When engaging in a text-based discussion students can use the following questions from Luke (2012) to engage students in using a critical literacy lens:
“What is ‘truth’?
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How is it presented and represented, by whom, and in whose interests?
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Who should have access to which images and words, texts, and discourses? For what purposes?” (p. 4).
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Additional questions could include:
What position is the author constructing?
What do they want us to think?
Who benefits?
Who doesn’t benefit?
Utilizing a critical literacy lens with your students will help them interrogate the relationship between power, identity, and access– which will only serve to enhance discussions around racial equity and social justice in your classroom.
If you’d like to learn more about critical literacy, read this blog by Vasquez, Janks, & Comber on NCTE’s website.
