Brain Teaser

[Angelina Polius]

Here is another question for you. Take some time to think about it before you post your response.

1. (a) Based on what we have discussed so far in class, what does "critical literacy" mean to you? (5 marks)

(b) Choose a specific age group and concept from a subject area. Describe an activity to help students learn effectively with text. (Remember the text can take any form; video, documentary, web page, handout etc) . Your activity must:


[/li][li]include a strategy that you will use before, during and after instruction

[/li][li]provide students with an opportunity to read beyond the text. In other words, students must be engaged in a critical reading and or writing exercise. Explain briefly what the exercise entails

(15 marks)


Good luck

[millie]

I did not come prepared for this type of question. therefore i will revisit this question later.

[cyan]

Critical Literacy is the ability to actively and reflectively engage in the reading and writing

processes by questioning, analysing and evaluating an author's perspective, in order to

become change agents in society.

[indi]

Critical literacy refers to a developed skill that involves students looking beyond the text, to

examine multiple perspectives that authors from different cultural backgrounds may have

presented in order to bring about change.

[Angelina Polius]

Very good Cyan and Indi for your sharing your understanding of critical literacy. You are right in saying that it involves going beyond the text to examine multiple perspectives and engaging in text analysis.

Hope the share will share their thoughts with us. Well done for getting the ball rolling

[velveti]

what a brain teaser, I posted a comment yesterday but I guess it did not go through.

[velvet]

I perceive 'Critical literacy' as the ability to read texts and to relate to text non-passively,

interpret, analyze, process, and to question issues (or content areas) concerning our natural

and social world.



Age Group: 6 - 7 years

Activity: Differentiating between a loud sound and a soft sound

Before reading the students will close their eyes and listen. Then they will describe and tell what

they have heard. Then students will answer the following questions on a class basis:

1. What is a sound?

2. Give an example of a sound?

3. What or who makes a sound/s?

During reading:

Students will view a video depicting a short story of a typical day in the community. The video will

have narration and pictures. The video will depict an ambulance racing to the hospital, then

there will be dogs chasing after the ambulance barking loudly. There will be another scenario of

a mother trying to calm down a crying baby by singing and talking soothingly to him, while the

rain is pouring heavily, a clock ticking slowly, and a little boy blowing a whistle next door.

During: The students will predict what sounds may happen and tell if it is a loud sound or a soft

sound and try to give examples of other sounds of the same nature. After, students will watch

the video again and mimic each sound that they hear. Then they will view a text book with a

similar story and pinpoints all the objects, things or people who generates a sound. Then

students will complete the Frayer model in groups, to come up with a definition to a sound,

examples of sounds characteristics of loud or soft sounds and so on. Each

group will share their findings with the rest of the class, then on an individual basis they will

draw and write the name of things that generate loud sounds and those which make soft sounds.

[velvet]

velvet is claudine

[sben]

Well, I believe that critical literacy according to cyana and indi is students ability to go beyond the texts that are provided . They were able to analyse the texts, evalute the texts, and look at the texts in a different perceptives from the different dimension the writer's presented the information. Again, critical literacy students will interact with different types of multimodal texts such as picture, sound, signs and symbols in oder to gain more meaning.

[tasha]

Firstlet me agree with my fellow classmates on their definitions of critical literacy.

I would like to add to what they said by sharing a definition I got while researching:

Critical literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to better understand power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships (Coffey, 2010).

[kami]

I view critical literacy as a teaching approach. It promotes creative teaching and encourages critical thinking and analysis of a text. Critical literacy advocates that in reading a text more than one perspective exists.

[jean]

Critical Literacy refers to the ability to be actively involved in the reading process and look beyond the text by questioning, analyzing and looking at various perspectives, rather than simply accepting what is presented.

[Angelina Polius]

Well done all of you. Your definitions of critical literacy seem to have common threads - reading beyond the text, engaging in text analysis, questioning the author, looking at issues from multiple perspectives etc. You have a good understanding of what critical literacy means.

As it relates to velvet's activity, while the activity is an interesting one I do not think that the frayer model is appropriate in this case> What definition will they write for "sound", what will the characteristics be, non examples? Perhaps what you can do is to get students to prepare a venn diagram that compares/contrasts loud and soft sound. I am also a bit concerned about the concept to be taught, why "sounds" and not another concept that requires students to learn the content or read about from text?

I would like the others to share their thoughts on Velvet's activity

[millie]

Critical literacy is the ability for one to be actively engaged in the text by going beyond to text in order to gain different perspectives. It also involves anayzing and evaluating information in order to make informed decisions.

[sachipooks]

Critical literacy allows students to be active and challenging participants as they respond to texts of all types. It provides students with a lens through which to look critically at written, visual, spoken, multimedia, and performance texts, to challenge the intent and content, and to get the most enjoyment and deepest meaning out of text.