New from Rethinking Schools

Rethinking Schools is co-coordinator (along with Teaching for Change) of the Zinn Education Project and the majority of lessons on this website originate in Rethinking Schools publications. Launched in 1986, Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher working for equity and justice in public schools and the broader society.

The latest issue of Rethinking Schools magazine and new Rethinking Schools books are featured below.

Rethinking Schools Magazine

VOLUME 38, NO. 1 – Fall 2023

The fall issue of Rethinking Schools features three articles about Asian Americans and educational justice. One piece interrogates the recent Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in college admissions, another celebrates a middle school book club on Asian American history and literature, and the third is a poignant letter from a teacher to his Asian American students.

This issue also contains an interview with former Rethinking Schools editor, Melissa Bollow Tempel, recently fired from her teaching position after speaking out about her district’s decision to bar her 1st-grade students from singing the Dolly Parton/Miley Cyrus song “Rainbowland.” The editorial takes off from Tempel’s firing and makes the case for love, solidarity, and defiance as antidotes to the current attack on teachers.

Rethinking Schools editor Ursula Wolfe-Rocca teams with historian Mimi Eisen to argue for including the roots of the climate crisis in world and U.S. history curricula. Two articles detail the difficulties undocumented students, families, and teachers face. A high school teacher details a lesson that uncovers the radical legacy of Ida B. Wells. An 8th-grade teacher creates inclusive resources about human reproduction with his students. And so much more.

 

Rethinking Ethnic Studies

Edited by R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Miguel Zavala, Christine Sleeter, Wayne Au

As part of a growing nationwide movement to bring Ethnic Studies into K–12 classrooms, Rethinking Ethnic Studies brings together many of the leading teachers, activists, and scholars in this movement to offer examples of Ethnic Studies frameworks, classroom practices, and organizing at the school, district, and statewide levels.

The New Teacher Book

Finding purpose, Balance, and Hope During Your First Years in the Classroom

Edited by Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Bob Peterson, Moé Yonamine

This expanded third edition of The New Teacher Book grew out of Rethinking Schools workshops with early career teachers. It offers practical guidance on how to flourish in schools and classrooms and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War

Edited by Adam Sanchez

Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War is a collection of 10 classroom-tested lessons on one of the most transformative periods in U.S. history. These lessons encourage students to take a critical look at the popular narrative that centers Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator and ignores the resistance of abolitionists and enslaved people.

The collection aims to help students understand how ordinary citizens — with ideas that seem radical and idealistic — can challenge unjust laws, take action together, pressure politicians to act, and fundamentally change society.

More books from Rethinking Schools

Rethinking Schools offers a series of books providing practical examples of how to integrate social justice education into social studies, history, language arts, and mathematics. They are used widely by new as well as veteran teachers and in teacher education programs. Every Rethinking Schools book grows out of diverse schools and classrooms throughout the country.

BUTTON - More Books from Rethinking Schools