Strategy 10- Providing Opportunities for Student Choice (Critical Literacy)

Providing opportunities for student choice, is defined as "Students select books based on interest and then conduct research based on a theme or the context of the novel. While reading chosen novels and discussing the historical or political context of the novel, students can evaluate why the author chose to write in a particular manner and hypothesize why the author may have privileged certain themes. " 

Bibliography: "Critical Literacy." Critical Literacy. Learn NC, n.d. Web.

This should be used because student choice in any type of research has long been seen by constructionists and critical pedagogues as an effective way to involve, encourage, and empower students to actively participate in the construction of knowledge. By letting students choose they approve students interest. It is not critical though unless students are looking at the problems "involved in society and how the conditions of society created the problem." This strategy can be used at any point where there are different social matters on the table. An example of this would be studying something like immigration and the different points of views. Students can have a choice of what texts to they choose to analyze this matter and what the author is trying to portray. 

Strategy 9- (Critical Literacy)

One of the strategies that I found on "Learn NC" was reading multiple texts and this is defined as  "Incorporating multiple texts based on similar literary themes offers students the opportunity to critique the values or voices that are being promoted. Furthermore, this practice challenges the idea that meaning is fixed and encourages students to use evidence to support their interpretation. Students can evaluate the social, cultural, and historical frameworks of texts by analyzing differing perspectives of a single event."

This strategy can be used when presented with an event that is typically remembered a certain way or something that students believe something happened in a particular way by only getting one perspective. They gave an example of using To Kill a Mockingbird and other books from that time to compare perspectives of people of different background from that area. I didn't think about it then but my teacher in my film class last year used this strategy. We read a book and saw two movies of "La noche de Tlatelolco", of when hundreds of Mexican students were killed in the plaza by the goverment because of their protests. It was interesting to see different views because the book described it as a horrible event, which it was, but the movie gave it a more optimistic view, as it focused on the unity of students that happened instead of focusing on the fatal night. This was good because I didn't leave this unit with such a bitter note as I would've if I would've only read the book. 

"Critical Literacy." Critical Literacy. Learn NC, n.d. Web.

Text 10- Diego (Gender, culture)

This book is a narration told by Diego himself of how he began to become interested in art. He describes this process as he is growing up. He then says a few things about when he was older and goes on to describe some of civil rights views.

Bibliography: Winter, Jeanette, and Jonah Winter. Diego: In English and Spanish. New York: Knopf, 1991. Print.

I used Frida Kahlo as one of the options for gender and using Diego Rivera as a male option is not a bad idea. I often believe that it is important to talk about women because I believe we are overlooked in many areas, but now I'm doing the same with males. It's also not a bad idea because they were married and I believe it would be interesting to compare both. It is also not very common to be an artist as a male in a macho world (also known as Mexico) but Diego finds a way to fight this and show that his paintings go beyond that. He sends civil rights messages through his hands and through his drawings and he didn't care what others thought. This sends a cultural message at the same time talking about the most famous and acclaimed mural artist of Mexico.

Text 9- Oso pardo, oso pardo, ¿qué ves ahí? (Brown Bear and Friends) (ability, ESL)

   This book goes through a series of questions that different animals are asking each other. First the bear is asked what he is looking for. Then he says he is looking at a red bird that is looking at him. Then the red bird is asked what he is looking at and he says that he is looking at a blue horse and so forth from that.

Annotation: Carle, Eric. Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo Que Ves Ahi. New York: Henry Holt, 1967. Print.

This book consists of easy practical vocabulary. This is a book that can be used in the beginning stages of learning a new language. Even though when speaking the language it is not very accurate, it is important to build up confidence enough for them just to say anything. This book does a good job at presenting colors, animals and the first tense in a very simple way but still presents very useful adjectives for future use. As my professor told me, our students are like toddlers learning how to speak, but of course another. And its the simple things that will always work the best.