Session 12: Critical literacy
Critical literacy was the topic of this week's discussion. After viewing an example classroom and reading more about studies with critical literacy, I had a better understanding of what it is and how to present it to students at any academic level. As my classmate Dustin pointed out, the question raised by Vasquez (2004), “What can we do to change the story?”, provides us as educators with an opportunity to invite students' critical thinking into our classrooms. I demonstrate below my firm belief in the value of critical literacy training for students. I compare situations where I could have allowed students to step outside of the proscribed curriculum in the past to my plans for inviting creative interpretation and multiple perspectives in the future. This can be compatible with some other concepts we have learned this year, such as project-based learning, social interaction, and Funds of Knowledge.
Amanda's reflection on Apr. 13, 2014:
1. Before reading, my assumption was that critical literacy was primarily teaching students to think critically about texts. I thought that it might include literacy of other forms of information besides just books, which I found out was more like the definition of functional literacy. I knew that critical literacy meant asking tough questions and maybe taking a side on what is being read. What I learned is that it is important to consider multiple perspectives while you are teaching critical literacy. It's a great way to get students to think about issues like feminism, racism, class-ism without pushing your ideas on the students or influencing their beliefs. Just have the conversations which are difficult to have.
I really identified with how critical literacy was defined in McDaniel: taking a questioning stance and learning to work toward changing ones self and the world. It puts the importance on the conversations being had in the classroom and the resulting actions that students can take to shape their lives.
2. The Vasquez chapter stood out to me the most because of how student-centered the lessons were. I recognized some familiar scenarios from my own teaching: students asking questions that made me uncomfortable but willing to let them discuss or research to find out more; students deciding to take on a larger project and needing the approval of the teacher to continue; spending class time learning about what the students have seen or heard with their families and in their communities.
I was really impressed with how progressive Vasquez's explorations were: the students directed and designed many of the educational activities to meet their needs and answer their questions. The teacher was there to provide guidance, help the students communicate, and find outside sources that could enhance their explorations.The teacher was there to have discussions with the students but not to do the talking for them. She made a point of displaying the results of the class's learning and sending word out to the other classrooms and adults in the students' lives.
I thought about the time my students wanted to perform a play in front of the whole school. Rather than allowing them to take charge of a chosen lesson I made the executive decision to veto their suggestion. We explored the play in-class but the students were disappointed because I had limited their chance to make their learning social and meaningful, because it didn't fit into my lesson plans and I anticipated that I would end up doing a great deal of work to make their play production possible.
3. Some of the challenges, as listed in the McDaniel article, are how "messy, vibrant, and noisy" the engagement with interesting material might be. I would think that it would be difficult to find topics that all students could "buy in" to, difficult and time consuming to find materials that are appropriate and relevant. This planning and scavenging will put the burden on the teacher (and the responsibility if there is disapproval from the administration or community).Teachers must also consider the cultural viewpoints of the students and how they might differ from the teacher's own. There will surely be new words and new text types to challenge the readers.
Benefits will be student engagement, putting an emphasis on social action. Teachers will have the opportunity to reflect on their own beliefs and perspective. In the case of the Disney Princess scenario, we might help students start to de-program some of the harmful messages they receive from magazines, movies, and TV. At the very least we can talk about justice and inequality and come up with new vocabulary to express our beliefs.
In the future I really want to try an activity similar to the "Challenge the Book" activity from the video. I was interested to see how the students could begin to approach critical literacy and some of the big essential questions the teacher was posing to them. It seemed like some of the students had not really acknowledged the fact that they held two opposing views at the same time until she engaged them in discussion about the books they had read with their groups. When she asks them to "think about the basic meaning of the book, then think about the real meaning that you came up with as an individual reader" they were still sorting out which messages from the book were intended and which had to be brought out by the reader. It was extremely important that she ended the activity with a question that came down to: "Now when you were comparing the two very different meanings, what were you doing? How did you come to see it from two sides?" Because it was like an immediate metacognitive reflection. Students did something with (critical viewing of) a text and then immediately talked about how they found the controversy in the text. I can see that she is setting them up to have more mature conversations about the issues raised, by using texts at their academic level later on. Great way to get kids to feel comfortable bringing up controversy and taking perspectives.
