Critical literacy is a response to...

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to... Well, what exactly?
 
That is a seriously tough question to come up with only one anwer to. But maybe one answer isn't enough and shouldn't be enough. Because what is it that teachers really should be doing? It isn't what Paulo Freire considers "banking" knowledge into students. Teachers do have a gift, it is less about "filling the students with useless information and more about challenging them to see beyond the problems they have to relate to. Teachers should be guides and supports to their students. They should open up dialogues that students then continue with each other that allow them to work out the problems that they face both in the classroom academically and outside the classroom socially. 
 "Students are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge" (Freire, 1997). 
Freire goes on to say "Education as the practice of freedom-as opposed to education the practice of domination-denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people" (1997).  

Some of the ways I think the sentence should read are as follows:

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to problem solve.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to create a safe environment for students.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to help students define their own destinies.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to break the cycle of illiteracy.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to end the culture of power.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to open the dialogue between students and the world around them.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to allow teachers to reach at risk students.

Critical literacy is a response to injustice and the production of illiteracy in which students and teachers work together to help teachers be more open and understanding of the culture of their students.

I feel that based on the reading from this past week as well as throughout the course would allow me to complete that sentence in an infinite number of way. Now I need to focus on how I will follow through with them.

As I think about the reading from this past couple of weeks I find that I drawn to Lynn Astarita Gatto and her determination to make teaching about supporting the critical learning of her students. She plans an outline of how she wants her themetic units to go, but it is all based on how her students react, the questions they ask, the things they want to know, to do. It is just so amazing to me that other teachers are resistant to what she is doing. I think more educators and administrators should embace this. Hearing Gatto's ideas just makes me that much more enthusiastic to teach, to open the world to my students. It makes me want to find my own way to do what Gatto has done.

Literacy cannot be bought!

As I read Lynn Astarita Gatto's chapter Success Guaranteed Literacy Programs: I Don't Buy It! I absolutely was inspired by her. I admire the fact that she uses open source learning with her fourth grade class. I also love that she starts and ends the school day with 20 minutes of silent sustained reading for both her students and herself (2007).  
But these aren't the only things I took away. I found myself wishing that I knew more teachers like her, even just one to talk with and have as a guide or mentor. Her ideas and point of view are very similar to the way I would like to create my classroom. "My approach is to provide experiences and problems that engage students in expanding their existing literacy practices in order to construct and use new ones" (Gatto, 2007). I know that not every teacher, teachers the same way, but shouldn't we all want to give our students this kind of real life education? 
That leads me to wonder, why are we  giving up "over fifteen hours of instructional time each year"(Gatto, 2007)? That is basically two whole school days that teachers aren't in the classroom with their students because they have to attend mandated meetings to discuss student progress. Here we are pushing more "learning" and accountability with high stakes testing, and on top of that taking time away so that we can sit around and discuss whether it is working or not. The fact that Gatto questions this as well really presses the matter more for me. Gatto takes a lot of flack for her view on things. But when someone is a multi award winning teacher,whose students score as well if not better on the standardized tests as those of school and district norms (Gatto, 2007).  Honestly don't fix something that isn't broken. 
Gatto focuses her classroom activites on student questions that have arrisen throughout the twelve weeks the unit lasts. She points out that the literacy programs that districts buy don't provide that kind of motivation for students. They revolve around predetermined questions from the publishers, and guidelines that the publishers feel will teach the students what they need to know. In Gatto's classroom every student has a part in what happens with the unit. Her classroom is filled with their work, their journals are filled with their thoughts and ideas about the unit.
Her manner for dealing with the weekly spelling test interests me as well. "Does knowing how to spell all the words on a test once a week exemplify being a good speller? If a child consistently spells well throughout his/her daily writing, then I would consider that child a good speller" (Gatto, 2007). She doesn't use the weekly word lists, and though each student has a paperback-spelling book, each is different because the students will add words that they have struggled with and need to know.
Gatto's class is active and participates in critical and creative learning. The kind that will prepare them for higher education and positions in the job market.
Gatto points out that her students make it past the fourth-grade-drop-off problem, which Gee previously explains to be the time when students first begin to read to learn (2003). Because she knows that her method works she is going to continue to resist the trend of buying literacy.
Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, poses similar ideas as Gatto. He explains that there is a relationship between teachers and students that is comparable to banking. And this banking concept "anethetizes and inhibits creative power"(Freire, 1997). This mirrors how Gatto feels about participating in the perscribed literacy programs, and solidifies her feelings that literacy cannot be bought.

