Students are invited to confront and discuss issues of injustice and intolerance by reading a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts. During five to nine 45-minute sessions, students will: engage in critical discussions of shared texts and engage in independent reading of biographies to extend the literary experiences in read-aloud sessions; analyze and compare these shared texts in terms of genre, social and historical settings, conflicts, character development, and themes; explore the craft of the authors and artists, and discover the potential of the picture book for presenting complex ideas about the human experience; use intertextual links to build understanding as they read each new text in light of previous texts; confront injustices and inequities in the past and present as they discover the realities of social barriers then and now, and learn how literature can become a catalyst for social action: breaking barriers and building bridges; respond to shared texts and to independent reading experiences in group discussions and in Response Journals; and learn to formulate their own questions to generate critical study of literary texts. The instructional plan, lists of resources, student assessment/reflection activities, and a list of National Council of Teachers of English/International Reading Association (NCTE/IRA) Standards addressed in the lesson are included. A list of additional literature resources is attached. (PM)