Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

Functioning in a world beyond school requires more sophisticated understanding of both content knowledge and knowledge production across the disciplines (Lee & Spratley, 2010; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008), as well as how to access, interpret, and share information in print and online environments (Afflerbach & Cho, 2009; Coiro &…

In the current schooling climate, literary competence is increasingly viewed as students' ability to read fiction and nonfiction texts, and then articulate their comprehension of surface-text features (e.g., plot, character, setting, and conflict) through structured settings, such as standardized tests. As a way to argue against the privileging of…