Critical Texts in the Classroom
Critical Texts in the Classroom
Critical Book Clubs: Reimagining Literature Reading and Response
It is commonly believed by teachers, that having book clubs are not ideal for their classrooms because of things like time restraints, or that they don't help students prepare for standardized tests. This article provides examples of how well designed book clubs help students make critical and personal connections to readings, use textual evidence, and work within their community to promote social action. The article provides an example of Project ONEE, a book club implemented into the classroom that supports student engagement with critical and meaningful texts and then promoted student action in social justice areas.
The critical book club comprised of 4 parts:
- Text-Based Critique
- Multimodal Composing
- Collaborative Research
- Community Action Projects
Having book clubs offers students a variety of ways to engage meaningfully with texts. You can use book clubs to incorporate a variety of themes and lessons, including social justice. For example, after reading texts, you can even implement blog posts using multimodal composing, like this one!
Engaging African American Males in Reading
We often see studies showing the low performance or so called deficits of African American males in school. Research showed that one notable thing that was missing in these students schooling were curriculum text selections that would better suit and benefit African American male students. The texts that were being provided were not enabling, as stated in the article, "An enabling text
is one that moves beyond a sole cognitive focus—such as skill and strategy development—to
include a social, cultural, political, spiritual, or economic focus." As teachers, we need to focus more on providing our African American male students texts that shape positive life outcomes, and that represent African American males. Not only can reading these powerful texts engage students and prove better academic outcomes, but they can also improve life outcomes as well.
Students 4 Literacy Needs:
- Academic
- Cultural
- Emotional
- Social
This article also provides a list of suggested books to keep in your classroom, but did not include those for elementary aged students, the ones we will be teaching. It's important that we have books in our classroom, especially for these younger students that represent people like them, and represent them well. Here is a list of books I found that you might consider implementing in your classroom library.
For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action Chapter 9
Now how do these two articles relate to Chapter 9? By having students read critical texts, text that represent students like them, that make them want to take social action, we as teachers can become better advocates, and give our students the resources they need to become advocates for a better world and society. After having students engage in these critical texts, you can have critical conversations, in small groups and as a class, and then decide how the texts make you feel. These feelings can be turned into advocacy, and you and your students can start making plans to take action. This can be through offering information to the public, staging entertainment that addresses the social issues, working with the news, or contacting legislators. Since starting school at IUPUI, I had seen something like this implemented one time when doing field observations in a local IPS school. Students as young as second grade were asked to read books about kids like them in Flint, Michigan, where the water crisis continues to take place. Teachers had students read in small groups, similar to a book club, and then do research on the topic. Students in their small groups then decided how they would become advocates for the kids like them in Flint by coming up with different types of Public Service Announcements. I found that this was a good example from my personal experience showing that by implementing critical texts and discussions into our classroom, not only are we going to improve our students academics, but we are giving them the resources to advocate for a better world.
Questions:
- Have you ever seen a teacher use critical texts to lead into students advocating for social justice? If so, in what ways? If not, how might you do this with your field student?
- In what ways can we connect reading and advocacy for social justice in other classroom subject areas?
- Are there benefits of having books in the classroom that are representative of cultures other than those in your classroom? If so, why?
Citations:
Jocius, R., & Shealy, S. (2018). Critical Book
Clubs: Reimagining Literature Reading and
Response. The Reading Teacher, 71(6), 691-702.
Tatum, A. W. (2006). Engaging African
American males in reading. Educational
Leadership, 63(5), 44.
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a Better
World: Reading and Writing for Social Action.
