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Rereading chapter 7, I remembered what the author said about perspective, power, and positioning. It's all about the frame as well as the perspective. Who is in the center and who is in the margins? That is one of the main components of critical literacy. Additionally, chapter 10 provided real life examples on how to be critical in reading workshops. Children in every classroom all over the country are reading and analyzing different texts which is great and all, but what are they really learning? They are learning to decode and be detectives for the text but are they, themselves, text analysts? No. So what the author did was have them reconstruct some texts that consisted of more mainstream characters and plots with their own family and life components. I loved this because having just "multicultural" texts in the classroom isn't challenging the students. You can have both stereotypical and not in the classroom. That way students are challenged to identify more parts and apply it to their previous knowledge.

The thing I found really interesting was that students all over the country might be going through their whole K-12 education careers just doing the same thing year after year. They are reading books and finding the components that we think they need to learn. However, what if we added their own lives to the mix? What if we made readings and texts more personal through readers workshops? So many students could learn so many more things not only about the texts and the academic things we want to teach them but they might learn more about their own lives. They might learn about life and the world rather than just reading about it. (also a thing I just did, I just searched "family" into the images bar for Padlet and counted how much of those are diverse families and how many are just typical white mom + dad with 2 kids, maybe with grandparents or pets added in there. What is this telling the world about what is the norm?)

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I really enjoyed diving deep into these two chapters. Since Carling and I are doing our discussion lesson over these readings, it was really cool to extend, practice, and implement my new learning in a way to engage and inform our class. In chapter 7, I really enjoyed the metaphor of the fractured fairytale of The Little Red Writing Hood as it was rewritten as the perspective of the wolf. I think this shows a great metaphor for our lives as one look or one perspective of something does not tell you the whole story. I think this is extremely important to include in our future classrooms as students come from all different backgrounds and have their own stories. It is important to provide that safe space and community within the classroom to encourage students to be themselves. In chapter 10, I thought it was really cool how the girls were able to re-write and deconstruct a story in order to relate it to their lives. Sadly, I had never thought about how most of the books we read only portray specific elements of a certain lifestyle. I am really glad to have read this chapter as I am now looking at books through a new light. I want to make sure I include books in my future classroom that all students can relate to. In addition, I think creating an opportunity for students to rewrite a story through their own perspective allows them to have autonomy and creativity in their learning. Overall, I really enjoyed these chapters. I learned a lot and I hope that I can implement these practices within my future classroom!

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Chapter 7 was useful because it gave us a good way to actually put critical literacy into action. We talk so much about why it is important to be critical with our texts but we have not gotten an explicit list of questions to ask ourselves when using this practice. I like how the author puts the questions into three categories: Power, perspective and positioning and does a really good job of explaining the differences between the three layers. One thing I would like to challenge is the depth in which the author went into Henry and Mudge. Yes, the book is about a very stereotypical white family but I felt as though she was almost forcing her students to be unhappy with the book when it seemed like it was just a normal book to them. However, I do see the value in teaching the girls how to think critically about what they are reading and it seems like this lesson ended up sticking with them later on. I like how these chapters were paired together because now we know how we can find easy ways to encourage our students to also think critically about what they are reading.

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“Wait a second, maybe I should be teaching kids to find the disconnection. The part that doesn’t go with your life”

This quote really stood out to me because I never saw critical literacy through this perspective. Throughout my literature unit, I was so focused on ensuring that my students were connecting the characters’ lives back to theirs that I did not even consider that some of them might not connect with the text at all, and that is completely okay. This is a form of literacy I feel comfortable introducing in my classroom not only because it is imperative to but also because it sheds light on the divergent ways students can express critical literacy: through connections and disconnections. I am sure that were times where my students could not connect to any part of the text but I did not provide them with opportunities to disconnect. Because I thought many of them would, I completely disregarded disconnections. This aspect of critical literacy gave me a new perspective, more clarity on what critical literacy truly is and how I can effectively implement it into my classroom.

