Educating for Empathy
Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement
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Average rating4
Recipient of the 2019 NCTE David H. Russell Award! Educating for Empathy presents a compelling framework for thinking about the purpose and practice of literacy education in a politically polarized world. Mirra proposes a model of critical civic empathy that encourages secondary ELA teachers to consider how issues of power and inequity play out in the literacy classroom and how to envision literacy practices as a means of civic engagement. The book reviews core elements of ELA instruction—response to literature, classroom discussion, research, and digital literacy—and demonstrates how these activities can be adapted to foster critical thinking and empathetic perspectives among students. Chapters depict teachers and students engaging in this transformative learning, offer concrete strategies for the classroom, and pose questions to guide school communities in collaborative reflection. Book Features: Responds to our current, divisive political climate to explore what empathy really means and what it takes to teach for it. Explores an innovative concept of critical civic empathy that goes beyond simply being nice to others and emphasizes making positive changes in government and society. Provides an engaging synthesis of theory and practice that shows how foundational ELA activities can be used to support the development of empathy and civic engagement. Focuses on both personal empathy (seeing other points of view) and global empathy (understanding the power of position and privilege in social interactions). Includes real-world examples from a variety of schools and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
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11 released booksLanguage and Literacy
Language and Literacy is a 11-book series with 11 released primary works first released in 1981 with contributions by Judith A. Langer, Margaret J. Finders, and Renee Hobbs.
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I attended one of the author's sessions at NCTE and went out and immediately bought the book.
The good:
1. Equal appeal and applicability for classroom teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. Geared towards English educators, but social studies/civics people could learn something from it as well.
2. Mirra does a fantastic job of mixing research/theory/philosophy and her personal experiences as a teacher, debate coach, and researcher.
3. The chapter discussion questions are perfect for self-reflection and could serve as a solid center for PD/book club work.
4. Useful and practical appendices.
The not necessarily bad, but what prevents me from giving a 5-star rating:
1. Too short. The chapters feel like they should be their own books. In the YPAR chapter, Mirra acknowledges that there's too much to cover in one chapter and cites other relevant sources to extend coverage of the topic and I feel like that caveat could apply to three of the five chapters. I'd love to see an Extended Director's Edition of this book with like 100 pages more in the YPAR, debate, and connected learning chapters. Now I'm going to have to add everything she cites to my to-read folder in Paperpile.
I attended one of the author's sessions at NCTE and went out and immediately bought the book.
The good:
1. Equal appeal and applicability for classroom teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. Geared towards English educators, but social studies/civics people could learn something from it as well.
2. Mirra does a fantastic job of mixing research/theory/philosophy and her personal experiences as a teacher, debate coach, and researcher.
3. The chapter discussion questions are perfect for self-reflection and could serve as a solid center for PD/book club work.
4. Useful and practical appendices.
The not necessarily bad, but what prevents me from giving a 5-star rating:
1. Too short. The chapters feel like they should be their own books. In the YPAR chapter, Mirra acknowledges that there's too much to cover in one chapter and cites other relevant sources to extend coverage of the topic and I feel like that caveat could apply to three of the five chapters. I'd love to see an Extended Director's Edition of this book with like 100 pages more in the YPAR, debate, and connected learning chapters. Now I'm going to have to add everything she cites to my to-read folder in Paperpile.