The article Beginning Reading Instruction in Urban Schools: The Curriculum Gap Ensures a Continuing Achievement Gap raises a lot of valid points that contribute to the achievement gaps prevalent throughout our nation. The achievement gap amongst students, primarily between income and race, is prevalent throughout our nation. As noted in the article children who are African American and Latino living in urban areas are at the disadvantaged side of the achievement gap spectrum. I believe that achievement gap starts not only in school, but in the child’s home. It is important for student’s to receive family involvement, whether it is reading or helping with homework. Unfortunately, many children come from families where there are no resources available or involvement from their families. For situation such as these, America has created a Reading First program, which is to help start children reading at early ages. Reading first targets the five pillars, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. I agree a program needed to be created that targets these areas because it is the building blocks of a student’s literary success. Although this program is instituted, the article notes that is lacking on the comprehension, writing and content areas of education. I think the teacher’s can include subject content such as social studies or science and literacy together. Teachers could read books on science or social studies and decode words used.
The article exclaimed the action of not introducing and putting a great deal of time into comprehension, writing and subject content is known as curriculum gap. The article also discusses that writing is a key component in practicing and understanding phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary and fluency. I agree with this idea because writing enables students to have practice in decoding words and knowing what they are writing. They need to be able to gather their thoughts, try to spell a word, know how to read that word and read it back to the teacher. I believe that writing is a package of the five pillars discussed earlier and she be implemented earlier in the grades to promote practice. The article also states that in order to create good readers you need to introduce good books. I believe that students would enjoy reading much more if they enjoyed and were interested in what they were reading. I often wonder if I was able to read materials in middle and high school that interested me if I would be more open to reading today. That is something that should be implemented in the younger grades to begin a positive experience of reading for children.
I agree with Jaimie that students that fall into this demographic of broken homes and rough neighborhoods are more susceptible to the ‘achievement gap’. This is why I like the idea of community schools where teachers and administrators work collaboratively to foster a ‘safe-haven’ environment where students feel a sense of community and security. If the support is not at home, it is crucial that the teachers work to provide the stability at school. Going off of that, peer-reading programs are a great way to motivate students and have the older kids be role models for the younger children. These types of programs not only give the older children a sense of pride in themselves by doing a good thing, but it keeps them active and out of trouble as well. Additionally, it communicates to the younger students that reading can be fun, and promotes interaction with a supportive role model. Again, this is just one solution to help the achievement gap so many urban districts struggle with. However first and foremost, these districts should focus on creating the community within their school.
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