Why Teaching Students to be Critical Readers (and Thinkers) Will Save the World
Critical Thinking Series: Part 1
Children are growing up in a vastly different world than the one we grew up in. (Pro Tip: If you ever want to sound a million years old, say sentences like that one!)
It feels like we are more polarized than ever (#checkyoursocialmedia) with little space for seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. It’s easier than ever to become siloed off into echo chambers where we are surrounded by opinions and viewpoints that are similar to our own, which makes it increasingly more difficult to have civil dialogue about opposing viewpoints (#checkyoursocialmedia…again).
To further complicate the polarization of opinions and viewpoints, we throw in unprecedented access to information. An endless amount of information is milliseconds away on a smartphone. Then, things get more complex when we add in the fact that the information found on the internet does not actually have to be factual. Anyone can post anything in any corner of the web and we are all just one Google search away from it. It’s amazing and terrifying.
This is why we have to teach students to think critically about the information they encounter.
Let’s acknowledge a few things:
Students are inundated with written, digital, visual, and auditory information all day, every day.
Information they receive online is often determined by an algorithm that adjusts to their search history and interests.
We (the adults in the scenario) adjust and address how we critically think about the information we are presented, too.
We (again, the adults here) weren’t taught how to teach students to critically consume these various forms of information, so the way WE interact with and think about information is outdated, and must shift.
But, why?
Because we want to raise up a generation of critical humans. Humans who look at their everyday lives and at the world in a broader scope than their own personal bubble. A generation that understands that people are more complex than they can imagine. We want to raise a future generation of humans who will look out for one another, will advocate for themselves AND their neighbors, who value cultural pluralism, and will do all of that because they understand their perspective is just one of many.
The antidote to this polarization is raising a generation of humans who are flexible in their thinking and can shift between perspectives. Understanding someone else’s point of view doesn’t mean that you have to change yours, but it does help to understand and humanize others.
This all sounds really abstract, right? Maybe even a bit idealistic. Sure. Let’s change the world. <insert eye roll> But, what if I tell you it starts with a simple concept that our youngest learners can grasp?
It starts with reading.
Teaching humans how to read is incredibly complex, so for the sake of this blog, let’s think of it as two main skill sets: reading the words in a text accurately and comprehending the meaning of the text.
Let’s keep digging. There are two main text types we read - fiction and nonfiction. Again, for the sake of this blog that’s all about critically consuming information, we’re only looking at nonfiction. For the nonfiction text type, there are two (main) facets readers use to comprehend nonfiction texts - synthesizing information together in order to identify the central message, or main idea, and understanding perspectives.
Now, here’s where critical thinking comes into play.
When reading a nonfiction text it’s really important to understand and examine (in other words, think about) perspectives in order to have an understanding of the text. That understanding of the text includes both the perspective of the author and the reader’s personal perspective on the topic.
Understanding perspectives help critical thinkers to**:
Connect and empathize with others
Be open to new ideas
Develop our social imaginations
Realize how our experiences shape our views of reality
**Goldberg & Houser, 2017
Our perspectives, or points of view, on any given topic come from lived experiences, tightly held beliefs, and how we behold the world around us. When we teach readers to understand perspectives we help them understand that the world is composed of many, many different points of view and theirs is just one (Goldberg & Houser, 2017). In other words, the more someone acknowledges these different perspectives in the world, the more likely they are to empathize and connect with others.
Can you see where we are going here? By teaching students to understand different perspectives within nonfiction texts, we are teaching them to understand that the creators of information (including Tik Tok, podcasts, YouTube, books, etc) have a perspective on the topic that may be similar or different from theirs and that we have to be aware that multiple, valid perspectives exist.
Deep breath! This is a BIG topic!
In part 2 of this blog series, we are going to look closely at how to teach students to understand perspectives. To do that, we’ll give you two lessons to teach in any classroom.
But before we wrap this one up, we want to invite you to do some thinking:
Think about yourself as a reader - or consumer of information. We are going to ask you to spy on yourself a little bit, and if you’re willing, have this discussion with a colleague.
We’d like you to choose an article, nonfiction book, or podcast and ask yourself a few questions.
When you are reading, or listening to, information what do you do as a critical thinker to determine the perspective of the author/creator?
What is your process for understanding information from a perspective that is different from your own?
What do you do with that information? Does it add to your understanding of the topic at large, or is it thrown out?
Because, after all, our goal is to help students become proficient readers and you are one of their proficient-reader mentors. How you interact with and understand nonfiction texts will inform how you teach students to do the same.
*To read more about understanding perspectives and for many, many more lessons, check out What Do I Teach Readers Tomorrow? Nonfiction by Gravity Goldberg and Renee Houser. Click here to purchase.
