Thematic Teaching of Women’s Rights Issues with Social Studies Trade Books

About the Book

This edited volume presents a distinctive approach for exploring pedagogical frameworks, methods, and strategies for teaching thematically about women’s rights using social studies trade books. After an introductory chapter by Jeremiah Clabough that provides a compelling rationale for thematic teaching of women’s rights issues and controversial topics, Natalie Keefer and Tori Flint situate the remaining chapters within the context of theory and research on women’s rights issues and include a discussion of implications and considerations for the role multiple literacies have in advancing women’s rights in North America and beyond. In subsequent chapters, a diverse assemblage of respected scholars within the field of social studies education introduce important women who advanced women’s human rights in the United States, paired with a notable trade book about their life, challenges, and achievements. Then, chapter authors describe student-centered pedagogies, with inquiry-based pedagogies aligned with the NCSS C3 Framework, that teachers can implement with upper elementary and middle school students to seamlessly integrate literacy and social studies for the purpose of thematically teaching about women’s rights.

Table of Contents:

List of Tables and Figures
Foreword
Introduction
Jeremiah Clabough
Chapter 1: Women’s Rights and Classroom Literature: Theory, Scholarship, and Practice 
Natalie Keefer and Tori K. Flint
Chapter 2: Thoroughly Modern Nellie Bly: Trailblazing Journalist, Feminist, and Activist
Caroline C. Sheffield
Chapter 3: “The People Must Know Before They Can Act”: Examining Ida B. Wells’ Legacy of Activism, Courage, and Resistance
Amy J. Samuels
Chapter 4: Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee: Chinese American Pioneer of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the Era of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Yali Zhao
Chapter 5: Mamie on the Mound: Using Interdisciplinary, Critical Literacy to Explore the Life and Impact of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson
Alyssa Whitford
Chapter 6: Protecting Our Mother: Rachel Carson and the American Environmental Movement
Sarah M. Denney
Chapter 7: Finding Our Way: Women’s Stories of Migration
Margit E. McGuire
Chapter 8: The Notorious R. B. G: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Her Fight for Equality
Rebecca Macon Bidw

About the Author :

Natalie Keefer is associate professor of social studies education, Graduate Coordinator, and Co-Director of the Louisiana Center for Research and Education on Languages and Literacies (LA CREoLL) at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.

Jeremiah Clabough is associate professor of social science education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Review :
A timely collection on teaching women’s history, this book is grounded in theory and research around inquiry, literacy, and women’s rights. It includes engaging suggestions for teaching about diverse women activists toward the goals of an equitable and just future. This book is a carnival of great ideas for practicing teachers and college faculty. The chapters celebrate poignant leaders—famous and forgotten. The engaging trade books, primary sources and strategies—age-appropriate and discipline-specific—will spark students' reading, writing, and thinking! Thematic Teaching of Women’s Rights Issues with Social Studies Trade Books uses an intersectional perspective and the theoretical lens of feminist solidarity to demonstrate the power of trade books to teach about women as activists, athletes, environmentalists, economists, and immigrants, who are bounded by their commitments to justice and civic action. The book brings to center stage women who have often been relegated to the sidebar of textbooks, if included at all, and provides clear, critical, actionable, engaging classroom activities to teach students about these powerful women.