Why Get Critical About Literacy?

There are many takes on critical literacy. I like this one:

Critical literacy is the ability to read text actively in a reflective way to develop a deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts; such as power, inequality and injustice in human relationships.

We serve our students well when we teach them to be critical consumers of the world around them. In order to do this, our classroom culture must support the acceptance of all ideas. Students must know they are safe to share their ideas. Our instruction needs to be neutral, presenting information and various viewpoints, not our opinions if we want to build true critical thinkers.

One way we can do this is by giving students access to text that presents more than one version of an event or story and then letting them talk about their thinking. We also need to make sure to give them plenty of…