Building Bridges Instead of Walls: Engaging Young Children in Critical Literacy Read Alouds (original) (raw)

Children's Rhetoric in an Era of (Im)Migration Children's Rhetoric in an Era of (Im)Migration: Examining Critical Literacies Using a Cultural Rhetorics Orientation in the Elementary Classroom

Research in the Teaching of English, 2021

There is a particular urgency in this political moment to understand children's experiences with current events. Drawing from data generated following the 2016 presidential election, this paper focuses on three racially and linguistically diverse children's persuasive compositions. Within a critical literacies writing unit focused on (im)migrant experiences, children called on legislators to act on the Republican administration's policies. Building on the understanding that all literacies are political and that teaching and learning are value-laden tasks, the author engaged a cultural rhetorics orientation-grounded in the understanding of texts, bodies, materials, and ideas as interconnected aspects of communication-for data generation and analysis. The findings highlight how children strategically employed rhetoric to persuade. They used logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as story, a central tool for meaning-making and building practices in the world. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how children, when properly supported, can agentively participate in critical literacies and act on real-world politics. Through the stories of young children, this study emphasizes what children have to tell adults and what a cultural rhetorics orientation, through its emphasis on story, enables literacies researchers and educators to understand about children's composing.

Walls, Bridges, Borders, Papers: Civic Literacy in the Borderlands

Research in the Teaching of English, 2022

This article reports findings from a qualitative study in a third-grade classroom in the Southwest in the wake of Donald Trump's campaign and inauguration. In response to students' concerns about Trump's rhetoric around immigration and border-wall construction, the teacher provided curricular space for students to study immigration policy and write letters to their congressional representative expressing their positions. Drawing on field notes, interviews, and student writing, this study asks, (a) What sources of knowledge did students draw on in their talk and writing? and (b) How did students respond to such curricular design? Analysis suggests that students drew on border thinking (Mignolo, 2012) and politicized funds of knowledge (Gallo & Link, 2015), positioned themselves as change agents, and developed and displayed knowledge of academic genres and conventions.

Popping the Bubble: Critically Analyzing the Refugee Crisis with Suburban Seventh Graders

Radical Teacher

The current refugee crisis is the worst in 75 years and has led to the displacement of tens of millions of people around the world. Yet, despite the global scale of this humanitarian crisis and the culpability of their own country, suburban middle school students are generally unaware of this problem. In this article, I describe an inquiry project developed for my seventh grade world history students designed to help them confront their relative privilege and develop a critical understanding of the world rooted in empathy for those who are marginalized in our society. I begin with an overview of the students and school community and offer my pedagogical framework and goals in this setting. I then detail the steps in this inquiry project including students generating their own questions, reading and annotating part of a fictional book about refugees, engaging in focused research about the causes of the refugee crisis and the intersectional challenges faced by refugees, participating ...

He's on fire for justice!": Using critical conversations to explore sociopolitical topics in elementary classrooms

Journal of Curriculum Studies Research

Despite the dominant discourse that childhood is a time of innocence, elementary students (kindergarten through fifth grade) notice the world around them, witness and experience injustice and deserve to explore “controversial issues” in their classrooms. This article introduces readers to Olivia and her second grade students. Olivia wanted to create what she called a “social justice classroom” and made intentional curricular moves in order to bring this vision to life. Primarily, she implemented “social justice read aloud time” and read and discussed thoughtfully chosen trade books on “controversial issues” every Friday afternoon. Students were highly engaged in these read alouds and developed understandings and insights well beyond academic content standards. Olivia’s approach to teaching aligned with critical literacy, a pedagogical framework that values multiple perspectives, brings sociopolitical topics into the classroom, disrupts the status quo, and moves toward social action ...

Humanizing Disciplinary Civic Education at the Elementary Level: An Exploration of Immigration and the Humanitarian Crisis at the U.S./Mexico Border

The Oregon Journal of the Social Studies, 2019

This article offers a sample elementary social studies unit that explores immigration and the humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexico border that integrates humanizing disciplinary civic teaching practices. The unit utilizes the Inquiry Design Model (IDM), which reflects the Inquiry Arc of the College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework. The compelling question is: "What caused the humanitarian crisis at the border, and what should we do about it?" We discuss the transformative potential for disciplinary civic instruction that values humanizing pedagogies and civic mindedness when exploring controversial political issues.