by Dawn Rodrigues, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (College Conference on Composition and Communication, Chicago, Illinois, April 2, 1998)
Ultimately, the students literacy problems may indeed be related to socioeconomic conditions rather than heritage. That doesn't, however, imply that ethnic background--in this case, our students' Mexican American heritage, doesn't matter. In fact, I think a key to opening students up to learning may lie in finding cultural issues that are meaningful them--issues that matter enough to prompt students to want to read and write about them. I decided to do just what Bob Sledd says is the next step--to "take students beyond their local horizons" in my composition course by designing a course that emphasizes critical literacy.
I wanted students to learn how to read not only texts about their world and the world beyond them, but also I wanted them to learn how to read the world--the people, events, actions, and activities that take place in their world on a daily basis. Some assignments, thus, ask students to observe and interpret the people and places in their world. Other assignments require students to read and write about critical issues in their lives and in others' lives throughout the world.
In my talk today I will tell you about this composition one course that I designed to emphasize critical literacy. Here's what I plan to do:
I hoped to move students toward critical literacy by immersing them in reading, writing, and reflecting about issues in their world that are common to the larger world--issues such as employment, health care, welfare reform, and education as well as the more obvious issues of immigration and border control. In this course, students used the World Wide Web and other sources to read and research critical issues and themes in their lives.
Definitions of Critical Thinking and Critical Literacy: Some Definitions. Functional literacy is the ability to learn how to decode a given language; it is viewed as competence to perform at a given level. Critical literacy is literacy that is developed with conscious attention to social relations and to how meaning is created. Through dialogical questioning, students come to learn how they know what they know. Instead of just wanting students to succeed, I want them to understand the way the world works. My notion of critical literacy extends the analytic skills of traditional critical thinking by asking students to consider the social contexts and consequences of topics they are exploring.
How I Developed My Course. As I thought about the kind of course I wanted to try with the UTB students, I reflected on my own teaching experience. For years, I have tried to create courses that build on student interests: if they care--really care--about something, they will want to read and write about it. I have often developed courses around a single topic of interest to my students. But in Brownsville most students do not have an interest in standard topics.
They are, however, interested in their lives and their culture. So I decided to develop a course with a critical literacy perspective. I had read Pedagogy of the Oppressed several times, years ago, and was particularly fascinated by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's description of his teaching methods. His students wanted to learn! They quickly saw the value of becoming literate. He believed that the main goal of a literacy program should be to help students develop a sense of the connection between their own lives and the society in which they are living. He stressed literacy as a tool for changing the conditions in the world.
On a simple level, given the constraints of a college course, I have the same goal: I want students to want to read and write about their world and the world around them--both locally and nationally. I modeled my course loosely on a course I remembered reading about (while teaching a reading and writing connections graduate class at Colorado State University) in a book by Ira Shor called Freire for the Classroom. In "Strangers No More: A Liberatory Literacy Curriculum," Kyle Fiore and Nan Elsasser describe a writing class that one of Nan taught for adult black women at the College of the Bahamas.
Their course provides an excellent model for developing a course around the thematic concerns of students. They began by locating issues that were critically important to the students lives and moved to assignments that required them to write with distance about their world. The course ended with students writing not only about the issues, but by using their new writing skills to take action in the world. In this course, the woman chose personally and socially significant issues: wife beating and rape. After reading and writing about these issues throughout the semester, the students wrote letters to the editor for their final assignment. Their course followed this progression:
1. They began by using students personal knowledge to explore their world. (Students wrote a Guidebook to the Bahamas)
2. With the students, they selected several issues to explore in depth and hone students ability to analyze and reflect on these issues. (Students selected wife beating and rape.)
3. They asked students to use writing as a way of intervening in their social environment. (Students wrote letters to the editor of the local papers.)
