Low Income Households Should Not Create Literacy Gaps One day children will become adults and become our future; children can become presidents, doctors, teachers, police and other things. All parents desire for their children to excel as well as to become successful adults. Unfortunately, some do not have similar opportunities. There are three major income classes: low, middle, and high, so I will be discussing how low socio-economic children are more likely to encounter difficulties when it comes to their education, especially in literacy. Not helping these low socio-economic children will create a repeating cycle of poor readers, therefore creating poor or low-income adults. Opportunities and the environment are two of these reasons that can create low socio-economic households. The upper class all live in the same communities creating an environment with better daycares, …show more content…
private schools with luxurious resources, high paying jobs, and healthier options for eating. On the other hand, low and middle class create Title I schools and daycares with lesser resources, minimum paying jobs, and cheap fast food places to eat creating poor diets. As stated by Professor Turheimer, "a child's genetic potential for developing competence is suppressed in disadvantaged environments" (Beaman, Buckingham, and Wheldall 430). It never leaves the community, which basically creates a child of their environment. Prior to children entering school, their first teachers are their parents or guardians.
If parents lack in language or vocabulary knowledge and do not have the proper resources, tools or income to invest in books, learning toys, or activities, the children are at risk in having a literacy gap. As reported by Dr. Moats, "children from advantaged homes may know as many as 15,000 more words than children from less advantaged homes"(Kaefer, Neuman, and Pinkham 203). Because low socio-economic parents are unlikely to read books to their children, it spawns a literacy gap prior to the children entering school. According to an Australian Institute of Family Study, "sixty-two percent of children with a parent with tertiary education were read to every day, compared with twenty-eight percent of children whose parents had not completed school" (Beaman, Buckingham, and Wheldall 432). This goes back to the cycle, perhaps the parents were not read to as children or wise enough to know they should read to their children; or even, some are required to work crazy or late hours to upkeep their
household. Once a child enters school, then teachers become a factor in a child’s education. Dr. Taylor states, “When teacher quality is very low, genetic variance is constricted, whereas, when teachers’ quality is very high, genetic variance blooms” (Beaman, Buckingham, and Wheldall 431). Teachers impact children’s education, but are not always available to help 25 plus students alone. Typically, those cases are in public schools in low-income communities. Just as Casey’s foundation mentioned, “sixty-eight percent of American’s fourth graders read at a below proficient in reading and seventy-five percent of those children are from low-income families” (Casey 43 and 46). President Trump and United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos both disagree with the fact that low socio-economic children and schools need extra help and “want to cut the budget by thirteen percent, eliminating a program that provides after-school and summer programming for kids” (Klein 1). That will affect public schools, teachers, and students all over the United States. Children depend on free breakfast or lunch provided, after-school tutoring, and the summer school classes. In fact, Trump and DeVos want to increase the budget for charter and private schools, however, that will not help those children who attend public schools. Daycare and pre-school years are the important stages creating the literacy gaps. Children are “less likely to attend high-quality pre-schools, still creating a literacy gap” (Beaman, Buckingham, and Wheldall 439). If we can fund the necessary communities in the early years, literacy gaps will decrease significantly. If low-socio-economical children do not get the help required, they stand a small chance at breaking the cycle. A child’s education is vital for him or her to become a successful adult. Keep in mind, one day children will become our future leaders.
Deborah Brandt (1998) wrote “Sponsors of Literacy”, a journal where she explained her findings of the research she has done on how different people across the nation learned to read and write, born between 1900, and 1980 (p. 167). She interviewed many people that had varying forms of their literacy skills, whether it was from being poor, being rich, or just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
I previously have mentioned, in prior reflection essays, just how important literacy is for a person’s future. Notice how I didn’t say “student’s” future? Literacy fluency effects several aspects of life, not only academically speaking. Ultimately, the literacy level of a child can directly affect their future as an adult. The whole point of Torgesen’s article “Catch Them Before They Fall” is about preventing students with literacy deficits from slipping through the cracks without the best possible, research-based interventions.
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
In Gwinnett county the average homeless person is 6 years old (Family Promise of Gwinnett County, 2013). As an educator, this is worrisome because these children in poverty will encounter many difficulties relating to their education. What difficulties are these children facing with and their education? According to Donald Hernandez (Hernandez, 2011), "Consequently, the children in poor families are in double jeopardy: They are more likely to have low reading test scores and, at any reading-skill level, they are less likely to graduate from high school." Growing up in poverty means there is very limited resources available to help climb out of poverty. Resources such as housing, clothing, and food are basic needs that have to be fulfilled for a child to grow up properly (Shaffer, 2014, pp158). When these basic needs are no...
In other words, children who are read to more by their parents show faster cognitive development than children who are read to less often (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007).
Support from parents has proven to be of extreme importance in the literacy success of a child. This often begins with the simple ritual of “bedtime stories” in the home. Studies show that children who are read to as infants perform better in literacy later in life. From a young age, children begin to understand the workings of the written word if they are exposed to it frequently. Babies who are nowhere near having the mental capacity to read and comprehend a book are still able to “follow along” when their parents or caregivers read to them. These children understand that each segment of writing represents a word and they are even able to recognize when a text is upside-down because they are accustomed to the appearance of writing. This puts the child significantly ahead when the time comes to learn to read.
Adult Education Quarterly 50, no. 2. 4 (August 2000): 289-307. Shannon, P. Reading Poverty. Westport, CT: Heinemann, 1998.
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...
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...
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
My literacy journey commenced at a young age. My story begins with the typical bed time stories and slowly progresses into complex novels. Some points in my literacy journey have made me admire the written word but other times literacy frustrated me. These ups and downs within my story have made me the person I am today. My parents noticed that my reading was not up to par with other children in kindergarten and I was diagnosed with mild dyslexia at the age of five. My parents provided me a reading mentor named Mrs. Mandeville who has shaped my literacy journey in many ways. Events in my childhood have shaped my literacy in various ways.
In today’s society, a vast number of people are well educated. They have the equal opportunity to choose their own path in life by getting an education. A primary educational aspect of every human being is to learn to read. Being able to read is a primary goal of people in human society, as well as important in itself to society; it takes people far beyond their wildest dreams. A person who is literate has few limitations on what they can do; the world is an open playing field, because a person that is literate has the ability to become very successful in life.
My relationship with literacy began when I started elementary school and that was the first starting point of my positive relationship with literacy. I really started to grow as a reader and writer throughout my middle school and high school years. Throughout my years of going to school I had many positive experiences that shaped my view of literacy today. My literacy skills have also enhanced throughout my educational years.
The program works with more than 100 schools in seven states. The program is geared toward students from low-income families. The statistics for children’s literacy in the United States are astonishing. “In 2011, just thirty-four percent of the nation’s fourth graders in public school could read proficiently” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). The program itself has had exponential success.
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.