Seeing is believing - or is it??

Critical literacy in the senior English

classroom

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What is critical literacy?

• how and why language choices are made

• how language is used in different contexts to create power

• recognising that there is no one single reading or meaning of any given text

Links to NZCLevel 8 • ﾐ thinks critically about texts with understanding and confidence;

• ﾐ identifies particular points of view within texts and understands that texts can position a reader;

• ﾐ understands that there may be multiple readings available within a text;

My approach - Yr 13 Popular Culture

Course• Aimed at students who want to ‘do’ English but not write literature essays

• Theme based• Internally assessed - US/AS• Choice of texts and assessment levels• Integrated use of Web 2.0 applications

Learning outcomes • Students understand that texts offer versions of reality that can be contested

• Students can identify ways in which texts construct these versions of reality.

• Students appreciate that the same story can have different treatments (depending on form, genre and mode).

Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter

- his story• Born 1937• Age 12 sent to a Jersey state boys’ home

• 1954 joined US army• 1957 jailed for purse snatching• Began professional boxing career• 1966 convicted of a triple murder

• 1974 published The 16th round• 1985 Carter freed - not pardoned• 1988 indictments dismissed• 1993 awarded honorary boxing championship title

• The Hurricane (film) released• Motivational speaker

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Why this topic?

• Non fiction is high interest for boys and senior students

• The story grabbed me

• The song is a classic - cross texts links

Resources• Hurricane (1999) - film• The sixteenth round - R Carter (autobiography)• Hurricane - the miraculous journey of Rubin Carter - (biography) Judd Hirsch

• The story of the ‘Hurricane’ - Bob Dylan lyrics

• Websites - numerous• The man himself - Youtube

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How do students become critical viewers and

readers?• Present them with different points of

view - study the language used in the texts

• Allow them to make judgments• Encourage them to justify reasons• Scaffold them to an understanding that

there is no one reading, but many

Example 1 - The film

Shows us that Rubin Carter was -

• Wrongly imprisoned• The victim of a corrupt police system and racist jury

• A successful fighter at the peak of his career

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How? As viewers we are manipulated ….

• By intercutting real footage with modern day actors - fight scenes and civil rights marches of the time - famous faces Dylan, James Brown etc

• By filming in black and white as well as colour blurring the lines between fact and fiction

Sample student responses 1:

Example 2 - Dylan’s song

• Uses emotive language to show the system as corrupt

• Encouraged huge public interest in the case

Dylan’s words (based on Carter’s autobiography)

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

Just like the time before and the time before that.

In Paterson that's just the way things go.

If you're black you might as well not show up on the street

'Less you wanna draw the heat.

You'll be doin' society a favor.

..just a crazy nigger

That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.

We want to put his ass in stirWe want to pin this triple murder on him

He ain't no Gentleman Jim."

How can the life of such a manBe in the palm of some fool's hand?

To see him obviously framedCouldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

Where justice is a game.

Dylan’s publicity photos

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Dylan visits Carter in jail to publicise the events of the case

Student responses 2:

….Bob Dylan, he’s a …. like… legend, like. I always wondered what that song was about… if he said he didn’t do it. I’d believe him..(Jamahl)…..

….man that’s the second time I’ve almost cried….(Becca)

Example 3 - The websites

Tell a very different story

• http://www.members.shaw.ca/cartermyths/

• http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/

Exposing the myths.. Myth #10

Hurricane Carter was "at the peak" of his career, "slated to contend" or "about to challenge" for the world middleweight boxing title when he was arrested.

* 1962: Unranked* 1963: No. 3 contender* 1964: No. 3 contender* 1965: No. 5 contender* 1966: Unranked

Military honours

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The man himself

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My class loved this quote!!

"I WROTE the books upon which the movie was based. I WROTE the script upon which the movie was filmed from. I CHOSE DENZEL Washington to play me."

Rubin Carter, March 12, 2000, The Greensboro (NC), News & Record

Remember this photo?

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QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.The reality - open space and access

..staged….

Dylan has not performed "Hurricane" since January 25 1976

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Student responses 3:

And…

What about you???

Assessments• 12431 - Moving image close reading and analysis

• 12427 - Poetic text - close reading and analysis

• Research - linked to oral production • Theme study• Newspaper article linked to College Herald

• ……??????

Links to new matrixAS 3.8 Use information literacy skills and present informed conclusions

• openness to new ideas and diverse perspectives

• evaluations of source materials• various viewpoints and perspectives

Same approach, different story..

• Ned Kelly • Arthur Allen Thomas• David Bain • Te Kooti