Download Critical Literacy

CRITICAL
LITERACY
Donna McDonald
Jenna Smith
Demond Tidwell
WHAT IS CRITICAL LITERACY?
Critical Literacy is an instructional approach
that advocates the adoption of “critical”
perspectives towards text.
 It encourages readers to actively analyze texts
and offers strategies for uncovering underlying
messages.
 It is the ability to read in an active, reflective
manner in order to better understand power,
inequality, and injustice in human relationships.

PRINCIPLES FOR READING CRITICALLY
Help students learn to examine texts in light of
purpose, language, and intent.
 Use or develop habits of mind to guide students
in reading critically and thoughtfully.
 Show students how to question the author to
determine his or her viewpoint, possible bias, and
meaning.
 Use authentic assessments that accurately assess
critical thinking.
 Provide challenging, relevant texts; show
students how to approach them; and expect that
students can read them.

ACTIVITIES THAT FOSTER CRITICAL
THINKING AND READING
Students read a common text from various
points of view, especially one that is base on
true events.
 Help students learn to evaluate commercials or
advertisements and discuss how companies use
methods of persuasion to sell their products.
 Teach students to identify common propaganda
techniques when assessing visual and print
based text.

SIMILAR TEXTS FROM DIFFERENT POINTS
OF VIEW
PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES
EVALUATING COMMERCIALS AND
ADVERTISEMENTS


As a table, discuss what techniques the producers
used to make their product appealing? What
audience do you think they are trying to appeal
to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw5PqgPjIk4
FOUR RESOURCES MODEL
Code breaker refers to decoding
 Meaning maker to composing and comprehending
a written, visual, or spoken text’s message
 Text user to understanding and acting on the
functions of text structure, tone, and sequencing
of information.
 Text analyst to unpacking social, economic and
political assumptions of a text’s message in order
to redesign the message

TEACHING LITERACY FOR CRITICAL
AWARENESS
To motivate students to explore the assumptions
authors seem to have been operating under when
constructing their message.
 To facilitate students’ thinking about decisions
authors make (and why) with regard to word
choice, content (included as well as excluded) and
interests served
 To encourage multiple readings of the same text
from different perspectives.

APPROACHES TO TEACHING CRITICAL MEDIA
LITERACY
Approach
Perspective
Application
Viewers as
Consumers
When students learn
the detrimental effects
of most popular media,
they become wiser
consumers.
“Turn off the TV” weeklong initiative calls
attention to and sparks
discussion about the
amount of TV- and
commericals- young
people watch.
Teacher as
Liberating Guide
Students seek to
become the “ideal
viewer” in learning to
avoid the thoughtless
consumption of popular
media texts.
Critiques of media
texts downplay the
pleasures students
might derive from
them. Teaching
becomes a process of
demystification.
Approaches
Pleasures without
Parameters
Perspective
Application
All media texts are equally
good. Viewers become views
and voices from nowhere; the
slippery slope of relativism
prevails.
Concerns for students’
pleasures override all
else; teachers are careful
not to require students to
analyze and critique that
which they like or don’t
like.
Media as Source for Critical media literacy is not
Both Pleasure and
merely a cognitive
Learning
experience, nor is it solely a
pleasure-seeking experience
without challenges. In
maximizing its educational
value, it is important to
acknowledge 1) the expertise
students bring to the learning
environment, 2) the pleasures
they derive from popular
media texts, and 3) the
multiple readings students
produce from these texts.
Teachers provide
opportunities for students
to explore how popular
media texts position them
socially, culturally,
materially, and otherwise;
the goal is not to spoil
students’ pleasure but to
extend their
understanding.
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TEACHING
WHAT IS CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
TEACHING?

Defined as using the cultural characteristics,
experiences, and perspectives of ethnically
diverse students as conduits for teaching
students more effectively.
 It is based on the assumption that when
academic knowledge and skills are situated
within the lived experiences and frames of
reference of students, they are more personally
meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and
are learned more easily and thoroughly.
5 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CULTURALLY
RESPONSIVE TEACHING:
Developing a knowledge base about cultural
diversity
 Including ethnic and cultural diversity content in
the curriculum
 Demonstrating caring and building learning
communities
 Communicating with ethnically diverse students
 Responding to ethnic diversity in the delivery of
instruction

DEVELOPING A KNOWLEDGE BASE ABOUT
CULTURAL DIVERSITY



1. Understanding the cultural characteristics and
contributions of different ethnic groups.
2. Acquiring detailed factual information about
cultural particularities of specific ethnic group.
3. Acquiring the knowledge.
DESIGNING CULTURALLY RELEVANT
CURRICULA: THREE TYPES
formal plans for instruction approved by the
policy and governing bodies of educational
systems
 symbolic curriculum: include images, symbols,
icons, mottos, awards, celebrations, and other
artifacts that can be used to teach students
knowledge, skills, morals and values.
 societal curriculum: knowledge, ideas, and
impressions about ethnic groups that are
portrayed in the mass media.

DEMONSTRATING CULTURAL CARING AND
BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY
Teachers need to know how to use “cultural
scaffolding” in teaching students of color.
 Building culturally responsive learning
communities is a moral imperative, a social
responsibility, and a pedagogical necessity.
 Teachers genuinely believe in the intellectual
potential of their students.
 When a group succeeds or falters, so do its
individual members.

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS
Culture influences “what we talk about; how we
talk about it; what we see; attend to, or ignore;
how we think; and what we think about.”
 Communication is the “ground of meeting and
the foundation of community” among human
beings.
 The communicative styles of most ethnic groups
of color in the United States are more active,
participatory. Dialectic, and multimodal.

CULTURAL CONGRUITY IN CLASSROOM
INSTRUCTION




Culture is deeply embedded in any teaching;
therefore, teaching ethically diverse students has to
be multiculturalized.
Learning styles are complex, multidimensional, and
dynamic.
Pedagogical styles bridge connections of prior
knowledge with new knowledge.
Research indicates that culturally relevant examples
have positive effects on the academic achievement of
ethnically diverse students.
All humans are born different; therefore, there is
no one universal learning style and teacher
pedagogy should include different culturally
relevant mediums to increase teaching
effectiveness, retention, and academic success of
their students.