{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"52781230","dateCreated":"1334176311","smartDate":"Apr 11, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"Martin.mintz","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/Martin.mintz","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/52781230"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Martin's Post","description":"These readings were very interesting for me to read. I found both helped me to think about my classroom as a whole and think back to issues that come up regarding literacy. They also helped me to label those problems and think of ways to continue to work towards solutions. Some of the ideas were new to me and some also aligned with some of the practices I have been trying, which has encouraged me to dig even deeper with my efforts.
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\nThe Matthew article, as I mentioned above, contains a lot of ideas\/problems I have been thinking about regarding my classroom. As a teacher for 8th graders, it is especially interesting... my students have been in the education system for almost a decade! That is the majority of their life. For most of my students, for that entire time in their life, they have been struggling readers, or considered behind their grade by state standards. The majority of my students are behind grade level, many by at least 2 grade levels. Understandably, this constant struggle may make reading in school, or reading in MANY places, something that is not enjoyable at all and possible painful. Those problems are pretty clear to see. Matthews helps to illuminate the ways that this is hurting our students in many many ways beyond the strict reading level. I was either unaware or just had not thought about these kind of connections that are so closely tied to learning. Rather, I had focused strictly on getting though the material.
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\nThe second reading helped me to reflect on this as well and think about PRACTICES. Helping my students become engaged readers seems like a major step, and this article helped discuss different ways to help that in my classroom. What are the best ways to engage children, OR how to re-engage students who seem to have either blocked out or resist reading.
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\nReading with an inquiry-based specific task or idea has been a great way to me to implement the ideas behind engagement. Knowing that you will have to be not only accountable for what you have read but also needed to come to some sort of conclusion, question, answer, or anything at the end of the reading has been a good step for me. We all (both my students and myself) need to continue implementing other strategies (for example, here I do not talk about how to navigate that specific text) but I believe this is all headed in the right direction.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"50517578","dateCreated":"1329272927","smartDate":"Feb 14, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"coxjustin87","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/coxjustin87","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/50517578"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Justin's Post","description":"Albiet I\u2019m a bit embarrassed to admit it, Johannessen and McCann\u2019s reasoning about literacy falling on a \u201ccontinuum\u201d struck me as something of revelation. At least at my school, so much focus is put on grouping students and defining their literacy based on standardized test scores--\u201cJorge is a three, you can put him in the higher group,\u201d \u201cMarcos is barely a two, put him with the struggling students\u201d\u2014that there\u2019s little flexibility in how I can come to understand their complex needs and myriad challenges with becoming more \u201cliterate.\u201d I feel that just because a certain group of students got the same low test scores, it doesn\u2019t mean they need the same kinds of help to hone their skills. Moreover, I don\u2019t believe that just because a student earns a three or four on the state ELA exam that they can\u2019t further develop their literacy skills. Unfortunately, at my school, once a student gets a good score the focus is more on \u201ckeeping them there,\u201d rather than continuing to cultivate their skills. Instruction revolves around test strategies and keeps the students familiar with how to read a text and then answer generic multiple choice or short answer questions about it.
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\nThat said, while the notion of a literacy continuum proved groundbreaking for my view on student literacy, I was disappointed with the paucity of helpful strategies outlined in the texts to help me take this perspective into the classroom and to restructure how I teach literacy. The biggest letdown for me were the \u201cdomains\u201d identified by Johannessen and McCann: \u201c(1) the establishment between supportive and trusting relationships between teachers and learners, (2) the cultivation of partnerships among families, their communities, and their schools, (3) the refinement of teaching practices that connect with the lives of learners in a culturally and socially responsible way.\u201d I feel like there is so much I don\u2019t know about teaching, and maybe these are three of the only things that have always been obvious to me. Moreover, these apply so broadly\u2014they are true for a chemistry teacher, an art teacher, a basketball coach and everyone in-between (of course, maybe the universality does lend a little more value to the ideas than I\u2019m allowing credit for). In the end, nonetheless, I\u2019m excited about pulling back the wool, so to speak, in terms of how I view literacy, but now it appears I have to go out on my own and find out what that has to mean for my instruction. It could be worse, but a little more help from the authors wouldn\u2019t hurt.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"49942986","dateCreated":"1328155379","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"aylinkuzucan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/aylinkuzucan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49942986"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Aylin's response","description":" I am currently teaching math at a secondary level and never thought I would be faced with literacy obstacles in my classroom. Cunningham and Johanesse point out a key common theme that I think is relevant to all subjects \u2013 comfort. Many of my students have failed multiple times and have little to no confidence in their abilities. Cunningham points out that without the familiarity of reading, students miss out on opportunities to build vocabulary and decoding abilities. This then results in less reading in adulthood \u2013 as reading become a burden rather than enjoyment because they do not have the necessary skills. Students need a fast start according to Cunningham in order to build literacy skills.
