Critical Literacy:

What Is It, and What

Does It Look Like in
Elementary Classrooms?

Between the Ideal and the Real World of Teaching

Ideas for the Classroom from the NCTE Elementary Section
Joanne Hindley Salch and Marianne Marino, Co-Editors
Vivian Vasquez, Guest Editor

Negotiating Critical Literacies

by Barbara Comber, University of South
Australia, Center for Studies in Literacy, Identifying and
Policy and Learning Cultures Engaging Children’s
Analytical Abilities
Barbara Comber defines critical literacy Children begin school with ideas
as the opportunity to use language in about what’s fair and what’s not,
powerful ways to get things done in the gleaned from five years of experience
world. She describes three fronts that with family and community life. They
teachers work from to negotiate critical also come to school with rich reper-
literacies in their settings. Her article sets toires of narrative resources from pop-
a framework for reading the remaining ular culture, sports, and so on—stories
articles in this issue, which offer snapshots that deal with who/what’s powerful,
of the types of spaces that classroom who/what’s cool, who the good/bad
teachers have created in elementary school guys are. In other words, they’ve
classrooms in order to engage with critical already had many opportunities for
literacies.—V. V. examining real and imaginary worlds
in terms of how relations of power
work. Their early play with peers and

C
ritical literacies involve people siblings, as well as solitary role-plays,
using language to exercise power, demonstrates what young children
to enhance everyday life in make of status, authority, force, and
schools and communities, and to ques- in powerful ways to get things done in power. Such performances, as they
tion practices of privilege and injustice. the world. Questions such as these can rehearse parts of scripts and take on
This sounds grand, but often—perhaps be important catalysts in the process. the roles of popular characters, indi-
usually—critical literacies are negotiated In elementary classrooms, teach- cate that children have an ear for
in the more mundane and ordinary ers work on at least three fronts: they powerful language use (Dyson, 1997;
aspects of daily life. Critical literacies work with children’s existing abilities Marsh, 2000). Many children, in fact,
include an ongoing analysis of textual for critical analysis; they examine have already learned a great deal
practices: How do particular texts work? examples of writing, drawing, cartoon, from television and videotexts, and
What effects do they have on the reader? film, etc. that take a critical stance; there is rich material there that teach-
Who has produced the text, under what and they offer children new discursive ers can exploit (Kavanagh, 1997). For
circumstances, and for which readers? resources. In other words they make instance, children can re-enact
What’s missing from this account? How available repertoires of language prac- favorite commercials and analyze how
could it be told differently? Critical liter- tices that the children do not already they work. They can design new com-
acy means practicing the use of language have.
continued on page 2

Copyright © 2001 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH APRIL 2001 VOL. 6, NO. 3
How do you know what is being advertised? How do you know whom the
products are for? What do the advertisers want you to think about the
products? Which words and pictures tell you that? How?

