NEIL ADRIAN E.

MAHISTRADO BEEd III TEP 110

CCS3 CRITICAL LITERACY

Setting Application
Answer the following questions:

1. What does critical literacy involve?

It involves the questioning and examination of ideas, and requires you to
synthesise, analyse, interpret, evaluate and respond to the texts you read or listen to.
Critical literacy involves making sense of the sociopolitical systems through
which we live our lives and questioning these systems. This means critical literacy work
needs to focus on social issues, including inequities of race, class, gender, or disability
and the ways in which we use language and other semiotic resources to shape our
understanding of these issues.
Critical literacy is about imagining thoughtful ways of thinking about
reconstructing and redesigning texts, images, and practices to convey different and
more socially just and equitable messages and ways of being that have real-life effects
and real-world impact” (Vasquez, 2017b, para. 19).
2. What are the benefits of critical literacy?
Critical literacy encourages readers to question, explore, or challenge the power
relationships that exist between authors and readers. It examines issues of power and
promotes reflection, transformative change, and action.
 understand the writer’s point of view
 identify the ‘ideal reader’ position
– i.e. how the writer wants us to view this information, and what reading
position s/he wants us to take up.
 Analyze the text so we can contest the position being presented.
It encourages conversations about why things happen.
According to Harste, “the best teachers” plan their curriculum around the conversations
they want their students to engage in, not concepts or direct instruction (as cited in
McDaniel, 2004, p.476).
 It emphasizes reading comprehension and the ability to critique texts
(Reidel & Draper, 2011).
 Can and should be incorporated into the elementary classroom (Soarse &
Wood, 2010; Ciardiello, 2004; Creighton, 1997).
  Helps students differentiate between facts and opinions (Westheimer &
Kahne, 1998).
 Helps students understand the personal and wider implications of a text
(Creighton, 1997).
 Students engage in higher level reading discussions (Soarse & Wood,
2010).
 Can be a fun and positive experience for students (Comber, 2001, p.2).
Allows teachers to utilize texts that alone may be viewed as disturbing or
sensitive.
According to Lewison, Leland, and Harste, avoiding those types of texts only “‘maintains
schools as unauthentic spaces that are part of a ‘Dick-and-Jane’ world,’ creating an
environment that is ‘disconnected from children’s everyday experiences and makes
classrooms appear to be places where one cannot engage in anything real or
important’” (as cited in McDaniels, 2004, p.473).
Using traditional text-based literacy approaches to prompt students to search for the
“correct” answers and interpretations of a text devalues student reactions and opinions,
according to Apol (as cited in McDaniels, 2004, p.473).
A first grade teacher, in a 2005 study by Leland, Harste, and Huber, who used critical
literacy throughout the school year observed at the end of the year, compared with
previous groups of students, her students had increased awareness of social issues,
got along better, had higher quality writing and drawing skills when responding to texts
(as cited in Stribling, 2008, p.35).
Texts influence young readers (McDaniels, 2004, p. 473), yet texts are biased in the
following ways, according to Sadker, Sadker, and Long (as cited in Boutte, 2002,
p.151), so teachers must prepare their students to identify these biases:
1. Linguistic bias: culturally or gender biased terms

2. Stereotyping

3. Invisibility: exclusion of races, etc.

4. Imbalance: present only one group of people

5. Unreality: glosses over or unrealistically portrays controversial issues

like slavery or colonization

6. Fragmentation: “presenting information as unique occurrences, rather

than integrating them within the text.”
3. How important is critical literacy to you as a student?
For me critical literacy is important because I can learn through it by engaging in
the literary activities in the school and other platforms in the internet. That provides
more understanding about it, like thinking critically and analyzing the point of the story.
Another thing also is critical literacy improves my ability to write and choose the words
that are relevant to my topic. Critical literacy is also a way to express myself having
confidence and able to stand up to myself.