\n Unfortunately, many of students did not have access to this fast start or have recently come from foreign countries where English is not the first language. This makes communication increasingly more difficult. Using more familiar strategies to students will help students feel more comfortable and build fluency. Using different strategies to bridge school and life in the classroom as well as front loading activities are great strategies that the Johanesse and McCann article offer. How this relates to math? I have found that not only is it hard for students to follow my language when their literacy level is so low but also math is heavy in its own vocabulary that is not used in everyday language. When asking for the product students need to know that multiplication is necessary and without the proper vocabulary training they may use addition instead. It is my job to build both math literacy and English literacy, which is why I ask students to justify their answers after solving them. I have the luxury to reassure my students that this is math class and I will not be grading grammar to help motivate them to write with no fear. Hopefully, after building fluency, my students will be comfortable with me fixing grammatical errors.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"50035608","body":"I agree that one of the main takeaways from this article is the emphasis on confidence. What I like is that they make this often amorphous feeling concrete. They make it something that teachers can foster--building reading skill, creating positive feedback loops, etc.","dateCreated":"1328307704","smartDate":"Feb 3, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49942266","dateCreated":"1328153973","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"sdeuitch","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/sdeuitch","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49942266"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Sarah's Response","description":"Cunningham and Stanovich's "What Reading Does for the Mind" really spoke to me as a person, an avid reader and a teacher of students with special needs. I like how bluntly the authors put the connection between reading and intelligence: "Those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence; that is, reading will make them smarter" (page 147). This has always seemed like an obvious statement to me, but this article was invaluable for providing a better understanding of the specific reasons and connections of reading to not only general intelligence but cognitive ability.
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\nThe early exposure of reading to a child at a young age has long been known to encourage the child's personal reading. Regarding the opposite, the authors put it best saying "very early in the reading process poor readers, who experience greater difficulty in breaking the spelling-to-sound code, begin to be exposed to much less text than their more skilled peers" (page 137). I have found this very thing to be immensely and sadly true among my students. Those who have admitted to "liking" or "loving" to read or who say they read at home a great deal when they were younger, now are much more adept at reading. Similarly, those who said their parents have difficulty readiing or who say they have never liked reading, struggle with it in class and rarely, if ever, attempt it outside of class. I teach students with various types and stages of learning disabilities, those which likely began to affect their reading, comprehension and other academic efforts. Many were discouraged from reading at that early age, and that discouragement and lack of effort went unsuccessfully challenged (if challenged at all) by their teachers previous to me. Their "reading for meaning is hindered; unrewarding reading experiences multiply; and practice is avoided or merely tolerated without real cognitive involvement" (page 137). I see this every single day in class when I ask my struggling readers to read silently or aloud. They encounter difficulties and see reading as a burden forced upon them by teachers, without the pleasure and enjoyment I have always found in it.
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\nTo be perfectly honest, this article was enlightening but also very disheartening for me. Reading it, I felt that because my students (10th-12th grade) may have missed their chance at becoming life-long readers and all the verbal, intellectual and cognitive benefits that Cunningham and Stanovich explain go along with reading. However, I was reassured and reinvigorated about my recent and developing plans to increase literacy instruction in my classroom when in the final paragraphs of the essay, the authors said their studies showed that "reading yields significant dividends for everyone - not just for the 'smart kids' or the more able readers. Even the child with limited reading and comprehension skills will build vocabulary and cognitive structures through reading" (page 147). To me, this means that I, and my students, should not lose hope about developing their processing and comprehension through reading past the stalled point it is at currently. Despite their past failures and discouragements, they can AND WILL see success in, and through, reading. I will therefore do my duty as their teacher and a person who truly cares about their future happiness and opportunities in life, and provide them with as many reading opportunities as possible (at their reading levels and higher) for their advancement.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"50035548","body":"I agree with you that the C & S article puts numbers, facts, and detail to something we all know intuitively (especially as teachers).
