Critical Text Selection for the Elementary Classroom: A Case for Strategically Using the Classroom Library to Open New Spaces for Critical Literacy Engagements

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to encourage school teachers (with an emphasis on elementary teachers) to recognize and explore the literacy potential of their classroom libraries as a powerful critical literacy tool/asset that when designed and utilized strategically has the potential to reposition their classroom pedagogy and curriculum design to be empowering, transformative, inclusive and progressive. To that effect, this paper offers/proposes a framework/model for ‘critical text selection’ that can be readily adapted by teachers across various grade levels within the K-12 classrooms to identify the specific critical literacy needs of their learners (including the learning environment) and then employ their classroom library as a critical literacy tool that facilitates learner empowerment both inside and outside their learning spaces. The paper also presents interested teachers with an alternate way to traverse the proposed framework in the hope that it will provide an impetus to teacher scholars and educators interested in adapting the framework into their classroom to innovatively modify the framework we have presented to better work with their unique curricular structure and design.