Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to learn from each other as equal members of the classroom community, produce meaningful learning experiences, to encourage students to question what they are learning, to explore concepts to their fullest potential, and to give every child opportunities to succeed.


"Over the past few years, I have seen teachers tell students how much they love them to find out that some of the teachers didn't know all of the students names," (Kohl, 2007, p.151). This was a really important quote. I think that it demonstrates something that happens in classrooms. Teachers don't take time to get to know all of their students. Throughout all of my education classes I have been taught how important this is to our students success. Students need to be appreciated. Students need to have a voice in the classroom. The classroom environment needs to be one that promotes students individuality, creativity, and strengths. Without getting to know your students we can not make this happen. In one of my graduate classes we watched a video about finding our students spark. Everyone has that one thing that they love. To make teaching more successful it is to our benefit to find the spark in each of our students. 


"Most schooling is organized, we found, for the plodding transmission of information through classroom recitation. Teachers talk and students listen. And the lower the track, we found, the more likely this to be true. In other words recitation, rather than authentic discussion, is the common mode of discourse in most classrooms," (Probst, 2007, p.46). I thought that this was a great insight to the talking that is done in classrooms. Mostly, I have found that teachers try to keep students from talking during the school day. We don't want them chatting with their classmates while they are supposed to be learning, but we do want them to share their questions, ideas, thoughts, connections, and anything else that makes the experience more real for them. As an educator I hope to include as much authentic discussion into my teaching as I can. 


"Literacy Coach: One who trains intensively by instruction, demonstration, and practice. A Literacy Coach is: a learner, a facilitator, and a supporter of classroom instruction," (Egawa, 2007, p.297). This chapter was very informative. I had no idea what a literacy coach was before reading the chapter. I haven't encountered a literacy coach since I started teaching. I now know that a literacy coach is not a substitute teacher, is not there to evaluate the performance of a teacher, doesn't write curriculum maps, or acts as a small group tutor.