Some Interesting Articles on Critical Literacy

These two articles offer up different methods for approaching critical literacy.

The first article, by Jackie Marsh, emphasises the need for popular culture that students are interested in to be brought into the classroom. Marsh uses the now outdated Pokemon phenomenon as an example, but there have been times when I've used examples from recent kids' movies and TV shows for a particular reason. I agree with Marsh's view that we should use popular culture within our lessons as a way of engaging students with the material; however in terms of critical literacy I wonder if students would be reluctant to criticise something that is important to them.

The second article, by Julie Martello discusses using drama as a critical literacy tool in early childhood. This outlines a definition of critical literacy and then demonstrates how drama may be the best avenue for developing these vital skills for younger students. I also like this idea as drama is always well-received by young students and yes, I agree it could be a simpler way of approaching critical literacy.

Whilst neither article is specifically related to ICT, our discussions surrounding critical literacy suggest that students will benefit more if they are released onto the web with critical literacy skills in place. I would suggest that an integrated approach is required, using a variety of online and offline texts to teach critical literacy skills, with those skills being on a continuum that continues to develop and adapt to new situations.

Critical Literacy for Early Readers

I've observed a number of early childhood classes, where critical literacy is being taught to the students implicitly in terms of what do good readers and writers do - i.e. text deconstruction strategies. I haven't, however, seen this done involving technologies, but I would argue that introducing critical literacy to younger students using the web is an easier task than using offline texts. The reason I suggest this is because students who have grown up being read to, will often take offline texts (including picture books, novels, films, audiobooks) as being definitive representations of what they are being told. Unless the parents are teaching their children to be critical before they enter school, they won't be looking at texts with a critical eye - and this is OK, I don't think students should have to be aware of critical literacy before entering school as in the pre-school stage an enjoyment of reading should be fostered.

The reason I say using the web to introduce critical literacy to younger students is because it is the web that offers so many more examples of falsified information because little on the web is verified. There is a perception that information that is published in books is more verified than what's on the web and that is true to a certain extent, but especially when dealing with fictional texts there are values and attitudes of the author that the reader needs to take into account. I imagine teaching critical literacy in secondary school would be easier to do using print texts, because the students should have a great enough baseline of knowledge and their own critical literacy skills have been developed during primary school.

To relate this back to early childhood teaching (which seems to have inadvertenly become a theme for me!), I think we still need to demonstrate the purpose of reading for enjoyment and interest, which is why I would suggest making the students (even young ones) aware that they are being critical. For instance, students could have a designated reading time where they can pick a book for enjoyment and just read it without the need for critique or analysis and then a specific critical literacy session (or "Smart Readers" session) could bring in online texts to develop these necessary critical literacy skills, e.g. the students might have read a picturebook on space, or they are interested in space, so the teacher finds an online article on alien life on other planets. This could be a text deconstruction activity, involving critical literacy skills and linked to a writing activity (which could be creative or factual). This kind of approach would work for me, with the eventual aim of having students subconsciously assessing texts as they read, with new skills continually being added to the critical literacy sessions.