Mike Gaudreau's Blog

  Critical Literacy and Capitalism in the Classroom             Critical literacy is an essential aspect of Language Arts instruction in today’s schools. It provides all students a lens through which to see themselves within the context of their education. “Critical literacy offers the tools to investigate language constructions, including silence, through the assumption that anything that has been constructed through language is saturated with perspective or ideological beliefs and therefore can be deconstructed and better understood. Such constructions could take infinite forms including a social interaction, and internet website, a children’s book, a television commercial, a sitcom, an email, or a newspaper article.”   (Jones 1) Exposing students to the practice of critical literacy is giving them permission and license to react honestly to the world they live in, to recognize injustice, and attempt to make a change within the framework of a capitalist society by helping them bet

    My name is Michael Gaudreau. I have been an elementary and middle grade teacher for the last twenty years and am working to get certified to teach secondary English.   To that end, I've created this blog as a space to express my thoughts as I prepare for this endeavor. Establishing Hope as the Cornerstone of an ELA Classroom               Considering the thoughts of Cornel West, Duncan-Andrade’s “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete”, Sieben’s “Advocating for the Affective: Writing Hope into School Spaces”, and Christensen’s Teaching for Joy and Justice , there can be little question that effective teaching requires a deep commitment to the belief that every child has a story worth telling and the ability to tell it in their own voice. As a teacher, it is our job to know our students well enough to challenge them appropriately while considering their interests, struggles, and experiences. These are all beliefs that I hold dear, which you would see