Response: Critical Pedagogy on an Urban High School English Classroom

This article offered countless good ideas, plans, and points on teaching English in an urban classroom. Recognizing that every student in every classroom in every school is different and has different upbringing, experiences, strengths, and challenges, and working through these things to provide students with a completely rounded education and outlook by the time they leave the system. The opening paragraph states they are creating "an approach to education that is rooted in the existential experiences of marginalized peoples; that is centered in a critique of structural, economic, and racial oppression; that is focused on dialogue instead of one-way transmission of knowledge" (Duncan-Andrade, Morell, 1). This is so incredibly important. Giving students curriculum they feel that can actively and fairly be a part of, something they feel they can relate to in different aspects of their lives. I know this article is only addressing urban schools, but I hope they open this door to all schools. Everyone should be able to relate in some way to someone completely different from them, or at least be able to listen and comprehend and relate to their own world through a different student.
"Studying canonical texts is an important strategy for understanding the values and ideologies of dominant groups at various points in history" (Duncan-Andrade, Morell, 3). This was also interesting to me because it focuses in on studying similar texts through different spheres of perspective, different lenses and lights. Allowing students to relate and understand texts in a new way they had previously thought impossible. However I become wary when the article mentions that it is important to remember including "critical literary theories." This is where I see entire novels being chopped up into pieces, which is how we end up with students who cannot read longer more challenging novels because they have been fed academic reading and writing for far too long. There is a correct balance here, and sometimes being too PC can be damaging.