Critical Literacy as I see it is one's ability to go through a text and analyze the information. It goes beyond decoding words and synthax meanings. Through critical literacy, one is able to have productive discussions on the information they read. Readers who read critically can have strong dicussions that produces thoughts of higher level thinking and higher level questions.
I believe that this instructional style is particularly appealing because I believe this is what educators want their students doing. It connects easily with Blooms taxonomy, which allows higher level thinking. As an aspiring educator, I want my readers to be able to take thoughts and expand on them through either discussion or questioning. It shows a lot about a student when they begin to question what they are reading. They are going being just comprehension, which is a hard strategy to pick up.
However, I do have one question about implenting this in my class. My question is how can we successfully use this approach, when there are students out there who are still struggling with the decoding aspects of reading? Students cannot critically read when they are struggling with the beginning stages of reading.
Fellow bloggers, please give me some ideas of how this can be done. I really do think it can go a long ways.
I agree with you that students who are still struggling with basic reading skills cannot critically read because they have a difficult time comprehending what they read. I do think that the majority of middle schoolers will have the necessary skills to critically read though. When students cannot comprehend the text, I still think it is important for teachers to let them know that there are other ways the text can be presented and that every piece of literature is biased.
ReplyDeleteI agree Karla, students need the opportunity to challenge literature. Even students who struggle with reading.
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