Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students

Summary

Rooted in examples from their own and others' classrooms, the authors offer discipline-specific practices for implementing antiracist literature instruction in White-dominant schools. Each chapter explores a key dimension of antiracist literature teaching and learning, including designing literature-based units that emphasize racial literacy, selecting literature that highlights voices of color, analyzing Whiteness in canonical literature, examining texts through a critical race lens, managing challenges of race talk, and designing formative assessments for racial literacy and identity growth.

Book features: specific classroom scenarios and transcripts of race-related challenges that teachers will recognize to help situate suggested strategies; sample racial literacy objectives, questions, and assessments to guide unit instruction; a literature-based unit that addresses societal racism in A Raisin in the Sun; assignments for exploring Whiteness in the teaching of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; questions teachers can use to examine To Kill a Mockingbird through a critical race lens; techniques for managing difficult moments in whole group discussions; and exploratory essay assignments to build understanding of race-based concepts and racial identity development.