Ingredients of My Course. My course follows a similar model. Standard goals for the course include such items as developing the ability to write academic argument and to become critical thinkers--in the sense of being able to reason and evaluate evidence analytically. To these goals, I added [without putting it on the syllabus this time] the goal of developing students' critical literacy: the ability read the world from multiple perspectives. That is, I want students to learn how to step outside their immediate lives and incorporate broader points of view into their thinking. My notion of critical literacy extends the analytic skills of traditional critical thinking by asking students to consider the social contexts and consequences of topics they are exploring.
As a starting point, I want students to begin to recognize that where they live--Brownsville,Texas--is the site for issues that affect people everywhere--border disputes, immigration issues, racial problems, health issues, poverty--these are not just local problems. Their world is not invisible. Nor is it impervious to outside influences. More importantly, I wanted students to think that they can have a role in that larger world only if they have the language skills and understandings to enable them to take action in the world.
My course followed a progression similar to Kyle and Elsasser's course:
1. We began by writing about people and places in the Rio Grande Valley (for an audience of readers unfamiliar with South Texas)
2. Students next read and discussed local newspaper, identifying issues that were of critical importance to their lives; then students moved outward--researching the same issues in national newspapers and journals. (Identifying connections between local and national issues and learning how to analyze issues critically.)
3. Students selected one of their earlier works to publish to a Web-based classroom magazine. (Thus using writing to take some form of action in the world: making a statement about their culture or issues related to their lives.)
I'd like you to look at the course syllabus just briefly, noting both the standard goals (marked) and the Frieirean movement (unmarked on the students' syllabus at this time, but that I've noted for you). I've attached two assignments so that you can get a sense of the way I structured the writing tasks.
Students begin by learning how to observe and read their world. Early assignments include weekly summary/reaction entries based on newspaper stories about people and places in the Rio Grande Valley, followed by two essays on those topics. Gradually, they develop the ability to analyze written texts both analytically and reflectively. Students track recurring issues in their world--stories that recur in the newspaper from week to week--and then extend their thinking by finding Web sources and journal articles on the same topics from broader perspectives. Texts for the course thus emerge gradually, and are based on issues students select in the local news and on related items they locate in online databases and on the Web. Here is a summary of the course movement:
-News stories about issues. Summary-reaction entries of any issue student chooses to read.
- Identification of critical issues locally (patterns of news stories)
-Essays on local issues
-Critical issues researched
-Critical issues discussed, analyzed, reflected on, and debated.
-Documented essays on students' interpretations of these issues.
Will this kind of course help students become better writers? Not right away, I don't think. But interest in the course and a real commitment to get something out of it will help them in college. I didn't create the course thinking that writing about issues that matter would translate into improved writing as measured on a standard test of writing skills (though this would be worth exploring). At this point, I was and still am, focusing on a way of teaching that lifts (nudges them at least) to more involved, reflective, dialectical thinking.
The Internet and online databases are new mediums, thus they are is relatively unfamiliar to students; as a result, we can exploit them using them to "make the familiar strange"; that is, students are more willing to distance themselves from issues and sources they locate on the web than they would be able to distance themselves from the same topics if they appeared in their textbooks or in library books.
The Web and online Databases played a key role throughout the course. The students and I were continually amazed at how easy it was to find national articles on the same issues that we had identified locally. For example, discussions of welfare reform in national sources often mentioned the impact on border regions. Sources on illegal immigration often mentioned Brownsville (See article in your handout). Finding that their town and their region of the country appeared regularly in national stories was exciting to students.
