Monday, March 23, 2015

Critical Literacy


To me critical literacy is the encouragement of readers to actively analyze texts. It is being an active participant in learning and education. Critical literacy allows for the texts to incorporate television, movies, web pages, music, etc. thus making critical literacy perhaps more appealing to modern day students. In Lynde Tan’s article “From Print to Critical Multimedia Literacy: One Teacher’s Foray Into New Literacies Practices,” she mentions that the reception of new types of literacies has been a sort of mixed bag. An even number of teachers either fight the new process with tooth and nail or they fully embrace the ideal. Tan also notes that it is important to distinguish the roles of the teacher and students. If students and teachers understand their roles within the classroom they will be able to better facilitate the lesson. All in all, Tan’s article was more informative rather than helping solidify what critical literacy means in the classroom; although, she does have apt advice when detailing specific strategies to incorporate the roles within the classroom.

2 comments:

  1. I like your definition of critical literacy. I think its important that we use different kinds of texts in order to maximize student engagement, because like you said technology appeals to modern day students.

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  2. Thanks for your posting. I like how, in this article, the author's point was that we should not just teach critical literacy on PRINTED TEXTS, but we should also teach critical literacy on multimedia texts. I think it's interesting that you talked about teachers and students' roles. I actually think that critical literacy is BEST in courses where teachers take on the roles of students, and students take on the role of teachers. Strict hierarchical roles don't work to foster critical literacy (in my opinion). Thanks again.

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