Second half of book...

So in the second half of the book the students in this class continue to amaze me. For 3 to 5 year old students they do some pretty incredible and bold things that I would have never imagined. They use petitions and letter writing for social justice. They show that they have the power to change the world from such an early age which is a value we want to instill in children. The teachers role here is to use the students questions to offer ways for them to take action and to explore and learn within their world. Engaging critical literacy calls for student questioning of existing definitions of community. The critical perspective offers teachers a way to think about what students are learning to read and write, what they are reading and writing, and what reading and writing does for them and their world. This enforces the importance of literacy at such a young age.
With all of this knowledge and power being instilled in them so early they don’t fear sticking up for themselves and others in situations. When they encountered the problem of one of their classmates couldn’t eat at the barbeque they took action into their own hands. This act of social justice expanded into them notifying other schools that they might be facing the same problem of a student who couldn’t eat at school events through letter writing which was expanding their literacy. They are making other students in other classrooms as well as school faculty more aware of equity. They have values and beliefs they are supporting as well as raising money for causes that they believe in.
They also use McDonalds happy meals as a text. They see the gender issue of the toys that are placed inside, how the company markets to children through the toys; how the toys are regularly changed for collectability as well as how much of a financial equity it is for student whose families do not have as much money. They also see children’s power over their parent’s purchases in all aspects of life. Everything in this classroom is so ideal and student generated including their list of what they through next years class should know. If all classrooms could work in this way there would be so many more actions taken for the improvement of our world. And it really would make it a better place to live.