RM Winter 2016 FLIP

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Reading Matters
Looking Ahead
Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | |83|
to promote a deeper understanding of why poverty and
homelessness occur, and allow students to explore “what if”
possibilities that challenge the status quo. However, to do so we
need to facilitate authentic learning experiences that provide
students with opportunities to take action in relation to the issue.
Doing More: Creating Authentic
Learning Experiences Grounded in
Children’s Literature
Critical literacy scholars discuss many ways to create authentic
experiences that move toward action in relation to picture
book read-alouds that explicitly address social justice issues
such as poverty and homelessness. Authenticity is an important
element so that students are able to reflect on what they have
learned and how their views or opinions may have changed
after their experience. For instance, Short (2011) highlights
one way to engage children in authentic action in response
to social justice themed children’s literature: “Authentic action
is based in children having responsibility throughout the
process, including witnessing the outcome of their action when
possible. A continuous cycle of action and reflection spirals
throughout the process” (p. 54). A poignant example in Short’s
article is when the students decided to clean up their school’s
playground. After the initial clean up the students investigated
where the trash came from and were shocked to learn it was
from them. The students then took action to move the trashcan
to a different part of the playground to help alleviate the trash
problem and put the receptacle in a more usable location.
In another insightful discussion of children’s literature
addressing low socioeconomic status or “tight times,” Kathy Short
(2011) compared three books –Monica Gunning’s (2004) A Shelter
in Our Car, Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts (2007), and Vera B.
Williams’ (1982) A Chair for My Mother. Short describes how a class
discussed all the books in terms of wants and needs and created a
continuum of where the books fit in those terms. This continuum
“provided a way for children to access difficult issues in their
community and provided a bridge for connecting to these issues
on a global level” (p. 53). Utilizing the books in this way allowed
the students to make connections to their own lives when maybe
times were tough or with some experience they might have had.
This also helped the students to understand that there are varying
and changing levels of poverty. The children in this particular
classroom were negotiating a more nuanced understanding of
socioeconomic status; one that was not static and simple, but
rather fluid and complex (i.e. shaped by larger social structures).
Chafel, Seely Flint, Hammel, and Harpole Pomeroy (2007)
also share stories of both teachers and researchers who utilized
critical literacy in their elementary classrooms to engage
children in topics that included poverty and other social issues.
Harpole Pomeroy describes her experience as a teacher in an
emergency shelter school and some of the discussions she
had with her students about their personal experiences living
in poverty. By building on students’ lived experiences through
literature, Harpole Pomeroy goes beyond a pedestrian approach
to social justice-themed children’s literature (O’Neil, 2010). In
other words, to move beyond talk about global issues into
authentic and meaningful action for social change…children
and adolescents need perspective, not protection as they
consider who they are in the process of becoming and how they
can make a difference” (Short, Giorgi & Lowery, 2013, p. 35).
Doing More In Relation to the
Common Core State Standards
Given the emphasis on close reading and deep understanding
in the Common Core State Standards, scholars remind us of the
“bigger task” at hand. Cunningham and Enriquez (2013) assert:
The CCSS ask teachers to think deeply about what it
means to be truly literate in the twenty-first century:
that we comprehend as well as critique, value citing
evidence from the text, and come to understand other
perspectives and cultures (p.28).
Indeed teachers, and their educators, need to be
aware of how effectively children’s literature can be
incorporated into the classroom, not only as an exercise in
close reading, but also as an exercise in civic engagement
(Wolk, 2013). There is so much to be gained from use of
this type of literature including involving students in social
action projects that they help to create themselves.
For example, in a discussion of critical literacy practices
in a first-grade classroom, Mary Cowhey (2006) examines
how to reimagine the traditional school food drive:
Food drives can be a developmentally appropriate
activity for young children when used as a vehicle
to do the following: Challenge stereotypes; Teach
understanding of the complexity of the causes of
poverty; Introduce local activists and organizers as role
models addressing needs and working for long-term
solutions; Empower children to take responsibility in
their community; Remove the stigma of poverty. (p. 29)
A traditional food drive is one in which no stereotypes of
poverty are either addressed or challenged, no critical questions
are asked of the students as to why poverty and homelessness
occur, no activists are introduced, and students are not empowered
to take the lead in creating social action in the community. This
traditional approach does not encourage students to dig deeper
into the root causes of the issue, it only allows the students to
provide a superficial solution to a more widespread issue.
Cowhey moves beyond a pedestrian approach to issues of
hunger in relation to poverty and homelessness; she is employing
thoughtful critical literacy practices that aid in the facilitation
of social change. Her re-imagination of the traditional food
drive promotes multiple levels of understanding (i.e. individual,
community, systemic) and allows students to achieve a greater
level of understanding than a pedestrian approach would. Indeed,
there is a growing body of critical literacy scholarship about
how to create authentic learning experiences that incorporate