Whos Invited to Share?/Using Literacy to Teach for Equity and Social Justice

Multiculturalism . . . Diversity . . . Gender Equity. With all our talk about creating classrooms where every child can succeed, be heard, and form friendships, is such a vision realistic? Is it really possible to have multicultural, equitable classrooms?

Who's Invited to Share? is written for K-6 teachers who believe like Roxanne Henkin that we can achieve these goals. Her book is unique in its broad focus on children who may be outsiders for any number of reasons. It addresses issues of gender discrimination, true multicultural teaching, and teaching for social justice. This is also the first time that children from lesbian and gay families are included in the discussion of diversity.

Henkin responds to bell hooks' call to teach against the grain and focus on transformative pedagogy. Through inquiry-based learning and multiple invitations to our students, she maintains, we can help students learn to be inclusive. Talk is central to this process. Who's Invited to Share? highlights some of the issues involved in talk as well as those involved in the writing workshop and literature discussions. The book also includes many successful strategies and text-sets promoting multicultural themes.

The issue of outsiders in the classroom affects every school and ultimately our society. This book will help you address the problem head on in an effort to create safe places where all children's voices can be heard and no one is silenced.