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\nGlad you found some hope and promise in some of those numbers and facts.","dateCreated":"1328307577","smartDate":"Feb 3, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49941412","dateCreated":"1328152620","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"AvaMarron","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/AvaMarron","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49941412"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Cunningham and Johannesse","description":"I found Johannesse's article a good starting off point when understanding how to teach literacy. Most teaching I know understand that basic reading instruction is derived from 1) a positive "establishment of supportive and trusting relationships between teachers and learners 2) the cultivation of partnerships amoung families, their communities, and the schools 3) the refinements of teaching practices that interact with learners in a culturally and socially responsive way. This is of course all of our "ideal". The academia of teaching literacy at a high level is important; however, the structures put in place to implement this high level of instruction is what needs the most focus. How can teachers implement this without the support of the school, resources, and a community that fundamentally agrees with this educational philosophy?
\nI think in AP lit highschool classrooms it makes more sense that "the teacher is no longer merely the one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students". But I am a reading teacher in a special education classroom. How can this even start to be applied to my daily life if my school is understaffed and under resourced? This is just not set in reality for most schools I have seen in minority urban neighborhoods.
\nThe Cunningham article was a bit more interesting. He argues that a well-rounded reading education starts with an appreciation for the subject. This love of reading can then help one verbally, textually, and with his\/her writing skills. My school definitely is on this boat! We track students word count through reading quizzes and push literacy and vocabulary in all of our classes. I also agree with Cunningham that this need to start with earlychild hood education. One can not foster a love of 6th grade texts if they do not have basic phonics skills. So then the age ol' question appears: how can I remediate skills while also push my high level scholars forward?","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"50035378","body":"I think your final question is the golden ticket of adolescent literacy instruction. This is part of a longer conversation, but I would say that the "reading strategies" we teach (making connections, drawing conclusions, etc.) are ones that you can teach to a wide array of ages and abilities (i.e. re-mediate skills), and these can be taught with a wide array of leveled texts and tasks (allowing you to push high level scholars forward). I've always felt that this makes literacy easier to differentiate than other subjects...but maybe that's an experience bias :)","dateCreated":"1328307242","smartDate":"Feb 3, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49939846","dateCreated":"1328150489","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"cfinch45","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/cfinch45","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49939846"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Chris Finch post ","description":"The Cunningham reading presents what sounds like a doomsday-classroom situation (which I obviously hope to avoid): \u201cThus, reading for meaning is hindered; unrewarding reading experiences multiply; and practice is avoided or merely tolerated without real cognitive involvement.\u201d I did not anticipate being a literacy teacher as I most often am. As a 9th grade History teacher, I expected to focus on pure content and analyzing documents. Reflecting on my first five months as a teacher, I realize that I have spent more than half of my instructional time on reading and writing skills instead of pure historical content. After scoring exams and essays of my students for the first time, I knew that merely going through chronological history would not do our students any justice. A particular problem that I do worry about is what Cunningham says to be \u201c[the] combination of deficient decoding skills, lack of practice, and difficult materials results in unrewarding early reading experiences that lead to less involvement in reading-related activities\u201d. As my 7th period contains 18 out of 24 students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), and as my differentiation skills are immature, I worry that the difficult texts we attempt with our other classes will further discourage our 7th period from becoming more proficient readers and writers. Coincidentally, or not coincidentally, this period, which generally has deficient decoding skills, requires the most behavioral management which often throws us off course from the lesson and steals away valuable literacy practice. The added difficulty with the text, I worry, will not just discourage our students from a love of reading, but will confuse the details of the course content for them. Something they seem to get through proficient auditory skills.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]},{"id":"49939738","dateCreated":"1328150351","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"robyn55","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/robyn55","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49939738"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Robyn Clarke","description":"I found the reading for this week\u2019s class incredibly interesting, depressing, and reassuring at the same time (if that is all possible). The Cunningham and Stanovich article was so interesting to read, yet it left me with a slight feeling of despair. I think all members of this class have seen the effects of the \u201cpoor-get-poorer\u201d scenario with at least a few struggling readers in our classes. Many of our students (especially those with disabilities) do not have great success with reading when they are younger and that exponentially increases their difficulties in reading and in school for the rest of their academic career. All of us are secondary teachers, and I know I have felt on many occasions that it is almost too late when the students get to my tenth grade class. That I alone cannot make up for ten years of literacy struggle. Additionally, many of our students do not have access to books or print materials when they are young which Cunningham and Stanovich cite as the greatest indicator of future success. I was so drawn to the facts that Cunningham and Stanovich sited about the lexical richness of print texts compared to adult speech or prime-time television (including magazines!) I am definitely going to try to get more magazines into my classroom because my students have often told me that magazines are much less intimidating. What left me feeling hopeful was the chart, \u201cVariation in Amount of Independent Reading.\u201d To bump a child up from the tenth percentile to the ninetieth percentile in words read per year was only twenty minutes a day! If a child read for only twenty minutes per day the they would be reading almost 2,000,000 words a year\u2014greatly increasing the vocabulary they are exposed to and thus increasing their own vocabulary.
