Johnston (2010) Literature and Critical Literacy

1. The level of story (the narrative) – what is narrated?

The story emerges from the events that take place, the actions its characters
engage in, and the time and place of the setting (i.e. Who, What, When, Where,
How)

2. The level of the telling of the story (or the telling of the text)

Refers to all the choices the author/creator has made in the text:

The arrangement of the words (syntax)

The meanings of the words (semantics)

The sound and look of the words (graphophonics)

Refers to what is on the page, the order in which events and characters appear,
the mode or register of the narrative, the point of view and focalisation of events,
characters and setting

3. The level of themes and significance (understory)

Relates to the underlayer of themes and significance; textual &

intertextual connections

Framing narratives against or within historical events; external crisis playing against
internal crisis, world crisis against personal crisis (layers of the personal, the social, the
national, and the natural)
McDonald (2013). Cross-curriculum priorities and literature for young people

Dimensions of country/place, culture and people (p. 122/3)

Endorsement

Does the text have an endorsement from an appropriate group or name the
country of the writer and illustrator?

People/culture: Status power

Who has the authority and knowledge?

Who can speak/act on problems in the text?

Does this occur in ways appropriate to Indigenous culture?

Country/place/culture/context

Are Indigenous social structures/family networks recognised?

Is there understanding and respect for the complexity of Indigenous knowledge

and belief systems?

Culture/people/place: Language

Is Standard English (SE) privileged? Is Aboriginal English (EA) or Language

included?
◦ McDonald (2013). Cross-curriculum priorities and literature for young people

◦ Dimensions of Asia-Australia-European engagement (pp. 129-130)

◦ 1. Representations of diversity
◦ Is the history of the cultural group evident? Is the reader informed about the life of
people in their home country?

◦ What immigrant experiences are presented and what is valued here?

◦
◦ 2. Achievements and contribution
◦ Who holds powerful positions/solves problems?

◦ What types of roles do the characters have?

◦
◦ 3. Engagement with Australia (or other relevant English-speaking country or immigrant
country – E.T.)
◦ Is the writer of the culture or outside the culture?

◦ What models of culture does the text reflect: assimilation, integration and /or
inclusiveness?
◦
◦ 4. Engagement with language
◦ Are characters in two groups: those who speak Standard English and those who do
not?

◦ Does the actual language of the culture appear accurately?

◦ Are negative epithets used, such as ‘lazy’, ‘inscrutable’, ‘primitive’, ‘backward’?