Heinemann, 88 Post Road West, PO Box 5007,
Westport, CT 06881. (Chapter 9)
testing this out
ReplyDeleteTo answer the third question, I do believe there are several benefits of having books in the classroom that are representative of cultures other than those found in your classroom. One of the benefits can consist of students acknowledging the similarities rather than the differences between themselves and people of diverse cultures. For example, one of my best friends in elementary school was from Egypt. Even though from personal experience, I comprehended that we had similar personalities despite our cultural differences, if Nabil did not go to the same school as me, I would have thought children from Africa were completely unique from me because my school only incorporated multicultural literature during Black History Month. Furthermore, even before getting into systematic issues, educators can address stereotypes students have learned through presenting counternarratives with books deviating from their own culture. As mentioned previously, if one of my best friends weren't from Africa, I would have carried stereotypes because African children are typically presented on television as tribal people or starving. Moreover, since my educators never provided counternarratives regarding African culture, without Nabil, throughout my childhood, I would more than likely hold onto these stereotypes and perceive people from Africa merely as different. Therefore, through presenting counternarratives in the classrooms, educators can use books of cultures other than those found in the classroom to challenge stereotypes and exhibit the similarities between various cultures. By having books that are representative of cultures different from your classroom, an educator can develop their student's empathy for the societal issues people from various backgrounds face. This ideology is analogous to my beliefs centered around mental health. Despite perceiving society remaining to have a lack of empathy for individuals with mental health issues, such as people believing anxiety and depression is solely because one cannot handle their life problems as successfully as everyone else, which is analogous to people claiming minority academic achievement entirely due to their own "laziness", one does not have to live through the experiences themselves to exhibit empathy. Analogous to how one does not have to experience depression to emphasize with individuals going through depression, if your classroom is predominantly from the dominant white, middle-class culture, these students do not need to experience systematic racism and classism to emphasize with people of other cultures who do face these societal issues. Additionally, although Tatum (2006) concluded that must-read texts should, "Engage students in authentic discussions in which they can analyze their realities in the context of the curriculum and discuss strategies for overcoming academic and societal barriers" (p.3) in correlation with your question, students with systematic power can also discuss how to remove academic and societal barriers for marginalized groups when presented books unique from their own culture.
ReplyDelete(Here's the rest of my response. Blogpost said I exceeded the maximum amount of characters)
DeleteEven if you have a classroom filled with the most populated minority groups in America, such as African American and Latinx students, you can still incorporate books of other cultures to develop a critical consciousness in the broader scope of the American society and the world at large. For instance, through including text which revolves around how society's negative perception of people from the Middle East has escalated since 9/11, students can have discussions about the social injustices these individuals face. Moreover, a societal issue that is prevalent in America and throughout the world is child hunger. Through examining various texts, where children of diverse cultures struggle with empty stomachs, students can either make connections between individuals different for themselves or formulate discussions and plans to act against child hunger.
References
Tatum, A. W. (2006). Engaging African American males in reading. Educational Leadership, 63(5), 44.
Brandon, I agree with your response to the question. I think by having books that are representative of a variety of cultures you are providing students an opportunity to develop a critical consciousness more broadly across cultures and not just about certain topics. What are some specific ways you think you might incorporate this in your classroom?
DeleteBrandon, I agree that there are benefits of having books in the classroom that are representative of cultures other than those found in your classroom. I agree that this is a way for educators to help students address biases by posing counter narratives. While it is easy for educators to ignore all cultural differences in the classroom, I feel that it is even easier for educators to ignore the cultural differences that are outside of the classroom. We are being taught to be culturally sustaining and to connect to our students, but that’s not where we should stop. We have a duty to create a classroom that is informative of an array of cultures, not just those visible to us in that classroom. If students are not informed on multiple cultures outside of the classroom, it can be easy for those students to just assume stereotypes of those cultures are true. Therefore, it is crucial that we have text in the classroom that represents cultures not found in the classroom, as well as having text on cultures that are in the classroom. We must help our students explore all cultures and all walks of life so that students can be informed correctly and so that students are not just basing their beliefs on stereotypes.
