Critical literacy is an interesting subject. Many talk about it and few define it. It seems to be the undefinable term that academia use in scholarly topics. In my opinion critical literacy is questioning everything that I do and searching for a new an improved way of looking at things, while never settling for enough. That is what I took from this course this semester. Reading, writing, and communication (literacy) are important parts of education. It is something that overlaps in all contents. I had an experience planning and teaching a lesson that sums up my learning from this course.
I was at my last clinical experience today, and I was able to teach a 90 minute lesson on basic animal science. I taught about livestock, and more specifically the products and by-products that come from them. I also taught about the two viewpoints that people have about the use of animals. I gave both viewpoints and asked students to form their own opinion. After I presented both sides, as unbiased as possible, we discussed it in class. It was hard for me to keep my opinions to myself and present both sides, but I think that this is an example of critical literacy in action. I did not tell the students how to think or what side to take. I simply presented the material and allowed students to reflect individually about the subject, or in other words, to think critically. I used scaffolding throughout the lesson so the students would be able to have vocabulary and the skills needed to discuss and reflect in writing about the subject. The students were instructed to write a paragraph about their personal opinion of animal rights after we had reviewed it as a class. Yes, there is writing in agriculture!
This is my way of writing a synthesis for the course. I have come to find that it is not in the regurgitation of knowledge, but the application that one truly becomes a critically literate person.
