Reading Nightmares Essays - Education In The United States, Reading

Reading Nightmares Reading nightmares exist at many different levels. There are nightmares at the national and state levels. There are nightmares within the field of reading education, and with teachers across all subject areas. This is a key point in the article Exploring reading nightmares of middles and secondary school teachers by William P. Bintz. At the national and state levels, research indicates that students experience a declining interest and slowing development in reading from the seventh grade on (Farr, Fay, Myers , demonstrate gains in reading during the early years, these gains seem to taper off in the middle and upper grades, and decline during the high school years. (Chall 4) Many studies give strength to this argument that reading nightmares occur nationally. They show that students have difficulty with tasks requiring interpretations of what they read, that students do little, if any, reading in school and for homework, and that there is a decline in reading skills amongst 12th graders. (Bintz 13). Goodland (1984) believes that this problem may exist because of the relationship between time spent on reading instruction and the decline in reading abilities. He points out that reading occupies only approximately 6% of class time in elementary school, 3% in junior High school, and 2% in senior high school. (p 106-107). It is noted that 8th grade students watch TV, on average, almost 22 hours per week. They read for less than 2. (Humphrey 23). Reading instruction, as a field of study, is also ripe with nightmares. Too often, educators make assumptions about reading and its instruction. These include (a) Reading instruction is primarily, if not exclusively, the role of elementary, not middle and secondary school teachers; and (b) reading is an isolated skill; once mastered in the elementary grades students require no further instruction. (Bintz 14) As Burnett is keen to show, these attitudes are changing, but slowly. Teachers on the secondary level are still hesitant to get involved in reading instruction. They see themselves as teachers of content. But, perhaps, as Summers states, maybe the content area teachers are hesitant because they, along with many language arts teachers, arent properly trained to provide reading instruction. Regardless of content area, all teachers are seeing the same nightmares. Bintz categorizes these as either student based, teacher based, textbook based or someone elses problem. According to a cross section of teachers, students either cant read , or are passive and reluctant to read. Many teachers feel that other teachers are the teachers of reading, not themselves. Some also feel that textbooks are often written at levels that are too complex and that are strictly content driven, if not downright boring. If not that problem, many teachers feel that a single textbook cant accommodate students wide range of reading abilities. (Bintz 21) Although this article is ripe with the nightmares of reading, it is not barren of solution possibilities. To sum them up, Bintz points out that colleges and universities must rethink the role of reading education within the teacher curriculum. Elementary, junior and senior high schools need to help themselves by intentionally and systematically making reading a high priority with students and teachers. Also, they need to help students and teachers change their perceptions of reading in order to create a new reality that sees reading less as a nagging problem, and more as a tool for learning and thinking. As we had discussed in class the first week, it is evident that we all experience these nightmares. It seemed that our small group fit in very well with what Bintz is saying. We all have reading nightmares, and they are all similar. All of the comments in the article from teachers about their nightmares rang true with a lot of the things that people said in our discussions. Mr. Bintz did get into some detail about trying to solve this problem. He didnt, though, address what I feel are the two biggest obstacles to making reading instruction a priority. They are apathy and funding. It isnt necessary to go into details about the difficulties of providing funding for new programs. Apathy we can comment about. As a teacher in one of the poorest high schools in Brooklyn,