Drawing on Students' Worlds in the ELA Classroom Toward Critical Engagement and Deep Learning

"A fresh and stimulating perspective on drawing creatively from student perspectives and experiences. Here we have clarity, scholarship, and strong arguments for learning about human abilities by listening intently and recognizing the immense power of student experiences and feelings. Fascinating and persuasive exemplars throughout the volume."

--Shirley Brice Heath, Professor Emerita, Stanford University, USA

"What would it mean if teachers and students were to juxtapose the social practices of their everyday lives outside of school with those of the secondary English language arts classroom? How might they use such juxtapositions to author new 'worlds' in which caring, mutuality, curiosity, wonder, justice, and community were core. Building on classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students, Beach and Caraballo provide educators with classroom models, practices, a language, and a philosophy for crafting a new vision of the English language arts classroom.

--David Bloome, Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education, The Ohio State University, USA