ERIC Number: EJ1017436
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Mar
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-8274
EISSN: N/A
Using "To Kill a Mockingbird" as a Conduit for Teaching about the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Maher, Steffany Comfort
English Journal, v102 n4 p45-52 Mar 2013
The author primarily teaches traditional high school English texts in a largely white, middle-class school, but the method she uses allows her to address important issues relevant to students. One unit she teaches is an investigation of the criminal justice system and a variety of issues related to the school-to-prison pipeline. A crucial text that she uses to teach this is "To Kill a Mockingbird." Her goal is to have students relate to issues inherent in the text on a deep and personal level. She wants these relatively privileged young people to become more socially, historically, and culturally aware. To fully explore the school-to-prison pipeline dilemma, the author divides the text into four relevant cultural studies issues, each of which speaks to this crisis in its own way: single parent homes, lynching and racial discrimination, the criminal justice system, and poverty. She also teaches the novel in conjunction with a range of print and visual texts, which add to the richness of the project.
Descriptors: Novels, Correctional Institutions, Institutionalized Persons, At Risk Students, High School Students, Social Problems, Criminal Law, Consciousness Raising, Cultural Relevance, Social Bias, Racial Bias, Minority Groups, Poverty, One Parent Family, Language Arts
National Council of Teachers of English. 1111 West Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. Tel: 877-369-6283; Tel: 217-328-3870; Web site: http://www.ncte.org/journals
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A