The Book Fort
Instructional Ideas for Immediate Implementation
Welcome to The Book Fort: Volume 2, Issue 4
Week 39: Literacy Tools in the Classroom
Teaching Through Critical Inquiry
Check out the text online if you'd like to know more and follow one of the authors on social media for more info about his current work: @rbeach
Beach, R. et. al. (2010). Literacy Tools in the Classroom: Teaching Through Critical Inquiry, Grades 5 - 12. Teachers College Press.
How Do We Use Literacy Tools to Engage in Critical Inquiry & Create Spaces?
After a brief introduction about the unique narratives and identities our students bring with them to the classroom and the ways in which the typical conformity of American schooling stamps out these unique stories, Chapter Two begins the discussion of an inquiry stance. The authors collectively believe that inquiry becomes ...critical in spaces where young people, working alongside supportive adults, begin to 'question the everyday world and consider actions that can be taken to promote social justice'" (26). As such, the Critical Response Protocol (CRP) is suggested as a method for engaging students with adults in critical inquiry about challenges faced in the school community. The protocol was adapted from Liz Lerman's approach to providing feedback to dance artists, interestingly enough, and in it, students and teachers utilize the following questions:
- What are you noticing?
- What does it remind you of?
- How do you feel?
- What questions does the "text" raise for you (whatever the text may be, not necessarily print)?
- What did you learn?
These questions can then be used to create spaces to facilitate discussion, to prompt writing, to analyze literature or other texts, to illuminate problems, and many other instructional activities. Questioning critically first and identifying the reader responses becomes the focus, rather than answering questions about text that come from the teacher or another source. Those have a place, certainly, but they often do no promote critical thinking or analysis.
How Do We Use Literacy Tools to Enact Identities & Establish Agency?
"Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, reveling in our differences, this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community." ~Bell Hooks~
The third chapter serves as an introduction to multiple subsequent sections that offer practical instructional activities teachers can use to enact identity and establish student agency. This begins with the idea that every student, every person has a story to tell. The marginalization of some stories, particularly those of students, prompts a focus on creating supportive learning experiences and environments that promote the development of student voice, agency, and ultimately to enact positive change in the school and broader community. Below, I have provided a short sample from each section with an instructional suggestion. For more, buy the book!
Narrative: Surfacing Buried Histories
- Whose stories matter and whose are obscured?
- Who creates the stories we accept as truth?
- Do certain stories distort our abilities to 'read the world' accurately?
- Are there better, more enabling stories that portray a truer sense of personal or collective identity?
- Are there stories that provide us with more complete explanations of the world we share or orient our actions to a clearer vision of the world we might want to share?
Dramatic Inquiry: Imagining & Enacting Life from Multiple Perspectives
- High school students speak as if on the phone with their congressional representative, represented by one person in the room, to explore a question that affects their community. Then, students switch roles to speak from another perspective. One such example is: What might be done to help Central American refugees at the Mexican/American border?
Spoken Word: Performing Poetry & Community
- Who am I?
- Where am I from?
- Where am I going?
- What communities am I connected to and responsible for?
- What legacies am I heir to?
- Who has made sacrifices for me?
- What sacrifices should I make for future generations?
- What do I do with my indignation?
Website of the Month
Share Your Learning
Ed Tech Tool of the Month
Scrible
Scrible is a research tool I learned about at NCTE. I was immediately sucked into the marketing presentation when the sales rep mentioned the words research and documentation. This is the world I live in -- I am a doctoral student in my final year of writing -- but like any teacher, I was skeptical. Upon further review, however, I found this tool to be extremely useful and user-friendly for both educators and students. Featured on Mashable and LifeHacker, Scrible makes documenting, storing, and sharing research sources incredibly easy for any writer. Check out the website for pricing plans, to sign up for free, to check out short videos about how it works, and decide for yourself if Scrible might make your academic writing a little bit easier. Follow @scrible for up-to-date tips for using the tool.
Reading Recommendations
The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away by Ronald L. Smith
The Tesla Legacy by K.K. Perez
True Tales of Rescue by Kama Einhorn
Missed Previous Issues?
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Visit the Index for all topics and tools featured or click directly on back issues below.
Volume 1: 2017-2018
Issue 1 Issue 2 Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5 Issue 6 Issue 7 Issue 8 Issue 9 Issue 10 Issue 11
Issue 12 Issue 13 Issue 14 Issue 15 Issue 16 Issue 17 Issue 18 Issue 19 Issue 20 Issue 21
Issue 22 Issue 23 Issue 24 Issue 25 Issue 26 Issue 27 Issue 28 Issue 29 Issue 30 Issue 31
Issue 32 Issue 33 Issue 34 Issue 35
Volume 2: 2018-2019
Kristie Hofelich Ennis, NBCT
Email: kennis@murraystate.edu
Location: Dublin, OH, United States
Facebook: facebook.com/kristie.hofelich
Twitter: @KristieHEnnis