Critical Literacy

Reading from a critical stance is a natural part of comprehension. It involves making connections between the text and the world, questioning the author and the text's purpose, and understanding how we are influenced by the text. In this clear, easy-to-use resource, the authors present a sound instructional framework that is based on the latest theory and research and brought to life through a variety of theme-based classroom lessons for the primary, intermediate, and middle school grades. For use with Grades 1-8.

During World War II, a young German girl's curiosity leads her to discover something far more terrible than the day-to-day hardships and privations that she and her neighbors have experienced.

Illustrates the differences and similarities between modernist and postmodernist theories of literacy, and suggests how the best elements of both can be fused to provide a more rigorous conception of literacy that will bring theoretical, ethical, political, and practical benefits. Some of the 14 essays are theoretical, other present case studies of literacy programs for adults and other applications. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"Provides a snapshot of the current state of critical information literacy as it is enacted and understood by academic librarians"--

Compelling and highly engaging, this text shows teachers at all levels how to do critical literacy in the classroom and provides models for practice that can be adapted to any context. Integrating social theory and classroom practice, it brings critical literacy to life as a socio-cultural orientation to the teaching of literacy that takes seriously the relationship between language and power and orients readers to the social effects of texts. Students and teachers are drawn into the key questions critical readers need to pose of texts: Whose interests are served, who benefits, who is disadvantaged; who is included and who is excluded? The practical activities help readers grasp complex issues. Extending the theoretical framework in Hilary Janks’ Literacy and Power with a rich range of completely new, up-to-date activities that translate theory into practice, Doing Critical Literacy is powerful, relevant, and useful for both pre- and in-service teacher education and for use in schools.

Critical literacy investigates how forms of knowledge, and the power they bring, are created in language and taken up by those who use texts. It asks how language might be put to different, more equitable uses, and how texts might be recreated in a way that would tell a different story. This book is a carefully documented and critically analysed example of the growing emphasis on critical literacy in syllabuses, government reports and the like. It: * bridges the gap between academics' theorizing and teachers' work * describes how secondary teachers have planned and implemented critical literacy curricula on a range of topics, from Shakespeare to the workplace * listens to teachers reflecting on their teaching and analyses classroom talk * extrapolates from present practice to a future critical literacy in a digitised, hypermedia world. Teachers and students of education, critical literacy advocates and theorists of literacy and schooling can learn much more from this book, which shows how critical literacy teachers, and their students are contributing to the ongoing reinvention of English education as critical literacy.

This book describes and documents an exciting new approach to educating literacy teachers. The authors show how to help teachers develop their own critical literacy, while also preparing them to accelerate the literacy learning of struggling readers. The text takes readers inside a literacy lab in a high-poverty urban elementary school, reveals the instructional approach in action, and provides many excellent examples of critically responsive teaching. Featuring a synthesis of several fields of theory and research, this book: illustrates teacher preparation and development as personal and social transformation - demonstrating that this process requires changing the ways teachers think about students, language, culture, literacy, learning, and themselves as educators; provides pedagogical tools - including the history of the innovative literacy lab, the context of the instructional interactions, and the transition from a university-based to a school-based project; and combines critical and accelerative literacy instruction, showing how teachers can accelerate the slowest developing readers in their classrooms and also build a sense of engagement for students with the social world.

Through stories from kindergarten to sixth grade classrooms where students and teachers have attempted to put a critical edge on their teaching, this book shows critical literacy in action across the curriculum. Readers see students and teachers together using critical literacy discourse to frame conversations in ways that engage students in examining the meaning of the texts they read and acting on local and global social issues that emerge. Drawing on multiple perspectives such as cross-curricular explorations, multimedia, and child-centered inquiry pedagogies, the text features a theoretical toolkit; demonstrations from across the content areas including art, music, and media literacy; integration of technology; and attention to how critical literacy can inform decisions about standards and assessment. Annotated booklists, examples of students’ work, Reflection Questions, Try This (practical classroom strategies), and Resource Boxes can be used to encourage and support engaging in critical literacy work in different areas of the curriculum.