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the importance of literacy in education
the importance of literacy in education
the importance of literacy in education
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Recommended: the importance of literacy in education
Chapter 1
Introduction
According to Burns, Roe and Smith (2002) “Reading is a combination of many skills leading to the construction of meaning, through integrating prior knowledge with information presented in the text.” The aim of reading is to communicate thoughts and ideas through written language. Over the years The Ministry of Education in Jamaica, educators, parents, and politicians continue to express concern over the low literacy rates demonstrated by schools especially at the grade four level where they sit the Grade Four Literacy Test. Although researchers pursue the root of reading disabilities and effective reading methods, concern is still expressed by teachers that many students cannot read at their instructional grade level. Several reading interventions and methods for remediation have been designed and implemented to increase reading fluency. As a result of these interventions, some students who struggle to
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It is often believed that fluency can be the link between decoding and comprehension. Decoding refers to a child’s ability to recognize words. Word recognition skills can be taught through phonemic awareness and phonics. For many readers problems with word recognition can lead to problems with fluency, which can lead to problems with comprehension. According to Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn (2001), less fluent readers focus their attention on decoding words, leaving less attention for comprehension. When students begin to develop decoding skills and word recognition becomes natural and automatic, gains in fluency and comprehension can be made. Fluency also allows the reader to see that meaning is not only carried through by words, but by expression, punctuation, and phrasing (Rasinski, 2003). Once a student can learn to accurately, effectively, and effortlessly decode words he or she can begin to naturally read passages and stories, and can focus on
She understands what she has read when she uses her classroom reading strategies Danica continues to struggle with reading fluency, finding specific details, identifying the main idea, understanding the meaning of a text, making inferences, predicting what may happen next and drawing conclusions for the regular education curriculum These difficulties in language arts/reading has negatively impact Danica ’s ability to perform grade level text independently within the regular education
With such high numbers of adolescents falling below basic in reading, illiteracy is a battle that must be fought head on. The largest dilemma with the struggle is the number of variations that cause adolescents to become reluctant, unmotivated or struggling readers. Fortunately, a large number of strategies exist to encourage and strengthen readers of all ages, proving that adolescence is not a time to give up on faltering students. Rather, it is a time to evaluate and intervene in an effort to turn a reluctant reader into an avid one (or near enough). Ultimately, educators must learn to properly assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses (Curtis, 2009) and pair them with the proper intervention techniques. If one method does not work, countless others exist to take its place.
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
In Watson, Fore & Boon, the authors take in consideration the early problems of early decoding for reading fluency. When teaching beginning readers, oral deco...
Reading fluency is a very common issue due to a child's upbringing. More than likely, this means that early in the child's life, they were not properly taught and instructed adequately enough on how to write and orally show they understand the words being communicated to them. A poor ability to demonstrate this will reflect in their reading comprehension because they cannot translate words onto paper, therefore will never know their spelling or proper meaning. (Vacca, 2015).
When the question arouse about the various ways to help improve reading in an African American classroom, many parents started to become more and more concerned. Students’ progress in reading is arguably the largest concern compared to any other subject taught in school, and rightfully so. Nothing is more important to academic success than being an adequate reader. Current research in reading attests that children who read extensively become better readers and writers over time. In order for a student to achieve in English, math, science, history, geography, and other subjects, appropriate reading skills must be developed to the point that most of them come natural. A substantial amount of students should not be struggling with recognizing
In today’s world, people are no longer confined to reading print books. Many people are embracing the digital world they live in by accessing reading materials through electronic devices. Over the last couple of years, e-reading capabilities have shifted to become available through devices like smart phones, tablets, computers, and e-book readers. While many individuals have noted the physical differences between reading print versus reading electronically, few have studied if the use of e-readers alters the manner in which material is read. Without the consideration of these effects, many schools have begun using electronic reading devices in the classroom as a substitute for print books. Therefore, it is important that the effects of e-reader usage on their ability to understand or comprehend literature be studied, in order to afford today’s children, the internet generation, the best opportunities for success in literacy.
