Teaching Diversity in Rural Schools

Hazlett highlights the needs, desires, and circumstances of rural teens living in the upper Midwest by addressing how teaching Young Adult literature can benefit this population. Rural youth are often left out of public imagination, and Teaching Diversity in Rural Schools: Attaining Understanding, Tolerance, and Respect Through Young Adult Literature helps teachers see them as whole people who are desperate to see themselves represented. Testimony from a queer student highlights the need for this book, and teachers and researchers will benefit from Hazlett's extensive documentation of rural YA as well as teaching ideas.--Summer Melody Pennell, lecturer in secondary education, University of Vermont; author, Queering Critical Literacy and Numeracy for Social Justice: Navigating the Course The dearth of curriculum designed for teaching literacy in rural areas is affirmed in this book for English Language Arts educators who live and teach in what the author defines as the Upper Midwest. Hazlett calls on her long-term career as an English educator in rural South Dakota to provide a road map for those who also teach in states where they and their students are often isolated and neglected when searching for learning options. Addressing this lack, exacerbated particularly in addressing diversity, this book focuses on topics that teachers can transfer directly to the classroom. Using young adult literature as one vehicle, the content offers guidance for including the canon, defining rurality, analyzing misguided opinions and judgments, and reaching LGBTQ+ students, plus those with exceptionalities and those who are experiencing grief. The thesis that rural educators and their students constitute minority status figures prominently in the strategies and suggestions for designing appropriate classroom experiences. Peppered with the author's experiences, this book provides connections for those who have been ignored or sidelined in literacy education.--Judith A. Hayn, professor emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; co-author of Adolescent Realities: Engaging Students in SEL through Young Adult Literature and co-editor of Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher As a high school English teacher in the Midwestern states for over twenty years, a book on understanding and respecting diversity and minorities is long overdue. How can we learn and teach about differences and other lifestyles when there are not enough YAL books out there for even a small comparison for our students? Teaching Diversity in Rural Schools: Attaining Understanding, Tolerance, and Respect Through Young Adult Literature will aid teachers in YAL classrooms in their quest for authors and titles of a more diversified background to enable varied discussions.--Carla McMurry-Kozak, Ed.S., former high school English teacher; instructor, Teacher Residency and Education Division, University of South Dakota Teaching Diversity in Rural Schools speaks to teachers who desire practical suggestions for teaching diverse young adult literature. Furthermore, this book provides guidance to rural school teachers for addressing diversity, death, and LGBTQ issues through young adult literature. Dr. Hazlett's vast experience in teaching and writing about young adult literature is evident in her insightful applications of young adult literature for English Language Arts classrooms. Assisting rural students in reclaiming and appreciating their hometown values is also a central theme. Teachers will especially appreciate the resources in each chapter that include YAL titles, themes, discussion topics, and activities.--Ann Marie Smith, associate professor, English education, North American University, Houston, TX