Mandela told us that nothing is more powerful than education to change the world. I believe it. The first step to changing the world is seeing it how it is. Read on to explore how a critical literacy lens helps achieve that goal in the classroom, and download a free printable to get started with your students today.
What Critical Literacy Is Not
Before we dive deeper, some might see the word ‘literacy’ and assume this is about ‘traditional’ reading skills. It is definitely connected to how we read texts, but it is quite distinct from skills such as word recognition and decoding. You do not have to be a ‘good reader’ to be critically literate. Rather, you just need to be sensitive to the meaning of all you see and hear communicated to you.
What Is Critical Literacy?
Critical literacy is an approach that encourages students to analyse power relationships, attitudes, bias, discrimination, representation, justice, and values communicated through texts. (I use ‘texts’ in the broadest sense of the word to mean any form of communication such as print, audio, visual etc.)
Using a critical literacy lens, students will be able to talk meaningfully about issues, such as why they have so many or so few windows or mirrors.
By looking at language, concepts, and images, and uncovering the ideas behind them, students can start to uncover attitudes that may otherwise be invisible. For example, there has been much controversy over the teaching of the Western ‘classic’ To Kill a Mockingbird. Many teachers – such as this one – no longer feel it merits special status on literature curriculum because the ideas it conveys are inaccurate and outdated. This doesn’t mean we need to ban books; instead, we can encourage students to ask questions that help them form their own conclusions about the status, merit, and relative value of particular texts.
When Should I Introduce Critical Literacy?
Such critical awareness of texts may seem like something more suited to older school students, or even college-goers. However, there are plenty of brave teachers taking on this challenge with much younger children. Find inspiration in their success below.
Using Drama To Promote Critical Literacy
Read about a teacher of 7/8-year-olds pairing Phil Cummings’ book Boy with drama techniques to raise their critical awareness here. And just in case you thought you had to choose books focused on social justice issues – you don’t. This share is a perfect example of how you can promote critical literacy through any fiction or nonfiction. Great news for those of us who have less flexibility in our curriculum: this is a skill that can be applied to any text.
Critical Literacy With Even Younger Learners
In this next example, teachers share a plan for use with 6/7-year-olds. This illustration makes use of a story that does focus on social issues through the book The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. See their ideas on Reading Rockets here.
Critical Literacy With Teens
What I really appreciate about this next example is how unsure the teacher, Susan, was about introducing this concept to her teenage students. Many of us might feel nervous or reluctant to introduce critical literacy. This might be because we know our students best and sometimes it seems they really can’t see the relevance of what we consider so important. Susan shares her beginnings in this extract:
In an earlier social studies project, we had been discussing the concept of philanthropy, looking at Andrew Carnegie as an historical example. We studied the rise of big business and how some individuals, from very modest beginnings, had become incredibly rich amazingly fast. I had asked the students to write a reflective paragraph on whether or not they would contribute their great wealth (if they had been in this situation) to a philanthropic cause. About eighty percent of the students said that they would not! They would keep the money for themselves! It seemed that had much concern. This is the reason I decided that I should introduce critical literacy to the class.
Read the paper below to share Susan’s (ultimately constructive, but very real) experience, or click here to download it.
Critical Literacy And Fake News
In the UK, the National Literacy Trust compiled a report on how critical literacy is a powerful tool in teaching young people how to identify fake news. Read it below or download it here.
Critical Literacy Bookmarks
In thinking about how to keep a critical literacy approach at the front of my students’ minds, I turned to the old tried-and-tested method: bookmarks. I created a set and they were OK, but after a while students told me they’d like some variety. For sure, there is value in having them work with the same questions in different texts, but I saw an opportunity to extend their thinking with different slants. To that end, I created four more sets which students can choose from. Some bookmarks are more suited to particular types of texts, so having a selection provides alternatives for different situations, and – of course what I love – the students have choice.
As always, feel free to ‘steal’ this idea and create your own. Alternatively, you can save time and get the bookmarks above as a PDF? Enter your email below; I’ll also be able to alert you to future posts and freebies (only very occasionally as I’m pretty busy!) If you prefer an editable set, you can get that here.
Introducing critical literacy to your classroom does not need to be difficult or time-consuming. As you can see, including just a few questions can prompt students to interrogate a text more deeply and help them develop a critical literacy mindset.
I hope I’ve provided some ideas for why it’s worth getting started and how you can do so ASAP. I’d love to hear your own approaches so I invite you to comment below or continue the discussion in our Facebook group. Hope to see you there!
We’ve got this.
