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Some
Classroom Strategies
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Developing
Critical Literacy Awareness
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Texts are usually treated with
reverence in the classroom. Published materials are viewed as objective, unbiased truth
reflecting the view of respected institutions such as newspapers or publishing houses.
Teachers and students therefore usually accept the printed word without actively
challenging the content or implied assumptions expressed by the language. However, in an
age when students are inundated with print, it is important for them to be able to view
and question texts critically. This implies taking assertive positions against a text's
"obvious" and "taken for granted" stance (Wallace 1990).
Several strategies can be used in the classroom for developing critical awareness while
reading. The underlying concepts with modifications can be used across all levels,
depending on the students' language proficiency and maturity level. This paper will
describe strategies that can be used at the pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading
stages, with a focus on both language and content. The term literacy , as used
here, encompasses developing critical reading, thinking and writing abilities. While this
paper will focus on reading and thinking in some detail, writing will be dealt with very
briefly. The assumption is that developing critical reading awareness and critical
thinking ability among students is bound to influence their writing as well.
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Definition of critical reading
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Harris and Hodges (1981) define critical reading
as the process of making judgments in reading: "evaluating relevancy and adequacy of
what is read." According to Thistlethwaite (1990:587) "in critical reading,
readers evaluate what they have read and make a decision. This decision may be to accept
what the writer has said, to disagree with it or to realise that additional information is
necessary before an informed judgment can be made."
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Students' attitude to reading texts
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The student's attitude to texts is that the
"text knows best." Students tend to "passively accept what is found in
reading texts simply because it is so often presented as obvious" (Wallace 1990).
Secondly, teachers generally use texts as a means to impart grammatical, vocabulary, and
content knowledge. They are more concerned that students comprehend these different
elements in a text and therefore seldom enable students to question a text's
"obvious" and "taken for granted" stance (Wallace 1990). So the term
critical here implies that students do not blindly accept the "obvious"
statements in a text. They need to move beyond challenging overt statements to taking an
assertive stand against the text's assumptions. Teachers need to guide students to
question the information content and the ideological assumptions that the writer puts
forth.
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This paper will look at texts from two angles,
that of content and language. The following two questions will be addressed:
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- What strategies can students be imparted so that they will learn to question content in
a text?
- How can we get students to look at the way language is used in a text to convey its
ideological meaning?
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Stages in the reading process
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Different types of tasks can be designed for
developing critical reading strategies among students in the context of the three stages
in the reading process: the pre-reading stage, the while-reading stage, and finally the
post-reading stage.
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Strategies for the pre-reading stage: In
conventional pre-reading activities, students are asked to do the following:
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- find answers to given questions based on the text;
- give their personal opinion about the topic;
- predict the continuing text.
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In critical pre-reading activities, students can
be asked to consider:
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- the reason the author is writing about the topic;
- the whole range of ways to write a particular text;
- the generating of their own list of questions.
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Thus, in critical pre-reading activities
students can be asked to provide answers to questions that are not text-based but are
based around the text. This will develop in them a critical awareness of how and why texts
are written. Some questions that students can be asked to consider are:
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- What is the topic/title of the text? What does it tell me?
- What is the purpose for writing: to inform, persuade, entertain?
- How is the topic written? Formal or personal style? What other ways are there of writing
about the topic?
- What is the genre of the text: a letter, an article in a newspaper, an essay, an
advertisement?
- Who is the writer? How much do I know about him/her?
- What does the information reveal about the writer?
- What other information is revealed about the period when the text was written, for
example?
- Who is the reader?
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Questions such as these can be modeled by the
teacher initially. Gradually students can be asked to generate their own questions in
groups. By doing so, students are not merely comprehending a text, but are developing
strategies for interpreting and problem solving crucial to critical reading of texts. More
importantly, since the questions are self-generated instead of teacher- generated,
students are bound to take more responsibility for their learning.
