Many Texts, Many Voices

On any given day, a visitor to Mary Shorey’s classroom will find elementary students using a variety of learning tools, from books to blogs, to pose critical questions about the world and take action to make a difference in the lives of others. Her young learners are becoming conscious consumers, creative thinkers, and effective communicators while fulfilling the mandated curriculum and Common Core Standards.

As Shorey and coauthor Penny Silvers write in Many Texts, Many Voices, “Critical literacy requires that the reader/consumer examine multiple perspectives and ask, ‘Whose interests are being served?’ and ‘Whose voice is heard—or silenced?’ . . . Critical literacy is a way of thinking, communicating, analysing, and living a literate life and implies the possibility of taking some kind of social action.”

Always mindful of what is appropriate for young children, Shorey and Silvers continually search for opportunities to embed critical literacy and inquiry in the everyday lives of primary students. Through a rich array of rubrics, sample lessons, text sets, unit designs, and professional resources, Silvers and Shorey share their reflective practices so that all teachers can use print, visual, and digital tools to transform student learning.