ABSTRACT
Many pre-service and beginning early childhood teachers question if critical literacy is do-able with young children, particularly in the current top-down educational climate. Critical Literacies and Young Learners shows how it is possible, even in the context of the mandates and pressures so many teachers experience, and honors the sophisticated and complex social theorists that young children are. Featuring a mix of groundbreaking work by iconic researchers and teachers and original contributions by emerging scholars and educators in the field, the text illustrates a range of approaches to doing critical literacy with young children and, at the same time, addresses the Common Core Standards.
Part I provides several orienting frameworks on critical literacy, giving specific attention to its relationship to the Common Core Standards. Part II features chapters describing critical literacy in practice, grouped in 4 thematic clusters: using texts from popular culture and everyday life; focusing on issues-oriented texts and cultural identity; functional linguistic analysis of texts; interdisciplinary that engage young learners in critical social action projects. Part III addresses the micro-political contexts of teaching critical literacy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|32 pages
Overview of Critical Literacy and Common Core Standards
chapter 1|11 pages
Critical Literacy, Common Core Standards and Young Learners
chapter 2|19 pages
The Four Corners not Enough
part II|139 pages
Teachers and Young Children Doing Critical Literacy
part IIA|20 pages
Using Texts From Popular Culture and Everyday Life
part IIB|56 pages
Focusing on Issues and Cultural Identity
chapter 6|16 pages
Talking with Trolls
part IIC|33 pages
Applying Critical Functional Linguistics
chapter 9|15 pages
Teaching Social Studies and Critical Linguistics to Language Learners
chapter 10|16 pages
Critical Linguistics in the Early Years
part IIID|27 pages
Engaging Young Learners in Critical Social Action Projects
chapter 11|12 pages
Critical Literacy Finds a ‘Place’
part III|30 pages
Understanding the Micro-Political Contexts of Teaching Critical Literacy
chapter 14|12 pages
We Teach Who we are
part IV|8 pages
Bringing It All Together