Education 3322 Children’s Literature Winter 2021

Using Children’s Literature to Explore Social Justice Issues

Educators can use children’s literature as a vehicle to teach for social justice. Picture books text
sets that encourage children to develop 1) critical thinking abilities, 2) an appreciation for
diverse cultures, 3) and a sense of fairness are central to all children’s development. Social
justice themed books around issues such as anti-bullying, immigration, poverty, gender equity
and disabilities may be explored through a classroom practice of inquiry which may address
children’s questions about these issues, and further inspire them to take agency. For this
assignment, randomly assigned groups will use social justice themed text sets of books, and
classroom teaching methods to show how teachers can enhance children’s understanding of
such issues.

The group will select a set of children’s books related to an issue of social justice. There should be
one book for each member of the group. Each person in the group will create a creative and
imaginative in-depth reader response to their own experience of reading your book. There are
three types of creative projects outlined below (story collections, creative play & critical digital
choice). These are alternatives to traditional book reports and literary analysis papers. The
narrative form and visual elements of story are the focus. Each student will present one book
using one of the creative project formats. The group presentations should include two
examples from each category of the creative projects.

*Ensure that the responses are interlinked as are the texts. So, this requires for you to have
discussions around what are the connections between the books? Please list in a table with
each title the interlinked connections with page and illustrations references.

Written / Digital Submission to Drop box

The group should also develop a written submission for the presentation.

 Describe your text set—title page / names of students/ table of contents- outlining what is
in the written assignment

 each person presents a book summary of their book (300 – 500 words)

 how it would be a good choice for classroom/ how the books are related- provide your
table from above here

 your pictures of your creations with the book it represents

 reflection on what you learned 500 words.

 a written lesson plan (short) each person creates with your creative objects

* Entire project including the written/ digital, and pictures taken of your paper creative pieces/
books used are to be submitted to the drop box on the course shell by Friday of the week of the

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Education 3322 Children’s Literature Winter 2021

presentation as one assignment under one person’s name (please coordinate with group) with
the name of the social justice text set included in the file.

Creative Project ideas

1. Story Collections:
• Create a jackdaw: A jackdaw is a bird that likes to collect things; hence, a jackdaw book
project is a collection of items that reflects aspects of a book. You gather items that
provide an artistic, tangible representation of your book. Objects can be used to make
literal connections and/or symbolic associations with the text. Include a description of each
item’s relevance.
• Create a story bag: Put together a bag that contains a variety of items that would be useful
or significant to a character in your novel. Include a description of each item’s relevance to
the book.

2. Creative Play: You must include a description of your choices and how relates to the book
 Create a board game based on your book
 Create a photo album, scrapbook or yearbook for a character showing a timeline
 Write a new ending for the book or the beginning of a sequel
 Compile a soundtrack & design the CD case for your book with an explanation of your song
choices and liner notes
 Cast the characters for a movie adaptation (must have summary of entire film) with explanations
for actor choices
 Sketch or use fabric to create character costumes for a movie adaptation in the form of a
catalogue/ explain all choices of design
 Take a social justice lens and investigate a current issue from the book – create a one-page
poster which expands on the narrative shared in the book
 Plan a character ABC book: Create sentences for a character based on the alphabet
that are key to the book
 Create the front page of a newspaper about the book that includes such things as classified
ads, obituaries, news items, sports articles, cartoons, etc.

3. Critical Digital Choice: Use one of the following digital tools to create a project/ provide a written
paragraph for your choice of the tool and why it loans itself to the critical choice made
 Design a fake Facebook page for a character (classtools.net/fb/home/page)
 Create boards for a character using Pinterest.com
 Create a gallery of boards for a book using Popplet.com
 Create an online poster using Glogster (edu.glogster.com)
 Create an interactive plot timeline using Dipity.com
 Create a comic or set of graphic panels using Toondoo.com or Comiclife.com
 Create a cartoon movie using Voki.com or Xtra Normal (edu.xtranormal.com)
 Create a book trailer using Animoto, Movie Maker
 Use Powtoon