Critical Reading vs. Critical Literacy

How do the two concepts, critical readings vs. critical literacy, relate to your own content area? How might teachers in your content area incorporate the two concepts? Does it make sense to do so? Why or why not?

The concepts of critical reading and critical literacy, I believe, relate a great deal to the study of history. When studying history, one needs to critically read, to be able to "separate facts, inferences and judgements" (page 173). Students would have to be able to tell if a text contains facts, and be able to note these facts with a high level of thinking. They would have to understand these facts and be able to comprehend them. Critical literacy is also related to history in the sense that there are instances when the students have to "question the authority of the text through dialogue" (page 173). They would have to be able to take a text, and critically think about the concepts within it, perhaps even come up with alternative views.
A teacher could implement these two concepts, for example, take the Civil War. Most people know it was a war fought between the North and the South. Well, to go further into a critical reading of a Civil War text, we can see that it was a war between the North and the South, neighbor vs. neighbors, even brother vs. brother. To use critical literacy, would be to examine the reasons for this war. Was this a war started because the Southern states feared that slavery would be abolished, or were they fighting for their rights as Americans? It does make sense to incorporate both concepts because, as a teacher, one would have to think rationally, but also acknowledge that alternative view.