Critical literacy: addressing broad issues

I first heard the term critical literacy in a workshop at the

International Reading Association conference. During this session we
worked in groups to define critical literacy as building thinking skills
that enable students to consider all viewpoints, respect differences,
and become more self-aware. North Carolina is changing, and those
changes are reflected in classrooms across the state, possibly even
yours. The largest groups of new immigrants are Hispanics from
Mexico and Hmong from Southeast Asia, not to mention the steady
influx of people who have relocated here from New York, New Jersey,
and the rest of the United States. The cultural, religious, and ethnic
diversity in North Carolinas schools grows every year, and with this
diversity comes opportunity.
Perhaps youre already using some activities to build critical
literacy in your classroom. If you read novels written from the point
of view of a child from another culture or set in another country,
youre providing an opportunity for your students to stand in the
shoes of another: that is critical literacy. If your students hear stories
about people who practice religions different than their own or if
they consider the differences between their lives and the lives of
people like them who lived through war, the Great Depression, or
the Civil Rights movement, that too is critical literacy. If you ask you
students to write from the point of view of someone much older than
they are, thats critical literacy. These activities all serve the same
purpose: they help the student to see the world through someone
elses eyes, to learn to understand other peoples circumstances and
perspectives and to empathize with them.

LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT WITH OTHER

CULTURES
What can we do to build critical literacy skills in our classroom?
Social justice curricula provide a good starting point for building

understanding. These lessons and approaches can be categorized as

follows:

Contributions approach: discrete cultural elements added to instruction

Additive approach: perspectives of other cultures added, but structure of curriculum does not change

Transformational approach: thoroughgoing change enables students to view the world from perspective of
diverse groups

Social action approach: students empowered to decide and act

Most schools make an effort to address diversity on a contributions

level. Including a Chanukah song in the winter holiday program and
assigning the Famous African American report in February add
discrete cultural elements to the curriculum. These elements are
separate and may feel like an add-on or an afterthought, something
more obligatory than celebratory.
The next level is the additive level. Selecting books from
different cultures is one way to add the perspectives of others: the
format does not change (you still assign a novel or provide a variety
of stories to read) but multiple experiences add depth to the
curriculum. Textbooks use this approach when they add a color callout box with the title "The Black Experience" or "A Womans
Perspective." These extras give some opportunity to learn how
different people experienced the same event, but they are still
separate from the mainstream story; students are not asked to
consider these perspectives as "normal," let alone to attempt to see
the event through them.
The contribution and additive levels are simply not enough to
building the thinking skills that enable students to consider all
viewpoints, respect differences, and become more self-aware. There
are, however, ways to approach diversity that build critical literacy
skill.