continued from page 1 Helping children

mercials for other products or re- acquire, practice, Teachers need to have a strong
write existing commercials in ways
that they think are more honest,
and invent critical knowledge of language theories and
textual practices in order to help
effective, dramatic, or humorous. literacies means that teachers must children acquire new discursive
Children are accustomed to resources—ways of saying, represent-
thinking analytically about power make the time for children to take ing, reading, and writing context-
and pleasure and listening to and specific genres that may be unfamiliar
producing powerful texts. The task analytical stances; to research how
in children’s everyday lives, but that
for teachers is to help children to
develop a meta-awareness and a
things are, how they got to be that do specific work in particular situa-
tions. And, when teachers’ practices
meta-language for what they way, and how they might be are designed around social justice prin-
already know how to do and to assist ciples, community events and situa-
them in applying these resources to changed; and to produce texts tions can become the objects of study.
the texts and situations of school Comber, Thomson & Wells (2001,
life. The varying practices that dif- that represent the under- and
forthcoming) have documented a pro-
ferent children bring with them can
mis-represented. ject in which young children and their
become part of a collective capacity teachers researched and became advo-
to solve problems and approach pos- cates for better environmental condi-
sibilities. tions in their neighborhood. As they
Teachers can develop a library of investigated the condition of trees in
Examining Critical Texts critical texts. As a secondary English their local area, seven- and eight-year-
teacher I used to collect cartoons from old children learned to read maps,
The everyday worlds of commu- design surveys, and analyze the
newspapers, irreverent postcards, and
nity, media, and literature contain results. They sent faxes to local gov-
other materials to examine with stu-
many texts that take a critical ernment authorities and designed new
dents. In discussing what made these
stance that young children can recreational facilities and streets. In
funny, young people frequently demon-
appreciate: from the picture books of learning about this important topic,
strated a sophisticated analysis of the
writers like Anthony Browne, to the children began to acquire crucial
ways in which language works to “hit a
explicitly counter-sexist fairy tales textual practices for accessing informa-
target” or make an argument.
and counter-racist new histories, to tion and services in the contemporary
television spoofs and cartoons. world.
Reading contrasting versions of a Acquiring and Using New Critical literacy is not a finite set
story or a historical situation, espe- Discursive Resources of practices. Helping children acquire,
cially where at least one text takes a practice, and invent critical literacies
critical angle, can help children to Teachers can help children learn to means that teachers must make the
understand that texts are never neu- think about and question texts in ways time for children to take analytical
tral: they are constructed by particu- that develop their analytical capacities stances; to research how things are,
lar people with particular goals and and critical reading practices. Educators how they got to be that way, and how
motivations. in South Australia have found that a they might be changed; and to produce
Being critical doesn’t mean that critical language awareness approach texts that represent the under- and
there’s no fun or that children need (Fairclough, 1989, 1992; Janks, 1993) mis-represented. We have to assist
be relentlessly negative or bleak. accessible to elementary school children young people in assembling a set of
Many critical texts use humor to is an investigation of junk mail, starting discursive tactics and strategies. They
make their case. There are local cul- with questions such as these (O’Brien, can learn these strategies from each
tural practices such as Speakers’ 1994): other, from teachers, from published
Corners, talk-back radio, popular * How do you know what is being writers, Web designers, filmmakers,
music, and so on where children can advertised? linguists, journalists, and others by
see critical discussions of ideas and * How do you know whom the products focusing on the workings of language
events and notice how people use are for? in specific situations. ▼
words to make meaning. Such texts * What do the advertisers want you to
can become the objects of study in think about the products?
classrooms, and children can experi- * Which words and pictures tell you
ment with these genres in their own that? How?
writing. * Who produces these advertisements?
TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories Teach
Re-Thinking
My Classroom:
A Nike Story

by David Chiola-Nakai, Corpus

Critical Conversations Christi Elementary School,

Mississauga, Ontario

by Michael Muise, Indiana University, Bloomington

O
ne of the stories I read with
my class is Hockey Fever by
R. J. Childerhose. The story is

F
riday afternoons in my classroom After listening to their conversation
were always reserved for free for quite some time, I asked if they about a hockey game between a team
time, when the children had the might be willing to broaden this conver- from an urban area and one from a
opportunity to pursue their inquiries sation to include the rest of the class. rural area. Part of the story focuses
and interests free of the scrutiny of During our class meeting at the end of on the obvious difference between the
mandated curriculum. This time of the the day, Kristen wasted no time in shar- two teams’ uniforms: The team from
week often resulted in many opportuni- ing with the class her disapproval of the city wears matching uniforms and
ties for us to explore a variety of texts, Todd’s Sports Illustrated. She chal- is outfitted from helmet to skates. The
including media. lenged her classmates with questions team from the rural area wears a rag-
One Friday afternoon I noticed similar to those she had posed to Todd. tag mix of whatever equipment and
Kristen emphatically engaged in a dis- One of the results of our taking up uniforms they can find. This contrast
cussion with Todd. Lingering in the the “swimsuit” incident was a letter to led us to a discussion about classism
backdrop of this conversation, I the editors of Sports Illustrated raising and how people position each other in
watched as the two the issue. Heading classist ways based on the clothes one
hovered over a “swim- The opportunity for conversa- up the committee, wears. We talked about what clothing
suit edition” of Sports Kristen and Todd is considered “cool” and wondered who
Illustrated. A sports tion in a critical literacy cur- spent several writing determines what is “cool.” A conversa-
fanatic, Todd sub- periods drafting and tion arose which centered on Nike
riculum is paramount. In this clothing and how Nike clothing is
scribes to this maga- editing their letter to
zine and had brought instance, conversation provided the magazine. “cool.”
it to read during free The opportunity I mentioned this conversation to
time.
these two students with the for conversation in a one of my colleagues, who proceeded
During their con- opportunity to critically exam- critical literacy cur- to tell me about a 20/20 program she
versation Kristen riculum is para- saw on television dealing with Nike’s
expressed her discom- ine popular texts. Furthermore, mount. In this treatment of factory workers in Third
fort with the maga- it proved to be an opportunity instance, conversa- World countries. I asked her if she
zine. She asked Todd tion provided these would come into my classroom and
questions such as, where they could comfortably two students with share what she had seen with my
“What do sexy women challenge and inform one the opportunity to class. She did, and soon after I began
laying around on a critically examine to sense my students’ growing aware-
beach have to do with another’s ideologies. popular texts. ness of the overwhelming presence
sports?,” “Where are Furthermore, it Nike has in their lives. They began to
the baseball, hockey, proved to be an take much more notice of the plethora
and football players in their swim- opportunity where they could comfort- of Nike gear worn in the school. I
suits?,” and “Who do you think this ably challenge and inform one another’s could hear disbelief in their voices as
magazine is for?” Her questions encour- ideologies. Their letter to the editor they began to discuss issues of fair
aged Todd to raise similar questions for highlights the social-action nature of wages and child labor. Posters
himself. Kristen argued the magazine this project and signifies the important appeared on the classroom walls
was really targeted to a male audience role that conversation plays in a critical depicting anti-Nike sentiments.
and challenged Todd to think about literacy curriculum. ▼ Similar to the way it has come to
whose interest this issue served. dominate the sports world, the Nike

