What Are the Features of a Critical Literacy Approach?

S1: CRITICAL LITERACY SKILLS

PERSONAL RESEARCH PROJECT

LI / Concepts / Activities
What is Critical Literacy / · Bias
· Purpose
· Tone
· Fact
· Opinion
· Sources of information / 1. Advertisement for Australian holiday. “what is told/what is not being told?”
http://pinterest.com/pin/494059021591162203/
2. Define “Critical” + Literature
3. Students brainstorm where information can be obtained (internet, newspaper, primary sources …)
Researching the topic
“Planning” / · KWL Grid.
· Prior Knowledge
· Key words
· Audience
· Intention (e.g. persuade/inform/entertain)
· Possible sources / Students explore current knowledge about a particular topic.
What do I know about x
What do I want to know about x
What did you learn about x
Refer Powerpoint “Planning”
Researching the topic
“Locating” / · Search Engines
· Effective Searching
· Narrowing your search
by the right words
· Skimming
· Scanning
· Extensive reading
· Intensive reading / Refer Powerpoint “Locating”
Discuss use of:
· Key words
· + - “ “
· Links and hyperlinks
Skimming, Scanning, Extensive, Intensive reading.
Researching the topic
“Gathering and Evaluating” / · Fact
· Opinion
· Tone
· Bias (who is the writer?)
· Accuracy / Fact or Opinion Game (Powerpoint)
Resource: Greenpeace Advert/Japanese News
Topic: Whaling.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/whaling
http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/japanese-whaling-why-the-west-is-in-the-wrong
1. Tone: Is the writer’s tone positive or negative towards the topic?
2. What words/images suggest this?
3. Fact –v- Opinion Activities
Critical Literacy Questions: Students make a flip card set.
“Gathering and Evaluating”
- The impact of words and images / · Word Choice
· Connotations
· Tone
· Bias / Refer Powerpoint ‘Powerful words” and Powerful images AND earlier Greenpeace/Whaling websites.
Discuss with students how the writer is able to present their attitude towards the topic by their choice of words/images.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/whaling
http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/japanese-whaling-why-the-west-is-in-the-wrong

TEACHER NOTES: CRITICAL LITERACY

What are the features of a critical literacy approach?

· We deconstruct the structures and features of texts. We ask questions of the text. We consider the structure and style of the text and ask: For what purpose has the text been constructed in this way?

· We no longer consider texts to be timeless, universal or unbiased. Texts are social constructs that reflect some of the ideas and beliefs held by some groups of people at the time of their creation. As we examine the underlying values and consider the ways in which we, as readers and viewers, are positioned to view the world, we are able to develop opposing interpretations.

· We explore alternative readings. We consider what has been included and what has been left out. Which aspects of life does the author value? If we were to view the text from different perspectives, would we value those aspects, too? Does the text present unequal positions of power?

· We focus on the beliefs and values of the composer. We consider the time and culture in which the text was created. In what ways might the views represented in the text be similar to or different from the views that we hold today? Are there psychological, social, cultural and/or political reasons for the differences?

· We work for social equity and change. As we begin to analyse the powerful ways in which visual, spoken, written, multimedia and performance texts work and we discover the ways in which our feelings, attitudes and values are manipulated by language, we begin to operate powerfully within our world. We are able to become agents of social change working towards the removal of inequalities and injustices.

STUDENT NOTES:

WHAT IS CRITICAL LITERACY?

“Do not believe everything you read!”

· Critical literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner by questioning and challenging the information in the texts.

· Critical Literacy means recognising fact, opinion, bias, tone and purpose in the writer’s words.

· By reading critically, you aim to understand how texts create messages about power, inequality, and injustice.

What kinds of critical questions can we ask of texts?
These questions can be asked of most spoken, written, visual, multimedia and performance texts.

Make Critical Literacy Question cards to keep in your Jotter. You can refer to the questions when researching.

Critical Literacy Questions
Textual purpose(s)
What is this text about? How do we know?
Who would be most likely to read this text and why?
What does the writer of the text want us to know?
Textual structures and features
What are the structures and features of the text?
What sort of genre does the text belong to?
What do the images suggest?
What do the words suggest?
What kind of language is used in the text? (Is it easy to understand? Technical? Angry?)
Presentation of characters
How are children, teenagers or young adults presented in this text?
How are adults presented in this text?
Why do you think the writer of the text presented the characters in a particular way?

Power and interest
Is this text written for a particular type of person?
Is the text fair? (consider fact and opinion)
What knowledge does the reader need to have in order to understand it?
Does the text reveal any bias?
How does the text depict age, gender and/or cultural groups?
Whose views are excluded in the text?
Who is allowed to speak? Who is quoted?
Why is the text written the way it is? (to persuade? Inform? Shock you?)

Whose view: whose reality?
What view of the world is the text presenting?
What kinds of social issues does the text reveal?
How would the text be different if it were told in another time, place or culture?

Being Critical of the Writer
What kind of person, and with what interests and values, wrote the text?
What view of the world and values does the composer of the text assume that the
reader/viewer holds? How do we know? (Look at word choice)
Produced by: Department of Education, Tasmania, School Education Division

Reading Skills :different kinds of reading - with exercise

· home

· site map

· contact

Here are four different kinds of reading.

· Skimming - running the eyes over quickly, to get the gist

· Scanning - looking for a particular piece of information

· Skimming

· Scanning

· Extensive

· Intensive

The correct answer is:Intensive

The correct answer is: Skimming for interest, Scanning for particular resort, Intensive for detail.

You might have had other answers, but you can see there are different ways in which we take