Building Connections Between Teacher Education Candidates and Urban Middle School Students Through Social Action

For faculty to be effective in supporting pre-service educators' learning, they must connect with Association of American College and University tenets. The purpose of this collaboration was to provide teacher candidates with a meaningful opportunity to interact with local public school students. College students exchanged letters, created and implemented technology-based mini-lessons, participated in close reading and critical thinking discussions, and dialogued with middle school students around issues presented in the book It's Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired, and Get Going (Clinton, 2015). The question it seeks to answer is, “Would the use of targeted reading, writing, technology-based discussion, and creation of a social justice project with public middle school student literacy leaders improve pre-service educators' commitment to their field and expand their learning?” This chapter explores a community literacy partnership.