As I was reading "Our Way: Using the Everyday to Create a Critical Literacy Curriculum" by Vivian Vasquez, I found myself relating to some of the ideas expressed in the article. Like Vasquez, I struggle at times to balance framing what I do off of the ideas and perspectives of my students with my own agenda for the day or the overall curriculum. Reading the Power Ranger example was interesting, particularly because of how it represented the ongoing potential opportunities for critical literacy in a classroom. It made me wonder how many similar instances I've missed in my classroom.
I enter my classroom everyday with a plan of what we will do and what will be accomplished by the end of class. Having this lesson plan is important, but as I read this article, it made me wonder if perhaps I focus on using it too much. Maybe I should be more willing to allow issues raised by my students to guide what we do.
However, as a high school teacher in the time of No Child Left Behind, is this feasible for me? The flexibility to structure a curriculum around the social issues found in texts and surrounding the things students say and do can create a meaningful classroom experience for students. But, with standards that need to be mastered so that students excel on a test that can determine the fate of their school, there may not be space for too much flexibility. I think critical literacy is very important and there is room for it too be a major aspect of a class, but I don't know if it's possible to take advantage of every opportunity to adopt a critical curriculum and still help my students learn about all of my subject area standards.
