Critical Literacy

Social Studies has always been a subject that interests me but while I was in school, because of time, teachers were not able to dedicate much time to it.  I remember a lot of my classmates disliking history because it was boring to them, I enjoyed it because I have always had that intrinsic motivation about wanting to know about the past.  While I was in elementary school my teachers would briefly talk about things like slavery, Thanksgiving (the wrong facts), and the TX symbols.  I really do believe these were talked about briefly, not because they are not important, but because in elementary school there is not enough time to get through a lesson because the focus has always been math and reading.  During my student teaching, we also do the same, we only allow 20 minutes a day for social studies and science and because of time, we sometimes don't even get to it.  The students once had to write an essay on an important person in history that impacted the country and most of the class could not write about it.  This was not the students' fault, but our fault because we could not find the time to dedicate social studies in our day.  Now I can see that if we dedicate only 20 minutes a day, every day extending a social studies lesson into a couple of days our students are able to get a great lesson that they are able to remember. 

I strongly believe that critical literacy is a great way to help students remember what they have learned to keep in their long term memory.  If they are able to investigate an objective and make them question and wonder they will seem more engaged.  A critical lesson could be divided into many days resulting in an engaging lesson.  Per the reading, Critical Reading for Young Citizens (McVay, 2009, pg. 2) suggests that teaching historical thinking will help the students shape our future and sustain and improve our democracy.  The students stayed engaged and wanting to learn more about what was eaten on Thanksgiving because they were able to think critically and wonder.