continued on page 4
Stories TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories
Mitzi also shared Molly
Bannaky (McGill, 1999) with her
students and invited them to
respond through a “Sketch to
continued from page 3 Stretch” (Short, Harste, and Burke,
1995), which invites participants to
sports empire suddenly became the “symbolize what this story means”
focus of a classroom study. and helps language users under-
I could feel the sense of being stand that they can create meaning
overwhelmed by the idea of taking on in many sign systems. The process
such a huge conglomerate. Imagine a of moving to a different sign system
group of 11- to 13-year-old students (called transmediation) helps people
taking on the giant of the sports to move beyond their original inter-
world. But as Harste (1997) has said,
history is replete with examples of “One Tough pretation of a story and to see new
possibilities for understanding and
“tripping the giant” (p. 2).
I found myself caught in the Woman”: interacting with the world. On the
surface, Molly Bannaky is the story
of an indentured servant who was
whirlwind of what was happening in
and out of the classroom. My role in
Strategies to Support brought to the New World to pay off
the classroom became blurred: I was
both a resource and a learner. I
and Sustain Critical her debt through labor. After earn-
ing her freedom, she purchased a
searched the papers and magazines Conversations slave and then challenged the sta-
tus quo by marrying him. Sketches
and provided articles and materials to
students engaged in their various by Christine Leland and Jerome C. Harste, produced by Mitzi’s students show
inquiries. Center for Inquiry, Indianapolis how this activity supports diversity
I began to see how we could use and difference. Maggie’s sketch, for
surveys and graphing, investigating example, portrays Molly as “one

A
t the Center for Inquiry in
maps and charts, money, letter writ- Indianapolis, undergraduate interns tough woman,” and is a testament
ing, learning logs, posters, question- shared critical literacy books with to the indomitable spirit of women
naires, response logs, and presenta- elementary school students. After reading and their ability to rise above all
tions in our investigations. Two stu- From Slave Ship to Freedom Road (Lester, kinds of obstacles. The accompany-
dents designed a survey to find out the 1999), Mitzi Parsons, a classroom teacher, ing caption reads: I was a maid, a
approximate number of hats, shoes, asked the students to use Lee Heffernan’s criminal twice, a mother of 4, an
and shirts that were owned by stu- Post-It Note Strategy (2000) by completing indentured servant, a farmer, and a
dents in our school and how many of one Post-It Note for each of the following great housewife.
these were Nike products. They took stems: Although they aren’t the only
the information and drew graphs and strategies we use, both the Post-It
reported what they had discovered. Something important I want to remember . . . Note Strategy and Sketch to Stretch
They then went on to do a presenta- A connection I made with the book which I are meant to support and sustain
tion to our reading buddies, first-grade could write about . . . critical conversations about literacy
students that we read to once a week, in Center for Inquiry classrooms. ▼
A lasting image I will retain from reading this
about Nike’s mistreatment of workers.
book . . .
Many students designed posters
depicting anti-Nike sentiment. Two The book contains many graphic and
other students wrote a joint letter to disturbing images relating to the treat-
Phillip Knight, C.E.O. of Nike, asking ment of slaves, and the students illustrat-
him to tell Nike’s side of this story. ed their responses with images that reflect
What began as a conversation a sense of brutality. While Maggie, a stu-
around a story turned into a discus- dent in Mitzi’s class, remembered the
sion around issues of power and con- chains, her classmate Jessica drew the
sumerism. I started to see how the scarred back of a slave who had been
classroom could offer space for conver- whipped. Her annotation that it made me
sations using the daily texts that stu- hurt inside just to see someone’s flesh torn
dents meet at school. ▼ apart speaks to the impact of these books
on the lives of the students who read
them.
TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories TeacherStories Teach

