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Learning to Talk Back to Texts
Author(s) -
Leland Christine,
Ociepka Anne,
Kuonen Kate,
Bangert Sara
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.730
Subject(s) - censorship , value (mathematics) , face (sociological concept) , face value , psychology , sociology , computer science , mathematics education , linguistics , history , law , social science , archaeology , machine learning , political science , philosophy
This article describes an informal study that focused on teaching eighth graders to take a critical stance and talk back to texts. In this era of “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and what has been called a “post‐truth” culture, it is imperative that students do not simply accept everything they read, see, or hear at face value. They must be made aware that information presented as fact is not necessarily true and that it is up to them to identify the messages embedded in texts before deciding whether they agree with them, disagree with them, or need more information to make a decision. Data sources include students’ responses to three sophisticated picture books, their responses to questions about what talking back means and why people do it, examples of students talking back to common sayings, and examples of them talking back to an instance of administrative censorship.