DeleteIn response to your first question, I have seen critical texts used for book clubs here at Christian Park, however I didn’t really see a focus on the social justice discussion that could have taken place. As stated in Jocius & Shealy, “if students are to engage meaningfully with political, social, and cultural issues, book club discussions must be carefully planned and executed to support critical meaning-making practices” (p.692). Instead of focusing on meaning-making practices, the focus of the reading groups was to read the book and find different examples of literacy concepts. The book that students were reading was Hidden Figures, which is a nonfiction book that addresses sexism and racism. When I was observing this classroom, I had the opportunity to work with a few students reading this book and we were more focused on understanding things such as figurative language. While I think it is important to find literacy concepts such as figurative language in a critical text, I think there could have been more focus on the social justice issues at play. Currently in field I am reading the book Grace for President with my student. This book is about a black girl who wants to be class president. We are discussing the implications of sexism and racism in a political sense and my student can point out how sexism and racism are unfair to this student and that even though she is a girl of color, that doesn’t make her any less capable of being president. It is important to have these critical conversations because our students can discuss social justice issues and they can have an opinion that is important. So while I think that this teacher was taking steps to include critical texts in her classroom, I also think that she could have benefited from create book clubs that center around a central theme such as racism or sexism and she could have introduced concepts for standardized tests while also allowing her students to engage in critical discussions.
ReplyDeleteCitation:
Jocius, R., & Shealy, S. (2017). Critical Book Clubs: Reimagining Literature Reading and Response. The Reading Teacher, 71(6), 691–702.
Olivia, I would have to agree with you. I have noticed critical texts being used at Christian Park but I don't know that I saw a lot of social justice focuses. It would be really great to see that and for teachers to just use the texts as a start to understand/discussing the topics at hand. I think that it is awesome that you are working with your student on important issues like sexism and racism in a political sense. These are real things that the students will be seeing and dealing with.
DeleteOlivia, the example you gave is a perfect example of a text that could be used to help students grow with their cultural understanding and make connections in the classroom and the teachers having you focus solely on the language arts aspect of it, is a perfect example of where educators focus solely on preparing for standardized testing vs. teaching students to be culturally relevant people. The bad thing is, those educators say they are using critical text in the classroom but are they actually using it critically?
DeleteI agree, especially because I had a similar experience being in the same classroom as you. Although understanding figurative language is beneficial, the issues of sexism and racism exhibited substantially in Hidden Figures is a much more impactful concept that affects some of the students inside and outside of the classroom every day. Moreover, I believe this is the outcome when educators choose a text or topic with multicultural elements but neglect the critical consciousness opportunities. For instance, I think this ideology was promoted throughout my childhood during Black History Month. My educators would merely present an African American figure, such as George Washington Carver. However, because my educators did not critique the systematic barriers that African American figures had to overcome for their achievements, George Washington Carver often got reduced to an African American man who invented a lot of things using peanuts. Furthermore, for a novel such as Hidden Figures, where the main characters were significant contributors in the Space Race, the educator could have used this critical text towards exploring societal factors, which creates barriers towards women, people of color, and women of color from entering STEM fields. With engaging students in critical discussions through book clubs, students can take an inquiry approach in understanding the causes of systematic injustices, can challenge their misconceptions, connect the information to their personal experiences, exhibit their cultural expertise to provide a unique perspective, design plans to stand against societal barriers, and overall build upon their critical consciousness.
ReplyDeleteOlivia, I am glad to hear that you have seen critical texts being implemented into the classrooms in Christian Park. I think what you said about how the teacher could have extended her lesson to further include social justice is very important. Do you think that if the students had done a social justice project based on the book as well, it would have further developed their understanding of things like literacy concepts as well?
ReplyDeleteThere are many benefits to using books to teach and introduce different cultures. As we've talked about last semester, having books in the classroom is important but it is more important if there are books that students in your classroom can relate to and also they can learn about different cultures they may not have heard about. While reading this, it reminds me of 1000 Black Girl Books by Marley Dias. She has said in an interview how she was tired of reading about white boys and their dog. If students of color in your class don't see themselves in the selection of books in the classroom, then they will not be interested in reading. Relating to the text engages the student which can lead to higher participation of the student in their work and overall in the class.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree Jackie! I think it is important for students to see a variety of cultures represented through text in the classroom. In your previous experiences, have you ever seen a classroom library that you thought well represented a variety of cultures?
DeleteI absolutely love the Marley Dias quote and I find it hysterical because the first chapter book I read that I felt a real emotional connection to and realized the power books could hold was "Where the Red Fern Grows," a story about a white boy and his dog. And yet while I enjoyed the story and hold it dear to me, I hadn't seen myself in the story. I hadn't related to it. Thinking back now, most of the books we read in elementary didn't even have a girl as the protagonist. While that doesn't necessarily negate connecting with the characters and the story, it amazes me that half the school's population didn't see themselves in a book, and even that doesn't compare to students of color or other less-represented groups who rarely see themselves or their lives in a book.
