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.