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 Welcome to Exploring Diversity through Children's Literature: Supporting Students in Becoming Critically Literate Developed for [|QUEST 2011] - November 18, 2011, but it is our hope that followers will now take it and develop it further with your ideas.   [|Twitter]hashtag for November 18 session: [|#quest11cl] Thank you to everyone who made the session so interactive. Developed by

Melissa Murray & Greg Collins

[|@cool_mip] [|@gregcollins2010] We thank you for your visit, your time and your reflections - here's to the learning. Not sure how to use or access Twitter? You may find this [|site]useful.

**Critical Challenge: What does critical literacy mean to you?**

YRDSB Literacy Defintion:
=="//Literacy in the 21st Century is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable achievement, personal well-being and full participation in an interconnected and changing world community//." ==

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">From the Kindergarten Curriculum:
==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"//Critical literacy is the capacity for a particular type of critical thinking that involves looking beyond the literal meaning of a text to determine what is present and what is missing, in order to analyse and evaluate the text’s complete meaning and the author’s intent. Critical literacy goes beyond conventional critical thinking by focusing on issues related to fairness, equity, and social justice. Critically literate children adopt a critical stance, asking what view of the world the text advances and whether they find this view acceptable, who benefits from the text, and how the reader is influenced.//" ==

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">From the Ontario Curriculum Language Arts, K-8; English Grades 9-10 and English Grades 11-12:
==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"//...[C]ritical literacy skills...enable students not only to understand, appreciate, and evaluate what they read and view at a deeper level, but also to help them become reflective, critical, and independent learners and, eventually, responsible citizens//." ==

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">From the Ontario Curriculum Language Arts (Glossary):
==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"//The capacity for a particular type of critical thinking that involves looking beyond the literal meaning of texts to observe what is present and what// //<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">is missing, in order to analyse and evaluate the text’s complete meaning and the author’s intent. Critical literacy goes beyond conventional critical thinking in ////<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">focusing on issues related to fairness, equity, and social justice. Critically literate students adopt a critical stance, asking what view of the world the text advances and whether they find this view acceptable. //<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">" ==

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">5 Key Concepts of Critical Literacy
==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. All texts are constructions. What is written is the product of many decisions and determining factors. Much of our view of reality is based on messages that have been constructed in this way, with the author’s attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built into the text. ==

==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. All texts contain belief and value messages. Whether oral, print or visual media, texts contain messages which reflect the biases and opinions of their authors/creators; whether intentionally manipulative or not, this means that no text can be neutral or value free. ==

==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. Each person interprets messages differently. Demographic factors such as age, culture, gender and socio-economic status as well as prior experience and knowledge play a role in how we interpret a message. ==

==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">4. Texts serve different interests. Most media messages are created for profit or to persuade, but all texts are produced intentionally for a purpose. These interests can be commercial, ideological or political. ==

==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">5. Each medium develops its own “language” in order to position readers/viewers in certain ways. Whether TV program, website or novel, each medium creates meaning differently and each has distinctive techniques, conventions and aesthetics. ==

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**What is Cr** **<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">itical Thinking? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">From the Ontario Curriculum Language Arts (Glossary):
==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//"The process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, and/or make a judgement about what is sensible or reasonable to believe or do. Critical-thinking skills used in reading include: examining opinions, questioning ideas, interpreting information, identifying values and issues, detecting bias, detecting implied as well as explicit meanings."// ==