Seeing Both Sides, Side by Side

By Doug Buehl,
Madison East High School teacher
Member, Wisconsin State Reading Association

November 2004

The war in Iraq . . . jobs and the economy . . . taxes . . . health care . . . terrorists and homeland security . . . . Americans are in the throes of another national election cycle, and the airwaves pulsate with a host of contradictory messages. As voters, we are constantly urged to make decisions – decisions about whose version of reality is closest to the truth, about what issues we care about the most, about whom we feel should be entrusted with the responsibilities of leadership and power.

Within this swirl of sparring headlines, charges and counter-charges, and daily “revelations,” voters are offered rare opportunities to evaluate the candidates as they stand side-by-side in debates. Even though such “debates” may primarily feature well-rehearsed snippets of stump speeches, the contrasts between viewpoints are often easier to discern when they are arrayed next to each other.

Last month’s column discussed “critical literacy” as an essential component of reading comprehension instruction. Critical literacy reflects a sensitivity to the personal perspectives and experiences that authors bring to their writing. Critical literacy prompts readers to ask themselves whose viewpoints are represented in a particular text, and whose are not.

Different perspectives are often easier to recognize and understand when they are openly displayed next to each together. As with the presidential debates, readers have the opportunity to weigh varying “takes” on issues and ideas when such texts are studied and discussed concurrently.

The strategy
Juxtapositioning texts (McLaughlin and DeVoogd, 2004) is an instructional strategy that helps students hone their critical literacy skills as readers. This strategy emphasizes that several significant viewpoints need to be factored when we develop a more comprehensive understanding of what we read.

Step 1: Begin by selecting two texts that deal with the same issue, topic, incident, or idea. For example, a social studies teacher developing lessons on the rise of industrial America could locate sections from two history textbooks that offer contrasting information on a historical figure such as the automaker Henry Ford.

Divide the class, and have some students work in groups to analyze the viewpoints represented by the author of the first textbook. The rest of the class collaborates in groups to examine the author viewpoints suggested in the second textbook.

As students work, remind them of the questions they need to pose as critical readers (see October 2004 Reading Room column). In particular, they should search for specific textual clues left by an author that “tips off” the author’s viewpoint or perspective.

In our Henry Ford example, students reading the first textbook excerpts may notice that most of the information provided by the author concerns how workers felt about Ford, and much of the text details efforts Ford undertook to “Americanize” his foreign-born workers in order to instill a certain set of values into his workforce. Students may perceive author disapproval of Ford’s actions, as language and examples in the text present Ford as an invasive and overbearing employer.

Students reading the second textbook may pick up author appreciation of Ford’s innovations of industrial practices, which led to lower-priced automobiles that could be purchased by people of relatively modest means. This author chooses words such as “genius” and “visionary” to describe Ford, and suggests that the Detroit automaker’s contributions helped to revolutionize American society.

The point of juxtapositioning these two texts is not to prove that one of the authors is correct and the other is wrong. Instead, students are encouraged to delay judgment until they have ascertained that “missing voices” in a text have been considered. In both texts in our Henry Ford example, the authors chose to include certain historically accurate information and to ignore (or withhold) other relevant material. And in both texts, the authors subtly “editorialized” about their subject, under the guise of presenting “American history” to their readers. When the students share their examinations of these two texts, and discuss the differences in treatment of Henry Ford by these authors, they will be in a position to develop a more sophisticated understanding of an important American figure.

Step 2: Once students have become practiced in comparing two texts, include additional texts that represent a variety of formats. Text juxtapositions can also include video excerpts, photographs, cartoons, lyrics, and other forms of communication.

When juxtapositioning visual media such as video and photographs with written texts, McLaughlin and DeVoogd recommend modeling “viewing from a critical stance” by asking questions such as:

• Who is being presented in the video or photo?
  
• Why are they there? What purpose do they serve in this picture?
  
• Who might be included in the picture but is missing?
  
• What else might be shown?
  
• What does this filmmaker or photographer want you to think?
  
• What might an alternative video or photograph show?

As students apply critical literacy questions to visual media, they began to notice details that shape how viewers perhaps subconsciously respond to the images.

Step 3: As students examine juxtapositioned texts, ask them to periodically inventory their personal responses to each. Prompt such discussion by asking questions such as:

• To what extent do the viewpoints of individual authors coincide with your personal beliefs?
• How do your personal beliefs and experiences affect the way you “read” a text?
• Do you change any of your ideas once you have considered multiple perspectives and viewpoints?
• Do you notice yourself open to recognizing perspectives and viewpoints that may contrast with yours?
• How have you continued to clarify and deepen your understanding of the topics and ideas we are studying?

Posted October 26, 2004