Tom Newkirk, lifetime educator and bestselling author of Minds Made for Stories, discusses eight powerful literacy practices—and the democratic values that connect them. Newkirk argues that “the house of literacy has a thousand doors, and our job is to help students find one that will let them in.” Yet for many students reading and writing is made unnecessarily difficult and uninviting. We need to tell a better story. Literacy’s Democratic Roots celebrates eight door-opening ideas that can help us make room for all students.