Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Informational and Graphic TextsCritical Literacy: Perspectives and Bias in Editorials, Features and Local Histories
1.8About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can identify the perspective of an informational text and the evidence that reveals it.
- I can compare how editorials from different publications frame the same issue.
- I can identify which groups a text includes, ignores or erases, and explain the effect.
- I can explain how historical and cultural context shapes a text's attitudes, without excusing them.
Words to know
critical literacy
Reading to question whose perspective a text presents, whose is missing, and who benefits.
perspective
The point of view from which a text is told, shaped by experience, values and position.
bias
A one-sided perspective that distorts an issue, for example by selecting only certain voices or facts.
framing
Presenting an issue through chosen words and angles that shape how readers understand it.
erasure
Leaving a group out of a story so completely that it seems they were never there.
context
The historical, cultural and social circumstances in which a text was created.
Hook: the instant replay
Two broadcasters, one for each team, watch the same play. One calls the goal a beauty, pure skill. The other calls it a lucky bounce. The puck went in either way. What changed is perspective: where the speaker stands, what they value, and whom they speak for. Every informational text, from a news story to a plaque on a monument, is told from somewhere. Critical literacy is the habit of asking from where? and for whom?
Remember from Grade 10
In ENG2D you identified perspectives and biases, and asked questions about beliefs, values, identity and power in literature and media. Grade 11 asks you to analyse them in more complex informational texts: compare editorials from different publications, notice which groups are ignored in a historical account, and explain how historical and cultural context shapes a text's attitudes.
Five critical-literacy questions
- Perspective: whose point of view shapes the text? Whose voice is quoted, and whose is missing?
- Interests: who benefits if readers accept this view?
- Values and beliefs: what does the text assume is normal, good or important?
- Language: which words frame the issue? (a small but loud group; children's safety)
- Omission and power: what is left out, and who had the power to decide?
A text can be biased (one-sided in a way that distorts) or simply have a perspective (every text does). Your job is to name the perspective, show its effects with evidence, and judge whether it is fair.
Two editorials on one issue
Lakeshore city council is debating whether to replace parking on King Street with a protected bike lane. Two invented local publications respond.
**Editorial A, Lakeshore Business Ledger: "Leave King Street to the businesses"**
King Street's shops have survived recessions, big-box stores and online shopping. Now council wants to take away the parking their customers depend on, to please a small but loud group of cyclists. "Half my customers drive in from the farms," says hardware store owner Pat Doucet. Two other owners told us they fear closing. Council should put the bike lane on a side street and leave King Street to the people who keep it alive.
**Editorial B, Lakeshore Green Commuter: "A safe lane is long overdue"**
Every day, students ride King Street to school, squeezed between parked cars and passing trucks. "I hold my breath the whole way," says Grade 10 cyclist Amira Haddad. Two other riders told us they have had close calls. Cities that build protected lanes see more people cycling. Council should stop letting a few parking spaces outweigh children's safety and build the lane now.
Worked exampleLet's compare the two editorials' perspectives
Analyse the perspectives and biases in Editorials A and B. Consider whose voices are included, the framing language, the values each assumes, and what both leave out.
- Voices: A quotes business owners only (Pat Doucet plus two others). B quotes cyclists only (Amira Haddad plus two others). Each publication's sources match its audience (business readers; commuters).
- Framing language: A calls cyclists a small but loud group (minimizing and dismissive) and owners the people who keep it alive (heroic). B describes riders squeezed between parked cars and passing trucks (vulnerable) and parking as a few parking spaces (minimizing).
- Values: A values economic survival and tradition; B values safety and change. Both values are reasonable; each editorial treats its own as obviously more important.
- Evidence: A relies on owners' fears; B relies on riders' experiences and a general claim (cities that build protected lanes see more people cycling) with no source.
- Both leave out: people who use wheelchairs or mobility devices (how does the change affect accessible parking and sidewalks?), delivery drivers, residents who live on King Street, and data on how many customers actually drive.
- Publication context: a business paper and a commuter newsletter each speak for their readers. Knowing who publishes a text helps explain its perspective.
Both editorials are one-sided: each quotes only its own side, frames the other side with minimizing words, and omits the same groups. Reading both gives a fuller picture than either, and shows what is still missing.
Counting who gets quoted is a quick bias check. Each editorial quotes only one side, and neither hears from delivery drivers, King Street residents or residents with disabilities, whose access to parking and sidewalks is also affected.A local history to question
An invented town, Maple Bend, has this text on a plaque downtown:
Maple Bend was founded in 1834, when pioneer families arrived in the untouched wilderness and built the first mill on the river. Through hard work, they turned the forest into farms and the trail into a road, and the town has grown ever since.
Worked exampleLet's ask which groups are ignored
Use critical-literacy questions to analyse the Maple Bend plaque. Then suggest how it could be revised.
- Whose perspective? The settlers'. Pioneer families, hard work and grown ever since tell a story of progress from their point of view.
- Key words: founded, untouched wilderness. In Ontario, towns were built on lands that First Nations had lived on, travelled, harvested and cared for long before 1834. Untouched wilderness erases those peoples and their relationship to the land.
- Who is missing? The First Nations whose lands the town was built on, and who live in the region today. Also missing: any treaty relationship, and other groups who helped build the town (labourers, women, later newcomers).
- Power: whoever paid for and wrote the plaque decided whose story counted. Plaques can stay unchanged for decades, so the perspective of one period keeps speaking.
- Revision (sample): The town of Maple Bend was established by settlers in 1834 on lands that have long been home to First Nations, who continue to live in this region today. The first mill was built on the river that First Nations had used for generations. (A real revision would be written with the First Nations concerned, using their names for themselves and the place.)
