This popular text articulates a powerful theory of critical literacy-in all its complexity. Critical literacy practices encourage students to use language to question the everyday world, interrogate the relationship between language and power, analyze popular culture and media, understand how power relationships are socially constructed, and consider actions that can be taken to promote social justice. By providing both a model for critical literacy instruction and many examples of how critical practices can be enacted in daily school life in elementary and middle school classrooms, Creating Critical Classrooms meets a huge need for a practical, theoretically based text on this topic.Pedagogical features in each chapter Teacher-researcher Vignette Theories that Inform Practice Critical Literacy Chart Thought Piece Invitations for Disruption Lingering QuestionsNew in the Second Edition End-of-chapter "e;Voices from the Field"e; More upper elementary-grade examples New text sets drawn from "e;Classroom Resources"e; Streamlined, restructured, revised, and updated throughout Expanded Companion Website now includes annotated Classroom Resources; Text Sets; Resources by Chapter; Invitations for Students; Literacy Strategies; Additional Resources

Brief ContentsForeword / Linda Christensen IntroductionChapter One / Overview: Why Do We Need an Instructional Theory of Critical Literacy?Chapter Two / Personal and Cultural Resources: Using Life Experiences as an Entrée into Critical LiteracyChapter Three / Cultural Resources: Using Popular Culture to Promote Critical PracticeChapter Four / Cultural Resources: Using Children's and Young Adult Literature to Get Started with Critical LiteracyChapter Five / Critical Social Practices: Disrupting the Commonplace through Critical Language StudyChapter Six / Critical Social Practices: Interrogating Multiple PerspectivesChapter Seven / Critical Social Practices: Focusing on the SociopoliticalChapter Eight / Critical Social Practices: Taking Action to Promote Social JusticeChapter Nine / Taking a Critical Stance: Outgrowing OurselvesChapter Ten / Invitations for StudentsClassroom Resources: Children's Books, Videos, Songs, and WebsitesAppendix: Creating Critical Classrooms Companion Website ContentsAbout the AuthorsReferencesIndex