Mark the correct answer? To whom? Deconstructing reading comprehension (original) (raw)
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Lectura y vida., 2004
The wonderful idea of the seventies was that comprehension consisted primarily of executing a closed system of cognitive processes and that such processes are universal, thereby meaning that, in essence, we all read in the same manner and, consequently, we can also learn to read by learning the aforementioned processes. However, that idea is borne out less and less every day by the complex and varied reality of reading. Striking concepts such as functional literacy or the cognitive model of comprehension, which have to some extent been coined to steer us away from old mechanistic conceptions of literal decoding, do not make it possible to explain why in real life we use a poem, an item of news or some directions in such a different way, or why we also read such genres in diverse fashions or why we need varying types of prior knowledge in each case. Nor do these concepts tell us a great deal about common occurrences of the present day such as reading in different languages, in varied formats (on paper, on a PC, on television, etc.) or on such varied disciplines (politics, science, recreation, etc.).
Reading From Different Interpretive Stances: In Search of a Critical Perspective
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2012
Much has been written about the need for readers to adopt a critical stance to understand how various texts are working to position them as citizens and consumers in an increasingly globalized world. As Janks (2010) bluntly put it, "Texts have designs on us.... Critical reading, in combination with an ethic of social justice, is fundamental in order to protect our own rights and the rights of others" (p. 98). Similarly, in their discussion of how adolescent literacy might be reinvented, Moje, Young, Readence, and Moore (2000) suggested that students who become aware of how texts manipulate them "can become critical consumers and producers of text who challenge dominant meanings and realize that there is more than one way to read texts and their world" (p. 408). A critical approach to literacy instruction can be traced back to Freire (1970), who argued in favor of teaching oppressed people to "read the word and the world." Freire thought this type of reading would enable the oppressed to advocate for their own interests instead of encouraging them to accept the views of more powerful others as "neutral and natural" (Morrell, 2008, p. 114). Freire (1970) also called attention to "banking education," a model that positions students as passive empty vessels that teachers fill up with socially sanctioned knowledge. In the banking model, reading is seen as simple decoding without paying attention to the interests of authors and how texts are often written to support those interests. In a move that challenges recent efforts to standardize literacy education and silence voices of dissent, Morrell (2009) called for studies that attempt to translate critical pedagogy into K-12 literacy practice and offer "a model of pedagogy that privileges attention to critique and to social justice as much as it does the development of sanctioned academic skills" (p. 99). What does a critical stance look like and how will we know if our students are achieving one? Delbridge (2008) provided an example in her description of a student who read "against an author" (p. 164) she perceived to be stereotyping the residents of a community where she once lived. This student used her knowledge While critical thinking is a common language arts goal, it is not easily achieved. Encouraging readers to talk back to texts is one approach that shows promise.
Practicing critical literacy in second language reading
International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 2015
Disillusioned with educational approaches which encourage students' passivity and conformity to the wisdom transmitted to them, critical pedagogues focus on improving students’ critical consciousness and self-seeking. This outcome can be achieved by encouraging and helping learners to be critical consumers of texts and reconstruct them in ways that are more consistent with their own local experiences. In this paper, I present and elaborate on some steps to practice critical literacy in second language reading instruction. I also discuss challenges involved in practicing this approach as well as some solutions based on my teaching experience. At the end, I highlight the significance of adopting a self-reflexive approach to conceptualizing and practicing critical literacy.
Freire's Cultural Action for Freedom (1970), which explains the ideas that underpin his critical approach to education in general and literacy pedagogy in particular, was first published in English over thirty years ago. Since then, critical literacy, a tradition of language and literacy education that takes seriously the relationship between language, literacy and power, has built upon his work in relation to developments in the field of language and literacy education, in relation to the possibilities and constraints in different contexts, and in relation to new technologies. Editorial: Critical literacy revisited: Writing as critique English Teaching: Practice and Critique
Critical Literacy and the Importance of Reading With and Against a Text
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2019
I have long argued that critical literacy includes reading both with and against texts and that we, as readers and educators, need to do both and to understand why both matter. An Example of Reading With and Against a Text What follows is an example of my own attempt to read against a text that I fundamentally agree with. In May 2016, I was about to leave South Africa to teach in the
Critical literacy as an approach to literary study in the multicultural, high-school classroom
2011
As an approach to literary study, critical literacy is not a widespread practice in New Zealand secondary schools. This article draws on a major project on teaching literature in the multicultural classroom that take place over two years in 2008-2009. In it we report on a case study where a Year 13 English teacher designed and tested a novel English programme with a reputedly less able and culturally diverse group of final-year students entitled "13 English-Popular Culture". In it, she guided her students through a range of reading tasks aimed at developing in her students an awareness of ways in which texts position readers to take up certain meanings and not others through the language used. Over the course of the programme, students moved from compliant readers to readers who were sensitized to the manipulative power of texts. They enjoyed being exposed to a variety of theme-related texts, especially when these empowered them by enabling them to deploy their own cultural resources in responding to and challenging the texts they encountered. Students needed careful scaffolding in respect of metalinguistic understanding in order to be able to discuss the specific ways in which language constructs meaning. Indeed, these students struggled with this aspect of a critical literacy approach. However, despite the fact that these students were engaged in high-stakes assessment at a higher level than in the previous year, all gained more NCEA credits than they had in Year 12.
Critical Literacy as Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 2004
Critical literacy helps teachers and students expand their reasoning* seek out multiple perspecti¥esj and become actiYe thinkers* When we wene in school, we believed everything we read. We never questioned who was writing the text, who was determining what topics would be included, or who was deciding what would be excluded. We never questioned if there was any perspective other than the one presented in the daily newspaper, on the evening news, or in our textbooks. As a result, we grew up believing the information presented to us, which included that all inventors of importance were white men and excluded information about events such as the Japanese American Internment. Since that time we have learned much more about a wide variety of topics from a diverse array of sources. Through those learning experiences, we have realized the need to read from a critical stancea need to question rather than passively accept the information we encounter. Today's school students interact with many more information sources than we did at their age. And as they read, they, too, need to question the text. They need to know the author's intent, to understand the sociocultural influences, and, as Pearson (2001) suggested, to comprehend with a critical edge.
The Reader and the Text: Issues of Diversity and Interpretation
Across the globe, every aspect of teaching in general and teaching literature in particular is gaining currency. At the same time, the need to know more about the reading process have also led literary critics to advance theories that attempt explicating meaning of texts and the role of the reader. In the past several decades, literary studies have seen dramatic changes not only in the classroom setting but also in instructional pedagogy especially as our society becomes more culturally diverse and technologically infected. In the wake of these developments, it is becoming controversial whether there is a single reading to a literary text that can be constructed to be the obvious meaning to the text. Many literary critics have also asked the question, “Does meaning reside in the author, the text, or the reader” (Richter, 2000, p.12) and what is the nature of literary experience (Langer, 1995, p. 24). As literary critics continue their litanies of pedagogical problems and critiques associated with the author, the text, and the reader (inherent in New Criticism and the flaws in New Critical practices) nowhere is the impact felt more than on the reader just because when two elephants are fighting, it is the grass that suffers.