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Chapter 7 Girls was really amazing. I like how it took simple books and put them into different lessons. It made me feel a sense of comfort because it was so concrete and helpful! I liked how it discussed how important it is to deconstruct and reconstruct and how it correlated to the book Three Little Pigs. It connected the literature to the world around us and our experiences and emphasized how important it is to intertwine all of these things to our teaching.

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I found this chapter to be very interesting. I really like the critical literacy stance and how it  emphasizes perspective, power, and positioning. It is crucial that we model and give students tools to properly analyze literature so that it can become a habit for students. I like how she pointed out that the students weren't analyzing the text "they were constructing models fictions of their own lives incorporating themes from the series in an attempt to make "connections"." (p.117).

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7
Initially when I read this chapter, I felt the burden of responsibility. Do we really have to go through all the texts that the school requires and deconstruct each book? It all seemed pointless because I thought that this was a skill that could be taught in middle school, not second grade (the grade of my placement). However, with more reflection and reading, I realized that it is important to form a foundation of critical thinking at a young age. Students need to have a foundation of critical thinking so that as they the start reading more difficult texts in school and in the outside world, they would be able to discern texts and be aware of any biases in the text. We need to help our students grow into mindful, socially/politically aware students. It starts with teaching students how to deconstruct and reconstruct texts and using that ability to promote social change in their own social spheres.

Ch. 10
In many of my PDS classes, I learned just how important it was to include books that provide multiple perspectives. However, many of these classes also talked about how negative books like Henry and Mudge were- that they should not be used in the diverse classroom. However, this chapter offers a different strategy in which we as teachers, use these books to teach students about how "power, perspective, and positioning operate in all texts." Even books such as these can be used teach about perspective. In the end, it is not about trying to eliminate the perspective of the privileged, but it is about understanding how the privileged perspective can impact us as individuals and how to counter that privilege by being aware of the different perspectives around us. There is no single perspective.

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" All students can benefit from a deconstruction of their actions towards others"

I think this would be a cool thing to do on a weekly basis. It is always good to take a minute and step back to make sure that you are being as good of a human as you think you are being. I like how the chapter used The true story of the 3 little pigs! to explain the tenets, I love that story and am really familiar with it, so it made this concept easier to understand.

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What I especially appreciated from this reading of GSC&L was the beginning of Chapter 10 when Lori talks about the stories read in school by children and how that is not how it is for all of them. I especially liked the quote, "she intuitively understood that constant interaction with these mainstream stories was not healthy for children who lived very different lives." This made me think even deeper about a commonly discussed topic in our class which is providing a diverse classroom library for your students and how important it is to not make them feel lesser because they are constantly reading about characters different than them.

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GSC&L Ch. 10                       Savannah Werner Rice 

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GSC&L Ch. 10                       Savannah Werner Rice 

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“Talking across difference, however, can lead us to insights, just as the girls in this chapter began to realize that “rich” and “poor” stereotypes were not necessarily a productive way of thinking about different people, including themselves.” (Pg. 128)

First off, I loved this chapter and how it combined and applied a lot of aspects of critical literacy that the reader has learned from previous chapters, specifically from chapters 5-7. In chapter 10, Jones brought in this idea of teaching students to seek out the disconnects they find with all different types of texts. There is a great amount of emphasis on encouraging students to find connections between literature and themselves, but Jones realized the potential problem that could result from this when students couldn’t naturally find those connections. She didn’t want students to fabricate certain aspects of their life to “fit” into a story of a certain text, which is why she also brought in the importance of disconnections with literature. I haven’t placed a lot of thought on the idea of disconnections and how beneficial it can be for a student’s learning. Once a student finds a disconnect that they feel passionate about they can begin to analyze the power, perspective, and positioning that exists in the text and doesn’t highlight their own life. These understandings that the student can have open up room for discussions about people’s various identities and how that impacts their role in society. The reader got to observe the significance of teaching about disconnection and the conversations that follow when reading about the girl’s in Jones research as they re-analyzed Henry and Mudge.

