Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children (Language, Culture, and Teaching Series) (Volume in the Language, Culture, and Teaching Series)

Vivian Vasquez draws on her own classroom experience to demonstrate how issues raised from everyday conversations with pre-kindergarten children can be used to create an integrated critical literacy curriculum over the course of one school year. The strategies she presents are solidly grounded in relevant theory and research. In this innovative and engaging text, Vasquez:\*describes how she and her students negotiated a critical literacy curriculum;\*shows how they dealt with particular social and cultural issues and themes; and\*shares the insights she gained as she attempted to understand what it means to frame one's teaching from a critical literacy perspective.Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children is specifically useful for early elementary (K-3) teachers as a demonstration of classroom applications of critical literacy that they can try in their own classrooms. It is equally relevant to all concerned with issues of social justice and equity in school settings and the political nature of education, and to educators at all levels who are interested in finding ways to make their curriculum critical. For preservice teachers, this book offers a model for envisioning their future practice and for recognizing the important relationship between theory and practice. Teacher educators and consultants will find this book valuable as an example of how to put a critical edge on teaching. It is intended for use as a text in reading, language arts, literacy, social justice, critical literacy, and early childhood education courses. Contents......Page 6 Series Foreword......Page 10 Preface......Page 14 Introduction......Page 20 Inquiries Into Critical Literacy......Page 21 Audit Trail as a Tool for Generating and Circulating Meaning......Page 22 Negotiating Spaces and the Mandated Curriculum......Page 46 What Complexities Are Involved With Engaging in Critical Literacy Practice?......Page 51 Out-of-School Support Groups......Page 52 How Our School Day Was Organized......Page 53 Class Meeting......Page 55 Setting a Meeting Agenda......Page 56 Using Two Day Plans......Page 59 Reflections......Page 60 The Role of Parents......Page 61 Constructing a Curricular Audit Trail......Page 64 The Audit Trail Grows......Page 66 Creating a Rain Forest Play......Page 69 Raising Issues of Gender......Page 74 Audit Trail as a Tool for Constructing Curriculum......Page 77 Visibly Connecting Issues on Our Audit Trail......Page 104 Setting the Scene......Page 110 What Is a French Café?......Page 111 Analyzing the French Café......Page 115 Learning About Powerful Forms of Language......Page 118 Offering Children Alternate Ways of Acting......Page 119 We Have Vegetarians at Our School?......Page 122 Problematizing Social Text......Page 123 Extending Our Literacies......Page 126 Further Extensions of the Vegetarian Issue......Page 127 Reflective Summary......Page 130 Save the Beluga......Page 132 Grounding Our Work in Social Intent With Real World Effects......Page 137 Analyzing the Beluga Incident......Page 140 The McDonald's Happy Meal as Text......Page 142 We Know How McDonald's Thinks: The Discussion Continues......Page 143 Reflecting on How McDonald's Thinks......Page 145 Who Can Have Collectibles?......Page 146 Further Analysis of the Happy Meal......Page 147 Reflecting on the Conversation......Page 148 Final Thoughts on the Happy Meal Discussions in the Classroom......Page 150 Social Action Outside the Classroom......Page 151 Designing a Toy Container......Page 152 Organizing a Junior Kindergarten Conference: A Culminating Experience for Our Negotiated Critical Literacy Curriculum......Page 156 Using Social Critique, Social Analysis, and Social Action to Construct Literacy......Page 158 Asking Questions That Matter: A Final Reflection......Page 159 What Next Year's Junior Kindergartens Should Know......Page 161 Endnotes......Page 162 References......Page 166 Suggested Readings......Page 170 O......Page 172 W......Page 173 C......Page 174 K......Page 175 S......Page 176 W......Page 177 Vivian Vasquez draws on her own classroom experience to demonstrate how issues raised from everyday conversations with pre-kindergarten children can be used to create an integrated critical literacy curriculum over the course of one school year. The strategies she presents are solidly grounded in relevant theory and research. In this innovative and engaging text, *describes how she and her students negotiated a critical literacy curriculum; *shows how they dealt with particular social and cultural issues and themes; and *shares the insights she gained as she attempted to understand what it means to frame one's teaching from a critical literacy perspective. Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children is specifically useful for early elementary (K-3) teachers as a demonstration of classroom applications of critical literacy that they can try in their own classrooms. It is equally relevant to all concerned with issues of social justice and equity in school settings and the political nature of education, and to educators at all levels who are interested in finding ways to make their curriculum critical. For preservice teachers, this book offers a model for envisioning their future practice and for recognizing the important relationship between theory and practice. Teacher educators and consultants will find this book valuable as an example of how to put a critical edge on teaching. It is intended for use as a text in reading, language arts, literacy, social justice, critical literacy, and early childhood education courses. "Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children is specifically useful for early elementary (K-3) teachers as a demonstration of classroom applications of critical literacy that they can try in their own classrooms. It is equally relevant to all concerned with issues of social justice and equity in school settings and the political nature of education, and to educators at all levels who are interested in finding ways to make their curriculum critical for pre-service teachers, this book offers a model for envisioning their future practice and for recognizing the important relationship between theory and practice. Teacher educators and consultants will find this book valuable as an example of how to put a critical edge on teaching. It is intended for use as a text in reading, language arts, literacy, social justice, critical literacy, and early childhood education courses."--Jacket The author draws on her own classroom experience to demonstrate how issues raised from everyday conversations with pre-kindergarten children can be used to create an integrated critical literacy curriculum over the course of one school year. The strategies presented are grounded in theory