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One point that teachers need to bear in mind is
that texts cannot be understood as self-contained products, as they are always produced in
social, cultural, and other contexts. Generating questions such as the above helps
students view texts from a wider perspective. Attempts to answer questions about the
context in which a text was written or to gather information about the background of the
writer, will help students understand the text's social, political, historical, and
cultural context. Previewing for genre will equip students with a set of expectations to
guide their reading. By making a tentative decision about the genre of a text, students
will be able to find out why the piece was written, and how the writing situation affected
the particular way it was written. In the process they will also develop problem- solving
and interpreting strategies. Thus, at the pre-reading stage, it is possible to generate
questions around the text which will enable the reader to look at the text critically.
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Strategies for the while-reading stage
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What is generally done at this stage while
teaching reading comprehension is that texts are brought into the classroom or are
reproduced in a textbook. These texts are then treated to various forms of analysis, such
as asking students to provide answers to multiple choice questions, true or false
statements, or particular questions. Although these activities contribute to fostering
higher-level critical literacy skills, they are not sufficient. Reading should be treated
as a creative and challenging activity where students' questioning and interpretive
abilities are triggered.
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Students at this stage can be asked to read and
react to content and language in a text by annotating and analysing .
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Annotating: The strategy of
annotating is essential to critical reading because it focuses the reader's attention on
the content and language of the text. As students read, they can be asked to annotate
directly on the text. Three useful ways of annotating are underlining, questioning,
and outlining .
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Underlining: As a first step, ask
students to read through the passage and underline difficult words and phrases, while
getting a general idea of the whole passage. Next, ask them to figure out the meanings of
these words and phrases from context, and if necessary, look them up in a dictionary or
another relevant book, encyclopedia, etc. The answers can be discussed as a group with
constant input from the teacher.
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Questioning: Questions are the most
notable aspect of the annotations. Next, we could get our students to read the text again
and express their doubts in the form of questions in the margin. Initially, questions
would reflect students' lack of knowledge as these questions would identify information
that is needed. They may even represent doubts, confusion, or comments.
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Outlining: Outlining helps to focus on
the most important ideas of a text, separating what is central from what is peripheral.
Outlining also shows how information is organised and supported in a text. Like the other
activities, outlining can be done as a group activity. Ask students to identify the main
ideas in each paragraph and look for sentences that carry the main thrust of the
arguments. For this purpose, remind students that:
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- writers generally place the main thrust of their arguments either at the beginning or
the end of a paragraph
- connectors such as: as a result of, consequently , etc., play a crucial
role in advancing the main thrust of the writer's argument. Similarly, other connectors
such as for example, firstly, in addition , reflect supporting arguments. By
actively searching for such connectors, students are able to focus on the most important
ideas of a text, separating what is peripheral from what is central.
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Having gone through the processes of
underlining, questioning, and outlining, with each activity providing the basis for the
subsequent activity, students are bound to have a good understanding of the writer's
stand.
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Analysing: Having ascertained the
main thrust of the writer's arguments from outlining, the students next have to be guided
to analyse arguments and language.
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Arguments: An argument is basically a
group of statements that have a special relationship to one another: One of the statements
(the claim or conclusion) is asserted as true on the basis of the other statements, such
as reason, evidence, or assumptions. Some questions that the students can be encouraged to
ask are:
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- What point is the writer attempting to establish?
- What is being asserted as true?
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In addition to identifying the main argument or
idea in each paragraph, students can be given a checklist of questions that they can bear
in mind while reading texts to evaluate arguments such as the following:
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- Why should I accept this claim as true?
- What reasons or evidence does the writer give for this claim?
- On what basis should I accept this claim?
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A critical reader seriously thinks about what
s/he is reading. This means that s/he:
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- does not believe everything s/he reads;
- questions everything that doesn't make sense to him/her
- analyses arguments;
- discounts arguments based on faulty reasoning;
- has good reasons for believing some things and not believing others
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So a very important critical reading skill is to
be able to distinguish fact from opinion. This is an essential first step in acquiring
critical reading ability.