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\nThe Johannessen and McCann reading left me feeling slightly more hopeful for literacy instruction in my classroom. Since this article focused on strategies, I felt like I was able to identify some things that I already do in my own classroom as well as identify some areas that I could greatly strengthen. All Teach for America teachers are well- versed in the \u201cI do, we do, you do\u201d model of instruction from Institute, which is how I try to base all of my skill instruction. I model a concept with a think aloud and have the students practice together and then have them attempt on their own with varied level of guidance from me. What I do think I struggle with in my own classroom is the amount of conversation that the students have with each other about a text. We have many discussions from student to teacher with students sharing opinions, but I would like to have more discussion with the students feeding off of each other\u2019s ideas.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"50035026","body":"I agree with the mixed reactions to the C & S reading...I always have a similar response. I'm glad you honed in on that detail about the relative superiority of nearly all print in comparison to oral language, t.v., etc. While we certainly want our students to be reading a variety of higher-level texts, C & S reassure us that any reading is a boon in comparison to channel surfing. Bring on the magazines!","dateCreated":"1328306538","smartDate":"Feb 3, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}},{"id":"52781512","body":"Hi Robyn-
\nWhen you mentioned the hope to increase the discussion between students in your classroom, I completely had the same reaction. Focusing around a text in a small group or having students talk one-on-one is an extremely beneficial thing both for the class as a whole and the individual students, and I wish this were something I use more!
\n I definitely identified with some of the ways that focused on implementing literacy instruction and found them encouraging for my classroom as well.","dateCreated":"1334176681","smartDate":"Apr 11, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"Martin.mintz","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/Martin.mintz","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49938354","dateCreated":"1328148655","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"dschall2","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/dschall2","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49938354"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Douglas Schall's Post","description":"After reading the Cunningham passage I made a quick screen shot of their findings in regards to the vocabulary found in books (children\u2019s, comic, academic, etc.), TV, and verbal exchanges. The findings were then presented to my class on Monday during our \u201cadvisory\u201d period. I found it hard to explain the median word ranking, but the rating of rare words was much easier. The students were visibly surprised to see that children\u2019s books used a greater number of rare words than did TV. I\u2019m not sure if they fully swallowed my point\u2014reading will make you wise, verbally dexterous, and witty\u2014but I do think that some aspect of the message was internalized. I feel that the thrust of the article\u2014the more you read the more likely you are to be a literate\/critical thinker with solid verbal skills\u2014is something that I as a teacher really wanted to know. Most of us, I\u2019d imagine, had a suspicion that loads of reading was correlated to increased levels of literacy, but it\u2019s useful to have studies done that can quantify this reality. In addition, teaching one to be enthusiastic is difficult, but building solid foundational skills, \u201cdecoding, word recognition, and Comprehension,\u201d helps create avid readers. I\u2019m the sort of person that would rather mull over plot structure rather than target vocabulary and decoding skills. This article makes a nice argument for doing both.
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\nThe Johannsen and Mccann piece details several tested teaching strategies (or scenarios, perhaps) that can be implemented in classroom in order to improve the literacy of struggling readers. These strategies stress discourse, group work, and the importance of a \u201cmotivating context\u201d in which learning takes place. While many of the different instructional practices were developed independently and over the course of some thirty years, the crux of each strategy seemed to be one that focused on student centered learning. Learning that is inclusive to the needs and social requirements of youth is most effective in increasing literacy. Whether the instruction is aimed middle-American youth, or solely females, the very real benefits of \u201cculturally responsive teaching\u201d was made evident in Johannsen and McCann\u2019s piece. I wish I could claim to be using such methods in my class, but I confess that I\u2019m struggling too much with classroom management. They sound like things I will be able to do. But for now I\u2019m failing to incorporate such lofty, though admirable, teaching techniques into my daily practices. I would love to create a space in which students are motivated by quality lessons, materials, guidance, and each-other, but thus far I\u2019ve been sticking to a very teacher centered approach to classroom instruction. Oh, but I\u2019ll change\u2026","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"49981270","body":"I LOVE that you shared the vocabulary stats. with your students. I keep a poster of the minutes reading per-day chart in my classroom. I think students can be just as enlightened and empowered by this information as we can.
