The Wonder of Critical Literacy

When a student reads literature, should they read to merely understand the text, or should they read a work of literature to be empowered and to examine their own life and to reflect and question what the author writes? Deborah Appleman says critical literacy, "focuses on issues of power and promotes reflection, transformation, and action" (1). Critical literacy wants students to ask questions and to be active in the reading process. Of course students need to understand the text, but I believe reading is so much more than that. Books can contain radical realizations that can change a person's life! I think some people do not find literature interesting because they focus on the "technical" aspects of literature, but literature is meant to engage readers. Critical literacy is also used to question the author and what they are writing. Readers focus on who is not represented in the text. What gender, socio-economic status, race, religion, etc. is ignored? How does the author's life and their experience bias the work of literature? How might the story look if the main character's gender or race is switched? Critical literacy promotes students to be engaged in the text and to actively question what is being read. Edward Behrman says, "Critical literacy espouses that education can foster social justice by allowing students to recognize how language is affected by and affects social relations" (480). I have some concerns with this statement. I am not saying that literature cannot change a person, but especially in a classroom, I think this aspect of critical literacy would be harder to implement. I do not think this aspect of critical literacy is as achievable as the other ideas, but it is an option.

As a future English teacher, I know that I will implement aspects of critical literacy throughout the literature students have to read. I want to push my students to critically think about what they are reading. If they think the author misrepresents a group of people, I want them to say that and recognize that all writing has biases because everyone is biased. I want students to question what they read. In the article "Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy," there is a section that mentions reading supplementary texts which allows students, "to confront social issues glossed over or avoided by traditional texts" (482). I think this is a wonderful idea. Students should also read young adult novels, "to stimulate discussions of societal conflicts and teen problems" (482). Students need to be able to relate to what they are reading. It is important for teachers to make current connections with recent books, popular music, movies, etc. so students can relate to what they are reading. I love the example in the article where a teacher compared the movie The Godfather with The Odyssey. I am a movie buff and I know I will implement movies into the literature that students read.

I am concerned that critical literacy is a long process and there is never enough time. I do not think it is possible for students to read a piece of literature, discuss and analyze it, read other texts that relate to problems in the text, and do a research project that promotes social action. There is no way all of this can be done with every single text that is scheduled to be read in a semester. I think it would be possible to choose one aspect of critical literacy to integrate in the text when it is appropriate. Overall, I like the idea of critical literacy and it has the power to greatly impact how students read and hopefully, encourage them to read on their own when they find a specific topic or genre that interests them. In the article "Critical Literacy" by Heather Coffey, she states that critical literacy skills, "enables people to interpret messages in the modern world through a critical lens and challenge the power relations within those messages. Teachers who facilitate the development of critical literacy encourage students to interrogate societal issues and institutions like family, poverty, education, equity, and equality in order to critique the structures that serve as norms as well as to demonstrate how these norms are not experienced by all members of society" (http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4437). These aspects of critical literacy are vital for students to explore and understand, and it can change their perspective of their role as readers. If properly demonstrated, I think critical literacy can show students that they have power in the meaning of texts because they can question the author and focus on problems that are presented in the text.