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One way of doing this would be to give students
several sentences expressing facts and opinions and ask them to differentiate between the
two. It is important to make students aware of how language is used to express facts and
opinions.
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Language: One way of analysing language
is to look for patterns or repetitions of any kind such as:
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- repetitions or patterns of recurring images;
- repeated descriptions;
- consistent ways of characterising people or events;
- repeated words and phrases, examples or illustrations;
- reliance on particular writing strategies;
- use of opposites/opposing ideas to reveal contrasting perspectives;
- use of figurative language to reflect the authors' attitudes, tone, and feelings.
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An important question to consider is how such
figures of speech in a text are used, which reveals something of the writer's feelings
about the subject. Taking note of these language devices can provide insights into the
tone of writing and the text's emotional effect on the reader. So important questions to
ask students to consider are:
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- Does the author write emotionally?
- Does s/he use sentiment, name calling, or other emotional means to make his/ her point?
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Thus, central to the idea of critical reading is
an awareness of the role that language plays in conveying, not just a propositional
message, but an ideological one as well. The analysis of language can be very useful for
ascertaining the writer's ideology.
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Students can also be made aware of the
following:
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- The use of inclusive and exclusive pronouns to represent self, subject, reader, etc.;
- The way nouns function, i.e., as actors or acted upon, and the reasons for their
selection;
- The kinds of verbs used: action verbs, verbs denoting mental processes etc.;
- Why the writer uses them, the purpose they serve, the meaning they convey;
- The use of modal verbs, what they convey about the writer's attitude and mood:
affirmative, negative, imperative, or interrogative;
- The use of connectors, not just to convey ideas, but also to convey the writer's stand
or position on the matter. So, rather than just focusing on form for its own sake, as in
traditional language and reading exercises, students can adduce evidence for the text's
ideological positioning.
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Strategies for the post-reading stage
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The logical strategy to use at the post-reading
stage is to extend the understanding obtained from texts at the pre-reading and
while-reading stages into writing tasks, such as summarising, evaluating, synthesizing,
commenting, and reflecting.
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Summarising is an excellent way to learn from
reading and, most importantly, to remember what is read. But a summary writing task does
not have to be just a summary. Students can also be asked to evaluate, to synthesize, to
comment, or to reflect on what they have read. All of these strategies will help students
to consolidate in writing the critical understanding and interpretation that they have
derived from their interaction with the text or texts.
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As mentioned earlier, the term literacy,
encompasses developing critical reading, thinking, and writing abilities. The main focus,
as can be seen, has been on developing critical reading awareness in students by
questioning and thinking through a text and extending this awareness and understanding
into writing activities.
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Pedagogical implications and suggestions
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The implications for adopting and adapting these
strategies in the classroom can be discussed under two broad headings: methodology and
materials.
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Methodology: The teaching
methodology advocated for the classroom would be one of group work and cooperative
learning. If the class size is large, and students are generating their own questions
rather than discussing answers to teachers' questions, group work is definitely more
efficient. The effectiveness of such group activities would, of course, depend on the
teacher, whose role becomes even more crucial. A lot of thought and planning would be
required outside class in choosing materials and organising lessons that focus on
developing critical reading abilities. Once the focus and direction are set in class,
there will be very little teacher-talk. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator
who walks around the class listening to discussions, guiding students to keep their
discussions focused, and giving them input wherever necessary. This implies that the
students take responsibility for their own learning.
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This being the case, it is important that
students be given very clear guidelines on what is expected of them. Activities should be
initially modeled by the teacher to enable students to handle such tasks confidently.
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Since students would be gathering information in
the classroom, dictionaries and reference books and other relevant materials have to be
made available. Alternately, work involving dictionary searches or research about the
writer can be given as homework assignments.
