Critical Literacy

   This article takes a close look at the outcome of “critically” reading different forms of literacy.  I agree with the idea of reading through multiple texts to come to a more thorough and exact interpretation of a subject.  Like when reading through and critiquing websites…check three resources before believing the information given.  “By experiencing different treatments of the same topic or event, students begin to recognize that text is not “true” in any absolute sense but a rendering as portrayed by an author.” (Behrman, p.493)  An author brings an opinion and background to whatever they writing, no matter how factual and anti-bias they are trying to be.  Along with the author’s point of view…we each have our own point of view and interpretation of text, because of our race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.  To help students realize this, the article suggests having the students write from different points of view from characters in a book or of people associated with a certain scenario, which is called “resistant reading.”  (Behrman, p.493)  I feel like this is such an effective activity to do with students of any age because it demonstrates their understanding of a text as well as interpreting it in a way to speak from another’s “voice.”  I love, love, love the idea of using reading and writing to create a social action project with the class.  What better way to show the importance and influence of reading and writing than to do something that affect the community and world around them.  Ironically, this article also addresses a topic that I am actually using as my final project idea…changing the character viewpoint in a fairytale, which could change the whole meaning and plot of a story. - “Teaching About Language, Power, and Text: A review of Classroom Practices that Support Critical Literacy”  

     In this article we get an inside look to the affects that Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 have on a fourth grade bilingual class.  Web 1.0 tools only allow students to interact with the web on a one dimensional basis; reading from the computer or writing and printing from the computer. Web 2.0 gives students the chance to interact with the internet, other people they know, others from around the world, and also have others react to their work or thoughts.  The 4^th grade class worked on their own comic books using a “Comic Creator,” but there were still limitations to this process, which included “characters, backgrounds,  speech, and thought bubbles that are prefabricated.” (Handsfield, Dean, Cielocha, p.43)  This may limit students to only create stories that include the characters that are represented in the program.  It does not let them use their imaginations to their full extent because they are using pieces of the program that are already created for them.  Another thing they worked with was individual blogs, in which other classmates and the teacher could respond to.  It is a lot more rewarding to write something and then get a thoughtful response to from your peers.  Although the blog is limited in appearance it is not limited in what you write or include in the blog.  The greatest part of this article was Recently, “Kristin followed up with her former students from the past three years to find out how many were participating in online networking spaces. To her surprise, almost 80% had their own online spaces, using Web 2.0 tools on their own outside of school.” (Handsfield, Dean, Cielocha, p.49)  This makes all the work and new literacies worth exploring with a class, if they are reading and writing on their own outside of school without being obligated.  The ultimate goal of an English teacher is to create lifelong readers and writers, and this method is proving to do just that.

- “Becoming Critical Consumers and Producers of Text: Teaching Literacy with Web 1.0 and Web 2.0”