Time to Act

Citation

Carnegie Corporation of New York's Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy. (2010). Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success. New York, New York: Carnegie Corporation

Summary:

I read the Challenges section of the report and learned that trying to improve the stagnant average reading scores of American adolescents is not a lost cause. In fact, those schools which participated in the Reading First program saw improvement in their reading scores, particularly amongst the minority populations. Though, the big question this section seeks to answer is why so many students who show promise in their reading skills in the early grades level off in progress in the middle grades? Some of the reasons for the lack of increase in literacy skills include: texts becoming longer, increasing word complexity, increasing sentence structure complexity, increasing structural complexity, more graphic organizers using dense terminology, complexity in concepts and connection, and increasing variety of types of texts across academic disciplines (Time to Act, 2010, 10-13). Taken as a whole, this is quite a daunting list.

In addition to increasing difficulty in texts, adolescence also face tremendously tumultuous times due to rapid changes in physical maturity, social consciousness, and identity confusion. The modern classroom may have some students who can barely speak English let alone read at their grade level, and it may also contain a handful of students that read well beyond their grade level. The issue and challenge becomes about meeting the learning needs of all students within any given classroom, a challenge that must be addressed immediately if out students are to have any hope for the future.

Practical Value

The list of challenges comes as no surprise to me. Having taught for three years, I see readers who struggle in all of the areas listed above, and oftentimes if a reader struggles in one area, they struggle in multiple. What is most valuable to me in this article is the articulation and recognition of these issues. It is a daunting task to consider the different reading levels of the students in any given classroom, but once I am able to get a feel for the greatest areas of weakness, I am able to best address some of the specific issues that students struggle with. For example, one of the greatest challenges of reading epic poetry is understanding the meaning of sentences that are long and complex. I would argue that epic sentences are amongst the most complex of any form of literature. Knowing that this is one of the challenges facing my students, I can take time to intentionally plan and equip students to understand this complicated form of writing on their own. It is exciting to see students progress in their literacy as the school year advances. Knowing that the problem/challenge exists is a big part of the battle towards addressing how to overcome it.