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doing the transformation is tough stuff. let's face it; making the physical classroom and instructional switch to a critical literacy-based class is approximately 5% ingenuity, 5% luck and 90% perspiration. it takes time and effort, especially as a novice educator, to design thoughtful physical classroom plans or to locate readings that are interesting to youth AND may provide fodder for blazing critical literacy discussions.
most issued textbooks (i'm particularly acquainted with science texts) would not fall into the realm of critical literacy; they are rather clear cut and dry, replete with technical jargon, data tables, and graphs and diagrams that support the concepts presented. how can critical literacy come of this? teachers must, consequently, scour other media for topics that would fall into the category of critical literacy. on top of numerous tasks like grading and calling parents, the teacher is forced to don the hat of a researcher and tote to class selections that they've spent time discovering.
all the while that teachers are attempting to transform their classes into critical locales, we still have to ensure that our classes cover the content standards. the fact is that there exist lots of critical concepts, books, and articles that can't be practically covered while still adhering to the meticulously planned coverage of the standards. the expectation required of teachers is that we ready our students to be critical-minded citizens without actually providing opportunities for critical literacy. what gives? i recall a student getting excited about hearing that plants were bad for your health if placed by your bedside. the idea was dispelled by review of the photosynthetic equation, but the class couldn't delve into the student's belief as much as we wanted. why? we were too busy preparing for our upcoming standardized NCLB test.
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You raise many valid points here. I have a lot of the same frustrations because it is challenging to find the time to really create a critical literacy focused classroom. And, it's not just hard to find the time for designing it, it's also hard, in the time of standardized testing and test prep, to justify the class time. But, I'm still trying to do what I can... I'm hopeful that the instances in which I am able to find the time and a way to incorporate critical literacy are enough for the students to start using these thinking skills.
About science textbooks, although a lot of the information is cut and dry, in the biology and environmental science books, I've found that there are some areas where students can begin to question how the text is constructed and even begin to reconstruct it. My students and I did that when we were talking about the history of life on Earth, discussing the implications of how the book represented the timeline of the Earth.
Critical Literacy is like a stochiometri recipe. There are certain proportion that have to react in order to produce success. I agree that it is alot of mental "sweat" because of the amount of research, planning and even follow-through involved especially as a young teacher. But the more experience, the more resources, the more things stick and the better we can finesse, while still keeping the standards. it is a recipe, none the less.
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