Deconstructing Advertisements Activity

Critical literacy pedagogy is an educational way of teaching that encourages learners to use their higher-order thinking skills like critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation. Like for example, reading a book or watching a video. Critical literacy helps them think beyond just understanding the words or what's happening. It encourages them to ask questions like: Who’s the author of this? Why did they write it this way? Are there things they're not saying? What are their biases? It's like looking under the surface to understand why things are the way they are.

One relevant example of critical literacy pedagogy in practice is through a classroom activity called Deconstructing Advertisements.

Let’s say I’m already a teacher, I will show my students various ads, which can be found in magazines, or on TV, or in Facebook and many other more social media platforms. Instead of just looking at them, I want them to really think about what these ads are trying to tell and how they're trying to convince the audience to buy something. Hence, I want them to be detectives!

They will be guided by these following questions:

What are these ads trying to make me feel?
Are they showing things that might not be true?
Do they make everyone look the same or different?
How are they trying to get me to buy their product?

Then they’ll talk about these ads with their classmates that would encourage them to try to figure out the secrets behind them altogether. It's like looking past the pretty pictures and catchy words to understand why these ads are made and how they try to change what we think or do. With that, students will learn to be smarter about the messages they see in ads and understand how it can affect the way they think and act.



Strengths:

Students learn to question and analyze the hidden messages behind advertisements, encouraging critical thinking.
Helps students become aware of how media shapes perceptions and influences consumer choices, developing media literacy skills.
Promotes dialogue and diverse viewpoints among students about societal norms and values depicted in ads.

Weaknesses:

Interpretations of advertisements can vary among students since having subjective views is inevitable.
Detailed analysis may be time consuming.

This particular example shows how critical literacy pedagogy helps students examine and understand how ads and media try to persuade us and how society's influences shape them. Functional literacy, in contrast, teaches basic reading and writing skills for daily tasks like reading signs, filling forms, and following simple instructions. It's about the basics needed for everyday life. However, critical literacy goes deeper. It encourages thinking deeply about what you read and see. It's like digging beneath the surface to understand why things are said or shown a certain way, who might gain from it, and what's not being said. Functional literacy is about the basics, while critical literacy is more like being a detective, asking questions, and understanding more about what you read and see in the world.

Source: Willingham, MJ. 2011.CASE STUDY OF A RURAL SEVENTH GRADE CLASS
MOspace Institutional Repository. https://mospace.umsystem.edu

• Elaine Asico

Critical literacy pedagogy opens the channels through which individually diverse lived experiences influence negotiation of meaning. The agencies have become a very strong player as they are allowed to connect their experiences, think critically, and act creatively and functionally. The paradigmatic shift to critical literacy birthed a higher level of inclusiveness and cultural sensitivity.

• Abolaji Azeez

Critical literacy approaches offer a range of valuable strengths in education. By encouraging individuals to think critically and analyze information, they empower them to develop a deeper understanding of complex issues and navigate diverse perspectives. This fosters empathy and a greater appreciation for the experiences of marginalized groups. Moreover, critical literacy equips individuals with the skills needed to actively engage in society, promoting responsible citizenship and advocacy for social justice. It goes beyond basic information comprehension, enhancing the ability to discern biases, evaluate sources, and navigate complex information landscapes. Critical literacy is also a powerful tool for challenging established narratives and advocating for equity and social change. However, it is important to acknowledge that implementing critical literacy approaches may demand more time and resources, potentially impacting the breadth of curriculum coverage. It may also introduce controversial discussions or perspectives, necessitating skilled facilitation to maintain a respectful learning environment. Nonetheless, the strengths of critical literacy approaches in fostering critical thinking, empathy, and civic engagement make them invaluable tools in preparing informed and socially conscious individuals.

• April Ann Pesino

Functional Literacy in the teaching and learning process is viewed as an approach where students are taught the skills of reading and writing as well other skills that will help them to function in the society. It is an approach that develops the practical skills of learners resulting in them acquiring those basic cognitive skills that assist them to manage their everyday life.

• Venus Naomi Dauran

Essence of Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is defined as an approach in the teaching and learning process where learners are exposed in training, teaching and guiding them on how to examine a text. It enables the student here to study various texts and understand the meanings between lines as well as the power it holds through understanding, analyzing and evaluating the texts about some social issues. It is a process where it enables learners to become aware of one's experience. Through this approach, it helps them to develop skills and knowledge, making them know how to react and provide solutions to a certain situation or problems.

The difference between critical literacy and functional literacy is that functional literacy is about the ability to read the words but critical literacy is beyond that, it is the ability to interrogate the text to find the meanings behind those texts. Some of the examples of critical literacy questions are: Who is the author of the book? Who are the intended readers of the book, and what tells you this? And What cultures are shown in the book? These questions are one of the examples that help students to practice their critical thinking and make them comprehend those text questions.

Some of the strengths of critical literacy are it enables students to:

Have deeper understanding about the content
Recognize biases and assumptions
It cultivates empathy
Enhance communication skills
Culture Awareness
It helps to develop personal growth

While the weaknesses of this are:

Time consuming in gathering facts to make critical decisions

In conclusion, critical literacy is important to develop and practice to students as it helps them to hone those skills of having the ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate and respond to a solution to a certain problem or situation.