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\nLet's chat more in class sometime about the classroom management\/progressive teaching methods debate. This is a perennial one in my courses, but I think it's an important discussion to have.","dateCreated":"1328223310","smartDate":"Feb 2, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49937088","dateCreated":"1328147177","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"senguptaishan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/senguptaishan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49937088"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Ishan Sengupta's Post","description":"The Cunningham and Stanovich article was very interesting to read. Literacy truly contributes to a students\u2019 ability to either \u2018spiral up or down\u2019 in education. The reading volume children encounter at a young age has been correlated to positive cognitive consequences and verbal skills. More often than naught, students who are exposed to less words come into school with limited vocabulary and literacy skills and struggle to learn at the same rate as some of their peers. This dissatisfaction intensifies as teachers reinforce their mindsets with lower grades or certain comments. This can lead to students who resent or turn passive aggressive towards education and learning and fall further and further in school.
\nNot surprisingly, literacy skills through reading volume is something that students must obtain outside of a classroom. According to the article, \u201cthe bulk of vocabulary growth during a child\u2019s lifetime occurs indirectly through language exposure than through direct teaching.\u201d Given that the amount of time spent outside of school is just as long as or longer than the time they spend in it, this quote concurs with the table that shows the rank of median words in texts. Vocabulary from out of school sources, such as magazines, television shows, speech, and more all greatly contribute to a students\u2019 exposure to upper vocabulary.
\nTFA\u2019s Institute training discussed this spiral effect. The achievement gap that exists between students of lower and upper level incomes is most greatly due to a literacy, and thus word, gap that occurs before students even enter a classroom.
\nThe second article focused less on the impacts of reading and more on how to motivate adolescent teachers. Adolescents are more likely to engage with reading when they encounter literature that has a personal impact on them. Independent reading is essential to building vocabulary and adolescents are more likely to enjoy reading texts of their own choosing than performing in class drills and reading designated books that they feel disconnected towards. Engaging students with and in their education is a key issue in todays\u2019 schools and it is a teachers responsibility to make learning enjoyable in order to really make an impact on a student.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"49980100","body":"This is what you've gotten me wondering...If out-of-school factors are the greatest influence on vocabulary, what is the role of the teacher?","dateCreated":"1328221735","smartDate":"Feb 2, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]},{"id":"49935154","dateCreated":"1328145214","smartDate":"Feb 1, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"sfergs86","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/sfergs86","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/ctge5549spring12.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/49935154"},"dateDigested":1532919295,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"Shannon's post","description":"Cunningham and Stanovich\u2019s article about the \u201crich getting richer, the poor getting poorer\u201d in literature is a very interesting article and a nice transition out of last week\u2019s articles. During last week\u2019s class, I continually thought about the tremendous disadvantage that is placed on poor people when learning the modern form of literature. Poor people are less likely to have the means to work with the tools to help them become literate with new forms of literature. Cunningham\u2019s and Stanovich\u2019s article touch on the rough implications that not reading enough at a young age, and not hearing enough new words at a young age will have on a student\u2019s ability level. This is seen in the stark difference between students in the 50th percentile and student in the 90th percentile. Students in the 90th percentile of reading were reading approximately 20 times the amount of reading that students in the 50th percentile read, or about one half hour per week. The article pushes the idea that most vocabulary is picked up outside of the classroom setting. Therefore it is so essential for students to be reading as much as possible outside of the classroom. This is something the poorer families have less access to. Less books in the house lead to less reading per week and put students at a disadvantage.","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"49979986","body":" I agree with you that there are real implications here for how a lack of print-rich home environments will put students at a disadvantage. But, I also think Cunningham and Stanovich want us to feel empowered by this knowledge that sheer volume of reading can have exponential power on reading knowledge. It's a way to circumvent the many other social factors that put students at a disadvantage.","dateCreated":"1328221556","smartDate":"Feb 2, 2012","userCreated":{"username":"jetadonovan","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/jetadonovan","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"}}],"more":0}]}],"more":true},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}