Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement
Ratings1
Average rating4
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.