Creating Critical Classrooms

Jerome C. Harste (Indiana University)

I see curriculum as a metaphor for the lives we want to live and the people we want to be.

Directions for Making a Little Book

What Do We Mean by Literacy Now?

*Multiple Literacies(Different Cultures/Different Literacies)(Multiple Ways of Knowing)

*Critical Literacies(Literacy as Social Practice)(Methods as Social Practice)

*Changing Times: Changing Definitions

A Language Arts Program for the 21st Century

Emphasishas to beon Critical

Meaning-Making

Language Study

Inquiry

Meaning-Making

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Components

• Writers’ Workshop (Uninterrupted Writing)• Read Aloud• Literature Studies (Wide Reading)• Strategy Lessons (Reading & Writing)• Multiple Ways of Knowing

Journal Examples(Center for Inquiry)

“I want to be a golfer when I growup. They get $116,000.00 a game!!”

--Mike, 2nd Grade

“Last night was my birthday. We went to Ice Kapades. It costed $46 a ticket.”

-- Tanya, 1st Grade

Multicultural LiteratureSocial Issue Books

http://mypage.iu.edu/~harste

Sketch to Stretch (Using Clay)Save the Last Word for the Artist

--Harste, Short w/ Burke

Reading From Different Stances

--Lewison, Leland, & Harste

MetaphoricalPhilosophicalAestheticAnalyticalIntertextualCritical

Linda Christensen’s Target-Perpetrator-Bystander-Ally Strategy

4 Columns

*Target*Perpetrator*Bystander*Ally

Text Sets

Language Study

Jean Anne Clyde’sSubtext Strategy

Art Piece: Henri Matisse: “The Music Lesson

Subtext Strategy:

TeacherPupilParentAdministrator or other teachers

What would they say?What would theyreally think?

Collin Lankshear

“Truth in government andeducation no longer existsas we have known it. SinceBush, “truth” is simply a matter of what narrativeyou can spin.”

Lingering in Text (Sumara 2002)

“The King’s son decided to have aparty. He invited anybody who wasanybody in the kingdom to come.”

--from CinderellaCritical Literacy Study Group Washington, DC (Vasquez)

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Begun to focus ourstudy of language onissues of discourse

Metaphors & Frames

“Wars erupted frequently in NorthAmerica in the 1600s and 1700s as rival groups clashed with each otherand with the resident Indians.”

-- Smithsonian National Museum of AmericanHistory, “The Price of Freedom: Americansat War” special exhibit.

Begun to use “the everyday”as text

*Who wrote this text?

•Why was this text written?

*Who is it written for?

*Whose voices are notincluded? Or what wasn’t said?

*How could it be?

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Billboards forthe rich,spray cans forthe poor.

Graffiti

-- James Paul Gee (2004)

“Kids are learning moreabout what it means to beliterate outside of school than in school.”

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Original Ad

Counter-Ads

What thing(s) do you findsomewhat problematicabout this book and the story being told?

How did the authoruse language to get us to accept a simple solutions to a complexproblem?

How else might this havebeen handled more honestly?

Inquiry-Based Learning

Be consciously aware of our new understandings

Interrogate what is taken-for-granted

Try on alternate ways of being

Take social action

Critical Literacy Reframes Inquiry to Emphasize the need to:

Hillary Janks

Look closely and see

See deeply and ask

Ask wisely and know

Know quietly and look

Just Wondering

Look carefully and see

See sharply and ask

Ask brightly and know

Know lightly and look

Look clearly and see

See shrewdly and ask

Ask widely and know

Know … wonderingly

Laurence Smith, Poet, 2010Jerome C. Harste, Artist, 2010

Photos from the Center for Inquiry, Indianapolis

Audit Trail

Focused Studies

Initiating ExperiencesWonderful Questions BookletInvitationsPublic SharingDemonstrationsCulminating Experiences

How might schoolsbe improved toenhance learning?

What are schoolsthat are trying tomake a differencedoing?

What constitutesa good educationin parents’ eyes?

Things That Could Be Done

• Reflect upon your own experiences• Use the internet to identify schools and

possible contacts• If possible, make a field trip (or several)• Interview parents (and other stakeholders)

• Keep exploring--push yourself to think critically and outside the box

Charles Sanders Pierce

•“Facts are best seen as beliefs at rest.”

“Results don’t really matter, just the appearance of holding someone accountable.”

Rober C. KoehlerChicago Tribune Reporter“Schools in Orange Jumpsuits”

Curriculum

• Carolyn Burke says the function of curriculum is to give perspective.

• I want to add that it isn’t good enough for the teacher to just have perspective; the kids need to “think curriculum” too; they need to know and understand “the big picture” and why exploring and uncertainty is not only part of the process but what gives us hope.

HaveALaugh!!

Have a Blast!!!

Conducting a Focused Study

Initiating Engagements – Survey, What do we already know?

Demonstrations – What inquiry skills do you want them to learn?

Invitations – How might you enlarge their vision?

Resources -- What resources could support their inquiries?

Culminating Experiences – How can we share what we are learning?