Critical literacy is the practice of reading critically to better understand power, inequality, social injustice and relationships in a text. Critical literacy practices will help young readers develop critical thinking skills. Students of all ages can practice thinking critically about the text they are presented with. We have seen throughout the duration of this summer course. Through our neighborhood literacy projects and discussion on digital literacy the exposure out students have to various forms of text. It is important that the adults in the world give students the practice thinking about the text they encounter in their daily lives. There is great danger in students not developing critical literacy skills. Our youth is exposed to media and popular culture constantly. Text everywhere are open to interpretation. Young people are easily persuaded to think and act the way popular culture wants them to. Maybe if children develop a lens for thinking about images, movies, articles they will begin to think more independently of what our culture wants them to think.
The literacy practice of asking questions about the text, it's message or agenda is useful for my younger students as well. I can imagine using some of these strategies when we are close reading a text. A small group guided reading group would be a comfortable setting for students to examine perspectives and identifying bias.
On a final note, in order for us to teach and practice critical literacy WE have to engage in critical literacy too. Just as thinking aloud about our comprehension of a text can help students, modeling critical literacy is a way for students to watch an expert analyze a text.
I strongly agree with the last point made about how we as educators need to engage with critical literacy as well through modeling. Perhaps depending on the age group and class content teachers can pick a piece of literacy to view critically that is most appropriate and go from there. I thought the activity that we did in class with the Disney princesses shows that students are never too young to assess literacy on a critical level. Children are being force fed a societal agenda through movies and TV shows and they don't even realize it. Getting them started early may actually be more beneficial because then they won't come into classes with preconceived notions already. They can be taught how to be critical from the beginning.
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