As mentioned above fluent readers can comprehend a text because they automatically recognize words. As we know, fluent readers can read smoothly, with intonation and expression, and at the same speed one would use when talking. “Being a fluent reader allows one to focus on the content in the reading, rather than focusing on the decoding of each individual word” (Cotter, 2012, p. 5). As children become fluent readers, they can interact with text on a higher level. When speaking of reading fluency, there are three components that develop children’s fluency and comprehension, automaticity, and prosody. Accuracy allows students to read words correctly. Automaticity allow readers to recognize words automatically, without having to decode them. Lastly, prosody allows readers to use expression while
“The main goal of more formal educational research is to test theory and to advance scientific knowledge” (Samuels & Farstrup, 1992, p 5). As a result of the noticeable failing reading levels, Congress took it into their own hands to help solve the matter. “Congress directed the creation of the National Reading Panel to reevaluate educational research and give teachers and schools a roadmap to address this problem” (National Reading Panel, 2000 (NRP)). The panel was appointed in 1997, and used numerous studies and research that, once analyzed, was focused into certain areas that need to be incorporated in reading instruction. The areas that were highlighted in the resulting study were phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension (Manzo, 2000, p 1). These areas can be examined more closely in order to gain insight and information into their beneficial effects on effective reading instruction.
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
ccording to the National Reading Panel (2000), fluency is reading text with speed, correctness, and expression. Wolf and Katzir-Cohen (2001) defined fluent oral reading as ‘‘a level of accuracy and rate where decoding is relatively effortless; where oral reading is smooth and accurate with correct prosody; and where attention can be allocated to comprehension’’ (p.218). Reading fluency is commonly labeled in literature as having three main components: (a) word reading accuracy, (b) automaticity or word reading speed, and (c) prosody or the proper use of phrasing and expression to carry meaning (Rasinski, 2010). Some reading theories and research focus on accuracy and automaticity or effective word recognition processes as the basic to fluent reading, particularly between developing readers (e.g., Ehri, 1995; LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Nathan & Stanovich, 1991; Samuels & Farstrup, 2006; Torgesen, Rashotte, & Alexander, 2001). From this perspective, the amount of words correctly read per minute has confirmed to be ‘‘an elegant and reliable way to characterize expert reading’’ (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001, p. 240). The Reading fluency includes the ability to recognize words quickly and correctly therefore; children need
Reading is an essential skill that needs to be addressed when dealing with students with disabilities. Reading is a skill that will be used for a student’s entire life. Therefore, it needs to be an important skill that is learned and used proficiently in order for a student to succeed in the real world. There are many techniques that educators can use to help improve a student’s reading comprehension. One of these skills that needs to be directly and explicitly taught is learning how to read fluently for comprehension. “To comprehend texts, the reader must be a fluent decoder and not a laborious, word-by-word reader” (Kameenui, 252). Comprehension can be difficult for students with learning disabilities because they tend to be the students that are reading below grade level. One strategy is to incorporate the student’s background knowledge into a lesson. This may require a bit of work, but it will help the students relate with the information being pres...
1. Contribute to the EFL teaching methodology where scanning techniques is used as an alternative technique in teaching and learning reading.
As I sat in the front of my 6th grade English class, I anxiously awaited my turn to read. While reading several paragraphs from Lowry’s The Giver, I stuttered, mispronounced words, and even worked up a sweat. Every since I could remember I hated reading. Why do I always have to read out loud and embarrass myself to the entire class? Why can I not read as well as everyone in my class? How come I can never understand what I am reading? This was when I realized that I had a reading comprehension deficit. Reading comprehension is a constructive process whereby the reader uses the text, prior knowledge, and comprehension strategies to decode the text into meaning units of connected knowledge. There are many ways for teacher’s to help students with
How can what we know about the development of readers inform reading comprehension instruction? Reading instruction typically starts in kindergarten with the alphabetic principle, simple word blending, and sight word recognition. Texts read by early readers usually include very little to comprehend. As children develop reading ability, they are able read more complex texts requiring greater comprehension skills. Separate and explicit instruction in reading comprehension is crucial because the ability to comprehend develops in its own right, independent of word recognition. The ability to read words and sentences is clearly important, but as readers develop, these skills are less and less closely correlated with comprehension abilities. (Aarnoutse & van Leeuwe, 2000) While no one would argue that word blending and sight word reading skills be omitted from early reading instruction, vocabulary and listening comprehension may be at least as important in achieving the even...