In brief, the Web and online data bases supported my course goals in these ways:
Throughout the semester, students were asked to evaluate their sources. I used a variety of strategies to help students learn how to read critically and reflectively. The following questions were particularly helpful:
To identify bias in sources:
To identify bias in one's own views:
Other helpful questions include the following kinds of queries:
Overall, the course worked well. The writing was no better--nor did I expect it to be. Students were very pleased with the course, though. Student attendance and completion rates were higher than they usually are in the department (although I cannot tell if this was because of the course content or the way the course was delivered: one physical site and one remote site). Evaluations were high and students indicated that they enjoyed the course and its focus on their world. Comments such as the following were common:
Nonetheless, I feel the course has a way to go before I accomplish the (hidden) goals of developing critical literacy. I don't think I took them far enough, challenged their thinking often enough. Too many of the students who received A's and B's had safe topics and safe thesis statements. And, looking at the entire set of approximately 70 students, I saw only minimal willingness to challenge received opinions
On occasion, students were able to critically analyze the issues--both during class and in their writing. Here are some key moments of critical awareness:
Many excellent in-class discussions
Students enjoyed talking about their world. Students shared stories of prejudice as the semester progressed. They talked about conversations with illegal aliens and sympathized with their plight. They expressed outrage at the Graglia incident (the law professor at UT Austin who said that Hispanics are not embarrased by academic failure." Students were fired up as they responded to prompts such as, "Do you think someone who is not Hispanic can possibly understand how Hispanics think and act?"
Sheer Enjoyment of Writing about Local Topics:
Students liked writing about their culture and their locale. Here is a sample from an essay on the Chupacabra, a local legend:
Personally, I can't say I believe the Chupa-Chupa is real, but it has become one of my favorite legends. Whether real or not, it attracts my interest because of the mysteries and tales behind it. In a world where people are talking about aliens and monsters, I enjoy the fact that even we (the people of South Texas) have our own little tales and mysteries; the only difference is, we created a little beast that combines humor and terror to add a little twist to the more traditional supernatural beings. Like the mysteries of Area 51 and Nessie in Scotland, the Chupacabra provides us with a dark, ambiguous creature closer to home. Also, it has made a name for South Texas and Mexico and has helped improve the financial situations of many people who sell the t-shirts and baseball caps found on every child's body at one time or another.
Some critical comments and explorations in writing
Some students demonstrated heightened levels of critical thinking, as these comments from student papers indicate:
But the students didn't move far enough. They placed it safe and did not challenge one another's views. In general, here is the pattern I saw:
Safe topics and thesis statements. (Students were not willing to risk in their thesis statements)
- Thesis statement: Women and minorities are paid less than their white male counterparts, and this gap grows the higher up the management table you climb. [She did not want to focus only on Hispanic women--a much more daring topic.]
- Thesis statement: Operation Rio Grande was a good idea and should continue. [Of four papers on this topic, all took the same stance. One stands out [Cody's paper], for it at least tackles the opposing viewpoints.]
Note: several articles that I have read (review in CE?) note that critical literacy is more likely to appear first in speech; later in writing. I could go through the video tapes of the course to see if this appears to be true.
Lack of variety and diversity in sources.
Too large a proportion of sources were Web sources, in this case more reportorial rather than reflective: agency reports, news items, data sheets. Journal articles available in many subscription databases on these topics are much more challenging and provocative. [I need to see if the better papers used more of these sources]
Little variety in Student opinions
Most students in the class have the same views on almost all the topics and issues. They didn't challenge each other enough.
Continuing Difficulty Distancing Themselves
Distancing themselves from their world--having them step aside and think about what they were describing for an audience not familiar with their topics--seemed to be a good way to begin. But it wasn't always successful. Here's a sample of Josie's essay about the 16th of September.
Essay #1 Sample (Excerpt)
In the Valley, dies y seis de septiembre signals the start of celebration. All over the Valley fiestas (parties) begin as early as the weekend before September 16. In my hometown of San Benito, for the last six years the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center has sponsored its annual 16th of September Fiesta. As it is traditionally celebrated in other cities in the valley, various musical acts come to San Benito to perform including Valerio Longoria and Los Dos Gilbertos. Usually the style of music is Tejano (Mexican music with American (Texan) adaptations), or Conjunto (Mexican music played with an accordion and a twelve-stringed guitar known as a bajo sexto). Also the fiesta has food -- and lots of it. Hungry people can choose from menudo, chalupas, tacos, or elotes. Anyone with a more American palate can enjoy pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, or popcorn.
