“I suggest taking both approaches and combining them into one,” Price said. For instance, he said, a teacher using the Ernest Gaines book A Lesson Before Dying could zoom out to examine the general theme of community and its role and then zoom in to examine the system of injustice against young black males. The teacher would then examine the theme of community of a non-black author and zoom in once again to examine the cultural specifics within that text.
“What this ongoing process of zooming in and zooming out does is create conversations not only between the texts but also within each text; not only between the students but also within each student—thus giving us the chance to expand how we see ourselves, expand how we see we each other, and expand how we interact in and with the world.”