Reading Books For Our Social Action Project

Dana Gioia, the author of this article, claims that the decline of reading in America will cause negative effects in society. Dana Gioia develops this persuasive argument by discussing the possible social and personal problems that could arise with the decline of literacy. The author believes that the lack of literacy in America can begin to deteriorate our way of life.

Summary of chapters: Tompkins, E Gail. (2014). Literacy for the 21st Century A Balanced Approach

A lot of people are uninterested in reading and writing because they think it is boring or a lot of work. I am looking forward to thinking of fun and exciting ways to promote English. I believe that all types of literature are exciting and have purpose. I love to read all the different points of views authors have. I also love how every piece of literature has a purpose. I think it is fun to find all of the hidden messages and symbolism in texts. When I read, I am amazed by the author’s ability to make me feel like I am transported into another world. I love the adventure and the feeling of a book so good that I cannot put it down. English is so exciting to me because you can be as creative and imaginative as you want. I want to help others unleash their creative side instead of thinking of English as just educational. As a member of NEHS, I would have the ability to think of ideas to encourage English along with those who feel the same as I do. For example, it would be fun to hold book drives for children that do not have any. I would like to volunteer more at places like the library and elementary schools where we can show children that literature is an amazing subject that can help to see the world in a new

The text I know why the caged bird cannot read Francine Prose describes the reasons why high school students seem to dislike reading. She supports her idea with saying the problem starts with teaching moral values through literature, instead of teaching the value of literature itself. She also blames the education system that enforces these books to be placed in the curriculum. These books only focus on a reoccurring problem like racism religion or gender identity. And the curriculum works around that to teach the student right from wrong and moral values. Which puts the student on a path of hatred to literature.

Dana Gioia calls out millennials and younger generations in america, to spark a conversation about the increasingly declining and destructive behavior of NOT reading! Gioia makes very many fantastic points and uses very many persuasive elements on why literacy actually is vital to to our society and the negative effects that come from this lack of literacy. She gives us factual evidence and credible sources to pull the reader into her side of the argument.

The first article, “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys (Yet!): Motivating boys in the age of the Common Core,” discusses Common Core in relation to young boys’ interest in reading. The authors’ main idea is that boys will become even more uninterested in reading due to the kind of instruction they will be receiving through Common Core. Wilhelm and Smith (2014) introduce their article by stating that boys underperform in literacy compared to girls. “The most recent example of this underperformance,” states Wilhelm and Smith (2014), “is the latest [National

A huge goal that I have for the new year is to keep the book-drive momentum going that I established in December. This is important because it would be a shame to let it die, especially because about one hundred kids in this school took home about 1000 children’s books for younger brothers, sisters, and other relatives. Early child literacy is so important, and every family in Lindenwold should to understand that babies need books, as well as somebody to consistently read to them. Furthermore, reading well by the time that they get to kindergarten will ensure a successful career in school. Sady, in Lindenwold there are many small children who have no books in the home, and I want to take action to end this.

Limited access to books seems to be a common factor of illiterate individuals. Many children of this country lack the opportunity to have a book in their own possession. Literature needs to be more accessible to our youth because without books our minds will not tolerate expansion. There are many organizations out there trying to spread books to low income children. Books on Wheels is an organization that focuses on helping children in poverty so they are able to expand

Dana Gioia creates a theme of anxiousness as she doubts on our society. When polling members on skill deficiencies, poor reading skills was ranked as second, showing that many young adults also ar4e not and advances as they should be. She is truthful in her word hen she says that as b” more americans lose this capability, our nation becomes more informed, active and independent minded.” Gioia proves to us that unless we get back on track and start regenerating the thought of reading literature so that more people will begin to do so and think of in a way of which we think of our cell phones then we can begin to have a more strong , developed and smart nation that knows literature is a crucial part of our

