Literacy Ideology:
Critically Engaging the Language Arts Curriculum
Cadiero-Kaplan
Functional Literacy
Functional Literacy is where skilled deemed necessary to participate in society are the focus of instruction. This includes the ability to read and write, use formal grammar and phonemic awareness. This ideology is the mechanics of being able to read. While these skills may be important it completely ignores any critical thinking beyond the text and lacks connection to students' lives.
Unfortunately, this is the literacy ideology that many English Language Learners receive in schools or any children labeled "at risk" because it is essentially the bare essentials of getting by in society. This is teaching the basic job related skills.
Cultural Literacy
This is known as the "Core Knowledge" Approach to literacy instruction. The main focus of the ideology are morals and values. It places a priority on the information that readers bring to discussion. Diverse groups of learners are able to be successful in school and access the mainstream culture.
Cultural literacy is the "avenue of opportunity" that supports the literacy learning of disadvantaged children. The core of literacy is focused on whole group experiences, that a negative side to this ideology is that any individual or community experiences are left out from the learning.
Progressive Literacy
The progressive ideology is based on student interest, needs and inclination. It works with democratic views so that interchange between students and teachers further literacy learning. Unlike Functional Literacy, Progressive revolves around the process of learning. This process is mostly focused on reading and writing based on the leaner's own topic of interest that allows vocabulary that is related to their lives. The students take on their own literacy learning.
This seems like a great literacy curriculum option though it does not question any cultural or political contexts. Which is a definite problem because we literacy is a socially constructed.
Critical Literacy
"The Social Transformation"
The critical form of literacy ideology empowers learners to actively participate in the democracy we live in and moves literacy in schools to a new platform of social action. The students are constantly critiquing literacy, dialoging with peers about their thinking and engaging in self-relfection. Critical Literacy values individual voice, experiences and histories. The teacher's role is to introduce a problem that then children are able to reflect on and are supported to respond to in one's own language.
There is a need for Functional Literacy in this ideology because of all the mandated and standardized tests that require skills of decoding, fluency and other building block aspects to literacy.
Do you guys like one ideology more over the others? How would you use it in the classroom?
I feel like there are important aspects in literacy in all of them and that not having a set literacy curriculum would allow for more creative approaches that cover all these ideas.
What are your thoughts on Critical Literacy? I felt that is was looked at as the answer to literacy instruction by Cadiero-Kaplan.
I found a cool clip of a film that was made based around the issues of critical literacy and reading in schools. I have not watched this full film but it sounds interesting!
(There is some naughty language so please cover your ears! My apologies.)
Thanks Y'all! :D
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I loved the break down. You did a great job. Secondly, I definitely liked critical literacy and progressive literacy, but both of them are missing something. I would use read aloud's with the critical literacy ideology. Having them respond to the stories can have them reflecting and critically thinking. The questions that the teacher asks during the read aloud play a really important part in this because they can have the students share what they think with person next to them and then coming together. I personally liked critical literacy:)
Thanks,
Besan Mohammad
Besan,
DeleteI love your idea of read aloud paired with critical literacy! Thanks for your response!!!!
Hey Becca!
ReplyDeleteFrom your description of each literacy, I personally liked the cultural literacy and critical literacy. I like the cultural literacy because it bring diverse learners together. I like critical literacy because it brings the students voices and stories in the discussion. It also allows the students to think critically about the text that they are reading. I think you can do this by giving the students a text to read and have them reflect after reading. I feel like I need to be exposed to these different type of literacy's in order to choose one that I really like. Your information was very organized.
Thanks!!
Tina Skukan
Thanks for your response! I agree I would love to see these different forms of literacy curriculum in action!
