10/8, "Critical Literacy," Coffey

 I want to think about this with a particular experience I had during my undergraduate career. During my class "Survey of US Literature II," one of the books we read was The Clansman. For those unfamiliar, it's a book that is about a mythological version of the inception of the Ku Klux Klan and reflects on it positively. It was written after a period in which the KKK had fallen out of relevance, but it sparked the beginning of its second wave (and the film The Birth of a Nation). Point being: fucked up book right there. It's also bad from a craft angle (insofar as craft exists). So, we read a badly written, white supremacist book in class. By exercising critical literacy (specifically, by reading from a resistant perspective), I got useful ideas - especially about features of white supremacist discourses. My point is that "Critical Literacy" aligns with this experience.

I am a gigantic fan of the "taking social action" section. The "Smash it" unit that some comrades and I started developing is a really compelling place to apply this idea of critical literacy. To briefly explain: the unit is divided into 2 sub-units, those being topic-setting and social action. The topic-setting subunit goes: the class as a whole brainstorms issues within the community, small groups form to research one of these topics (of their choice), groups present why the topic they chose should be what the class does social action about. The social action subunit goes: the whole class does research and makes arguments, different small groups are formed to take those arguments and socially act on them in ways the small group chooses. I see multiple critical literacy supports which Coffey discusses as present within this unit plan as it is. Reading supplementary texts and multiple texts is an essential part of any research. The topic-setting portion is all about students' choices, as is the medium of social action. This may surprise you, but the social action subunit is all about challenging students to take social action. 

I wonder if you can ask for too much critical literacy. My instinct is no. My brain is also saying no, because I don't believe you can't ask for too much critical thinking and critical literacy is mostly about doing that with text(s). But, idk. Maybe.

I think I'll bring in a small essay from 2009 that is about how social action matters and is different from what academics do: https://tagonist.livejournal.com/199563.html .

Comments

  1. Evan LephartOctober 9, 2023 at 4:05 PM

    Hello Josi! What a wild book to read within a classroom, as I cannot imagine how difficult, confusing, and out of the ordinary that text must have been in comparison to a lot of what you had read in other classes throughout your academic career (I know for myself I have never touched any kind of reading as intense as this). But it is wild that something as sensitive and rooted in hate as "The Clansman" gave you such a good academic experience through the works of critical literacy. Using that resistant lens, you and the class were able to get useful ideas regarding an extremely powerful subject, and I am extremely impressed by the professor for creating something like this. Now, while I might feel like reading "The Clansman" within a secondary education system might not be possible, it makes me wonder how else this could be applied within the classroom. What other sensitive texts could be made extremely beneficial, educational, and expansive when used through a critical literacy lens? I want to experiment with this within my own classroom, and I hope to use critical literacy like this at some point.

    Regarding your "Smash It" unit, I love to see that you are drawing from the "Smash It" game that Abby offered to us within our summer classes - this unit looks absolutely incredible! I could also very much see how students could be using critical literacy within this process, and with your guidance, I could see it being an extremely successful teaching and learning experience. Students would have no choice but to look through a critical literacy lens, as they would be looking much deeper at topics, texts, and other materials that they might not have looked at before. Plus, I love that aspect that students get to select their own topics, and analyze on something they care about.

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