Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: English literature
2008 Argumentative Essay Prompt The point of English classes in high schools all around the world is to read passages, books, and article with the purpose of increasing teenagers’ literacy. Students who read the same books in high school only have a limited range of vocabulary and literacy. This would lead to them having lower IQ levels and a low range of vocabulary. I believe that English schools should incorporate a wider range of texts and passages in order to make teenagers all around the world smarter. From personal experience, I’ve read many different novels, texts, passages, etc. and I feel like it has made me somewhat smarter than somebody hasn’t read many different items in school. Reading many different novels has incorporated many
In the introduction, the author has done a good job engaging the audience with emotions, and painting a vivid scene of the seals being slaughtered. This essay does a good job of acknowledging the other point of views. This essay also has a good, clear sense of structure. The author has a strong thesis statement, that gave a clear indication of what the following paragraphs are about.
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
However ,the hauntings stopped once an old friend of Sethe’s from Sweet Home, Paul D, shows up on her doorstep one afternoon. Paul D plans on a new beginning with Sethe vowing to take care of her saying, “We can make a life” (55). Things do not go as planned when a girl shows up on their doorstep named Beloved. The name Beloved has significant meaning because when Sethe buries her daughter that was all she was able to get on the headstone. The life Paul D has in mind is disrupted as the the ladies begin to put together connections that Beloved just might be the baby who is murdered in the past. Sethe and Denver become attached to Beloved because of her absence from their life for so long. However, Beloved is only obsessed with the thought
“A nation that does not read much does not know much. And a nation that does not know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth. And those decisions ultimately affect the entire nation...the literate and illiterate.” This quote by Jim Trelease accurately describes the state of our society today. The ability to read is so vital to our past, present, and future. However, though we have raised our standards, demanded higher test scores, and increased the pressure on our educators, there is little to show for it. Jim Trelease shares the statistic in his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, that despite our desperate efforts, there has only been a one-point improvement in reading scores between
Finding a definition of literacy is not as easy as it sounds. The Webster definition says that to be literate is to be” able to read and write.” But to some researchers, this definition is too simplistic, leading to multiple models of literacy. Most Americans adhere to the autonomous model, which falls closest to the standard, dictionary definition. Believers in this form say that literacy is a cognitive activity that students learn like any other basic skill. It has a set of proficiencies that one must master in order to be capable of decoding and encoding text (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). A competing theory is the ideological model, which claims literacy is intrinsically linked to culture, and therefore what constitutes a “literate” individual is ever-changing. Society is the largest influence on literacy, according to this thought, and it is affected by politics, religion, philosophy and more (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). These two are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, some studies recognize “literacy as competence,” which is a “measure of competence to do a given task or work in a given field,” (SIL International, 1999) such as being computer literate. Although more researchers are recognizing and exploring multiple literacies, the one that most influences American schools is the autonomous, cognitive model – the ability to read and write. For many, it seems a simple task, but millions of adolescents are struggling or reluctant readers, and there are many reasons why young readers have difficulty with reading. XXXXXX------NEED HELP WITH THESIS STATEMENT HERE PLEASE—(This paper will focus on the effects of low reading skills, some of the possible causes of reluctant and struggling readership...
“Books are uniquely portable magic,” Stephen King wrote on “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”. I quite agree with this view. In retrospect, the genres of books which I read gradual vary as my age periods. Additionally, those books which I have read browsed my horizon and improved my understanding ability to some degree.
