5th+Grade+Classroom

The fifth grade students in this class frequently use a critical lens looking at time periods and in their reading. For example, in their current read-aloud they are looking for and recording examples of power, race, class, or other issues, and questioning those examples and texts. They are also currently working in book clubs reading historical fiction. Each group reads from a particular time period; each group is reading the same text at the same time. The photos below are artifacts from book discussions in which we asked students to represent their conversations with 'issue' words of their choice - power, friendship, race, class, to name a few. This class has also done a lot of work on interpretation in reading and writing, looking for "universal" ideas. Although students are discussing important issues, unlike Vasquez we didn't end up creating a complete audit trail, and these weren't subjects chosen by students as inquiry topics. We were pushing students to make connections to the specific book and the historical time period in their talk and thinking. What do you notice about the work that these students are already doing? What are some 'next steps' that you see for pushing these students further in their critical literacy journey? What are the implications for other classroms?

e