Nonfiction books can bring students into lives and events representing a widely neglected minority: individuals with disabilities. When these books are used in inclusive classrooms, students with disabilities benefit as they reflect on their own needs, challenges, strengths, and potential victories. Their peers better understand circumstances of these classmates’ lives and ponder ways of reaching out to them. Further understanding and compassion come with deeper thought and vicarious involvement. This chapter includes current trends, quality criteria, specific recommended books, and suggestions for deepening student involvement.

Newbery awards are conferred annually on books recognized as having made the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature; these books reach a wide audience, and their depictions of characters with disabilities can influence children's perceptions and attitudes toward individuals with disabilities. Eight Newbery Medal and Honor books chosen from 2010 to 2019 were identified as portraying 11 main or supporting characters with a disability. Six disabilities were represented: emotional disturbance, deafness, specific learning disability, speech/language impairment, orthopedic impairment, and traumatic brain injury. Applying the Rating Scale for Quality Characterizations of Individuals with Disabilities in Children’s Literature, we found most of the characterizations positive in personal portrayal, social interactions, and sibling relationships. Exemplary practices were also found in these books. We encourage school professionals to select books carefully to share with their students.

Implementing social media in college classrooms can substantially
enhance learning: facilitating teacher-student and student-peer communication; providing access to the professor- and student-posted information along with the resources of the internet, and promoting collaborative and responsive learning in many forms. But the excessive, unwise, or inconsiderate use of social media in the classroom can detract from the learning of the user and her classmates. A population of 447 undergraduate students enrolled in a college of fine arts and communications, completed an online survey created to explore their levels of social media use and their perceptions of how social media were contributing to and distracting from their education. Responses revealed that these students accessed their social media accounts an average of 32 times a day, yet a majority of them did not consider social media important to their formal education, and many found it to be distracting.

This qualitative study investigated factors that facilitate and hinder implementation of service learning for novice and veteran teachers. We conducted case studies of three novice teachers and three veteran teachers, using a cross-case analysis within and across groups. Confirming prior research, facilitating factors included teachers’ knowledge of service learning and availability of time for planning and enacting it. Some novel factors contributing to the literature included student characteristics and common core pressures. Findings indicated differing needs of novice and veteran teachers for learning about and implementing service learning. Study implications and limitations are addressed

Given the amount and variety of literature focused on education, teacher education, and special education, many special education teacher educators find it difficult to keep abreast of current and relevant contributions. To help teacher educators identify salient readings, four Teacher Education Division past presidents created a list of “must read” publications from the current literature. They were asked to select recent publications that have relevance to teacher education special education. In total, they selected one book, one chapter, one journal issue, and 10 journal articles. In this article, each reading is briefly summarized, along with a justification for its importance.