Picture Books for Teaching Social Justice Issues in the Elementary Classroom

Research has demonstrated that critical literacy strategies are important to implement in classrooms as they empower students to challenge an author’s message and intent and help them actively reflect, question, transform, and take action. In addition, these strategies assist students in gaining a deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts related to power, inequality, and injustice. The project involved developing a website that will assist teachers in implementing social justice discussion in their elementary classrooms. The website houses critical literacy information revolving around social justice topics. It provides lesson plans, discussion questions, and text sets teachers can use to support discussions around topics of race, disabilities, and wealth inequalities. The goal of the project is to provide teachers with an easy to use resource that will aid them in holding crucial discussions around social justice topics in their elementary classrooms