Critical Literacy As Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response

According to Paul & Elder, “critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a vision of improving it.” Their argument for the need to utilize critical thinking is the fact that without focus, most of the thinking done by people is partial, many times uninformed, biased, distorted, and prejudiced. What is not easily recognized is the fact that the very fabric of life is

This article focused on the constant debate concerning the conditions in which students develop the skill of thinking critically. Being able to use critical thinking requires knowledge of facts and concepts about the subject matter. I found this article interesting because I think it is important that students develop critical thinking skills. Most scholarly articles tend to have an abstract that summarizes the papers entirety. Due to this this article is considered scholarly.

       Public schools have discovered the importance of critical thinking, many people are trying to teach children how to do it. The problem is that very few teachers know how to do. Robert Sternberg, an early advocate of critical thinking in teaching,

According to the “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” preface to the textbook ninth edition Rereading America is written by Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, is edited by Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle published in 2008. It introduces how to become a critical reader, and it challenges us to think critically. To understand well what critical thinking is, the introduction divides into different sections to comprehend how to be a critical thinker steps by steps. The author provides some tips for college students to read actively by taking notes and writing comments. In order to be a critical thinker, the author emphasize reading is significant and to read deeply approach to critical thinking. (Change)

In today’s current school systems, the question of whether or not schools are correctly teaching students the right curriculum is coming up for debate. In the Article,"Teaching Critical Thinking by Marcia Clemmitt, she goes into extensive research of the U.S. Department of Education’s crisis of standardized testing. Most learning activities include standardized testing which lacks many students to express creative and critical thinking. Critical thinking is defined as the examination and evaluation of ideas, events and arguments in their contexts which introduces students to interrogate assumptions and identifying biases (Clemmitt)Pure critical thinking involves investigating a text more than just memorizing, but to apply theirself in other ways of techniques, meaning schools should stimulate more analytical methods of teaching. This would not only free students from a sheltered test culture,but will allow students to think in a deeper,more passionate way than before.

Critical thinking is an important part of a lot of people’s lives because they choose to look at the world more differently than most. People choose to think critically because they want to see what other don’t. What I believe that critical thinking means is to look at something from every angle possible and to think about why or how it’s important. A lot of readers that I know tend to think critically because it allows them to dissect what is written and gain more from a story aside from the normal enjoyment of just reading the book. Critical thinking helps readers determine if the book is problematic and how the errors in that book make it worth discussing.

Critical thinking is a vital task that must be done in our everyday lives. In “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking” found at criticalthinking.org, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul explain critical thinking as “the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances”. Even tough there are many different types of methods to achieve a better quality of critical thinking, Dr. Elder and Dr. Paul discuss four specific ones in the article. All strategies, however, force you to put yourself in an uncomfortable and difficult position to develop a better quality of thinking.

In, “Doing Critical Literacy, Texts and Activities for Students and Teachers,” chapter one talked about the various ways re-presentation can express itself through different perspectives. The position of how writers or readers express their context, analyze a text (critical literacy), and the power and politics of language. The examples provided where of the way a position of a picture makes a difference, comparing drawings with writing, and words having meaning in context (who, where, when…). In chapter two, subjectpositions was introduced and the difference of belonging and being different was explaingd. And being different can be challenging, people can feel discriminated, whether it is being of a different race,

The idea that I have right now is that being critical reader, means that the reader is being able to understand the text and its context and implement that in their learning. In addition, texts prompt students to raise questions. To sum up, the idea of critical literacy is, learners should scrutinize everything they read and then they use that stragteies or techniques in their future learning.

There are numerous students that lack the satisfactory reading whether the problem is tactics for conception or using the information presented to students. Those students that have lower satisfactory reading are the students that would benefit from critical thinking and reading but do not receive it. According to Falk-Ross (2002), there has been a 20% at a two-year college and 8% and lower at other colleges/ universities (pg. 48). Many of these students do not do as well has other students that have critical thinking/reading skills. Those students are forced to take remedial English classes or struggle in future English classes. Without critical thinking and reading abilities, students lack the ability to use and understand some of the material. Mary Jane Farley (2016), suggested that there was an association between comprehension and critical thinking abilities (pg. 922).

Students having hard times in comprehending the thought of the text and what the author implies. It seems to be reading by words but not reading between the lines. It is important to know how comprehension plays an integral part in a manner of thinking and conceptualizing facts and ideas from the

What is critical thinking to you? To some it may mean making wiser choices, taking time to critically analyze a situation, or to just put greater thought in your everyday life. According to Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Pauls’ article, “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking”, critical thinking is defined as the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. To us, critical thinking is a very important aspect of life and something we can all improve on. It allows us to think outside the box and put ourselves in others shoes and really look at things differently. We made sure to think about our own thinking habits while discussing these articles and to notice if we were ever being close-minded.

According to (Critical literacy practices, 2011) “critical reading” is a type of literacy practice that is learning practice in which students analyze and critique language and power relationships within written texts. Many college freshmen are not prepared for critical reading, yet a lot of higher education organizations and levels do not require individual critical reading courses. Even though critical reading is an often-cited neutral topic in some different colleges structured reading courses. In many different colleges, at times, there is little to no research that exists that may also describe how composition instructors teach critical reading strategies. No matter the subject or the age of the reader. An overall reading goal for critical readers includes reading an article to comprehend information based on what was stated within the text. While readers read to gain understanding from the text, the readers also use additional information at times such as factual ideas, prior knowledge, and also context clues to understand the difficult text. There are many ways to become a “critical reader” which includes different types of reading strategies.

Critical Literacy has many different forms, and can be very different depending on which classroom it is taking place in. The basic premise that I acquired from researching critical literacy is that it requires the literate consumers of the text to adopt a critical questioning approach (Critical Literacy, 2015). Critical Literacy is forming an individual opinion on a topic that isn’t only superficial, but also in depth and meaningful. Being critically literate isn’t about attaining literacy for the purpose of reading letters on a page, it is to read the words on the page and become engaged in a discussion formulating opinions and expressing ideas openly. Becoming critically literate means that an individual

When defining the term “critical thinking” it can seem overwhelming and daunting, especially for young learners. In laments terms, you are teaching your student how to think for him or herself when it comes to problem solving. Instead of giving the student the answer, you give them the tools to discover the answer him/herself. Critical thinking is an important component of any classroom. No matter the age group, these skills stay with a child for the rest of his or her life. As a teacher, it is important to understand what critical thinking pertains to and how to structure part of your lesson plan around developing critical thinking skills.