Writing as a Tool for Change

by Lee Heffernan, Childs Elementary School, Bloomington, Indiana

the books we had shared. Next we

I
have taught writing to elementary This critical literacy project
students for 17 years. Over this looked through our writer’s notebooks
time I have logged thousands of to find pieces with important themes. brought not only a new
hours reading student writing that I Kids selected pieces that they thought awareness of others but a
refer to as “recycled topics.” You proba- could be combined to make a picture
bly know what I mean: the dog stories, book that could have social impact. feeling of community to the
the kid sister stories, and the stories After storyboarding, writing, and many
Writer’s Workshop.
about the broken arm or the slumber revisions, the kids published original
party. I was disappointed with my stu- books that explored school problems.
dents’ passive interest in writing until In “A Whole New Day,” Min wrote
I became involved in a critical literacy about a Vietnamese character who is
project in which I read books that teased about her facial features. In “A
focused on “social issues” to my third New Craze,” John wrote about how the

E
ach of the writers in this
graders over the course of a school year Pokemon card-collecting craze excluded
issue is at a different
(Heffernan and Lewison, 2000). The kids who had lesser collections than
place in his or her concep-
conversations that emerged astonished others. In “Carrot Head,” Janet wrote
tualization of critical literacy.
me. Not only did the kids know much about a shy child who finds it hard to
Given a different time and
more than I had anticipated about cur- speak for herself at school. In “Soccer
space they could each be telling
rent events and issues of justice, they Surprise,” Ben wrote about the daily
different stories, moving in dif-
showed a keen curiosity for topics such problems with bullying and arguing
ferent directions, working with
as racism, poverty, and consumerism. that occur at recess on the soccer field.
different texts, some perhaps
The passionate conversations that As the kids read their books to
pushing the envelope a little
erupted daily in Reader’s Workshop other classes, they emphasized that
further in order to practice the
made the passivity of student writing their stories were important, often
use of language in more power-
during Writer’s Workshop even more claiming that their stories could
ful ways. The common denomi-
disappointing. One day, as the kids sat “change the world.” This critical litera-
nator in each of these stories,
on the rug for a writing mini-lesson, I cy project brought not only a new
however, is that all of the peo-
held up a number of the books we had awareness of others but a feeling of
ple have attempted to create
recently read and asked, “Why do you community to the Writer’s Workshop.
spaces in their particular
think these authors wrote these ▼
locations to engage in
books?” The kids quickly responded
critical literacies. We
with statements like, “Maybe he want-
hope that this issue
ed us to think about how it
helps you to do the
feels to be left out” and
same. ▼
“Maybe she wants people
to change how they treat
other people.”
We talked about the
power that writing can
have. I suggested that we
.
RAPHY