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The tenets of critical literacy are deconstruction, reconstruction, and social action. We must focus on one tenet at a time. Deconstruction keeps us aware that all texts are constructed and can be deconstructed. Reconstruction is the process in which we reconstruct identities. Social action challenges mainstream children's literature to long term inquiry and action projects around literature. Personally, I have not been able to observe or witness a lesson or project like this in the classroom. We did some in our writing methods class last semester but I would like to see this in a traditional classroom. Chapter 10 discussed the ways in which a teacher can work with students can deconstruct text and read it critically. This can happen in young classes and students are able to see how the teacher models it and therefore can do it themselves during independent reading.

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GSC&L Ch. 7                                Savannah Werner Rice 

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GSC&L Ch. 7                                Savannah Werner Rice 

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I found the ‘Social Action’ tenet of critical literacy to be extremely eye opening and inspiring as a preservice teacher. We focus a lot in our classes about deconstructing literature  that tells a single story of someone or a certain group, and we also place focus on reconstructing these stories so that they become unbiased and just narratives. However, taking social action outside of the classroom and outside of the school is a great way to reinforce the idea of equality that is taught within the classroom through literature. For me, involving students in social action can be a bit overwhelming for a multitude of factors (lack of resources, limited time, etc.), but this reading provided wonderful examples of students experiencing impactful and realistic social action. The social action that the students take part in should be a combination of issues that they seek out in their own community and issues they see throughout our society. By students taking physical action to achieve genuine change they are strengthening their awareness of the prejudice that exists within the world we live in and the literature we're surrounded by.

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I liked chapter 10 a lot. We always emphasize text to self connections when working with the students, but what about disconnections? I liked how this chapter emphasized disconnections as important as well and a tool that can be used with a text and get the most out of it, while hi lighting areas of students individual lives. Plus, it seemed to result in genuine and engaging conversation both amongst the students and the "teacher", as well as between student to student. It was cool watching this conversation go down about a book the students are very exposed to and all agreed that they really loved.  The chapter mentioned the four different kinds of readers, code breakers, text participants, text users, and text analysts. This as well as their descriptions gave me a more clear and distinguished idea of these kinds of readers and how it applies to their work and reading discussions.

7:
I think the "frame" reference in deconstructing literature was interesting and actually kind of helpful. It brought up questions under this light of framing that really did make sense to me in use of critical literacy. I am still a little bit confused about the "messiness" reference and what exactly they are talking about with that. I liked the quote "their relationship to one another make thinking about critical literacy fascinating, intriguing, and empowering while at the same time their interconnectedness may challenge those of us trying to decide what to do with our students on Monday morning" (74) in reference to the figure that showed critical literacy as perspective, power, positioning, social action, reconstruction, and deconstruction, and how they relate to form critical literacy and how to view it. Something that stood out to me with this chapter was the classroom ideas to use with reconstruction and deconstruction. This makes the chapter more practical to us I  think and we can really think about how we want to actually include these ideas into our classrooms, which to me makes it even more interesting.

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Girls, Social Class & Literacy Chapters 7 & 10 - Esther Lee

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Girls, Social Class & Literacy Chapters 7 & 10 - Esther Lee

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CHAPTER 7
"The only way we will be able to make informed decisions about when, how, and why to engage our students in critical literacy practices is through knowing them-well." (pg. 86)
There's such a genuineness in really knowing your students. It shows that you care and that you are making every effort to be the best teacher you can be. You're going above and beyond. I say it all the time, but I really think  getting to know your students is one of the most important things to do as a teacher. When you get to know your students, you understand their strengths and weaknesses, which you can then use when you teach and introduce things. It also creates a much more personable experience.

CHAPTER 10
"never using mainstream texts for critical literacy purposes created a serious problem..." (pg 128)
Whoa! Yeah this chapter was filled with a lot of insight. It was cool seeing that it's important to still introduce mainstream texts. That we shouldn't just outright get rid of it. But that we need to constantly be challenging and comparing everything. As learners, it is up to us to really dig deep into things and figure out how what we are learning applies to our lives or not. How does this text really make you feel? I like how the book challenged the girls to see how they could change the text so it applies more to their lives. I think it's so important to challenge your students and help them have those different perspectives.

