ABSTRACT
Critical literacy pedagogy for adolescents includes the exploration of multiple viewpoints, the questioning of dominant perspectives, and engagement in critical reading and writing practices. In our work with students in middle grades, however, we find that students are often unlikely to assert viewpoints when their social relationships and egos are “on the line.” Furthermore, schools often reject critical literacies as a part of the curriculum because of a focus on test preparation or perceived lack of time to address critical social issues. Third spaces, which are spaces constructed to engage students in meaningful, connected experiences, hold great promise for young adolescents because they exist outside of the regular classroom and allow for different thoughts, ideas, and actions to take shape. In this chapter, we tell the story of one such space, a two-day workshop we called “Write Yourself into History.” The story of this workshop does not
critically evaluate how the adolescents participated in critical literacy practices; rather it illustrates the beginning of an exploration of how such spaces might be created by members of professional communities who think outside of the box to come up with alternative spaces to practice critical literacies.
