts that
have a perspective that is new to students, KWL charts can
help students examine their biases before reading and what
they have learned after reading (Al-Hazza & Bucher, 2008).
Additionally, teachers can encourage students to analyze power
and difference in their reading. For example, when reading
a story about a middle-class American family, teachers can
ask questions which prompt students to analyze the lifestyle
presented in the book and compare it to their experiences
based on varying socio-economic status (Jones, 2012).
Conclusion
In a study of new teachers’ efforts to address social justice
in their classrooms, it was found that the greatest difficulties
for teachers were the lack of support and resources on this
subject and the vagueness of the materials that are available
(Philpott & Dagenais, 2011). It is our hope that the use of
the equity framework and the resources above can provide
assistance in combatting this teacher development obstacle
to equity. While it can certainly be difficult and sometimes
awkward to address issues of inequity, the literature suggests
that teachers need to be intentional, brave, and reflective.
Teachers have the power to plant seeds for new awareness and
action that is needed desperately in our country and world.
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