Not often do we talk about critical literacy and its place in the classroom. Many new initiatives have begun to take place in education surrounding literacy and effective practices to better prepare our students for college or the workforce. After checking my state’s department of education website, I failed to find specific information about critical literacy. With limited knowledge on the topic, several definitions were explored. From these definitions, I will conclude with a usable definition of critical literacy for the classroom.
Gove and Still (2014) defines critical literacy as a “perspective toward literacy that is anchored in particular lines of thinking of what it means to be literate in our relationship with the earth and other …show more content…
Literacy is constantly changing and expanding. Students have access to a multitude of information from a variety of sources. They must know how decipher text and arrive at their own conclusion on the meaning behind the text. Being able to make connections with the text, adolescents can begin to take a critical stance towards the text. Viewing the text from a social perspective can also help them talk and understand the experiences of others and their chosen reactions. Adolescents can speculate how the author uses the text to share information or messages about the …show more content…
Davis, a retired school teacher and Ms. Washington, an elementary teacher. When I asked to interview them on an educational topic, they both were delighted and agreed to participate in the interview. The first question I asked was to define critical literacy and explain why it is important for students to possess critical literacy skills. Ms. Davis stated that critical literacy is “being able to go beyond reading and analyzing a text.” It entails taking a critical view of the text and “breaking the text up into parts and interpreting its meaning from an array of perspectives.” Ms. Washington wasn’t quite sure of how to define critical literacy. She shared that it seems to be important for students to use text as a resource to pull information for answering questions or solving problems. Both felt that literacy was extremely important to teach in the classroom. Now more than ever, students have access to large amounts of information from various sources. They need to know how to validate information as being true and factual, and share the different viewpoints and purpose of the author’s
Gove and Still (2014) defines critical literacy as a “perspective toward literacy that is anchored in particular lines of thinking of what it means to be literate in our relationship with the earth and other …show more content…
Literacy is constantly changing and expanding. Students have access to a multitude of information from a variety of sources. They must know how decipher text and arrive at their own conclusion on the meaning behind the text. Being able to make connections with the text, adolescents can begin to take a critical stance towards the text. Viewing the text from a social perspective can also help them talk and understand the experiences of others and their chosen reactions. Adolescents can speculate how the author uses the text to share information or messages about the …show more content…
Davis, a retired school teacher and Ms. Washington, an elementary teacher. When I asked to interview them on an educational topic, they both were delighted and agreed to participate in the interview. The first question I asked was to define critical literacy and explain why it is important for students to possess critical literacy skills. Ms. Davis stated that critical literacy is “being able to go beyond reading and analyzing a text.” It entails taking a critical view of the text and “breaking the text up into parts and interpreting its meaning from an array of perspectives.” Ms. Washington wasn’t quite sure of how to define critical literacy. She shared that it seems to be important for students to use text as a resource to pull information for answering questions or solving problems. Both felt that literacy was extremely important to teach in the classroom. Now more than ever, students have access to large amounts of information from various sources. They need to know how to validate information as being true and factual, and share the different viewpoints and purpose of the author’s