Research Question: How can students learn to apply critical thinking to a literary analysis?

Applebee, Arthur N. "Alternative Models of Writing Development." Perspectives on Writing: 90-

110. Print.

Arthur Applebees article offers suggestions different approaches to teaching writing.

He recognizes that his approaches are 100 percent true in all scenarios. He offers these

alternative methods because most of what students write is original thought. Rather, it is

regurgitated information that proves if a student can listen to a teacher. One alternative method is

to honor the writing process. Additionally, students are encouraged to use formal language, but

Applebee suggests that this provides for a distant audience. Therefore, expressive language can

be more encouraged. While reading and writing, it is key to identified the different forms of

writing. Another alternative approach is to eliminate the grading on conventions.

Applebees article is a useful source as I research approaches to teach literary analysis.

Writing Development has evolved. Just like everything else, the process of writing

development and its definition can not be static in an ever-changing world. Unfortunately,

according to Hillocks, the evolution has not kept up with our students needs. He wrote, ...we

have research suggesting other foci of instruction are more powerful that instruction on form, yet

there are forces that appear to be influential in maintaining form as central to teaching writing.

He argues that writing development should, instead, focus on content and what is learned about

the content. Applebees research correlates with Hillocks claim. Applebee found that the most

recent study conducted by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia (1987), found that

...knowledge transforming strategies went beyond knowledge telling to allow for the
development of new ideas within the process of composing, as the writer rethinks previous

knowledge and ideas and finds appropriate ways to present the new understandings.

Nel, Philip, and Lissa Paul. Keywords for Children's Literature. New York, NY: New York UP,

2011. Print.

Keywords for Childrens Literature defines the buzzwords for childrens literature.

According to Nel et. al., it seems that children can also be considered young adults. Before

critically reading childrens and young adult literature, one must first understand the definition of

children. The cultural concept of children (and childhood) also changes radically with

time, place, gender, and perceiver, and so the corpus of texts (childrens text) is unstable (Nel

et. al., 2011, p. 43). In other words, the definition changes with time, and has left an ambiguous

definition. Barnes & Noble Bookstores had framed my thinking around the Western concept of

children: immaturity, inexperience, and lack of responsibility (Nel & Paul, 2011, p. 43). This

Western concept has not always been accepted, and is not accepted by some literary critics.

Therefore, I will reference this text to define the buzz words.

This resource will help me produce a clearer understanding of the literature I want my

students to read for their literary analysis project. David Rudds quote in Keywords for

Childrens Literature really began my rethinking of children and childrens literature. Rudd

negated the Western concept of childrens literature. Instead, he suggests the definition of

childrens literature commonly displays, ...an awareness of childrens disempowered status

(Nel et. al., 2011, p. 46). The text is forward thinking as it asks its readers to redefine and rethink
the literature we ask our students to read. Its a reliable text because it is a book that was

referenced throughout my TE850 class.

Nobis, Mitchell, Dirk Schulze, Daniel Laird, Carrie Nobis, and Dawn Reed. Real Writing:

Modernizing the Old School Essay. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. Print.

Real Writing: Modernizing the Old School Essay asks all stakeholders of schools to

rethink how students are taught and assessed. Too often, our students are asked to write to prove

that they know and understand writing conventions and grammar. But, where is the critical

thinking? This textbook asks all educators to question why they got into teaching, and go back to

where their passion stems. Many teachers did enter teaching to teach the five-paragraph essay!

They went into teaching to light that fire. We humans live through story. We identify with

characters and see ourselves in stories. We dont often identify with or see ourselves in essays,

though, so arguments may be most effective when they are not even essays at all (Nobis et. al.,

82). Nobis et. al. does acknowledge that there can be restrictions to the assessments that a teacher

may have to assign. Therefore, when students do have to write a conventional text, there should

be an authentic audience.

Real Writing: Modernizing the Old School Essay will be helpful as I develop scaffolding

for my students. My TE848 final project requires my seniors to complete a literary analysis of a

short story. Then, they must produce a product. Rather than make their final project feel like

something they have to do, I want to lead discussions about authenticity. Since the seniors will

choose a short story that they enjoy, they will produce a product. But, for whom are they creating

the product? Not only will this text help me to lead discussions about authenticity, but it also
acknowledges the potential struggles of students as it states, ...some early attempts at breaking

free of this formula were messy (Nobis et. al., 43). In other words, when there is no structure,

students will struggle. Discussions about authenticuty will hopefully bridge this gap a little.

Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction. New York: Guilford, 2014. Print.

Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction allowed me think about how students

can bring their perspectives and identities into the classroom through modality. "Modality refers

to the modes of representation beyond print, including such things as the visual, auditory,

gestural, and kinesthetic" (297). Typically, students find these modes within the following four

domains: discourse, design, production, and distribution. For example, while students read a

chapter print book, they also can draw connections from supplementary texts, documentaries,

docudramas, photographs, encyclopedia articles, music, etc.

Similarly to Real Writing: Modernizing the Old School Essay, Best Practices in

Adolescent Literacy Instruction acknowledges that students do not learn best through the five-

paragraph essay. Not only does this text make this acknowledgement, but it also acknowledges

that students will learn through supplemental texts and connections. As students read short

stories, perhaps they should make text-to-self connections. Which short story is meaningful to

them and why? Do students choose to assess stories based on their engagement of the story, or if

they connect with the text? For example, many of my seniors are interested to read Edgar Allen

Poe. They may not relate to the main character in the Tell Tale Heart, but they find it

fascinating. What connections impact engagement?

Alsup, Janet. Politicizing Young Adult Literature: Reading Anderson's Speak as a Critical

Text. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 47, no. 2, 2003, pp. 158166.,

www.jstor.org/stable/40012262.

Politicizing Young Adult Literature: Reading Andersons Speak as a Critical Text, has

me rethinking my definition of critical. I used to think that critical meant to draw inferences

and to think deeply about a text: to make connections. Now, I think critical means to discuss

the undiscussables. To break free of censorship. I now think this because of the following quote

from Alsup: School in general (and English and reading classrooms are no exception) does not

often seek to be critical but instead encourages students to be quiet and conform to the status

quo (Alsup, 162) I think this quote suggests that critical is the opposite of conforming;

therefore, critical means to think and talk outside the status quo box.

Alsups article not only has me modifying my definition of critical, but it also is

helping me shape my Teacher Inquiry Project. I would like to explore how Michel Foucaults

panopticon is alive and well in our school systems, and this is evident in Speak. Alsup suggests

that school is a place of conformity and shies away from new ideas, because teachers are nervous

to discuss undiscussables. Students are silenced because teachers are scared of losing their

jobs: They worry that parents, colleagues, or their principal would condemn their choice of such

a book, and they may consequently lose their jobs (162). These teachers are only preservice

teachers. PRESERVICE TEACHERS! Already, they know that their hands are tied, and their

voices are silenced. Our bright eyed, excited youth entering the sacred field of education are

often told to run away from the profession. I even catch myself doing this. But, we need to

encourage teachers to find ways to discuss these undiscussables.

Kincheloe, Joe L. Making Critical Thinking Critical. Counterpoints, vol. 110, 2000, pp. 23

40., www.jstor.org/stable/42975935.

Similarly to, Politicizing Young Adult Literature: Reading Anderson's Speak as a

Critical Text, Making Critical Thinking Critical discusses the definition of critical.

According to the article, to critically think means to discuss and evaluate the power structures

that exist in the world. This definition of critical continues to shift and is never stagnant. The

way it is defined will always involve the interaction between our general conceptions of it and its

interactions with its ever-changing experiences, the new contexts in which it finds itself (28).

People can continue to rethink the power structures and how they affect people. Similarly to the

day-to-day classroom, things are never the same.

Teachers should consider how they feel when they receive new instructions, methods,

information at professional development meetings. Just as teachers feel overwhelmed with the

instruction received from sitting and listening--rather than practicing--students also feel

overwhelmed when they are being asked to critically thinking. Teachers can not simply ask

students to think critically, there needs to be connections made to their life. As long as the

curriculum is conceived in a technical way with prespecified facts to be learned, with

improvement of standardized tests the goal of instruction, with little concern granted to

connecting school and life, with no debate over the role of learning in a democratic society, then

critical thinking programs will stupify more than they will enlighten (25).