Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

“the size of the screw you put in the nuclear warhead,” but they should understand “some-
thing about what it does,... about the effects of nuclear war,... about the possibility of trying
to control such a war.” This would enable citizens to be involved in discussion and democratic
decision making about nuclear policy. I think this is a good example of literacy in a particular
academic area. Because every subject has its own competencies, and different aspects of a
culture require distinct knowledge and skills, it is helpful to talk aboutmultiple literacies.
A traditional distinction between elementary and secondary schools is that in early grades
students “learn to read,” whereas in middle school and high school they “read to learn.” Many
secondary school teachers still insist that their primary job should be to teach content to stu-
dents who already possess the required skills. However, the rapid pace of change means that
people are continually learning new skills or enhancing old ones throughout their lives.
Teachers must prepare students to live in a world that we can barely envision.
For me, the best way to prepare students for this new and complex world is by promoting
critical literacy,which means teaching students how to think, organize ideas, and express
them. No matter what academic discipline you are preparing to teach, your students need to
learn how to learn, to find and evaluate information available in different formats, to think
systematically, to support arguments with evidence, to present ideas clearly, and to evalu-
ate their own work and the work of others so they can participate in conversations within
the subject discipline.
Under the broad umbrella of literacy this chapter examines concepts such ascritical liter-
acy, multiple literacies,andliteracy standards.There are also separate sections on the use of
differentiated texts and instruction in classrooms, using multicultural literature to challenge
student understanding of the world, using questions that promote higher order thinking
skills, and promoting technological competencies among both students and teachers. It in-
cludes an essay by Gary Benenson that definestechnological literacyand its importance in
education and life.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—LOOKING BACKWARD

A number of authors have written books in which they try, usually without success, to pre-

dict the future. InLooking Backward, first published in 1888, Edward Bellamy described

the world in the year 2000. It would be a place without war, greed, hypocrisy, and apa-

thy, and people would no longer struggle to survive. Part of the problem with predicting

the future is that in recent decades technology has changed so rapidly and in unantici-

pated directions. I was born in 1950—before CDs, video and audio cassettes, transistor

radios, color television, and of course, personal computers.

Questions to Consider:

1. How has technology changed the world since you first entered school?


2. How were you able to adapt to these changes?
   3.In your opinion, how can teachers prepare students for a rapidly changing world when
   we do not know which direction it will take?

SECTION A: WHAT IS CRITICAL LITERACY?

When most teachers, parents, and nonspecialists think about literacy, we think of profi-
ciency in reading, writing, and arithmetic—the classical 3 Rs traditionally taught through re-
petitive practice. This view of literacy, as skills to be acquired through constant practice, is

182 CHAPTER 7