English Critical Literacy

Critical literacy is when you think very critically about a topic. It is also when you question how a text was made.
Vocabulary Refresher
Bias:When someone is more on one persons side than the other
Source: A place where you can get lots of different information from.
Credible: If other people can trust you enough to believe you.
Authority: Being able to do something or tell someone to do something.
Reliable: People are able to trust you to do something for you.
Perspective: The different opinions of people and how they see it.
Agenda: Something that you are planning to do.
Manipulate: Convincing people to do something for you.
Text: Any words that you have in a book or anything that has been written.
Construction: Something that is being put together/being built.
Representation: It could mean that a peace of art is a representation of a house or anything.
Stereotype: It is how you see someone.
Inclusion: Including someone or someone including you.
Exclusion: When you exclude someone from something.
Masculine: Anything to do with men or boys.
Feminine: Anything to do with woman or girls. 
Sentence Task:
Text: Make sure your read all the text on the page.
Construction: The new school will be fully constructed by next year
Representation: The painting is a representation of the trees and river.
Bias: The referee was bias because he was giving penalties to one team but not the other.
Inclusion: I was happy because today my friend included me in there game.
Exclusion: I always get excluded from the group.
Masculine: He has a very masculine voice.
Feminine: She has a very feminine voice.

The stereotype in the video was that the men were always out side mowing the lawns and doing all those jobs but then the women had to stay inside and clean and do house chores. Also the women had to always look there best even when they were doing jobs.

The stereotype in the second video is that the lady can finally show her ex that she can do something without him and that even though she is blond she can still be successful in life.

11. How are adults constructed in this text? Females should be second to males in both texts. Women in the first text is ambitionless but in the second texts he wants to be a lawyer.

28. What kind of social reality does this text portray? Life was not really fun and it was simple. People don't want to do things out of there stereotypes like women in the house and men in the garden. IN the second clip women and men can do the same jobs and have the same opportunity's.

29. How does this text construct a version of reality? It draws from history, finds examples of props and setting the actually existed in the time period. 

34. What different interpretations of the text are possible? Yes we can see the shift from men being positive to being put down. We can view the shift in society and cultural values.


1. Synopsis: In the first video there were a lot of friends who when out to drink but one of them was men't to not drink so he could drive home but then he kept sneaking away and drink and then when it got to the point of driving home he crashed and one of his friends died.


2. Synopsis: In the second video there are a bunch of people at a party and one of the people there realised that all of them had been drinking so he told them that they could just stay there for the night so that he would not crash on the way home.

19. Is this fair? No it is not fair because they are just targeting young males and that are making it sound like some people speak different than they really do.

10. How are teenagers or young adults constructed in this text? Young men are shown to be irresponsible int he video because they always are drinking.

23. How does the text present age, gender or cultural groups? It shows young males are always drinking and that they are irresponsible. And they make it look like a lot of the people are Maori.

26. Why is the text written this way? The first one is to shock you to do something the second is humorous so people remember it.



Today in English is our last day of critical literacy. First we had to get into a group and then pick one out of the two music videos we were shown. We then needed to pick three questions for the music video we picked.

Our questions are:

 What is this text about? How do we know? In the beginning, it is about an abusive relationship(and an ignorant father) that eventually ends up making the mother look back in the past and change that future so the child couldn't experience the same thing she did as a child.

How are adults constructed in this text? The adults are shown to have many arguments in the beginning but then change to be responsible and kind to their child.

How would the text be different if it were told in another time, place, or culture? To show that there are relationships that aren't too healthy and that some relationships can be abusive but they can make amends and have a change of heart.

What am I learning? I am learning how to use critical literacy when I am reading or even watching videos.

How does this work show my learning? It shows that now I understand how to use critical literacy and that I understand it.

What am I wondering as a result of this learning? I am thinking that it was not as hard as I thought that it would be to use critical literacy.

What have we learnt from these questions? We found out that some relationships in music videos parallel with the real world as in that it just might just not work out and that when you’re older