Volume 28, No.4

Summer 2014

Annual Subscription: $24.95

Purchase Digital Copy: $4.95

To purchase individual paper copies of the magazine email us or call customer service at 1-800-669-4192

  • The Library That Target Built

    By Rachel Cloues

    When Target donated a library “makeover” to a San Francisco elementary school, the district’s anti-branding policy wasn’t enough to keep the students from being engulfed by corporate messaging.

  • La biblioteca que construyó Target

    By Rachel Cloues

    Cuando Target le donó a una escuela primaria en San Francisco la remodelación de su biblioteca, la política del distrito en contra de las marcas no fue suficiente para impedir que los estudiantes fueran bombardeados por mensajes corporativos.

  • Disarming the Nuclear Family

    Creating a classroom book that reflects the class

    By Willow McCormick

    Most children’s books—even those with animals as the protagonists—portray families with two heterosexual parents. A 2nd-grade teacher has her students create a book that represents their own more diverse families.

  • El desarme de la familia nuclear

    Un libro que refleje la realidad del salón de clases

    By Willow McCormick

    La mayoría de libros para niños -hasta los que usan animales como protagonistas- retratan a las familias con dos padres heterosexuales. Una maestra de 2do grado pide que sus estudiantes creen un libro que represente la diversidad de sus propias familias.

  • “May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor”

    Teaching class and collective action with The Hunger Games

    By Elizabeth Marshall, Matthew Rosati

    The Hunger Games becomes the basis for a role play that deepens students’ understanding of social class and its impact on alliances and resistance.

  • “Que las probabilidades estén siempre a su favor”

    Enseñar sobre las clases sociales y la acción colectiva a través de Los juegos del hambre (The Hunger Games)

    By Elizabeth Marshall, Matthew Rosati

    Los juegos del hambre se usa como base para una dramatización que profundiza el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre la clase social y cómo esta impacta las alianzas y la resistencia.

  • ’12 Years a Slave’: Breaking Silences About Slavery

    By Jeremy Stoddard

    A teacher educator puts the award-winning 12 Years a Slave in the context of other films used to teach about slavery.

  • Singing Up Our Ancestors

    By Linda Christensen

    Students learn some cultural history, “raise the bones” of a biographical poem, and then write their own.

  • Independence or Catastrophe?

    Teaching Palestine through multiple perspectives

    By Samia Shoman

    A social studies teacher uses conflicting narratives to engage students in studying the history of Palestine/Israel, focusing on the events of 1948.

  • Carbon Matters

    Middle school students get carbon cycle literate

    By Jana Dean

    A 6th-grade teacher uses the carbon cycle to help students understand climate change. Along the way, she deals with a parent who wants her to give equal time to “climate change is a myth.”

  • Our picks for books, videos, websites, and other social justice education resources 28.4

    By the editors of Rethinking Schools

    Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.

  • Affirmations

    Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom By Sylvia Libow Martinezand Gary Stager(Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, 2013) Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager’s Invent to Learn is […]

  • Targeting Books and Films

    By the editors of Rethinking Schools

    The privatization of public schools comes in many guises, as San Francisco teacher-librarian Rachel Cloues shows in her article in this issue, “The Library that Target Built.” We live in […]

  • David McLimans

    By Patrick J.B. Flynn

    Since 2003, David McLimans (1948-2014) contributed significant illustration art to these pages, most recently for the articles about Teach For America in Rethinking Schools’ spring 2014 issue (pp. 39 and […]