Dustin's reflection:
1. What were your prior knowledge and thoughts about 'critical literacy' before this week's readings? What does critical literacy mean to you now after having read the articles and watching the video?
I think many of us have an intuitive idea of critical literacy, but, because it is so “radical”, we do not recognize it when we witness it or when we ourselves promulgate it. Clearly, simply swallowing and regurgitating a text is in no way indicative of growth or progress, especially intellectual growth, and only when one engages with a text does it begin to become meaningful—as noted in the video—and, therefore, a utilizable tools for knowledge creation/augmentation. Now, having perused the articles, we have a better understanding of how the institution is beginning to understand the process of childhood literacy development; something many of doubtless have first-hand experience with, whether through our own lives or being facilitators in the lives of others. Moreover, though the philosophy is organically easy to grasp, in its iridescence and ginormity it is highly difficult to be an effective facilitator, given that critical literacy is an approach for students rather than teachers. Vasquez posits a suitable question for forays into critical literacy that I think is especially powerful for young children, but is an important question for all ages, as long as it is sincerely analyzed, synthesized, interpreted, and evaluated: “What can we do to change the story?”
2. Among the three articles on critical literacy, which one stood out to you the most? Explain why.
It’s difficult to choose, but Vasquez’ report was particularly striking, primarily because she was dealing with issues not too dissimilar from discussions I find in my English/Literature/Humanities courses. I absolutely agree that attempting to once again dissect western education into recognizable compartments—separating ‘reading’ from ‘critical literacy’, for example—stunts student expansiveness and teacher philosophy (which, particularly for younger students, is meant to be holistic rather than homeopathic).
I have mentioned previously that portfolios were largely absent in my childhood education and I plan to use them to an appropriate extreme once I have a class of my own; the “audit path” struck me as a sort of an outline of a class-wide portfolio. Though it wasn’t always clear, it seems as if the progress for the class was largely mapped on the walls of the classroom, not to mention that the entire school year was spent furthering a singular—but unafraid to be tangential—vein of discourse all based upon a single, seemingly trivial question. Chinua Achebe once made a distinction between ‘beneficent’ and ‘malignant' fiction. The former being a story that opens one up to the possibilities and experiences of the world, the latter narrows their view and keeps their lines of research linear rather than expansive. This, I believe, applies beyond fiction and we, as educators, must be aware of how we not only present data and ideas to students but how we ourselves react to those ideas.
3. What are the challenges and benefits of enacting critical literacy in your (current or future) teaching context? How would you employ critical literacy pedagogy in your classroom/school/community?
The most salient challenges are being aware of individual student ability and interest. It is not simply that facilitating critical literacy is a huge stretch from traditional, teacher-centric classrooms, but that engaging students in their own ideas, emotions, beliefs, and prompting them to engage one another, is legitimately difficult. But, like any skill, it can be amplified, renovated, and improved with experience and practice.
As we have discussed several times already, allowing students to actively negotiate with their own ideologies and share it in a collaborative and critical way is the most effective way for anyone to authentic acquire new knowledge. Texts, films, current events, are only a convenient way to facilitate this engagement with one’s self and fellow classmates. Of course, similar processes can be carried out with student-created materials, which would make for an even more interesting portfolio.
Amanda's reply:
Hi, Dustin. Thanks for your post.
I agree that many of us who are teaching our students may already know about critical literacy or use it in our classrooms without recognizing it as such. Any content area or grade level can make use of media, current events, Funds of Knowledge, and student interest to organize an in-depth discussion or exploration. It's valuable to consider critical literacy in the context of our curriculum and materials, but also to be able to invite students to engage in the moment with something that comes up.
I like how you put it in your answer #3: we seek for our learners "engagement with one’s self and fellow classmates." If we understand the social nature of learning and language usage then critical literacy requires us to produce activities and environments that facilitate student engagement.