Reference:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-benefits-critical-literacy-pam-burke#:~:text=Empowerment%20and%20Agency%3A%20Critical%20literacy,and%20respond%20to%20various%20messages.

• Venus Naomi Dauran

Pedagogy in Education

In the teaching and learning process, it is vital to provide students with appropriate learning strategies as well engage them in the process where the students' understanding and skills are both developed.

The authentic literacy pedagogy is said to be a learning approach to the instruction that aids to promote authentic learners achievement. This approach is more student-centered as it promotes a learning environment where students are given authentic learning, tasks and opportunities in which they are provided with activities or tasks that use their critical thinking, literacy skills, and knowledge to construct solutions to some complex problems or situations.

Here are some of the strength of authentic literacy pedagogy:

Learners can think and construct relevant ideas
Learners can discover applicable theory and concept
Learners are sources of information and knowledge
It engages the learners making them more eager to learn

While the weaknesses of this are:

It is hard for learners to construct relevant ideas
Not everyone can share useful information

The difference between Authentic pedagogy and Didactic pedagogy is that Authentic approach is a student-centered wherein it lets the students engage and interact in the learning process where it allows the learners to practice their critical thinking, logically provide ideas, and let them share their experiences. While on the other hand, Didactic approach is more on just presenting the information and knowledge to students through the teacher in a structured organized way.

Reference:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331075670_The_Role_of_Didactic_and_Authentic_Pedagogy_Toward_Student's_Achievement

• Venus Naomi Dauran

Didactic Pedagogy: How does it Help Learners

In the teaching and learning process, it is vital to have objectives and goals for the alignment of the discussion for the teacher to identify if the learners achieve their goals and for the student as well to have an advanced view on what to learn. Through the journey, it is important also to have guiding principles and strategies in order to provide a quality education and promote a learning environment that aids to develop the knowledge and skills of students.

The didactic pedagogy is defined as a procedure of teaching wherein it being said that it is teacher-centered because the teacher here is the one that presents the discussion directly to their students. One example of didactic in the classroom is where the teacher discusses the information directly to students while using some learning materials such as flashcards, worksheets, posters, games and also by giving them some activities like tongue twisters, vocabularies, puzzles, speeches and so many more. So didactic pedagogy is the process of teaching students the lessons through incorporating various strategies and learning materials based on what the students need.

Also, one of the learning apps that can be used inside the classroom is Babbel wherein it is an online application where students can learn foreign languages. It assists the students to develop their skills in writing, reading, speaking and listening through interactive activities. The beauty of this app is that it provides learners with various programs that aim to develop their vocabulary and comprehension through vocabulary drills, conversations in the subject matter and through reading exercises.

Some of the strengths or advantages of using Babbel are it let the students to master and have:

Interactive Dialogues
Vocabulary List
Grammar exercise
Personalized learning
Speech recognition

So we can see that it provides lots of advantages that will help students to hone their skills. We can see that the advancement of technology and media does really help every individual to have a meaningful learning experience as well help them in their everyday life.

• Venus Naomi Dauran

All types of literacies has its own uses and purposes wherein every kind of it is vital component that should be honed to students capabilities. The critical literacy is said to be a thinking skill that the tertiary education seeks to improve and developed. This help the student especially in this modern world where technology is everywhere, it assist them how to function, as well develop their capabilities and skills on looking into deeper into meaning between the lines. It help the students as well to connect and have a good relationship with the author, assist them in questioning and finding why, and allows them to gather information and work hard on learning and solving some problem in a meaningful and efficient way.

• Venus Naomi Dauran

All types of literacies has its own uses and purposes wherein every kind of it is vital component that should be honed to students capabilities. The critical literacy is said to be a thinking skill that the tertiary education seeks to improve and developed. This help the student especially in this modern world where technology is everywhere, it assist them how to function, as well develop their capabilities and skills on looking into deeper into meaning between the lines. It help the students as well to connect and have a good relationship with the author, assist them in questioning and finding why, and allows them to gather information and work hard on learning and solving some problem in a meaningful and efficient way.

• Venus Naomi Dauran

All forms of communication are political and social acts that have the potential to affect society (Comber & Simpson, 2001). Readers are active participants in the reading process, according to Freire (1970).
Readings in critical literature push readers to examine, investigate, or challenge the power of the connections between authors and readers, too. It looks at matters of power. and encourages introspection, transformation, action, and change.
Reading with an analytical mindset entails going beyond the text to comprehend topics like the author's motivations, writing about a specific subject, from a specific angle, or deciding to include some thoughts on the subject and exempt others (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004, p. 13)
Critical literacy is the critical understanding that language practices and texts are always influenced by ideological beliefs and perspectives, whether conscious or unconscious.
Preservice teachers found critical literacy beneficial for children's critical thinking, exposure to community problems, and engagement in learning about different cultures and challenging issues like homelessness or hunger. Students believed it enhanced their understanding of different perspectives and exposed them to community problems.
Students faced challenges with critical literacy, including personal anxiety, potential parental opposition, and practical issues like school district curricula, resources, and time. They were aware of the benefits of critical literacy but also acknowledged the discomfort of addressing touchy subjects.

• Monika Samaroo Latchman