This dynamic book provides powerful ideas to guide pedagogy and a curriculum model for helping students connect with issues in their lives while meeting standards. Vivid portraits of K- 12 classrooms illustrate how teachers used a human rights framework to engage students in critical inquiry of relevant social issues, such as immigration rights, religious tolerance, racial equality, countering the effects of poverty, and respect for people with disabilities. The book shows how a group of teachers worked together to develop a critical content framework using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Chapters highlight lively classroom and community action projects.

A critical inquiry framework for K-12 teachers: lessons and resources from the Rights of the Child / JoBeth Allen -- Poverty, power, and action: a primary grades study of the right to health and well-being / Andrea Neher and Stephanie Smith -- It's not easy being flat: a 3rd grade study of the rights of students with disabilities / Tonia Paramore -- Latinos for involvement in family education: parents promoting educational goals that respect their values and culture / Stephen Lush and Lindsey Lush -- Protection from deportation and family separation: middle school students explore their rights as recent immigrants / Kelli Bivins -- "I need a new way of lyfe": high school English students inquire into the right to an adequate standard of living / Lois Alexancer -- Becoming thrice-born: 10th grade history students inquire into the rights to culture, identity, and freedom of thought /Paige Cole -- PageJam: high school student activists work for human rights / Lindy Crace -- Literacture as a springboard for critical inquiry: an annotated bibliography / Jay Thiel, Jen McCreight, and Dawan Coombs -- References.