Table of Contents

Introduction—vii

Part 1:  Building Classroom Community

The Challenge of Classroom Discipline—3
Bob Peterson

Inner and Outer Worlds—5
Ann Truax

Heather's Moms Got Married—10
Mary Cowhey

Creating a Gay- and Lesbian-Friendly Classroom—13
Mary Cowhey

It's OK to Be Neither—15
Melissa Bollow Tempel

Peers, Power, and Privilege—19
The Social World of a 2nd-grade Classroom
Lauren G. Mednick

Helping Students Deal With Anger—24
Kelley Dawson Salas

Staying Past Wednesday—29
Kate Lyman

10 Ways to Move Beyond Bully Prevention—32
Lyn Mikel Brown

Bad Signs—35
Alfie Kohn

Tracking and the Project Method—40
Bob Peterson

Part 2:  Reading and Writing Toward a More Just World

Teaching for Social Justice—49
One Teacher's Journey
Bob Peterson

Writing for Change—57
Mark Hansen

Patterns and Punctuation—66
Elizabeth Schlessman

Confronting Child Labor—73
Katharine Johnson

Learning About the Unfair Grounds—86
Katie Baydo-Reed

Crossing Borders, Building Empathy—91
Bob Peterson

First Crossing—96
Pam Muñoz

The Trial: How One Teacher Explores Issues of Homelessness—104
Kate Lyman

Fairness First—109
Stephanie Walters

Aquí y Allá: Exploring Our Lives Through Poetry—Here and There—113
Elizabeth Schlessman

AIDS—"You Can Die From It"—121
Kate Lyman

Rethinking the U.S. Constitutional Convention—127
Bob Peterson

Writing Wrongs—139
Katharine Johnson

My Mom's Job is Important—155
Matt Witt

Part 3:  Minding Media

Six, Going on Sixteen—161
Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin

Beyond Pink and Blue—167
Robin Cooley

TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During War on Terror—171
2nd graders discover new trends since 9/11
Margot Pepper

Girls, Worms, and Body Image—176
Kate Lyman

Who Can Stay Here?—182
Confronting issues of documentation and citizenship in children's literature
Grace Cornell

"Save the Muslim Girl!"—188
Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall

Beyond the Medal—194
Chloe Myers-Hughes, Hank Bersani, Jr.

Izzit Capitalist Propaganda?—199
Julie Knutson

Part 4:  Math is More than Numbers

Teaching Math Across the Curriculum—205
A 5th grade teacher battles 'number numbness'
Bob Peterson

Percent as a Tool for Social Justice—211
Bob Peterson

"I Thought This U.S. Place Was Supposed to Be About Freedom"—214
Maura Varley Gutierrez

Who Do We Hear?—218
Jesse Auger

A Social Justice Data Fair—223
Questioning the World Through Math
Beth Alexander, Michelle Munk

Part 5:  Laboratory for Justice: Science Across the Curriculum

Exploring Our Urban Wilderness—231
Mark Hansen

Polar Bears on Mission Street—236
Rachel Cloues

Measuring Water with Justice—241
Bob Peterson

Learning from Worms—248
Rachel Cloues

Rats!—253
Students take action to defend their classroom pets
Kate Lyman

Part 6:  The Classroom, the School, the World

A Letter from a Black Mom to Her Son—261
Dyan Watson

The Power of Words—264
Top-down mandates masquerade as social justice reforms
Linda Christensen

A Librarian in Every School, Books in Every Home—274
A modest proposal
Bob Peterson

Reading First, Libraries Last—277
Rachel Cloues

Think Less Benchmarks—282
Amy Gutowski

Deporting Elena's Father—285
Melissa Bollow Tempel

Teaching the Whole Story—288
Kate Lyman

Testing Kindergarten—297
Young children produce data—lots of data
Kelly McMahon

My Talk with the Principal—300
Anthony E. Iannone

They Call this Data?—303
Amy Gutowski