Adolescent Literacy in America Essay

“Your county has some of the worst literacy rates in the state. According to your test scores, most of you can barely even read or write. I will be honest with you; I think that the current curriculum breeds stupidity and is only appropriate for people who aspire to complete mediocrity. I may only last one year, but I am, from this point forth, deciding not to follow the curriculum. You can leave your books under your desk, because you will not be needing them. In this class, we will dwell on our ability to think and

Times are changing. Literacy is not only a problem that the English teacher has to deal with. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write (Oxford Dictionaries). However, you have to use different skills to read a novel than you do with reading a science question. So it only makes that literacy should be taught in different ways for each different subject. It does a student no good to be able to physically read a science question but have no idea what it’s asking for. The last five years have seen unprecedented attention given to the literacy achievement of adolescents in secondary schools in the United States. Spurred by the release of flat or declining reading scores on national tests. (Donahue, Daane & Grigg, 2003). This could be easily linked to a lack of literacy techniques being taught in schools.

Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.

Some literacy issues are becoming more and more prevalent in recent times. In the day and age we live in; we have access to the newest data and notions regarding literacy in the current education

Reading and writing is crucial for increasing achievement among people of all ethnicities. For many young kids, books are their primary source of learning how to read and write besides the parameter of the classroom. However, there is a significant decrease in the literacy rate found in African-American communities. There is a need for stronger literacy education for this particular group of the population. A huge problem associated with that can be attributed the failure of the public school system to effectively educate the youth. According to the 2009 NAEP data, only 33 percent of 4th graders and 32 percent of 8th graders in the U.S performed at or above proficiency in reading on national tests. These results are very discouraging, in the African-American community, but the results are even worse because only 16 percent of African American 4th graders and 14 percent of African American 8th graders performed at or above the grade proficiency level in 2009.

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.

At Brockton High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, the school put forth an initiative to integrate literacy-related instructional strategies across all content areas. This school-wide instructional goal has attributed to the overall boost to student achievement. The leadership team at Brockton High School recognized that changing the school culture would require the adults on campus to re-evaluate curriculum and instructional strategies.`Moreover, changing the mindset of school requires an examination of data to determine the area of need. The leadership at Brockton recognized that the greatest gaps in student achievement stem from the lack of literacy skills. With the use of content-specific information, literacy skills such as reading, writing,

Abstract of your project’s argument [Even though literacy may refer to both reading and writing, it is more reasonable to believe that writing carries more meaning than reading does. This idea is supported by academic pieces and my personal anecdotes, because they indicate that writing, essentially, is a method of interaction with our surroundings. According to Birkerts, acts of reading rely on writing, while the words of Harris imply the opposite. He suggests that writing is significant because it allows for the framing of a text, that is, writing can make a difference in every story. Also, writing offers learning experience and therefore a connection to society, because creating meanings do a lot more

When it comes to the classroom, there are several important components that teachers need to teach their students in order to be successful in the areas of reading and writing. One of these components is literacy. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, literacy is defined as “the ability to read and write.” In order for children to be successful readers and writers, they need teachers who understand the concepts well enough to teach them accurately. Each child learns differently, so these teachers need to come up with different ways to teach their students so they will get a full understanding of the components and why they are used in everyday reading and writing. According to Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, the five areas of reading instruction they will use are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2008, p. ii).

In a 2015 study conducted by the Nation’s Report Card only thirty-six percent (36%) of fourth grade students and thirty-four percent (34%) of eighth grade students were identified as reading at a level of proficiency. These number varied significantly between ethnic backgrounds and racial makeup, consequently; in an order to increase the reading proficiency of all students the implementation of a balanced literacy framework has been the definitive aim in many reading curriculums across the country.

I have learned a vast amount of knowledge after taking this literacy course. My perspective on literacy now, have developed into a notion that literacy is needed for a student’s success. My outlook on adolescent literacy is still that it has wide range of different perspectives. Literacy is the basic method of understanding the material. I define literacy to be composed of several components such as: comprehension, communication, reading, critical thinking, and analyzing. According to “Why is literacy important?” (2017, March 24) The power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and discern the

In the past, much of the blame for adolescents’ literacy problems has been placed on elementary teachers, but recent research suggests that secondary teachers must share in the responsibility for teaching literacy.” This statement was astonishing to me. It’s odd to me that even high school students struggle with literacy. On the other hand, after learning about social promotions in my other classes, it doesn’t seem that uncommon. I feel that elementary teachers have all of the pressure to make sure students have literacy skills, so it was interesting that this article states that secondary teachers must share that responsibility. It really makes me wonder how these students have come so far without improving in literacy. This article also made it apparent to me that the Common Core State Standards view literacy as a shared initiative, and that all teachers at every grade and subject are responsible for literacy achievement (Wendt, 2013). I wouldn’t have thought that a science or math teacher would be responsible for literacy skills, but after thinking about it, it only makes sense. Students need literacy for all subjects, so it shouldn’t just be on the shoulder of the reading teachers. Another valid point is made when the article states, “Therefore, the current method of focusing on academic learning is not effective when students are unable to comprehend and apply new knowledge due to lack of reading and literacy skills.” (Wendt, 2013) How can students be expected to learn new subject area skills if they aren’t even proficient in reading? That’s the issue; they can’t. In the article Selecting Texts and Tasks for Content Area Reading and Learning,

“Literacy is defined as a social practice, meaning a form of activity through which we use text in culturally appropriate ways for specific purposes” [Kern, 2000]. On the other hand, Neilson (2014) argues that “the power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write, but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and discern the intricacies of the world in which they live” [Delvene, 2014, para. 1]. Significantly, when these two perspectives are analyzed, literacy can be seen as a skill and a tool. Whereby, students, can possess the learned skills and still be unable to utilize these skills in an informative way.

Throughout my field experience this semester, I learned a lot about literacy learners and teaching/learning. From my final tutoring session, I learned that literacy instruction that works for one student may not necessarily work for another and that it is important to teach literacy instruction using a variety of techniques and strategies (Serravallo, 2015). First, I learned how important it is to cater literacy instruction to the individual student. I have learned about many great instructional strategies for teaching literacy but not all strategies are going to work for every student. It is important to select strategies that build on student strengths to support the student’s literacy needs (Serravallo, 2014). I also learned that a