Throughout our week 9 reading, we came across many conditions of critical literacy learning. There are a number of circumstances that must be evident in order for critical literacy to truly occur. First, if economic access ceases to exist, so does critical literacy. “In today’s world, economic access and full citizenship depend crucially on math and science literacy” (Moses pg. 5). Thus, it is crucial for math and science literacy to exist. Without this, one can not acquire economic access.
Next, for critical literacy to materialize, we must give hope to our future. To do so, math literacy is necessary.“Math literacy and economic access are how we are going to give hope to the young generation” (Moses, pg. 15). With the lack of hope, what do our future educators, lawyers, doctors, secretaries, and construction workers have to look forward to? What is a society without hope?
In Reif’s reading, there is a discussion of the importance of critical thinking. She tells us of a classroom she was in in which there was “Definitely no critical thinking [in class], at least none these students dared to voice” (Reif, pg. 189). In too many classrooms today, students do not understand the significance of critical thinking. In fact, on my discussion post for this week, I wrote about how I lacked a writing process. A few of my peers responded by saying that maybe the education process had failed me. Had I experiences more critical thinking techniques, more learning rather than memorizing for an exam, I may be more critically literate than I am today. Do I have the education system to blame, my particular school, or only myself?
Furthermore, to form a truly critically literate student, we must teach them to think deeply. “If we want children to become adults who are articulate, literate and thoughtful citizens of he world, they must learn to think deeply and widely” (Reif, pg. 190). This characteristic clearly is vital for literacy. Without the deep thinking Reif discusses, education would just be “this is this” without any explanation as to why.
In today’s education, students often lack motivation. To find incentive, “kids need to find both personal connection and social significance in the units and texts we offer them” (Wilhelm & Smith, pg. 233). There is nothing worse than trying to teach a lesson in which the students have no connection to. It is extremely difficult to try to explain something to someone in which they have no background knowledge. Kids truly become more interested when they can relate to what is being taught. It is vital that educators strive to provide this connection.
Throughout this weeks reading, we were provided with ways to become educations of critical literacy. We are instructed by Allington, on page 275 that “Struggling readers needed high quality instruction all day long, in every class, as well as well crafted daily intervention in class”. Teaching a student to be critically literate is not easy, it requires time and dedication but in the end it will be worth it. We need to invest in these students and provide the instruction that is necessary for them to become successful. In the end, it may be a lot of time but it will be worth it. Our students are our future. Allington also explains that effective literacy teachers were good classroom managers and created a sense of community (Allington, pg. 278). We have learned in other classes in the special education program through New Paltz that classroom management is vital. Clearly, we are seeing that it provides a safe environment for students and a friendly atmosphere but not we have knowledge that it is beneficial in creating a critically literate classroom.
Weeks 9s reading also provided some pitfalls of critical literacy. One pitfall is that math skills(according to Moses, pg. 9) are necessary to become critically literacy. Unfortunately, “Math is expected to be boring” (Moses, pg. 9). Thus, many students do not find math interesting, or even like it and therefore lack necessary math skills. As Americans, we also share a stereotype that “It is okay to fail in math” (Moses, pg. 9). As a math teacher, I find this heart wrenching. Clearly, math is vital to achieve critical literacy but students and even many teachers do not see the importance and think that it is okay for a student to lack abilities in math.
Another downfall in the critical literacy importance is that Black oppression still exists. “It is of course a gross oversimplification to say that Black oppression exists because of technology...” (Moses, pg. 10). We have come a long way in trying to obtain racial equality but unfortunately people of color still face disadvantages. In fact, we learn from Moses that “blacks make up perhaps 15 percent of this country’s population, yet in 1995 they earned 1.8 percent of Ph.D.s in computer science, 2.1 percent of those in engineering, 1.5 percent in the physical sciences and .6 percent in mathematics”. I can try to give each student in my class an opportunity to become critically literate, but while Black oppression still exists, it may be difficult. We would need every educator to make a pledge to fight against oppression, to give every student equal possibilities.
“Student motivation is the primary challenge facing teachers” (Wilhelm & Smith, pg. 233). Throughout my education career, in many of my classes, we discuss the importance of motivating students and how difficult it may be. Students can not be truly motivated unless they can relate to the content being taught and without doing so, they will never obtain complete critical literacy. Unfortunately, “students are being forever confronted with what they do not know and cannot do” (Wilhelm & Smith, pg. 239). Accordingly, teachers lack motivational strategies and in doing so, students lack vital skills necessary to be literate and are reminded of how incapable they are. It is a brutal circle in which the students are continually the losers.
The writings this week were eye opening. There were many possibilities for literacy learning in the chapters we read. A major possibility is to place a severe emphasis on the need of math skills. As we read in Moses’ article, math is crucial to literacy and “Instead of weeding all but the best students out of advanced math, schools must commit to everyone gaining this literacy as they have committed to everyone have a reading-writing literacy” (Moses pg. 17). We need to focus as much on mathematics as we do on reading and writing. In the 21st century, it can not be more important to have math skills. Math is following us everywhere and will only continue to.
Reif shares a great idea of keeping journals and portfolios (pg. 195). This is a great possibility for creating a more critically literate person. I actually vowed (in this weeks discussion) to keep a journal of my thoughts to become a more critically literate. Only after one practices can they become better at writing. With the use of journals and portfolios, students can learn a great deal.
Next, in the reading by Allington, we receive the idea of using engaging texts and the urgency to have strategies for organizing thoughts (pg. 280). We also read that a necessary skill of a reader is to consider another perspective, other than that given in a particular reading (pg. 282). As educators, we must understand that we need to teach our students these skills, with these skills, we can teach students to be critically literate.
Take a look at this video from YouTube. Posted by Chris Ramey. After viewing this, you will surely see the connection between this video and the article we ready by Moses. It discusses the importance of mathematics and how it plays into our daily lives. Ramey states in the video: “My hope is that students will find math in a way that is meaningful to them”. The key part here is ‘meaningful to them’. We read in this weeks readings that in order for a student to become more motivated, lessons must be catered to the students so that they can connect to them.
I chose this video because my concentration is in math. This video truly shows how math is vital to reach critical literacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment