CRITICAL

LITERACY Donna McDonaldJenna 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 ApplicationViewers as Consumers

When students learn the detrimental effects of most popular media, they become wiser consumers.

“Turn off the TV” week-long 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 Perspective ApplicationPleasures without Parameters

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 Both Pleasure and Learning

Critical media literacy is not merely a cognitive 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.