Critical Literacy

Critical Literacy Text Set

          Picture books allow us to introduce critical literacy work in the youngest grades, while at the same time introducing complex concepts to older children through familiar and accessible texts.  Using picture books with all animal characters is one way to talk about issues without having any one subgroup being explicitly represented.   While students may make connections or disconnections with characters, they will not actually see themselves in the texts, creating some distance from potentially uncomfortable realities. This collection spans a variety of social issues including gender, family structures, friendship, bullying, and socio-economic status.  It also explores ways to respond emotionally to different situations.  Finally, it includes texts that begin to uncover ways in which society supports certain ideals of work ethics and perseverance. 

          Often times, educators select popular texts that are considered neutral.  Without taking a more critical look, it is easy to take for granted the fact that race and ethnicity is not present in these texts.  This text set begins to take second look to uncover the hidden curriculum that often goes unnoticed within popular titles in our classroom libraries.

          Imagine you are reading Arthur’s Teacher Trouble by Marc Brown to your second graders. You ask students to turn and talk about how Arthur was able to succeed in the Spelling Bee by asking the following questions, “How did he persevere?  Did his hard work pay off?  Does he remind you of any other characters?”  As you are listening to the partners talk about Arthur, one of your students, Maya, shares an unexpected point of view.  While you were hoping to hear students connect Arthur’s hard work and studying to his success in the Spelling Bee, Maya says something different. “That’s not how it is.  I work hard all the time, I always study, I work and work and work…I never win.  It’s never like that,” she says.  And suddenly you consider that maybe this text is not such a lovely book about hard work paying off; perhaps it has some less positive implications for some, or all, of our students.  If Maya is always confronted with this version of a school narrative, then she will never have a school narrative in which to connect.  Without the easily identifiable success, perhaps she will not see the value in continuing to work hard.  There are some students who will continually work hard and will never feel as though their hard work was worth it.  If we don’t talk back to the kind of narrative represented in Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, then the Mayas of the world will never feel seen and validated.  It was difficult to view these well known and beloved texts from a more critical viewpoint, but it seemed to be important work because it helped expose some of the hidden messages that are present and not discussed. 

Level	Title	Author	Friends	Bullying/ Confidence	Emotional Responses	Work Ethic	Gender	SES	Family Issues
F	Max Cleans Up	Rosemary Wells					X
K	A Baby Sister for Frances	Russell Hoban			X			X	X
I	Leo the Late Bloomer	Robert Kraus				X			X
H	Goodnight Moon	Margaret Wise Brown						X	X
NA	One			X
NA	Benjamin and Tulip	Rosemary Wells	X	X			X
K	Chrysanthemum	Kevin Henkes	X	X			X
N	Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse	Kevin Henkes			X
M	Chester's Way	Kevin Henkes	X				X
K	Frog & Toad Together	Arnold Lobel	X			X	X
F	Piggie & Elephant	Mo Willems	X		X		X
NA	Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick	Kevin Henkes		X
I	Are You My Mother?	P.D. Eastman							X
M	Arthur's Teacher Trouble	Marc Brown		X		X	X	X	X
J	Little Blue and Little Yellow	Leo Lionni	X		X		X		X
K	Houndsley & Catina	James Howe	X				X	X
J	Poppleton	Cynthia Rylant	X		X	X		X
N	The Biggest House in the World	Leo Lionni			X		X		X
J	Olivia	Ian Falconer					X	X	X
N	Stellaluna	Janell Cannon	X		X				X