Using stories from her own life as a girl in a working–poor family and
illuminating narratives from students living in a high–poverty
neighborhood, Stephanie introduces readers to critical literacy and equips them
with the tools to begin tearing apart stereotypes and creating new
understandings about students, families, ourselves, and one another. This
remarkable book is at once powerful and poetic, provocative and informative.
—Lucy Calkins
Be prepared to have your heart examined, perhaps bruised, and ultimately
strengthened for the social action that is the reason Stephanie teaches and
writes—and the reason every educator must read this book.
—Jo Beth Allen, author of Sociocultural Playgrounds: Teacher Research in
the Writing Classroom
A must-read for teacher study groups preparing to tackle the impact of poverty
on elementary education.
—Barbara Comber, Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning
Cultures University of South Australia
Girls, Social Class, and Literacy is a compelling and provocative look at
the debilitating effects of classism on young girls, as well as a pragmatic and
powerful examination of the transformative effects of sensitive, smart teaching
on children whose lives and education are too often a reflection of their
economic status. Stephanie Jones shares the insights of a five-year study that
followed eight working-poor girls, offering you unusually sharp insight into
what it’s like to be underprivileged in America. With critical literacy
as her tool, Jones then helps you peel back your ideas of the poor—and of
your own students—to see them, and your role in their lives, more
clearly. Just as important, using reading and writing workshop as an
instructional framework, she describes how to validate and honor all
students’ realities while cultivating crucial critical literacy skills.
You’ll find out why giving children the option to find and talk openly
about disconnections with children’s literature (as well as connections)
and to write on topics of their choosing (even difficult ones) can have a
large, positive impact on students as they speak and write about their reality
without shame or fear of judgment.
As the gap between rich and poor widens in America, more and more children from
working-poor families enter schools. You can make a difference in their lives
by rethinking how you look at social class and extending to all children the
same opportunities to share their experiences through reading, speaking, and
writing. Read Girls, Social Class, and Literacy and ensure that in your
classroom the education every student receives is not proportionate to their
financial worth, but rather to their human worth.