“Literacy—the ability to access, evaluate, and integrate information from a wide range of textual sources—is a prerequisite not only for individual educational success but for upward mobility both socially and economically,” states Sean Reardon (18). Literacy plays a significant role in civilized society. As Reardon mentioned, literacy is an important part of social and economic progression; therefore, it is unsurprising that thousands of dollars are poured into the education system each year to ensure that students can be considered literate. Reardon continues on to claim, “by third grade virtually all students can “read” in the procedural sense—they can sound out words and recognize simple words in context” (20). However,
Some may feel that what today’s students are reading about isn’t “educational enough” and that being politically correct is most important. However, I would argue that a student “who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue of Source over the student who writes a lifeless explication of Hamlet” (Graff, Gerald. Author, “Hidden Intellectualism” 386) offers much more interesting content. I firmly believe that engaging our youth with the desire to read is most important, as long as they are reading, whether it be comic books and Twitter blogs, or
If a child cannot read all facets of their life (socially, academically, relationally, financially, etc.) then they will suffer and this will continue into adult hood. Reading and understanding what you read is essential in almost everything we do such as school work, homework, buying a car, buying a house and much more. It is our job as educators to not only teach a child to read but to ignite a passion for reading, striving to make it something that comes almost as natural as breathing, and something we cannot live without. Developing a comprehensive literacy classroom is an integral part of doing exactly that.
Walking into a class room full of seniors, one might not suspect that some of the students can not read above a third grade reading level (Mcmaster). In fact one million teenagers from the ages of 12 and 17 do not have the reading ability of a third grader. Literacy among American people is important because it affects our economy greatly. Not only that but it also affects the lives of the American population. Illiteracy is a large problem within the United States that can be reasonably solved using different tactics.
“I always feel like somebody's watching me and I have no privacy.” These are the famous lyrics from one of Michael Jackson's hit songs Somebody’s Watching Me. Now, back when this song was created, there was not as much worry about people constantly being watched by cameras, but it seems to fit in the problem that my generation is facing. In the book 1984, written by George Orwell, the society is always being watched through a device called a telescreen. The main character, Winston, has trouble adjusting to the life of always being monitored, and the fact that if you made one mistake you could be tortured or killed. This book was made in the late 1940’s and was written to show what the predicted future would be like. Many people who have read
...t me about other people experiences and how they have become experts. Also, reading is an important skill because it sets the direction of my writing skills, and in reading I’ve been learning many vocabularies because the more I read the more words I learn. Last beneficial impact from reading is that reading enhances my memory and develops my memory to avoid facing difficulties during my school journey. I am so thankful to have this wonderful characteristic, also grateful for my parents and my old teachers who helped me out to be a good reader. Thus, my advice to students is that they should try to make reading part of their day-to-day lives for them to learn fast. Especially college students have to make effort in reading since they will be in a position in someday where someone has to be fully able to make speeches and read many papers to perform their job properly
It is a “reading world” we live in and students should be guaranteed every opportunity to succeed in this information driven society. Children today are overwhelmed with more reading material than ever before on billboard, television, the Internet and at school, causing reading to become a relevant and essential need in the life of every child (Lumpkin 1972). Being able to read has become the core of our information driven society. Yet, reading difficulties continue to plague the foundation of our education system creating a problem that only seems to be escalating. Hasselbring affirms that reading difficulties are a serious concern to our nation’s students claiming that, “as many as 20 percent of 17 year olds... [are] functionally illiterate and 44 percent of all high school students…[are] described as semi-illiterate”(2004). This is a harsh reality to face – a reality that stems from difficulties developed at the elementary level where reading complications arise and usually go unchecked. These reading difficulties are carri...
According to Richard Vaca, author of Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, “Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives.” But despite the importance of high levels of literacy in adult life, American literacy scores in schools remain low. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for fourth graders in 2009, the national average score was a 220 out of possible 500, no improvement over the average 2007 score. This across-the-board failure to teach students such a vital skill as literacy in the twenty-first century demonstrates a failure of the literacy curriculum itself, and the...
Good reading skills are very important in learning languages. Reading improves spelling because as students learn to sound out letters and words, spelling comes easier. It helps to expand the vocabulary, since the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. Students learn new words as they read and put them in their mind for later use. . They also unconsciously absorb the information about things like how to structure the sentences, how words are used in different contexts, and it gives a better understanding of the word usage and definitions than the cold facts of a dictionary. It improves a person’s vocabulary and knowledge without the person even knowing it. Even if students do not understand every word, they will hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments and detect implications. Reading texts also provide good models for English writing. Krashen (2004) found that reading is extremely important in learning English, since it is the only way to “become a good reader, develop a good writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar” and the only way to “become a good speller”.