What does Critical Literacy Mean to Me?

Before this course, I admit that as a first grade literacy teacher, my goal was for my students to be able to understand, verbalize and make connections to texts we read - to go beyond just learning to read, but also reading to learn from all types of books (fiction, non-fiction, informational, biography, etc.) However, I did not looking critically at the books I was choosing to educate my students.

Critical literacy means creating spaces in my classroom for books that force children to think not only about the story itself but also the internal structures that allow students understand and make connections to the text. Students need to be aware of the role of different characters, how an author's point of view influences the story, how different people of race and religion are represented in sets of text (either found in school, in the media, in movies, etc.)

At first, I was a bit disheartened in my own teaching because many of the books I had been choosing had not been especially good examples of diverse and unbiased literature. But critical literacy has helped me to understand that children need to be exposed to all forms of text - but what is important is how we guide them to interact with the text as readers and critical thinkers.

Research at a Local Bookstore

For my research I went to the B.Dalton Bookstore at Ballston Common Mall. It is part of a small chain of bookstores, mostly found in malls, that is now owned by Barnes and Noble. Ballston is a neighborhood of Arlington, VA located just west of Washington, DC. The population of Ballston is mostly young working singles near the center of the neighborhood and families (primarily white and Hispanic) a little further out from the center of town.

When observing in the bookstore, there were not a large number of books that represented diversity. There were some books that portrayed diversity in characters, or directly such as in Is there really a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis, however I found that many of the books represented characters in very stereotypical way. For example, many of the children's books in the Baron's Books series, which address specific phonics sounds, had token African American or Asian characters.

The children's section is located in the back, left section of the store. There are about 4, 5 foot bookshelves arranged by gender and topic. On the main wall there were many well known book titles such as Mo Williams The Pidgeon Finds a Hot Dog and many Dr. Seuess titles. There were not many books titles that addressed more critical social issues, such as might be found in a bookstore like Busboys and Poets.

As noted for my post on the library, there are many Hispanic residents in Ballston, so it was good to see books in Spanish quite prominently displayed in the store. However, they were mostly titles like Harry Potter and Curious George translated into Spanish. This does allow these students access to the books, however there is still a cultural divide when these books place readers in cultures that are not like their own. I would have liked to see more titles by Spanish authors that readers could make more personal connections to.

Research in a Local Library

For my observation I went to the Central Branch of the Arlington Public Library. It is located in the neighborhood of Ballston, just west of Washington, DC. It is important to note that Arlington has a large number of Hispanic residents. There are many apartment complexes located and a local elementary school just south of the library.

I found some diversity represented in the books that were displayed. When you walk into the library, the kids section is off to the right. On a bookshelf, there are books that have been either recommended by a librarian or have a thematic importance like a holiday that is happening that time of year.

I was happy to see a fair number of Spanish books available in the recommended section, as well as in other sections of the library, such as books on tapes. Some of the titles I found were:

Sol a Sol by Lori Carlson and Emily Lisker
Yum! MmMm! Que Rico!: America's Sproutings by Pat Mora and Rafael Lopez

Many of the books out were poetry books, since the library is celebrating poetry month during the month of April.

While there were a fair number of books for Spanish speaking children, the library lacked books for those of other ethnicities or cultures besides white. Also, even some of the books for Spanish speakers were English books that had been translated or were authored (it seems based on names) not by native Spanish speakers. While the books convey messages about Spanish culture, it does not appear that they stereotype Hispanic children.

The library is fairly close to the Ballston metro but it would be easier for people to access the library if they had a car. However, the Arlington Public Library does have a few branches so that people can access books even if they are not close to a metro or bus stop.