DeleteHi Becca,
ReplyDeleteI feel like all of those ideologies are important because to be able to read texts and critically talk about it, kids will have to learn how to read first, which will involve Functional Literacy. So I think Functional Literacy is important for Kindergarten-first grade. Although learning to read at this age is important, we can still incorporate critical and cultural literacy. As Besan mentioned above, we can do Read Aloud to the kids at younger grades, and just bring in different texts that touch on cultures, race, etc. Even though the kids might be too young to read on their own during this age, they are still able to comprehend the stories being read to them. At the end of the Read Aloud, the teacher can ask them how they can relate to the story or ask them what would they do how if they were the main character. I believe that if the teacher is able to ask the students the right questions, it will give these little kids the opportunity to explore a deep topic even when they are just 4 and 5, because at this age they already know about skin color and so on.
Hey Becca,
ReplyDeleteBefore anything, I just wanted to say awesome job! I love the breakdown of each type of literacy along with the pictures you added. It made it very easy to read and understand! I personally really liked the cultural literacy because you don't really hear about that much. I think that it is a very great way to teach literacy in the classroom because it values each student and brings diversity into the room. I also like critical literacy because it allows students to voice their ideas, thoughts, opinions, and reflection. I would incorporate this in my classroom by having students do oral book reports instead of writing assignments. I would also have discussions about the text after reading it and pose a few guiding questions so that students can express their thoughts and opinions. I think a combination of all types of literacy will allow the teacher more room for creativity and creating different, and engaging lesson plans.
Awesome Job!
Resilda
Becca!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! The way you explained the different literacy topics helped me a lot. I agree with everything that you said and I would have to say that I like the Cultural Literacy more than the other literacy options. I think the reason why is because I do think that the morals and values are important so that the students will be motivated and continue doing their work. I would use it in my class by allowing the students to make sure that they are incorporating the diversity and the knowledge of others in the classroom to also be respectful and etc. I think critical literacy is interesting and can be helpful in the long run. I do like how the cultures and ethnics are crossed over so that it would give a better sense of the neighborhoods around that area and etc. Something that was interesting is to ensure that the common core values, morals, and culture would be helpful when they want to literate students for the future.
This was a awesome post the break down helped a lot! The question "Do you guys like one ideology more over the others?" I agree with your answer all are important especially since everyone learns differently.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Becca!
ReplyDeleteAs for my thoughts on critical literacy, personally i love it! Any form of instruction that empowers learners to participate, that has students critiquing and creating a dialogue with peers, engaging in self-relfection is not only exciting but what a classroom and school environment should be like. We should allow our students independence and autonomy. As yo said, "Critical Literacy values individual voice, experiences and histories. The teacher's role is to introduce a problem that then children are able to reflect on and are supported to respond to in one's own language." To me that is just beautiful and something id love to have in my own classroom!
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteReally great post! I like the way you break everything down. In response to your question I think all are necessary and intertwined in a lot of ways. Literacy is so brad in it's scope that I think the only limiting factor is if you focus only on one particular type of literacy. Functional literacy is important for people to function but you have to go beyond that for them to have a sense of themselves and the world around them. The way I see it progressive and cultural literacy are good for cultivating a sense of self where students connect to their heritage and to their own individual interests and critical literacy is understanding how those things connect to the larger world. The video you included is relevant because it has an element of functional literacy, vocabulary, but it puts it in the context of social awareness, and having an awareness of how you are part of a larger culture.
Hey Becca,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you broke it down and can tell you from some of my field experience what a difference it makes to see these different forms of literacy play out. I honestly feel like ELL would benefit from a combination of all of these. Although I feel like my least favorite is functional literacy, I do think it is a necessity for students to know how to do these things, however I don't believe they should be limited to that. I honestly feel like students need that opportunity to have a choice or say in what they read for them to enjoy it. I know there is a lot of emphasize on reading level at the moment but students should also be able to chose at least one book based on their interest, it just takes one book to create a long time relationship with literacy.
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteI really like the progressive literacy viewpoint. I think it's very important to include student interest in learning. By doing so, students are more inclined to learn and progress in knowledge. Furthermore, I remember when my literacy teachers used to provide us with the opportunities to chose our own novels or literacy topics of interest. I always found that I was able to learn better when I was given a choice rather than having the teacher always decide for me.