In classrooms, the work of critical literacy often happens within moment-to-moment andimprovised interactions, despite teachers’ planned lessons. These critical literacy moments canbe opportunities for constructive dialogue or they can be missed opportunities that are not takenup by teachers and students for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this proposal, then, is toexplore critical literacy as situated moments within classroom interactions. To do that, we draw on Dewey’s concept of transactional realism to investigate classroom talk within critical literacymoments in a grade 6 Swedish classroom and in a U.S. high school classroom. Critical literacyas critical moments are important for teachers who strive to make the classroom a criticalenvironment for the students.