Ken Robinson talks about how creativity is being hindered in and by schools...I liked it and thought I would share it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Critical Learning....

 I was looking at various videos from TED and came across this one by Deb Roy who works at MIT. His talk is on charting the language development of his son over the course of five years. The work that went into collecting, analyzing and then presenting the data made me think about Moses and the need for students who are literate in mathematics that could create the code that went into developing the program that allowed Roy to present his research. When I was collecting graphic organizers and forms for my class I came across one that said "You have the right to...." it is a fill in form that the teacher presents as a contract to the students. It the original page explained it as a Right to Read contract. I think it should be used for the content areas, because every student has the right to a education that will allow them to successful in life. Moses compares the lack of mathematical literacy to the deep south in the 1960's. I had never looked at the issue quite that way before, but now, now I can't help but see it.
  As for writing, it really is commonsense to remember that all writers don't write the same. And the best way to learn to write and write well is to write. We need to write daily so that we truly grasp writing and all that it does for our ability to think and create. Writing allows us to open up our thinking and explore ideas more. Linda Rief writes that "understanding the process in which students engage in order to craft a piece of writing is as important as the final product" (Rief, 2007). Also Rief explains that students need to keep their writing in a special notebook.It gives students a sense of "security and comfort so they can write more freely and honestly"(Rief, 2007).
     Also Rief reminds us that writing doesn't just happen with words, much like Einstein, some students think in "visual images"(2007). We as educators need to give students the key to their voices, as writers and readers of writers. That key will allow them to think critically about their writing,and the things they are reading. Even more importantly it will allow for them to think critically about their learning.

It really is an interesting 19 minute presentation.
  Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com

This above all to they own self be true...

Where the confusion begins...

As I was going through week seven's reading I thought about the book and the movie He's Just Not That Into You, especially this scene which is the introduction to the story line.

I find myself questioning the role of gender identity in the classroom. While as educators we pat ourselves on the back for girls doing so well in both literacy testing, are we neglecting them because of gender stereotyping. Bronwyn T. Williams quotes Sanford's work "By quietly doing their work well, girls also may find that they do not receive as much of the teacher's time and consideration"(Sanford, 2005).  All too often we focus on boys because as the saying goes, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Boys act up and the teacher focuses on them, they behave and we praise them for it. Girls do as accepted seeking approval and maybe get a pat on the head.
I thought about my own literature choices and found that even as a young reader I was more interested in books similar to what the researchers have found. Even in my own writing, when I have created short stories. I always thought it was so that I could work out on paper the issues I was having. But I question now if it was really just my following a stereotyped role I didn't realize I had been taught.

As I have matured I have found more interest in books that take a new twist on the female and male protagonist. Recently the 9th grade class I worked with used Ellen Hopkins novels as both independent reading books and a class read-aloud book . Both the five boys in the class and the lone female were taken by the stories and the characters. The books lead to some interesting and at times uncomfortable discussions about the life of adolescents and what the class could relate to.

I want to question the concern for not wanting books that bring sexuality, and violence to the fore front of classroom discussions.  For years, even when I was in school myself one of the concerns was that if parents or teachers didn't talk about such things with students, they would talk about them with their friends. That will lead to misguided ideas, which will then only lead to greater issues for those adolescents.

I was among the thousands who were jumping up and down rejoicing Abby Wambach's goal for a number of reasons, first my own daughter plays soccer and I think it is great to be able to show her that females can achieve such heights in sports. Secondly, I am from Rochester and so is Abby. The comparison of Abby to Landon Donovan is both great and forehead slapping. Great because it shows that women are just as amazing as male athletes. And the forehead slap because even with amazing women like Abby and her team mates, the gender stereo typing with only be more intense. If the US team doesn't continue on, or even possibly win the World Cup will it be because they aren't as good as male athletes? If they do win will it be more of a pat on the head and a "Oh good job girls."

When I was working on my graduate program I had to do a presentation on gender stereo typing in the classroom. I put together a class activity for my professor and classmates to do illustrating the fact that we are more aware and educated about male figures in history, science and math. Also those males, are all white, with a handful of African American exceptions. All in all of the faces that I presented, the class knew about 5% of them. This activity made me more aware of the gap and that girls need to have more positive role models presented to them as well role models of minority groups.

I know that saying let boys and girls read whatever is going to get a book in their hands so that they are reading, I worry about continuing the stereotypes. I think about my daughter and son, do I want them feeling they have to fall in line with these standards? Will my trying to encourage them at home to be themselves be enough to counter the gender identification issues adolescents face?