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Meet Josh Hardin. He is a young Landmark School Literature teacher. 

Teaching literature to students who struggle with reading has its challenges. But Josh, using great strategies from Landmark’s Six Teaching Principles™, finds that he and his students not only love exploring literary elements, but more so, the exploration of worldviews.

Literature class is one of those places that can foster great conversations, open minds to different perspectives, and provide a framework from which to start difficult discussions. While a large portion of classic literature is homogeneously written by white men, many literature teachers are taking advantage of newer or previously peripheral authors to provide a wider lens that is more inclusive, diverse, and promotes equity.

Coming from a minority background, Josh knows what it is like to feel like your race or culture is unimportant. This is part of why he is passionate about updating the classic literature texts to be more inclusive.

Along with the Landmark School literature department, Josh has reassessed what books they teach to include authors from different genders, races, and cultures. They intentionally choose books that expose students to a variety of world views. They explore gender norms and roles, race relations, cultural disparities, stereotypes, and more.

Josh explains, “We want to give our students different perspectives.” They build background knowledge by doing exploratory projects before they start to read a novel or set of short stories. This helps set the scene and, in turn, creates more fruitful discussions.

They then unpack the literature with questions by asking, speaking, and thinking with empathy, and challenging themselves to apply the issues to their own lives and points of views. 

Josh emphasizes, “It is really important to give students exposure and ask good questions, but not tell them what to think. They have to decide that for themselves and respect one another’s thoughts while also sometimes challenging them.”

Reading a novel can take up to two months, says Josh. They take time to unpack and read the book together. Margin-noting is explicitly taught, along with many of Landmark’s tried-and-true reading strategies.

The books chosen always have to meet certain criteria, such as having won awards or having specific literary merit.

Having conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging can sometimes be difficult and emotional. Building a community of trust, respect, and openness is foundational. And that’s just what we are striving to do at Landmark School.