What in the “WORlD”?: Examining Various Forms of Text through the Critical MindMatthew Bodie, M.A.Cher N. Gauweiler, Ph.D.Narrowing the Gulf Conference, 4/5/13

What’s in the WORLD (Paul & Elder, 2008, p. 4)

Quickwrite…• “The new education must teach the individual how to classify

and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new directions – how to teach himself. Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.” (Toffler, 1970, p. 414)

a. What is Toffler’s stated message?b. What is the unstated message?

Defining critical literacy…

• Goal is to increase students’ critical and social consciousness…why?• Teachers’ strive to engage students in dialogue*…how?• Students examine multiple meanings of text through

various perspectives…by?

*What about “metadialogues”? (Wood, 2006)

What is digital literacy?

One definition…• “A person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital

environment... Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments.”

• Retrieved on 4/1/13 from: http://www.library.illinois.edu/diglit/definition.html

What would Paulo Freire think?

Just Because…• Concept of students as “social actors” • First line begins with the words “Just because I’m...”• Second line begins with the words “It doesn’t mean...”• Third and fourth lines begin with the word “Doesn’t...”• Fifth line should be your strong statement, what you want the

reader to understand about who you are.

Example…Black?by anonymous, 9th grade, Wilson High School

Just because I’m black it doesn’t mean I am ghettoIt doesn’t mean I’m in a gangDoesn’t mean I’m bad in schoolDoesn’t mean I skip schoolLook beyond the color of my skin and see the true me

Just because I’m black it doesn’t mean I fight all the timeIt doesn’t mean I’m not going to graduateDoesn’t mean I need to be followed around in the storeDoesn’t mean I eat fried chicken and drink Kool-Aid everydayFeel my smooth beating heart, look into my eyes,and realize the darkness of my skin can’t and won’t define me

Another one…Just Because I’m Asianby Quan, 9th grade writer

Just because I’m AsianIt doesn’t mean I’m smartDoesn’t mean I play video games all day.Doesn’t mean I only eat rice and I’m 4’9’’Look beyond the shape of my eyes and see me inside

Just because I’m AsianIt doesn’t mean I’m obedient and scared of my parentsDoesn’t mean I’m a ninjaDoesn’t mean I shop at the Dollar Tree or do Karaoke at partiesJust because you label me doesn’t mean I have to do it to you.

Impediments to critical thinking…Ethnocentrism: a tendency an individual may have to view one’s own race or culture as privileged, based on the entrenched belief that one’s own group is superior to others

Sociocentrism: the assumption that one’s own social group is inherently and self-evidently superior to all others; social conventions, beliefs, taboos seen as “the only correct way to think and live” (Paul & Elder, 2008)

A Broadminded View

• Some of my best friends are white boys. When I meet 'em I treat 'em just the same as if they was people.

(Ray Durem, 1951)

Example: What’s in a word? (Paul & Elder, 2008, p. 13)

US• We plan.• We are clever.• We form strategies.• We have convictions.• We are proud.• We stand tall.• We build weapons to

defend ourselves.• We intervene.• We are freedom-fighters.

THEM

• They plot.• They are sneaky.• They conspire.• They are fanatics.• They are arrogant.• They brag and bluster.• They build weapons to

threaten us.• They invade.• They are terrorists.

Unsilencing voices• Who do we NOT hear from?

Considering different perspectives…• How do you come to know something you never knew, never

knew you could know, and that upon knowing it, you won’t ever be the same?

• Ryan’s perspective on war• Hitler Youth (Nazi perspective)• The Wild Girl (Native American perspective)• We all have different ways of “seeing” the world…depending

on who you are and your worldview

Idea #1: Defining Concepts• Help students enter the language of YOUR “discourse

community”

• Concept Ladders

Writing is God’s way of telling us our

thinking is messy.

Point to Ponder:

Idea #2: Composing through RAFTROLE: Who are you?

AUDIENCE: Who are you writing to?

FORMAT: How are you presenting this information?(POETRY, DIARY, SONG PARODY, INTERVIEW, LETTER, EDITORIAL, ETC.)

TOPIC: What are you writing about?

Brainstorm possibilities (currently in news)

Idea #3: Analyzing video

https://www.adbusters.org/abtv/slow_down_week.html• What is the viewpoint of the ad?

• What else do I have to accept and/or do to accept the author’s position?

• I have to accept that ___________________________ and do _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________.

References• Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2008). How to detect media bias and

propaganda in national and world news. Dillon Beach, CA: The Foundation for Critical Thinking.

• Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York: Random House.• Wood, K., Soares, L., & Watson, P. (2006). Empowering

adolescents through critical literacy. Middle School Journal, (need vol. & issue), 55-59.