This qualitative study investigates how 90 teachers explored critical curriculum through their reading, analysis and creation of counter advertisements. Located in visual discourse analysis, we designed a study to investigate the question "To what extent can teachers engaged in a critical literacy curriculum talk back to messages of consumerism,…

The critical literacy classroom is characterized by an emphasis on students' voices and on dialogue as a tool with which students reflect on and construct meanings from texts and discourses. Is it appropriate, however, to teach critical literacy in settings such as penal institutions where student voices are deliberately discouraged and silenced?…

English as a second language (ESL) content-based texts are often evaluated for their presentation of sound second-language teaching practices. While such reviews are important and valuable, they ignore an examination of the race, class, and gender issues introduced in the texts. A critical perspective on textbook evaluation organized around the…

Students in the middle grades need the skills not only to read independently but also to make decisions, so that interest in text and thorough comprehension will be promoted. This article describes integrated techniques and activities that the author used to develop these sophisticated skills in a one-on-one setting in her regular classroom with…

Combined-text picture books unite multiple genres, providing nuanced information on a single topic from the unique lens of each genre. By providing guided practice in reading and writing a combined-text picture book, teachers can help students develop sensitivity to different types of texts, to what they do and how they do it. Such sensitivity can…

In exploring her uneasiness in dealing with issues of religion in her classroom, the author asks, "Should I guide students away from writing about issues that explicitly dealt with their faith? Should I impose an outright prohibition on such writing? Or should I find ways to engage with the issues and the perspectives that were so clearly…

As a long-term advocate for, and practitioner of, both Paulo Freire's theory of "liberatory education" and bell hooks's "engaged pedagogy," the author subscribes to their principles of encouraging freedom of thought through active dialogue and the dialogic in an attempt to empower students by making the classroom a space that opens up to radical…

The author asserts her belief that teachers can turn movies into "a tool that allows students to understand content in new and intellectually challenging ways." She tells a personal story of using movies in her teacher education program, helping her students "learn and extend their understanding. However, they not only learned about content, but…

People frequently make assumptions about others because of their spoken or written use of a particular dialect or language. The varieties of English that people use are often regarded as indicators of corresponding intelligence, competence, motives, and morality. Such assumptions--frequently based on myths and misconceptions about the nature of…

Discusses "open source": a method of distributing software in which programmers make available to all the actual text of their programs. Notes that this makes possible "open-source" writing in the same way that the printing press made possible "open-source" reading, enabling mass literacy. Examines implications of open source for how people…

Outlines the long history and the dangers of doublespeak--language that misleads, distorts, and deceives. Offers examples of doublespeak in euphemisms, "gobbledygook," and inflated language. Argues that doublespeak is carefully constructed to appear to communicate when its real purpose is to mislead, and notes its relationship to politics and…

Outlines the deep and complex challenge faced by Mexico in its quest for closer economic integration with so-called advanced economies. Discusses extensive poverty and illiteracy, and the systematic exclusion of many people from access to the very kinds of learning required by Mexico's economic project. Argues that extraordinary efforts and…

Considers three important things that people need to make meaningful access to the new digital tools and media a reality: having access to the tools, the ability to use those tools, and an access point. Notes a literacy web page, offers questions for further consideration, and includes a glossary of important terms. (SR)

Argues that adolescents' literacy needs for the future are complex and demanding and that adolescents' development of reading, writing, and language skills deserves serious and continuing attention. Discusses what "adolescent literacy" signals that "content reading" and "secondary reading" do not; best practices in adolescent literacy; needs of…

Discusses making community networking a reality for all citizens, noting ways to reduce the digital divide that segments computer use along socioeconomic lines. Lists 4 insights that may help in the design and implementation of community services devoted to computer access and training. Notes a website on community networking, and recent…