Spreading across the United States is a growing epidemic and while the disease will not maim or kill, it is known to be harmful to the growth and success of children. This epidemic is known as a literary desert. Emily Hoerner defines a literary desert in her 2015 article “A Novel Idea: Fostering Literacy by Eliminating Book Deserts” as an area “where children and parents lack access to quality books.” Literary deserts occur due to lack of reading materials and because of a growing loss of interest in reading. Literary deserts are prevalent in low-income and urban neighborhoods where both children and adults have little to no access to quality reading material. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines literacy as “the quality or state of being literate” with literate, defined as the ability “to read and write.” While a literary desert is prevalent in low-income neighborhoods, they are also seen when technology has taken over the children’s interest in reading outside of assigned school reading which leads to a lifetime of consequences. A symptom of the loss of reading material is a growing lack of interest in reading outside of school assignments for students. As their access to literature is hindered, the desire to search out new material decreases as the students age. Over the years, there have been many ideas of how to stop the spread of literary deserts in urban and rural areas such as reading partners and vending machines that dispense books instead of food. One of the

In this persuasive essay “Why Literature Matter”, Dana is trying to explain how our society is losing it’s best qualities by Americans not reading literature. Dana is persuading her audience by using facts from former research done. It is thought to be that who doesn't grow up around literature have less of an imagination and tend to work in factories. About 38% of employees working for the National Association of Manufacturers in 2011 were ranked second to argue how schools are teaching reading comprehension wrong. Society today is losing the uniqueness and individuality we used to have because of the nonreader people.

“Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.”, said Tomie DePaola. Some book may have thing in them that someone people may think that it is not appropriate for some kids. Books and novels teach important lessons to kids even if they might have some bad content. Kids are able to access the internet wherever they go and they could be exposed to many things that are far worse than bad words written on a page. When someone reads a book they might not be appropriate, like they might be too depressing or too sexual but if you look at the main points of the book and really look and understand what they are trying to say you see that at the end they always have a lesson and

I’ve never been one to read much outside of school without being assigned to do so. After looking back at my childhood I think I finally understand why. When you’re a student in elementary school teachers want you to be interested in reading and they tell you that it will make you smarter. Their approach to this is to assign you many readings during your early school years, have your parents sign that you actually did it, and make you write book reports about what you read. I remember when I was a kid I absolutely hated some of these exercises and absolutely loved some of these as well. I distinctly remember being in kindergarten and having to read a book to a high school student. The five year old version of me was more than embarrassed when my reading skills were not up to par and I was having to do it in front of a teenage boy. I also remember being in fifth grade and having to read one book every two weeks and write and draw a report on it. I loved this. Probably because for once I got to choose my own books and they were never assigned for me. I thought of it as a

Reading – the ability to represent the sounds of language by written symbols has existed for approximately 4000 to 5000 years and is inarguably one of the most fundamental and wonderful technique humans have ever developed. However, despite much effort and funding dedicating to wide literacy development, even now in America for instance, 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level (National Center for Learning Disabilities). In order for the entire population of today’s society to have proper reading skills, scholars and educators around the world realize that literacy movements need to focus on much earlier stages of human development. Researchers in the education field have reached a consensus that reading is crucial in childhood by revealing supporting evidence from studies focused on children aged 0-6 years, 6-12, and young adolescents. Many interesting findings also include that reading proficiency of children is critical because it can reflect society’s criminal and economical status. Moreover, modern studies show that the importance of childhood reading cannot be fully explained without mentioning the environment where children are raised, as the environment greatly affects children’s reading proficiency.

Across the nation today, teachers deal with students every day who refuse to do their schoolwork or do not want to participate in class. Although there are numerous factors contributing to this lack of engagement with school, two prevalent factors are students’ lack of comprehension and motivation. Many students read at grade level or below grade level in urban schools. They are not motivated internally or by external factors to be more involved with school or to read. Adolescent students are at an age where peer influence has a significant affect on them. If students do not see or hear about one another reading, the chances of them reading are lower. However, when students do hear that their peers are reading a book and recommend it to one another this validates reading to the students (Hopper, 2005, p. 118). Therefore, two possible advantages of the incorporation of choice reading into an urban school English classroom curriculum are an increase in student motivation and subsequently reading comprehension.