There are many effective strategies to use when “teaching tolerance” in a classroom through YA reading. Out of all the strategies listed on (www.tolerance.org), I believe ‘shared reading’, or a guided/reading aloud strategy coupled with group discussions, is most effective when teaching tolerance. When using the ‘shared reading’ strategy, one or more students will read certain sections of the novel aloud and pause at specific moments so the class can discuss what was just read. I see this strategy being extremely effective when teaching lessons on the novel All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. When reading All American Boys, it’s hard not to acknowledge the themes in the novel surrounding race, police brutality, and stereotyping. These themes unfortunately coincide all too well with today’s current events. I believe ‘shared reading’ is a perfect lesson strategy to use because it allows the students to not only understand the novel’s themes, but also connect those themes with events that have recently happened in the United States (ex. Trayvon Martin, Black men arrested at Starbucks, etc). While some students may be more aware of these issues in today’s society, other students may not be as knowledgeable or simply turn a blind eye. Reading aloud and following up the reading with group discussions allows the entire class to express their thoughts about the novel, and in turn bounce ideas off of each other while discussing the themes and how they may be relevant in today’s society.
In Sims-Bishop’s “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” books are described as windows into the world of the novel, “offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined”. Books are also described as glass doors that, “readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author”. In the case of All American Boys, the novel is unfortunately a mirror of real world events. The novels’ racially sensitive themes are all to pertinent in today’s culture. I believe it is important to not only teach students the themes in the novel, but to use those themes to give them a better understanding of the world around them.
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