Defend the statement "Reading ability strongly influences a student's self image and feelings of competency; furthermore, reading failure can lead to misbehavior, anxiety, and lack of motivation." When developing your response to this question, consider the National Center of Education's statistics report of 2007 that states that "approximately 34% of 4th graders read below a basic level of

Question

achievement and only 32% attained a proficient reading achievement level." Propose three recommendations of how you, as a teacher, would change these statistics.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

[Students' responses to all portions of this question will vary.]

- They should include the fact that "Learning to read is important in maintaining self-respect and obtaining the respect of others." They should include the fact that misbehavior is directly correlated to the inability to be successful in reading. This can be supported in long-term results that "at least half of all adolescents and young adults with criminal records have reading difficulties, and approximately half of children and adolescents with a history of substance abuse have reading problems.

- The statistics from 2007 indicate that approximately 34% of 4th graders were below basic in reading achievement, and 32% were proficient. These statistics show that 68% of the 4th grade population were not reading at grade level.

- The latter portion of this question asks the student to propose 3 recommendations to change these statistics.