Difficulty in seeing links between national and local issues.
Several student evaluations mentioned that they didn't understand why I dropped the life on the border theme after the first two papers (I didn't. But since they weren't writing about people and places and specific news events that happened in their locale, they assumed there was no connection.)
Conservative Response to Hispanic Issues
I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. Students' are proud and don't want any favors. Historical arguments about patterns of discrimination didn't touch them. They want to believe that in America, hard work will get you wherever you want to go. Granted, many were outraged about the extent to which some schools will go to recruit minorities. But few students were willing to concede any value at all to Affirmative action--anywhere.
Lack of Connectedness to other Hispanics
Although there was much interest in local issues, stories about the larger Hispanic community had little interest to most students. (There was one exception. One student chose for his research paper a study of patterns in advertising to the Hispanic market. He remained uncritical of current patterns, however.)
I've got two major plans:
1. I want to sructure and sequence the reading and writing assignments more carefully. Also, I want to devote more time to common readings that the entire class can analyze before students do independent or small group research. In essence, I want to work on their critical thinking skills and on their willingness to reflect.
2. I want to make the purpose of the course--critical literacy--overt. There is no reason I can't add it to my syllabus--as long as I do what the department expects regarding critical thinking and writing skills.
3. I'd like to find a few partner classes for the course. I would like to do this course collaboratively with teachers from other parts of the country. The course could be taught anywhere, as long as the readings and issues are located by the students, in their own areas of the country. The issues that emerge at different places --many of them, at least--will no doubt overlap.
If faculty in different parts of the country created similar courses, with similar class publications, we could link them together. I envision a common entry point to a vast collection of student-written guidebooks to different parts of the world. Here is an example of what a home page for such a collaborative course might look like. [show sample page]
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Voices from across the World: Student Projects in Process
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But before I get too carried away, let me move back to reality. As I already noted, I'm not sure that the students' writing in this course improved. I look forward to working on assessment projects with Bob and Marty so that I can have a clearer picture of that potential. But in the meantime, I know that students enjoyed the course, and I'm sure that the readings and writing assignments I created did no harm. In fact, I'm sure I made some progress. But most of all, I enjoyed creating this kind of course and plan to do more with it in the future. I'm not a business-as-usual type of person.
Works Cited
"Paulo Freire," 29 March 1998 <http://nlu.nl.edu/ace/Resources/Freire.html>.
Stephen Walter, "Conceptualizations of Literacy," 25 Nov. 1997. 30 March 1998 <http://ww.sil.org/lingualinks/library/literacy/krz313/krz221/krz230.htm>.
Bilingual Education: A Dailogue with the Bakhtin Circle by Marcia Moraes, http://www.sunypress.edu/sunyp/backads/html/moraesbilingual.html
Ira Shor, ed. Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1987.
Fiore, Kyle and Nan Elsasser. "Strangers No More: A Liberatory Literacy Curriculum" in Freire for the Classroom: A Sourcebook for Liberatory Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1987 (87-103).
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Opressed.
Essay #3:
Analysis of an Issue—Are Equal Opportunity Programs Necessary?
This assignment requires you to read and learn about an issue before taking a stand on it. You will all write about the same general issue—whether equal opportunity programs for minority students are needed. After reading a set of articles on this topic, you should have developed a basic understanding of the issues and you should be able to take a stand on the general topic or on a focused sub-topic.
Select one of the following questions to use as the basis for your essay or develop a similar question of your own:
Your Assignment. Analyze the issue (or question) that you are addressing. Then take a stand. In the rest of the essay, develop your opinion with supporting evidence (facts, data, quotes, etc. from the essays you have read and from personal experience, reading, or observation. ) You will need to cite any of the articles you quote, summarize, paraphrase, or refer to. If you refer to any articles or newspaper stories not in the set of readings, please include a photocopy in your essay folder.
NOTE: You can focus your essay on one specific reading selection or on the entire set of readings.