Reading Comprehension Is An Essential Skill For Reasoning And For Functioning Well

The validity of the Informal Reading Inventory is questionable, because without knowing the initial key factors of sex, race, age, and location, it is difficult to measure a student’s literacy intelligence based on the specific word lists and passages that this test contains. A student’s ability to read and comprehend passages adequately, or at a specific grade

Upon completion of the research for this paper, I am able to see how comprehension is embedded throughout all of the ELA standards of Common Core. The importance of teaching students in a way in which they are exposed to all components of reading, and in a way which offers the potential to teach students at all present levels was made clearer. Through the reading of this week’s sources, I see now how the

While all fields of academia possess some level of practical application, there remains an ever-important and all-encompassing skill which is needed to truly understand each subject: reading. Though literacy rates in the US near 100%, literacy unaccompanied by tools such as context, critical analysis, and sufficient skepticism can leave one lost in arduous texts and vulnerable to flawed arguments. This notion is rarely rejected by anyone at face value, rather, questions regarding the implementation and perceived importance of certain reading strategies alienates differing camps. Many attempts at mitigating the dilemma of subpar reading comprehension have been made, most notably, Daniel Willingham's proposed reform of early education, Michael

If you couldn’t read or write, how would you tackle your daily life? Being literate is a crucial part of everyone’s life; reading and writing are essential for a person’s success. Every single day, it’s used, whether it’s for an Advanced Placement Language class or reading a billboard as you’re driving past. As a child, I grew up reading on a daily basis and I believe that I am as successful as I am on behalf of it. Countless memories have been created, thanks to the multiple books that have been read and the umpteen amount of papers that I’ve written. Throughout the numerous years of my education, my teachers and parents left a long lasting impact on my reading and writing skills.

The National Center for Educational Statistics and Public Agenda provides statistical information on everyone who takes the test each year. The yearly scores divided into different categories. It is first displaced as a whole average. It can then be seen divided into averages by state, gender, and ethnicity. From all the different statistical charts, one can make inferences about different groups. More women than men finish college, but on average they score lower than men on both the SAT and the ACT. Statistically white score higher than any other ethnicity. I find it disturbing to know that African-Americans as an average score lower than all other races, including the non-English speaking and English as a Second Language Learners. The staggering state scores are interesting to look at, but hard to make and inference about. There are some states as an average that scored higher on the ACT than the SAT and vice versa. For example, Mississippi in scale score comparison scored significantly higher on the SAT than the ACT. Unlike Georgia, in scale score comparison, scored evenly on both exams and Delaware which scored higher on the ACT than the SAT.

Forty-four states and the District of Columbia had already had plans to design new tests for the 2014-2015 school year by sharing $330 million in attempt to create new online end of year and semester tests that would replace paper tests which had been used until that point. Now looking upon the 2017-2018 school year, the majority of those states have already converted to the newly created online tests, but many believe that they should have continued using the paper testing. Studies are beginning to show that reading comprehension varies drastically between the traditional paper compared to their digital mediums. Electronic mediums negatively impact a reader’s reading comprehension level when compared to paper mediums as seen through note

“To Dumb for Complex Texts?”, an essay by Mark Bauerlein, states high schools are at fault for students inability to comprehend complex texts. Bauerlein starts by noting students who enter college are not as prepared as they should be, evidenced by their placement exam scores. Bauerlein goes on to state the lack of readiness is due to high schools increasing focus on digital reading, rather than the physical form. Additionally Bauerlein writes that complex reading is not thoroughly integrated in to student curriculum. Bauerlein believes that because of the high schools simple literature curriculum, students beginning college have not been properly exposed to complex texts, and as a result cannot properly comprehend the readings assigned in

Taking into account of many Americans, the act of reading is not apart of our daily lives as it was many years ago. Instead, the media has taken over and leaves us at a disadvantage of developing our minds. The level of proficiency, “Fell significantly between 1992 and 2005, from 40 percent… to 35 percent (Chronicle).” In spite of that, reading gives us the opportunity to get different perspectives, learn valuable lessons, and engage emotions that might not be sparked otherwise. The list can go on and on, however, even with all of these great benefits, the literacy rate in America is continuing to drop.

