Critical Literacy

The readings for today focused on pulling our students into thinking and believing that they can engage in and be a part of critical literacy. Freire looked at the oppressed population and bringing pushing them and allowing them to be self-sufficient in creating their own knowledge. This is similar to the work that Larson was doing. She talked about allowing students to be validated through accepting their forms of literacy as critical even if it wasn't traditional. Eventually the students will be able to read and write but shouldn’t we as teachers value what they already bring to the table? I find that one of the most important ways to incorporate students into the curriculum and engage them in class is allowing them to relate to the material. In my case, allowing them to see themselves as scientists. If we can show students that their lives matter through our content can we create critical literacy in our classes? I found these reading connected. Shannon was looking at how the framework of teaching practices and theory have changed. The quote I pulled speaks to the mindset of the people in charge (the ones with power). They want to measure learning in a specific way. This specific way will only test their knowledge in that specific way of testing. I found this passage to be not very connected to the other two. Through looking at Shannon and seeing that the public needs some measurable amount of learning I can see why we have come to the time of NCLB. This legislation calls for looking at standards and testing the students on their "learning." But what "learning" are we really testing for? Can we trust that state tests are authentic assessments of our students' knowledge base?