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.

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.

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. 

 

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.