DeleteI definitely agree with you Jackie. We have learned that there are a lot of benefits to having books of different cultures in your classroom. Not only can it introduce new things to students, but it can keep them wanting to read more. I feel like a lot of students say that they don't like reading or that they never read because of the fact that they have not found the books that interest them yet. By having a vast collection of books in your classroom I feel like our students will be more likely to find the books that keep their attention and make them want to read more.
DeleteI also agree with you Jackie, it provides so many benefits for students. I agree with your statement on making sure we have books with the main characters being of color, so students of color stay interested in reading. Students need to see themselves and other being represented in the books and material we use in our classrooms.
DeleteIlyssa, your section on chapter 9 made me think of two articles I read recently concerning global citizenship education. Both of these articles explain how important it is to involve our students in the kind of critical thinking about societies in today's world that will encourage them to take action.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your second questions, one of these articles gives specific examples of how teachers encourage this in their students -- one teacher focused on a tsunami and it's impact on a culture, which I saw as similar to the Flint water crisis example you mentioned. With an approach like this, the teacher can use the tsunami event in multiple ways. First, it allows students to work through the situation using a citizenship perspective. Second, it can be a literacy lesson based on multimodal literacy forms -- news stories, social media posts, etc. Third, it can be an introduction to a science lesson/unit on tsunamis. Basically, you can incorporate social justice education with other subjects by choosing a topic that has multiple different angles it can be approached from.
Just in case anyone wanted to read the articles, these were the two I was talking about in this response:
"The Schoolyard Gate: Schooling and Childhood in Global Perspective" by Anderson-Levitt, 2005.
"Teacher Initiated, Student-Centered Global Education in a K to 8 School" by O'Sullivan and Vetter, 2007.
Brandt, thanks for making that connection, I'm excited to look into those articles! I think that the example you provided is a great way to get students thinking about social justice from other perspectives, and as you said, there is a lot of learning that can be done on just one topic. With your tsunami example, you incorporated reading, social justice, current events, and science, showing how beneficial lessons like this can be.
DeleteTo your first question, I have never seen a teacher use critical text to help student advocate for a social injustice in elementary school. I have seen and been a part of it in middle and high school, though I do not particularly remember what social injustices we focused on. The articles talk about bringing in topics that not only interest the students and involve their community and cultures but has them advocate for a social injustice. I believe that teaching students to advocate for themselves and for others at a young age is important because it can teach the student to stand up to a bully or to call someone out who is being bias or oppressive.
ReplyDeleteI agree Whitney. From the lessons in your middle and high school, do you remember what kind of activities you did, or what subject area in school the lessons were based off of? How do you think those lessons benefited you and your class?
DeleteTo answer your question: Have you ever seen a teacher use critical texts to lead into students advocating for social justice? If so, in what ways? If not, how might you do this with your field student? I had never seen a teacher use a critical text at all until college. I actually didn't even know what a critical text was until blocks. Since I feel like throughout blocks I have a strong understanding of what a critical text is now, I think that I feel confident in reading them with students and having discussions about them. I would use a critical text in field with my student by picking a book that has an interesting story that keeps their attention, but is also teaching them lessons about social justice, culture, or other deeper topics that are out in the world. Then once we read the book if the student had any questions I would answer them; I would prepare for their questions by doing prior research on the topic so that I could feel ready for what they might ask. If they didn't have any questions then I would prepare an activity that allows us to dig deeper in discussion about the topic by using writing, illustrations, or a game. The main thing that I would want to do is to talk to my student. I feel like adults underestimate what kids understand and what knowledge they can bring to the table about these topics. I would try to make them feel comfortable with me so that they would know that I am a safe person to share their thoughts to.
ReplyDeleteRylee, I think that this is a really good way to incorporate critical text when working with our field student. And as you said, I think sometimes we forget the power of learning simply by having discussion. It sounds like you have been doing a great job implementing critical texts in your lessons! I'd love to hear more specifics about the lessons and books you are doing!
