Developing Critical Awareness at the Middle Level: Using Texts as Tools for Critique and Pleasure

Young Adolescents need and want more than the traditional literacy curriculum of worksheets and rote skills that asks them to think very little and talk even less. Young adolescents have much to share with their teachers and with the world. This book presents an instructional approach that mixes critique and pleasure, allowing middle-level students to read literature they enjoy while they develop critical awareness and address issues of social injustice. The authors help teachers create conditions for their students to critique texts and take pleasure from them by first defining critical terms, explaining the concept of literature circles, and discussing literary theories. They can share strategies that will enable students to explore issues of identity, power, oppression, diversity, and context as they participate in literature circles and read-alouds.

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