try our hand at writing sto-

ries that would encourage
HOTOG

our readers to reflect on the

LION P

world. I hoped to shift the

emphasis of Writer’s
VIL

Workshop from the personal to

L. TRO

the social.
We made a list of the dif-
ferent purposes and themes in
 School Talk (ISSN
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Childerhose, R. J. 1981. “The Hockey Luke, Allan, and Peter Freebody. individual subscriptions). Institutions may sub-
Story.” In Contexts: Anthology One, edited 1999. “Further Notes on the Four scribe for $20. Add $4 per year for Canadian
by Clayton Graves and Christine Resources Model.” Reading Online. and all other international postage. Single copy:
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Comber, Barbara, and Anne Simpson. body.html. Posted August 1999.
Remittances should be made payable to NCTE
2001. Negotiating Critical Literacies in Marsh, J. 2000. “ ‘But I Want to Fly
by check, money order, or bank draft in United
Classrooms. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Too!’: Girls and Superhero Play in States currency.
Erlbaum. the Infant Classroom.” Gender and Communications regarding orders,
Comber, Barbara, and Helen Nixon. 1999. Education 12 (2), 209–220. subscriptions, single copies, and change of
“Literacy Education as a Site for Social McGill, Alice. 1999. Molly Bannaky. address should be addressed to School Talk,
Justice: What Do Our Practices Do?” In Boston: Houghton Mifflin. NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois
Making Justice Our Project, edited by Mellor, Bronwyn, Marnie O’Neill, and 61801-1096; phone: 1-877-369-6283; e-mail:
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Comber, B., and P. Thomson, with M. Stories: Activities and Texts for permission to reprint should be addressed to
Wells. 2001 (forthcoming). “Critical Liter- Critical Readings. Urbana, IL: Permissions, NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road,
acy Finds a ‘Place’: Writing and Social NCTE. Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096. POSTMASTER:
Action in a Low-Income Australian Grade Morgan, Wendy. 1997. Critical Send address changes to School Talk, NCTE,
2/3 Classroom.” Elementary School Literacy in the Classroom. New 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-
Journal101 (4), 451– 464. York: Routledge Press. 1096.
Dyson, Anne Haas. 1997. Writing Muspratt, Sandy, Allan Luke, and Co-Editors: Joanne Hindley Salch and
Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Peter Freebody. 1997. Constructing Marianne Marino. NCTE Production Editor:
Critical Literacies: Teaching and Rona S. Smith. Designer: Pat Mayer.
Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy.
New York: Teachers College Press. Learning Textual Practice. 2001 Elementary Section
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. Steering Committee
Power. London: Longman. O’Brien, Jennifer. 1994. “Show Mum
Fairclough, Norman, ed. 1992. Critical You Love Her: Taking a New Look at Vivian Vasquez, Chair
Language Awareness. London: Longman. Junk Mail.” Reading 28 (1), 43–46. American University, Washington, DC
Harste, Jerome C. 1997. “Curriculum as Short, Kathy G., Jerome C. Harste, Kathryn Mitchell Pierce, Assistant Chair
Audit Trail: Underlying Premises.” Draft and Carolyn Burke. 1995. Creating Glenridge Elementary School, Clayton, MO
of paper presented at the Whole Classrooms for Authors and Ralph Fletcher
Language Umbrella Conference. Inquirers. Westport, CT: Author/Consultant, Durham, NH
———. 2000. “Supporting Critical Heinemann. Joanne Hindley Salch
Conversations in Classrooms.” In Vasquez, Vivian. 2000. “Building Manhattan New School, NY
Adventuring with Books, edited by Community through Social Action.” Vivian Hubbard
Kathryn Mitchell Pierce. Urbana, IL: School Talk 5 (4). Crownpoint Community School, NM
NCTE. ———. 2000. “Getting beyond ‘I Like Marianne Marino
Heffernan, Lee, and Mitzi Lewison. 2000. the Book’: Putting a Critical Edge Central Elementary School, Glen Rock, NJ
“Making Real World Issues Our on Kids’ Purposes for Reading.”
Business: Critical Literacy in a Third- School Talk 5 (2). Diane Stephens
———. 2000. “Language Stories and University of South Carolina, Columbia
Grade Classroom.” Primary Voices 9 (2),
15–21. Critical Literacy Lessons.” Talking Denny Taylor
Janks, Hilary, ed. 1993. Critical Language Points 11 (2), 5–7. Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Awareness Series. Johannesburg, South ———. 2000. “Our Way: Using the Arlene Midget Clausell, Elementary Level
Africa: Hodder & Stoughton. Everyday to Create a Critical Representative-at-Large
Kavanagh, Kerry. 1997. Texts on Literacy Curriculum.” Primary Brookhaven Elementary School, Morgantown,
Television: School Literacies through Voices 9 (2), 8–13. WV
Viewing in the First Years of School. ———. 1998. “Building Equitable Curt Dudley-Marling, ex officio
Adelaide, South Australia: Department of Communities: Taking Social Action Boston College, Massachusetts
Education and Children’s Services. in a Kindergarten Classroom.” Sharon Murphy, ex officio
Lester, Julius. 1999. From Slave Ship to Talking Points 9 (2), 3–6. ▼ York University, Ontario
Freedom Road. New York: Penguin Jerome C. Harste, Executive Committee
Putnam Books for Young Readers. Liaison
Indiana University, Bloomington
Kathryn A. Egawa, NCTE Staff Liaison
Next Issue: The July issue of School Talk will focus on the Writer’s Notebook.
▼
Copyright © 2001 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
NCTE Web site: www.ncte.org