KAndersen
Dec 3, 05 - 12:11 AM |
Critical Literacy in Classrooms: Opportunities for Teachers to be Leaders
Lewison, Mitzi; Flint, Amy Selly; Van Sluys, Katie. (2002) Taking on critical literacy: the journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts, 79, 5, 382-391.
One of the first articles I dug into in this course was the 2002 article by Lewison, Flint and Van Sluys. The article shares the perspectives of two teachers, a new educator, Nancy Stockwell, and a more veteran teacher, Kevin Gallagher. Both teachers tried using social awareness literature in the classroom in effort to help their students to “focus on ‘seeing everyday through new lenses’” (p 386), and to try looking at topics from different angles. In each classroom, the students enjoyed the change in texts and topics and were more engaged in discussing the issues they discovered in the books.
Both Nancy and Kevin are excellent mentors for their students. They are also mentors for other teachers, being examples of how any teacher, regardless of experience level, can help students look critically at the words around them. As a new teacher, I am constantly observing veteran teachers interact with students. I have noticed that the most “loved” teachers are those that lead by example and let their students become the big players in their own education.
Critical literacy can be a dangerous area of instruction where arguments and hurt feelings can occur if students and teachers are not prepared. Some students may over react or make dangerous assumptions based on their background knowledge and/or things they heard their parents say. Therefore, teachers need to be treading lightly on some topics and prepare in advance.
Preparing is in fact what teachers jobs are- preparing students for the real world. We need to help our students with not just decoding words but also to understand what the words mean and what the words were meant to accomplish. Words are powerful and teachers can be powerful leaders inside and outside the classroom.
Karen Andersen
November 2005
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