1st Edition

Critical Literacy in the Classroom The Art of the Possible

By Wendy Morgan Copyright 1997

    Critical literacy investigates how forms of knowledge, and the power they bring, are created in language and taken up by those who use texts. It asks how language might be put to different, more equitable uses, and how texts might be recreated in a way that would tell a different story.
    This book is a carefully documented and critically analysed example of the growing emphasis on critical literacy in syllabuses, government reports and the like. It:
    * bridges the gap between academics' theorizing and teachers' work
    * describes how secondary teachers have planned and implemented critical literacy curricula on a range of topics, from Shakespeare to the workplace
    * listens to teachers reflecting on their teaching and analyses classroom talk
    * extrapolates from present practice to a future critical literacy in a digitised, hypermedia world.
    Teachers and students of education, critical literacy advocates and theorists of literacy and schooling can learn much more from this book, which shows how critical literacy teachers, and their students are contributing to the ongoing reinvention of English education as critical literacy.

    Preface, Acknowledgements, 1 Mapping the terrain of critical literacy: language, society and schooling, 2 Reading curricula, 3 School writing and textual selves, 4 Between authority and freedom: teachers negotiating the discourses of English, 5 Classroom talk: business as usual, 6 ‘A Daniel come to judgement’, 7 Postmodern classrooms on the borders?, Coda, Bibliography, Index

    Biography

    Morgan, Wendy

    'Secondary school teachers, postgraduate students, and all those interested in critical literacy, will find this a useful text.' - The National Literacy Trust's 1997 International Annotated Bibliography of Books on Literacy.

    'This is an intelligent and scholarly book ... the book's unique qualities will make it a valuable resource for any teacher wishing to pursue critical literacy perspectives in their own classroom.' - Educational Review