DeleteRylee I'm the same as you. I didn't even know what a critical text was until blocks. I don't remember a teacher ever trying to teach a book with any kind of social justice theme or talk about any of the -ism's. I'm glad we were being trained to use critical books because young students can have opinions and understand these topics, they just need the right resources given to them.
DeleteTo answer your question three, Are there benefits of having books in the classroom that are representative of cultures other than those in your classroom? The benefits of having books from other cultures than the ones in the classroom are, it provides students to learn and see pictures form those cultures. It allows students to compare their culture with the ones in the book and seeing if there are any similarities. It also allows students to learn more about the world and what is out there. An example would be for one student to fall in love with a culture they learn about from one of the books, then one day go to their the culture is from. Another benefit would be for students to see different students from those countries and seeing how their day to day lives are lived and compare to them to ours, this may open students eye to seeing how fortunate we are compared to other countries.
ReplyDeleteNancy, I agree with all your benefits for students when there are multiple cultures in books in the classroom for students to see. I like that you included that students could fall in love with that culture and they could possibly travel to see that culture first hand. Giving students chance to see more than just the one culture they may see all the time allows for so much learning to happen.
DeleteVery well written!! To answer question three Are there benefits of having books in the classroom that are representative of cultures other than those in your classroom? If so, why? I think there are multiple benefits to doing this. If you are going to incorporate some cultures that are within your classroom, you might as well branch out a little more and have books about cultures not seen in your classroom. I think this could help students get used to the idea of knowing there are a ton of cultures out there. Some they may never know about, others you can learn about right here, Just because you don't knoe someone within that culture does not mean you cannot learn about it.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well written blog post. I am an answering question 3. There are so may benefits to having books in the classroom that represent different cultures. This is allowing for students to have a chance to learn about different cultures and see things they may not see for multiple reasons. Allowing them to see pictures from different cultures gives them more of perspective of what is going on in places they don't get to see. Another benefit is that this is allowing for students to see the different cultures, but there could also be a student in your class who is from that culture so it is allowing them to see their culture and learn more about their own culture.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question 1, I did an activity with my focus student that was about the Underground Railroad. I allowed him room for his own thoughts and questions. A lot came up during this lesson about the unfair treatment of African American slaves and of those in the Black community today. By allowing the room for my student and I to freely discuss the topic of slavery, I feel like he was comfortable expressing some of his opinions, to which I advocated for his knowledge of issues such as slavery and the Underground Railroad. At the beginning of the lesson, my student stated that he was unaware of what the Underground Railroad was, and by the end of the lesson he was connecting our reading to systemic and historic injustices that Black people face in today's society.
ReplyDeleteI personally love this history story! I love that your student got to learn more about Black history. Allowing your student to discuss how they felt while learning about slaves and their experiences will let them feel comfortable to feel and express emotions about some real issues in life. I hope this experience allows him to continue to express how he feel about things that effect him because what he thinks and feels matters too.
DeleteQuestion 2: I think doing cross subject work with literacy is a really cool way of connecting content areas in the classroom. One way to do this wold be literacy and social studies. You could begin by reading a book about a social issue. Then, you can discuss the social issue historically and how it effects our society. You could even pull in some artistic content and have them create a brochure about the social issue and how they recommend fixing it.
ReplyDeleteThis will also teach them how to advocate for things they believe in and to make their voice heard.
With my field student, I could introduce a book that focuses on a social issue and introduce them to what social justice is and how to advocate for it even at a young age. I would use a picture book that displays a social issue like racism and see what they think is going on in the book and how they feel about it. I would guide their critical thinking and we would work on ways to correct the social issue within the book. I would have them firs write or describe verbally how they feel and allow them to discover within themselves a desire to advocate.
ReplyDeleteI believe we should all have books that don't fully represent the class we are teaching. It is always good to have an understanding of the world and the people we may see in the world. If we are stuck seeing the same faces our knowledge will not grow. It will also help students who may only see one race or culture in their home. They will know that not everyone is the same and that you are preparing them for whoever they may meet.
ReplyDelete