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Reading experts agree that all of these critical
reading strategies cannot be acquired permanently in a few sessions. Rather, these
strategies are acquired in a developmental process. They grow as a continuum that starts
during early childhood and continues at each succeeding grade and stage. Teachers, should,
therefore, incorporate critical reading activities in all appropriate classrooms. I am
referring not only to the language classroom, but also to content area reading classrooms
such as history or social studies. We would, of course, need to bear in mind the
proficiency, maturity level, and attitude of our students.
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Materials: Research shows that
critical reading can be taught and that students do not become critical readers without
instruction. Reading experts also confirm that the reading process becomes a critical act
if the students are challenged by provocative reading materials and learning activities.
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Based on the characteristics of critical
reading, which is to question, analyse, and evaluate texts, a wide variety of materials is
necessary for critical reading. No single text book is sufficient. Fox (1988) indicates
that tabloid articles are among the best materials to use to introduce critical reading.
Thistlethwaite (1990) also suggests many kinds of critical activities arising from a
variety of authentic reading materials: books, magazines, and newspapers in particular.
According to her, many parts of a newspaper can be presented as stimulation for reading
critically. For example, teachers can use newspaper editorials that present conflicting
viewpoints to urge students to share their initial thoughts on the topic. Teachers could
also have students focus their attention on the editor's use of emotional language and
then have them rewrite each emotive sentence found in the editorial to make it more
objective and less emotional. Yet another strategy would be to make students aware of the
way language is used for simple reporting versus straightforward expression of approval or
disapproval.
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Since the purpose of critical reading is to
evaluate texts, a good strategy would be to have students discuss pre-reading questions
for a variety of text types, such as advertisements, passages from textbooks, warning
notices, and an excerpt from a novel. This will give students an idea of the purpose, the
audience, and the genre of the text, and the reasons it has evolved the way it has. These
discussions will also give students insights into the writer's intention and attitude,
which are very crucial for critical reading as texts do not exist in isolation. Besides,
the diversity of texts can allow for more varied analysis of content and language. Movie
reviews and advertisements using the language of sales can serve as excellent materials
for critical reading.
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This paper has tried to describe critical
reading briefly and explain what it entails as well as discuss strategies that can develop
critical reading ability among post-secondary students. These were presented in the
context of the three stages of reading. The emphasis was on questioning, analysing, and
evaluating. The purpose of these stages is to get students to examine texts in more
critical, reflective ways, to encourage them to take assertive positions against texts,
and to feel that they have options in the way they choose to read texts.
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Some ideas on teaching implications have been
provided and suggestions have also been made regarding the kinds of materials that can be
used in the classroom. The change in teaching suggested by a critical reading approach
will foster better readers by helping students to focus on the ideology and assumptions
behind the author's words. This places the author of the text in a sharper focus. This
fosters a more meaningful "dialogue" between the student reader and the unknown
writer of the text. The critical reading approach can be used with a wide variety of
genres, but texts such as advertisements, which have a clear agenda, are a good place to
start. All teachers work within certain constraints in the classroom, but the need for
developing critical reading strategies among our students cannot be ignored. The approach
described when dealing with reading texts in language can also be extended to content-
subject classrooms.
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Chitra
Varaprasad is a lecturer at the English Proficiency Unit at the National
University of Singapore and has taught Communication Skills, English Proficiency, and
Academic Skills courses. |
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Return
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- Axelrod, R. B., and C. R. Cooper. 1987. Reading critically, writing well. New York: St.
Martin's Press.
- Fox, R. 1988. Sensation speak. English Journal, 77, pp. 52-56.
- Golub, J. 1986. Activities to promote critical thinking. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
- Harris, T. L., and R. E. Hodges. 1981. A dictionary of reading and related terms.
Newark, NJ: International Reading Association.
- Thistlethwaite, L. L. 1990. Critical reading for at-risk students. Journal of Reading,
3, 33, pp. 586-592.
- Wallace, C. 1990. Critical reading awareness in the EFL classroom. Singapore Tertiary
English Teachers Society Review, Issue no. 3.
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