This article discusses four exemplary activities to highlight imaginative approaches that encourage critical literacy: building a jackdaw, responding to text through multimodal journaling, engaging in dramatic roleplay, and practicing multi-genre writing. Each activity connects imaginative approaches to critical literacy as learners view the world with a critical and creative eye, challenging inequalities to make the world fairer and better for all. Teacher candidates practiced using these varied experiential approaches as they prepared to teach students in middle level classrooms. The first activity, building a jackdaw, is foundational to building an inquiry-based learning community that feels free to take risks. The second activity, Peace Meditation Journaling, involves multimodal writing using symbols, narrative, and art to foster critical literacy. The third activity, Body Sculpture Theatre (Boal, 1993), engages students in physical ways of responding to texts using their bodies to express meaning and deepen discussion. The final activity, text reformulation (Beers, 2023), engages students in rewriting the text in new genres and dramatizing the performance. All activities require listening, learning, and empathizing with each other, characters, and real-world contexts as students seek resolution in unified rather than divided ways. In a world filled with polarized perspectives, social unrest, and controversy, imagination opens doors to new ways of thinking and being, underscoring the capacity to hope in times of cynicism and hopelessness.