The Common Core State Standards were created to identify the skills and knowledge a student needs in order to succeed in today’s world. Essentially, these Standards were developed in an effort for public education to advance academically. In developing these Standards, six shifts were created to identify what a student is expected to accomplish in each grade level in order to prepare them for their future. Obviously, with six shifts, there is a beginning phase. The first shift generated states, to prepare students for reading and comprehension in their later school years, it is fundamentally necessary to increase the reading of informational text for students beginning kindergarten and continuing through the fifth grade.

As the United States falls farther behind on education tests in math reading and science, there has been a push for a redesign of the education system. Of the 64 countries tested in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012, 19 other industrialized countries ranked ahead of the United States (United States, n.d.). Because of these results and the stagnating American education, parents, teachers, and the government are pushing even more standards for math, reading, and science even more. To try to resolve from the problem from its root means that there needs to be a change in how reading is taught. By improving the reading skills of students, it has the potential to promote higher success in other subjects like

It is very important to consider the fact that standardized tests will have a lasting effect on many lives, determining which college students will attend, and essentially, the job and success they will have later in life. The SAT has changed greatly from the first time it was taken, first asking about Latin constructions while making sure it was an aptitude test, rather than an achievement test “because [be doing this, people] think [they] can give poor boys the best chance to take away the advantage of rich boys“. In the past, it was very difficult to develop tests that weren’t achievement tests because all the rich boys had a much better education where they were, giving them an unfair advantage. Standardized tests play a very important part in the lives of students and determine whether or not they get into college and where, although “Research [has] found that the SAT was a relatively poor predictor of college success compared to high school grades as well as curriculum-based achievement

Reading is a skill often taken for granted by many in today’s modern society; however, low literacy is a prevalent problem among adults in the United States with potentially devastating consequences. According to Literacy INC., “a study conducted in late April 2015 by the US Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the United States can’t read above a fifth-grade level, and 19% of high school graduates can’t read” (About Us - Literacy Inc., n.d.). That means that nearly 7.6% of American adults can’t read as well as your average fifth grader. Statistically that means that out of almost every 25 people you meet 2 of them cannot read. As bad as this problem is nationally, Chicago is much worse where literacy rates are far below the norm. Literacy Chicago states that Chicago has a Literacy rate of only 53% (Cho, 2012). This data is especially alarming. Think and consider that nearly half of Chicago’s population cannot read proficiently.

Reading scores have dropped primarily because of the increasing amount of different individuals taking the test. First introduced in the early 1900s, the primary test takers of the SAT were rich, white males. In the next century test takers have grown tremendously, nearing two million high school seniors (Chandler). With the increase in the number of students taking the SAT, more and more high school students who speak English as a second language are taking the standardized test. 48% of all Hispanic students took the test in 2011, whereas forty years ago, only a fraction of Hispanic students took the test. The number of international test takers has increased over the last forty years, adding to the ever-growing population of test takers with English as their second language. Chinese students doubled in taking the test in just two years (The Pie). These students usually lack

The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college and university admissions in the United States. It was first introduced in 1926, and its name and scoring system have changed several times throughout the years. Many students around the world that want to pursue post-secondary institutions in the US make it a point to write the SAT at least once in their high school career to better their chances of getting a higher score. This test has three parts to it – one reading, writing and one math. In order to achieve the best score that they can possibly get and be placed in the highest possible percentile, students may decide to attend SAT preparation classes starting from the early years of High/Middle School. The unfortunate reality of these extra preparation courses is that they are quite expensive, and due to this, they mostly cater towards to higher or higher-middle class families. Courses that provide extra preparation such as Ivy Global are not very affordable to many families and so students. According to many statistics and news reports, the higher the test taker’s family income, the higher their scores in the test. This has been a topic of great controversy as we have grown in the modern society

Reading is one of the most beneficial activities a man can do. Out of reading, man can be able to discover new things, concepts, places and people. More so, reading is a way to relax our mind and soul, going deeply through the world of story and improves our thinking and internalization process.