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Chapter 7
" History, culture, and social relations are much too messy to be neatly framed, much too alive to be frozen into representation." (pg. 73)
I felt this chapter to be really powerful because as teachers, we tend to only get a "snapshot" or "slice" of our students life in the classroom and it is our job as teachers to look beyond that and know our students outside of the classroom. Not only getting to know our students, but with the text that we choose in the library as well because even books only show one frame of a characters life and we need to relate our texts to our students life. With students  deconstructing text, they can begin to question and challenge the "norm".  Then, we need to allow the reconstruction of our students voices to be heard because we must know beyond the tale of a single story. By creating change, we are allowing our students to make a difference and see beyond the frame of what is right or wrong. I think this chapter really helped me become a better learner of my students and ways that we can allow their voices to be heard and represented.

Chapter 10
I had never heard of Henry and Mudge before, but after knowing what the stories are about and who is represented, I now know that these stories are not representative of most families and students in today's society. I like how this chapter wants our students to question books instead of trying to relate to it because not everyone will be able to relate to a text and we need to accept that. Students will not be as engaged with a book if they cannot connect with the book. On the other hand, I think it is good to have texts in the classroom that don't represent everyone's "norm" because it allows them to understand different perspectives and positioning. Like chapter 7, it is important for us to allow our students to deconstruct texts so that they can use critical thinking and create a challenge for themselves that can be enjoyable for them.

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Ch 7

This chapter felt heavy to me, and there were a lot things I felt good about but also a lot of questions. I really appreciated the example that the author used to explain the tenets and layers of critical literacy - The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. At first I was unsure of this, but I think the example showed me how this work can make sense in an elementary classroom. Not to say that children can’t do this with “bigger” social issues and ideas, but I think that engaging in conversations around critical literacy with a book like The True Story…, they are developing the skill of critical literacy that they then can apply in other situations. There were a few components of this article that I was uncertain of, especially when I had my current students in mind. The main one was deconstructing identities. We have had many courses where we do this for ourselves, and I often end the time feeling uncomfortable and sometimes guilty. Not that this is a bad thing, but I am able to understand as an adult, that a lot of these things are out of my control and that I still have the power to change things with this awareness of my identity now in mind. My worry is that young children may struggle to move past feelings of guilt or feelings of being belittled based on their identity. How do you have that conversation with kids? Or do you?

Ch 10

In this chapter, I was really drawn to the idea of asking kids to make disconnections while reading. This is such a simple task for them to do, and I can see how it would be easy to introduce once they have practiced making connections. Disconnections seem like an easy way to show kids that we all have different stories and we sometimes share things in common and sometimes we don’t. I feel like in my classroom I would take this point and extend it to say that it’s ok that we don’t always have things in common, but that this isn’t a good or bad things - we all just have different stories. I can see how finding disconnections would open up a lot of cool conversations and I think this would be an interesting mini-lesson to include in reading workshop.

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Chapter 10:
I love this chapter so much! It was fun to read and at the same time so insightful. I would have never thought of asking my students to make disconnections with the book. I always thought that it’s so important to teach my students to make connections with the text that they are reading because it helps keep them engage and interact with the book. However, if they cannot relate to the books that they are reading who are they going to engage in it? I like it that the book talked about how as teachers it’s important that we build our classroom library with books that our students can connect with and most importantly, reflect their lives. I think books are such powerful teach tools and they have a huge impact on the students’ beliefs and ideas. Therefore, if what they are reading is nothing they can connect to in their own life, then, they will believe that what happened in the books is what is consider normal and what is happening in their own life, is not, this will cause them to feel shame and embarrass. It was amazing to see how much the teacher was about to learn about the two students just by listening to them talk about disconnections they have with the book and most importantly, it was so insightful to see how the girls were able to acknowledge that gray area in between the rich and the poor.

