Minnesota presentation

Creating Critical Classrooms:Lessons Learned

Jerome C. HarsteProfessor, Emeritus

Literacy, Culture & Language EducationIndiana University

Critical Literacy: Front & Center

*Here is why…

Critical Literacy: Front & Center

“Truth no longer exists, whatmatters these days….is whatstories you spin.”

Colin Lankshear

“We have to beware ofOrwellian speech –Bush’s Clean Air Act Is a license to pollute.His Healthy Forest Initiative is a license toLog national forests.”

“Frames trump facts.”George Lakoff

“The screen is overtaking the pageIn terms of the major vehicle ofcommunication.”

Gunter Kress

-- James Paul Gee

“Kids are learning moreabout what it means to beliterate outside of school than in school.”

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“Curricula, despite all of our multimodal understandings, arestill way to verbocentric.”

Marjorie Siegel

“In today’s environment if you don’thave critical literacy you are a sucker,you are going to end up in debt, youare going to end up on the streets, youare going to sign up with the first bankthat offers you a crummy mortgage, youare going to wind up with a big Visa carddebt, you are going to buy everything that is pushed your way.”

Alan Luke

Barbara Comber’s definition of ‘Critical Thinking’

• “…the use of language in powerful ways to get things done in the world, to enhance everyday life in schools and communities, and to question practices of privilege and injustice.”

“By analyzing visual information andteaching students to do the same, weprovide them with needed tools tointerrogate the very lifestyles they arebeing sold and to questions those billsof goods.”

“The goal of critical literacy is to create students who are agents of text rather than victims of text.”

“Texts have designs on you.”

Hilary Janks

“Inscribed Goats” Watercolor collage 12” x 16” 2010

Critical Literacy: Think Social Practices

“Everyday texts need to be aregular part of the Englishlanguage Arts classroom,not just for adolescents, butfor children from preschool on.”

Vivian Vasquez

“There are multiple literacies.What is important is what social practices are in place asthat determines which literacieswe value and which literacies wedon’t really value much.”

--Brian Street

“I see curriculum as a metaphor for the lives you wish to live and the people you want to be.”

“Live on a daily basis the curriculum you are advocating.”

Center for InquiryIndianapolis

Mount Saint Vincent UniversityHalifax, Nova Scotia

Master of Arts, Critical LiteracyToronto, Ontario Program

Critical Literacy: Curricular Resources

*Children’s Literature isa good place to start

Multicultural, International, &Social Issue Books

http://mypage.iu.edu/~harste

Critical Literacy: Making the Familiar Strange

*Enjoy, Dig Deeply, Talk Back

Peggy I want Sha-Na-Na’sLittle Red Riding Hood to play here via aClick.

Critical Literacy: Curricular Resources

*Making the Familiar Strange

e

Remix Fairly Tales

Pat Smith’s I Like, I Dislike Strategy

4 Columns

•I Like•I Dislike•Patterns•Problems or Puzzles

Linda Christensen’s Target-Perpetrator-Bystander-Ally Strategy

4 Columns

*Target*Perpetrator*Bystander*Ally

Thinking DeeplyAbout EverydayTexts*

*Who wrote this text?

•Why was this text written?

*Who is it written for?

*Whose voices are notincluded? Or what wasn’t said?

*How could it be?

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*An example of a curricularinvitation.

Saying & Thinking Post-It Note for:a)The music teacherb)The music studentc)The parent listeningand waiting for his kid to finish up.

“Curriculum should bewritten in pen, neverin pen.”

Expanding What Countsas Literacy

http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html

Using Art to Change the World

Have ABlast!!!

Billboards for the rich,Spray cans for the poor.

Jacob Lawrence

“The Glory of Expression”

Because I believe teacher can’t do for childrenwhat they haven’t done for themselves:

Invitation: Using Jacob Lawrence as yourmodel, create a piece of art that makes a statement about the direction you thinkliteracy and literacy education needs to be takiing.

A complete discussion ofCritical Literacy has toInclude:

*A Theory of Dominance*A Theory of Access*A Theory of Diversity*A Theory of Re-Design

Gallery Walk: Making It Public

Introductory frames of two PSAs,Created Collaboratively and Focused on Social Issues.

“Language Study” Broadly Defined

*What do various communicationsystems afford?

Cultural Models

Frames

Vectors

Colors

Ideal

Real

FocusHere& Nowand Now

New

.Ideal

Real

Gaze

Exaggeration

Conclusion