Teaching Social Justice Issues Using Informational Texts

In response to the increasing diverse population of the world and in our schools, it is necessary that teachers modify their instruction to prepare students to become accepting and respectful citizens in our society. For this self-study, I designed lessons to accommodate the new requirement of using informational texts in the classroom while simultaneously enriching my elementary students’ knowledge on social justice issues. I implemented a three-lesson language arts unit with a focus on identifying the main idea and details of informational text. Each informational text introduced one of the following social justice issues — family differences, world’s children, and houses of the world. Per lesson, I collected students’ work that assessed their understanding of identifying the main idea and details. I documented and reflected upon class discussions of each of the three social justice issues using video or audio recordings, and also photographed the texts that were used in instruction. Some teachers avoid incorporating social justice issues in their lesson plans due to their belief that younger students are not ready for such complex and meaningful discussion. However, I found that creating lesson plans that use informational texts with social justice themes was an effective way to accommodate the Common Core State Standards while enhancing students’ understanding of social justice issues