How to Teach Big Words in Critical Literacy to Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

While critical literacy has been intensively researched and become widely known in academia, it does not seem to take root in the classroom. There are a plethora of terms/concepts used in critical literacy that are not so “user-friendly” to classroom teachers. In this paper, I will share how I as a teacher educator teach some “big words” in critical literacy in a way that pre-service teachers can relate to and apply in an elementary classroom. Specifically, I will present a few terms/concepts in critical literacy that the pre-service teachers in my elementary literacy/language arts methods courses find difficult to grasp. I will also discuss how I help the pre-service teachers understand these terms/concepts and connect them to their future classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to bring the high-level theorizing in critical literacy down to the language that pre-service teachers can comprehend and explain to their future students in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice in critical literacy.