Chapter 7:
I think deconstructing of texts really help take that critical literacy to another level because we are teaching students to now just read an accept what is on the text, instead, we are teaching them to push it even further and deep digger to see what is beneath. I believe the stuff that is beneath the surface contains the most learning experiences for students. I like how the reading brings in perspective and having the readers ask who did the creator of the text creates this text for. I think this is important for teachers and students to keep in mind because it makes the reading much more meaningful and insightful. I like it that the reading brought up an important that what is considered normal to one person might not be considered normal to another. This is a powerful thing to teach to our students because it’s really challenging the whole idea of “normal” and its existences. I think by learning about this and teaching it to our students we are teaching them to be more open-minded and accepting of other people perspectives and what goes on in their lives.

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I really liked reading both of these chapters, and I especially loved the part of the sick wolf's perspective. I have heard of this story before, and I think it is a great way, that kids can understand, that perspective matters. The whole understanding of a story can be so drastically different depending on whose perspective it is being told from. I liked how the book talked about deconstruction, reconstruction, and social justice change when figuring out texts, as well as the roles that position, power, and perspective translate through texts. I think it is such a hard thing to pick out books that tell counter narratives without the unfortunate and sometimes not deliberate side effect of othering people. I think that the questions to ask yourself that was throughout the chapter are really good ways to ensure that you are picking good books.

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Girls, Social Class, and Literacy Ch 7 and 10 - Lynn

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Girls, Social Class, and Literacy Ch 7 and 10 - Lynn

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CH 7

"The metaphor of being "framed" is useful in thinking about critical literacy..." (71)

I though this quote was especially powerful in this chapter and that it perfectly encompassed how things can seem straightforward and simple at first, but when you look at it through a critical lens you can uncover the "framework" and reveal just how messy the text or photo etc. truly is. The author or creator contains all the power, but I believe it is important to remember that even though all things are constructed they can also be DECONSTRUCTED. As teachers, I feel that it is imperative that we look at texts that we decide to use with a critical lens so that we can peel back layers in order to better understand how various groups or people are being positioned or portrayed. When you forget to look at things critically, you are continuing to silence those who have continued to be portrayed by society in stereotypical ways. By implementing this in the classroom it can also teach the students to develop skills of social action.

CH 10

"...readers need a repertoire of tools and practices that will help them decode texts AND navigate the complex terrain of multiple perspectives and power relations central to critical literacy" (113)

I loved how this chapter discussed how to reconsider the basics of reading instruction to include a critical perspective in the reading workshop. I completely agree with the idea presented in this chapter that children need to have to opportunity to engage in meaningful use of literacy and be able to use reading in ways that spark their own personal interests. As students are also not really given limit to what type of literacy they can engage with, it also gives no basis for when or on what critical discussion can occur. I also think that the more opportunities they have to dive into literature in general, it will provide them with the experience and foundation to build up to thinking critically. I see this in action in my placement as my CT's goal is to get her students to fall in love with reading and she allows them to explore any book that is in her library.

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Girls, Social Class, and Literacy Ch 7 and 10- Cameron

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Girls, Social Class, and Literacy Ch 7 and 10- Cameron

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I really, really liked reading chapter 10 of this book for many reasons. First, we talk about critical literacy all the time, but this was one of the first times I felt like I read about an activity that I could easily introduce in my class. Critical literacy seems like such a hard thing to teach my students, but by simply teaching them to notice both the connections AND disconnections with text, they begin to develop a sense for "the perfect American world" and how it is not always true. Often, when we think of critical literacy, we immediately think that means reading books with children of other colors or children that have experienced adverse situations. While this is important, we can take a critical stance when reading any book! It is important to show children that they can keep reading the same books, but just evaluate them in a different way. Also, it is so true that we can't just not read these kinds of books to our kids. They will be exposed to these books in some way or another, and even if they aren't, they'll still be exposed to this ideal perfect life through "television commercials, newspaper advertisements, sitcoms, cartoons, movies, billboards..." (pg. 127).