DEVELOP

CRITICAL
LITERACIES
FOSTER
ENGAGE
EMPATHY IN CREATIVELY WITH
STUDENTS LANGUAGE

FOSTER EMPATHY IN
STUDENTS
I believe that teaching students to be
good people is a central goal of English
Education. The ability to empathize with
others, to look at issues from different
perspectives and attempt to understand
another's reality, is fundamental to living
ethically (Fundamental Beliefs Chart).
Teaching literature is one of the best
ways to develop "an increased ability to
empathize or relate to others" (Alsup 182)
in young people. Fiction and creative
nonfiction allow the reader to get a
deeper look inside the minds of the
characters and to recognize that everyone
has different experiences. Using a variety
of texts, including both those with similar
and different realities than the students,
is especially helpful in fostering empathy
and compassion in adolescents. In
classroom discussion, students can take
on the personality of a character in the
novel, or they can approach the reading
of a text from a perspective different from
their own (Burke 187).
DEVELOP CRITICAL
LITERACIES
English Education also has the unique
ability to help students think critically
about the world around them. In an age
filled with nearly unlimited amounts of
information readily available on the
Internet, students need to learn to
question the knowledge that they are
being taught and to create their own
understandings and beliefs.
Teaching a variety of texts, critically
engaging with those texts, and
encouraging students to build their own
opinions about them, even when those
opinions contradict systems of power,
leads to the development of "the skills
needed t become critical citizens in a
multicultural democracy" (Morrell &
Duncan-Andrade 88). Critical Race
English Education, otherwise known as
CREE (Baker-Bell, Butler, & Johnson 123),
is one way to dismantle accepted
understandings in the classroom in favor
of a more critical approach.
ENGAGE CREATIVELY WITH
LANGUAGE
Additionally, I think it is important for
students to appreciate the power of
language and to harness that power to
express themselves. Language is our
primary mode of communication in
almost every field, so it is essential that
students be able to both interpret how
others use language and to use language
themselves.
The focus on exclusively English in the
English Language Arts causes some
tension for me. The world is filled with so
many beautiful languages that deserve to
be studied and appreciated as much as
English, but my students also need to
have a firm grasp of the language of
power.
The English language is full of "implied
meanings that serve larger purposes"
(Beach 11). I want my students to develop
a love for finding those purposes and
using them to their fullest potential. A
student who loves language most likely
also loves learning, allowing the student
to reach his or her fullest potential as
well.