About the book.

Vasquez based this, her third her critical literacy study in a diverse Junior Kindergarten of 16 3-5 year olds that was split 10 girls and 6 boys. The school day was 8:45am-11:15am. Over the course of a year Vasquez focused on using the issues from the social lives of her students and collected data through the use of an audit trail. This audit trail, also called a learning wall, was used to visually display theoretical connections through the use of artifacts, to enable her students to revisit, reread, analyze, and re-imagine possibilities for leading a critically literate life. The artifacts consisted of photos, book covers, posters, newspaper clippings, magazine ads, transcripts of conversations, a stuffed toy, and Internet printouts, representing the things that were discussed critically and the actions taken to resist being dominated. Vasquez organized her classroom into different areas to give her students a varied selection of resources and materials without having to ask her for supplies. Daily routine: Sign in Look over job list in pairs or small groups o Botanist o Vet o Meeting Chair

Read books, work on writing. Chairperson circulates to ask for items to add to agenda and lists them on poster board by dictating, approximated or conventional spelling, or by drawing Class meeting (teacher is participant not in charge) Reflections Activities in work areas negotiated or created by teacher or own topics facilitated by teacher (research topics). Math club

Campfire songs Dismissal

During the school year the social issues covered and connected through various topics included: Environment Saving the rainforest Marginalization of vegetarians Gender Different perspectives Media and advertising Power and control Strength and power Age equity and discrimination Race and culture Television Media literacy Classism Corporate agenda Animal rights

While engaging in the texts the children learned the power of the written word and many different ways to use and critique it. They wrote: Petitions

Invitations Scripts Letters to parents and community members Informational Posters Notes Memos Reflections Surveys

They:

Engaged in text analysis Researched Created graphs and charts Interrogated literature Read newspapers, informational texts, stories, poems, songs Interviewed Designed Measured Entered a design contest Created Speakers Corner tapes Deconstructed and reconstructed text (Baby Beluga) Rewrote stories from other perspectives Recreated Mothers Day flyers

While actively engaging the community with the written word they also became socially literate in other ways. They :

Collected funds for an activist charity Held a clothing drive Became educated consumers Improved product designs for safety and eco friendliness Organized a conference Questioned the way things were done in school

In creating this curriculum Vazquezs goal was to have the students come to see themselves as change makers (p5). A critical perspective offers teachers a way to think about what students are learning to read and write, what they do with that reading and writing, and what that reading and writing does to them and their world (Comber and Kamler 1997).

Books cited: Comber, B., and Kamler, B., (1997). Critical Literacies: Politicizing the Language Classroom. Interpretations, 30(1), 30-35 Vasquez, V., (2004). Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children . Erlbaum Associates, NJ