The plaque tells one perspective as if it were the whole story. Critical reading names the erasure (untouched wilderness), identifies who is missing, and asks who has the power to tell the town's history.
Context shapes attitudes
The historical and cultural context of a text explains many of its attitudes. A plaque written in 1934 may reflect beliefs common among the people who held power then; an editorial reflects the interests of its publisher and readers. Explaining context is not the same as excusing a text. It helps you understand why a text says what it says, and what has changed since.
Just for funEvery sports fan is secretly a critical-literacy expert. Ask them about a referee's call and they will analyse bias, perspective and power for twenty minutes.
Hands-on activityTwo papers, one story
You need: two news sources that cover the same story (for example two newspapers' websites, or a national paper and a local one), and a notebook.
- Choose one current issue covered as an editorial or opinion piece in both.
- Make a table: people quoted, framing words, values assumed, what's missing.
- Count the quoted voices by group and draw a quick bar chart like the one in this lesson.
- Write a paragraph comparing the perspectives. Is either biased (distorting) or just one perspective? Use evidence.
- Find one local history text (a plaque, a town website, a museum label). Ask the five critical-literacy questions. Who is missing?
What to look for: specific words quoted as evidence; voices counted, not guessed; a distinction between perspective and bias; respectful, accurate language about any community discussed.
Your turn
1What is the difference between a perspective and a bias?
Every text has a perspective (a point of view). Bias is when that perspective becomes one-sided in a way that distorts the issue, for example by leaving out key voices or facts.
2Whom does Editorial A quote? Whom does Editorial B quote?
A: business owners only. B: cyclists only.
3Find a phrase in Editorial A that minimizes the other side.
a small but loud group of cyclists
4Find a phrase in Editorial B that minimizes the other side.
5Name one group both editorials leave out.
Any one: people who use wheelchairs or mobility devices, delivery drivers, King Street residents, older drivers, data on how customers travel.
6Why is untouched wilderness a problem on the Maple Bend plaque?
It erases the First Nations who lived on and cared for the land before settlers came, and who still live in the region today.
7What is the difference between explaining a text's context and excusing it?
Explaining shows why the text holds its attitudes (its time, author, audience); excusing would mean treating those attitudes as acceptable just because of context.
More practice: warm-up
1What does critical literacy ask about every text?
From whose perspective is it told, and for whom (who benefits, who is missing)?
2Which publication published Editorial B?
The Lakeshore Green Commuter.
3Name one value Editorial A assumes is most important.
Economic survival of businesses (or tradition).
4Name one value Editorial B assumes is most important.
Safety (especially children's safety).
Presenting an issue through chosen words and angles that shape how readers see it.
More practice: on your own
1Rewrite Editorial A's phrase a small but loud group of cyclists in neutral language.
Sample: residents who cycle on King Street.
2Why does knowing the publisher help you read an editorial?
Publications often speak for and to particular readers and interests; knowing the publisher helps you predict and identify its perspective.
3Suggest one piece of evidence that would help readers judge the bike-lane issue fairly.
Sample: data on how King Street shoppers actually travel, or before-and-after sales and safety data from a similar town that built a protected lane.
4How does the word founded shape the Maple Bend story?
Founded suggests the town's history begins with settlers, implying nothing important came before; it centres settler history and erases earlier and ongoing First Nations presence.
5Which question about power would you ask about the Maple Bend plaque?
Sample: Who wrote and paid for this plaque, and who had the power to decide whose history it tells?
Challenge
1Write a short, balanced paragraph (4 to 5 sentences) on the bike-lane issue that includes at least three perspectives.
Sample: King Street business owners worry that losing parking will drive away customers, especially those who drive in from rural areas. Students who cycle describe feeling unsafe riding between parked cars and traffic. Residents who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices need accessible parking and clear sidewalks, which any plan must protect. Before deciding, council could gather data on how shoppers travel and study towns that have tried protected lanes. Look for: at least three groups, neutral language, a suggestion for evidence.
2Explain how the bar chart of quoted sources reveals bias even if every quotation is accurate.
Bias can come from selection: by choosing whom to quote, each editorial makes one side seem to be the only real concern. Every quote can be true while the overall picture is distorted, because other affected groups (cyclists in A, business owners in B, and residents with disabilities in both) are never heard.
3A classmate says, The Maple Bend plaque is just history; it's not biased, it's the past. Respond respectfully.
History is always told from a perspective. The plaque's facts may be accurate (a mill, 1834), but its words (founded, untouched wilderness) choose a settler perspective and leave out First Nations who lived there before and live in the region today. Recognizing this doesn't erase settlers' work; it makes the history more complete and accurate. Revisions are strongest when made with the communities concerned.
Quiz
1. Which is the best definition of bias in a text?
3. a small but loud group of cyclists is an example of...
4. Which group do both editorials leave out?
5. Why is untouched wilderness on the Maple Bend plaque a problem?
6. Explaining a text's historical context...
What this lesson teaches: ENG3U Reading 1.8: identifying and analysing perspectives and biases in informational texts and commenting on questions they raise about beliefs, values, identity and power, including comparing editorials from different publications and noticing which groups a local historical account ignores.
How to help at home:
- Read two takes on the same local issue and ask: Who did each one talk to?
- Visit a local plaque or museum display together and ask whose story it tells.
Common difficulties:
- Calling every opinion biased. Every text has a perspective; bias means distortion.
- Picking a side instead of analysing. The task is to analyse both, with evidence.
- Discussing Indigenous history. Encourage accurate, present-tense, respectful language: First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities are living communities today. Revisions of history should be made with the communities concerned.
Facts used: the editorials, publications, people, the town of Maple Bend and its plaque are invented for this lesson. The statement that Ontario towns were built on lands long home to First Nations is a general historical fact.