The New Basics
Throughout the reading and class discussions, there are two key ideas that I continue to resonant with me. The first is the whole notion of critical literacy as the new basic and the second is the importance and value we as educators place on pre-package literacy programs.

As a special education teacher, there is no shortage of advice from colleagues about what my students really need. The advice is in evidently focused around teaching them the basics, which in many cases involves decoding and answering comprehension questions in a grammatically correct format. In Allen Luck’s video, he repeatedly stated that, although phonic may be necessary in our instructional practices, it is not sufficient if critical literacy is to be our main objective. Because of these ideas, I am in the process of transforming both my pedagogy and my instructional practises. I don’t believe that students with different needs/abilities are incapables of thinking critically. Yes, there is indeed no reason for my students to think critically if all they are doing in class is completing endless pages of sequenced skills activity pages. Instead, they, like all other students who have their own unique learning styles, should be given the same opportunities to question texts and to voice their ideas and perspectives. They need to be exposed to literacy events which are relevant, meaningful and practical to their lives. Just because students with different learning need may not accurately decode every single word on a page doesn’t mean that they are less able to think about and/or connect to the content. As educators we start where the kids are and facilitate their learning in an authentic manner. Special needs students are living in the same world/community as their peers, so why don’t they deserve to have the same learning opportunities as everyone else?

The second idea revolves around the pre-packaged literacy programs. I guess with the overwhelming curriculum expectations and our ultimate goal to create and foster critically literate students, teachers are searching for a program that encompasses all these objectives. Publishers, who are ultimately in it for the money, jump on this frustration and create programs that seem to address and satisfy all of our concerns. I think as educators, we need to really question the purpose of these programs and how the publishers can truly justify their claim that by purchasing the program, we are meeting every child’s need. As a school in a low socio-economic community, a few years ago the ministry granted us a lump sum of money to spend on our literacy initiatives to improve student achievement. We decided that purchasing a literacy program was a good start. I recall submitting and discussing this with a ministry representative who said that purchasing the materials would be fine as long as we didn’t give the teachers the teaching manuals. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback by that comment and really didn’t comprehend her position or motives. Now, looking back, I realize precisely why she was adamant about her position on the manuals. If our ultimate goal is to facilitate critical thinking, by starting at the point our kids are at, how can a manual be our guiding principle practice? We need to take our lead from the students we have, students who, as we know, are not all at the same place as every other children with different discourse and social practices. We want our students to be critical thinkers, but how each one gets there is dependent on the various paths we take them on. I think the question that we’ve been asked throughout the course, “How would you make this text a critical literacy piece?” is a fantastic way to initiate our programming. Allan Luke suggests that we need a repertoire of teaching practices and assessment. A balanced approach will enable us as educators to provide the necessary literacy events for our students to become confident and critical thinkers. No group of people (writers, publishers) sitting in a conference room can know what the students in our classrooms need better than us. We need to trust ourselves and our students that, given a nurturing learning environment and authentic learning opportunities, our students will rise to their critical literacy potentials.