To What Extent Does Reading Matter?

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Many students who struggle with reading ask why should we read, what is the point? The point is that being able to read opens you up a whole new world of knowledge and imagination. But to have that new world opened up you need to be able to comprehend what you are reading. The primary goal of reading is to determine the meaning of

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.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information which is essential in being a productive member of society. If and when a student missed an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for reading, it’s has a profound impact on their lives. As educators we realize that teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction. We are also aware that children, who are struggling with reading must receive

In order for students to be actively engaged in school, they must be proficient readers and writers by third grade. After grade 3, instruction shifts from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Students who, by the end of third grade are still struggling to read, may continue to have academic difficulties as they progress through future grades. These students become disengaged from learning. In Constante’s, interview with Wilm (Constante, 2011), Wilm suggests that in order to engage students in school, time is of the essence. “So the time consideration is this: there’s a certain amount of instructional time available in a school day. If you want to be sure you do not have 25 percent of students falling through the cracks by the end of Grade 3, you need to make sure these children are getting the instructional time they need. These students, the bottom 25 percent, need direct instruction in phonics. Some of them have good language skills, so once they learn to decode words, their reading skills develop quickly (Constante, 2011,). Other research suggests that below level readers need 100 to 150 hours of additional instruction in order to decrease the learning gap. Students can be disengaged for various reasons. Some students, who are proficient academically and socially, are just disinterested in school. Other disengaged students may have good behavior in the classroom, but they are low academically and require remediation of skills. Finally, some disengaged students have poor behavior because they have poor academic skills. Students who fall in the last category are students who require the most attention from teachers and administrators in school (Constante,

For some people reading can be a difficult experience. For me it became difficult at the age of five years old. I really wasn’t an educational kid I was more of a kid that like to play with my toys and four brothers, whenever they came home from school. As I grew up reading became a little more difficult for me to master, at times in my middle school my teacher Mr.G would test us on how well and skilled we were at reading. Every day when it was time for him to test me I would get nervous and started to stubble on words and fail my test. By the time I was in high school I learned how to take my time and read, which has help me to progress my reading skills over the years.

Robert Pondiscio states “To be educated in the liberal arts is to have a broad grasp of literature, art, music, history and the sciences. That's also a fair description of what it takes to be a good reader…If you're a good reader, it's not because you've learned, practiced and mastered the "skill" of reading. Once a child learns to “decode” fluently, a child's ability to read with understanding rests heavily on whether the child knows something about the topic he or she is reading about.” While we focus on English and math being core parts of what we use in everyday life we must also focus on how to get the younger generation to grasp and have a full understanding on what they are reading. It is one thing to literally read something and absorb nothing out of the text that was read, but a completely different story for a child to read something, understand its meaning, and also reflect on what they have

When you’re young school is all about popularity and friends, but with a lack of word knowledge reading in class, especially out loud can destroy your credibility. I came from a blue collar background and none of my family ever attempted college, so I figured college wasn’t that important. During school, if it wasn’t interesting I didn’t want to participate or take the time to improve myself. Reading and writing was just another uninteresting, check the block, fake it till you make it, subject for me. I was a slow reader and often times I had to ask the teacher what a particular word meant. What was even worse was having to read out loud in class. Again, the fact that I was a slow reader and I often times mispronounced words caused me to be the subject of reticule and embarrassment. I started to hate reading because I couldn’t do it as well as the other kids; this continued from elementary

After reading Susan D. Blum I do very much believe that reading is being valued less and less and that students are not using reading as a daily tool. Even for me I believe reading is getting rare as I skim a lot of my reading instead of actually reading it. The idea of assigned reading, as the core activity of college students, is old. Students these days don’t value reading as much as they don’t believe it’s a necessity in class. However, I’ve thought that about this many times and I believe if you don’t read then you won’t be able to do well in the class and won’t ever grasp the full knowledge that might be necessary.

In my opinion, the reason for this assignment is for the teacher to see where we are in our reading, and writing. Reading to me must happen when I am interested in something for example, a movie because I enjoy reading about the plots but everyone is different. Another example is a graphic novel, because you can understand the concept or plot a lot easier than you would do in a regular novel. In regular books, you have so many things going on and you aren’t able to understand what is happening then you end up getting the wrong idea. Writing is just about the same for example, I can’t write about something that I know nothing about or interested in. Therefore, I am writing this paper to show you my weaknesses and not my strengths because I

As a child, I struggled to learn to read. I was a slow reader and it often took much longer for me to read a story or a book than it did my peers. Reading was not enjoyable, so I procrastinated on completing homework and I never read for pleasure. Avoiding reading because it’s not fun makes it hard to improve. When forced to read, I would usually choose books below my reading level so that it would be easier. I wanted to like reading - I enjoyed going to the library and to the book store. The smell and feel of a new book was captivating, but trying to understand difficult words just frustrated me. During most of elementary school, I had an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) and was pulled out of class during the day to go to Resource. Unfortunately, that wasn’t helpful as I ended up missing important lessons in my regular class and, as the most advanced student in Resource, I most often served as class

Monica wrote "I have nothing but bad memories about my reading groups in elementary school. I was constantly being left behind and humiliated by my teacher No attempt to help me as an individual by my teacher was ever made---and if it had, it probably wouldn't have been a pleasant one. I think that teachers should be more patient with those students who have reading problems and maybe offer other ways to help than put them in the low

The theoretical framework is founded on the pretense that much has been written concerning the problems that many students have with the comprehension of reading materials, especially content texts--science, math, and social studies. Alexander (1988) suggested that these children may be those who have little trouble with their basal readers or trade books, yet are unable to derive meaning from what they read in content area textbooks.

Reading is believed to be an easy task, something we all learning and develop through the years as we grow, however, is it really that simple? To reading and understanding are both essential when a student begins to read. It is a complex action that requires a multitude of different actions/components, all working at the same time, to become a successful reader. The components that are pertinent to reading are: comprehension, oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. Without these components, reading may very well be irrelevant because it does not make sense to read and not understand what is being transmitted/relayed. According to the National Reading Panel (NRP), “a combination of techniques is effective for

Reading requires a habit. Without much practice, students do not have good reading skills. With a lot of reading, students will be able to find out past events, current, and can predict the events that will occur later. Students who have reading habits are capable of using time to read activities. Demand for information needs that continue to grow over time can actually be facilitated through reading activities. But this fact becomes different when the reading habits of students are still low.