CRITICAL READING

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CRITICAL READING WRITING PEDAGOGY

• Mark Howie
• Penrith HS NSW
• mahowie_at_optusnet.com.au

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Representationsare never innocent or neutral
reflections of reality.they re present reality
for us that is, they offer not a mirror of the
world but an interpretation of it.(Midalia in
Hurrell, English in Australia, 131, July, 2001,
Vol.131, p.50)
starting point
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focus for study

• constructedness

• metalanguage

• ideology

• alternative readings

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reading a differentiated practice
No text is neutral. All texts position readers to
accept certain views of the world. Readers,
however, have the reciprocal power to counter
that positioning.

• Dominant reading in agreement with the text.
• Alternative reading in mild disagreement across
  the text.
• Resistant reading in opposition to the text.
  Johnson (2001) Moon (2001)

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critical challenge text
(adapted from Rothery, 1994)
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critical challenge text (Nicole)
(adapted from Rothery, 1994)
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the teaching / learning cycle
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the teaching / learning cycle
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the teaching / learning cycle
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the teaching / learning cycle
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the teaching / learning cycle
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the teaching / learning cycle
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grammar 1 noun groups adjectival phrases

• The manipulation of the audiences response to
  the kangaroos through the deliberate invocation
  of emotions is the result of the documentarys
  narrative structure. This structure influences
  the viewer through a construction of the supposed
  facts as a story. The viewer is positioned by the
  character evaluation that is evident in the
  commentary throughout the entire film. The
  narration states Eucalypt gently coaxes with
  her hand while Columbine offers no guiding hand
  to help. The metaphor of the hand which
  represents mothering, is a tool used by the film
  makers to impose their ideology upon the viewer.
  The audience is then forced into a position of
  agreement.

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grammar 1 noun groups adjectival phrases

• The narrators blame shows Columbine as a bad
  mother but the film is stereotyping her. The
  stereotype is constructed by only showing her
  supposed uncaring attitude towards Jaffa. This is
  clear from the approval of Eucalypt and the
  disapproval of Columbine. The negative commentary
  makes sure that Columbine is a bad mother. The
  maternal stereotyping is the narrators ideology.

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grammar 2 nominalisation

• The manipulation of the audiences response to
  the kangaroos through the deliberate invocation
  of emotions is the result of the documentarys
  narrative structure. This structure influences
  the viewer through a construction of the supposed
  facts as a story. The viewer is positioned by the
  character evaluation that is evident in the
  commentary throughout the entire film. The
  narration states Eucalypt gently coaxes with
  her hand while Columbine offers no guiding hand
  to help. The metaphor of the hand which
  represents mothering, is a tool used by the film
  makers to impose their ideology upon the viewer.
  The audience is then forced into a position of
  agreement.

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grammar 2 nominalisation

The narrators blame shows Columbine as a bad
mother but the film is stereotyping her. The
stereotype is constructed by only showing her
supposed uncaring attitude towards Jaffa. This is
clear from the approval of Eucalypt and the
disapproval of Columbine. The negative commentary
makes sure that Columbine is a bad mother. The
maternal stereotyping is the narrators ideology.
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grammar 3 passive voice

• The manipulation of the audiences response to
  the kangaroos through the deliberate invocation
  of emotions is the result of the documentarys
  narrative structure. This structure influences
  the viewer through a construction of the supposed
  facts as a story. The viewer is positioned by the
  character evaluation that is evident in the
  commentary throughout the entire film. The
  narration states Eucalypt gently coaxes with
  her hand while Columbine offers no guiding hand
  to help. The metaphor of the hand which
  represents mothering, is a tool used by the film
  makers to impose their ideology upon the viewer.
  The audience is then forced into a position of
  agreement.

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grammar 3 passive voice

• The narrators blame shows Columbine as a bad
  mother but the film is stereotyping her. The
  stereotype is constructed by only showing her
  supposed uncaring attitude towards Jaffa. This is
  clear from the approval of Eucalypt and the
  disapproval of Columbine. The negative commentary
  makes sure that Columbine is a bad mother. The
  maternal stereotyping is the narrators ideology.

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grammar 4 given / new pattern

• The manipulation of the audiences response to
  the kangaroos through the deliberate invocation
  of emotions is the result of the documentarys
  narrative structure.

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grammar 4 given / new pattern

• The narrators blame shows Columbine as a bad
  mother but the film is stereotyping her.

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Last word

• Gunther Kress on a genre approach to writing
• If disciplines are largely constructed in and
  through their texts, then every teacher will have
  to attend to the nature of texts as an integral
  part of their teaching.
• writing which draws on grammatical forms which
  are more appropriate in spoken genrescan lead to
  a negative valuation of the content, a particular
  assessment of the writers knowledge, and of his
  sic standing in the discipline