Double Entry Journal #9

According to Gee, a strange fact about children not learning to read is that while there is an apparent link between poverty and acquiring the skill, this does not mean that poor students aren’t as good at learning.  The school environment is supposed to be one that creates equal and accessible learning for all students, regardless of background and socioeconomic status.  The fact that educators and administrators accept the relationship between literacy and poverty as normal is evidence of how schools are failing to meet this expectation.  Because the school system places a great amount of importance on overt instruction in learning to read, rather than immersion in meaningful language experiences, the child who can learn regardless of his or her social class is transformed into one that will struggle to succeed.  

Traditionalists argue that this method of overt instruction is the best way to teach a child to read.  They follow a systematic approach, first teaching phonics and phonemic awareness, then moving on to oral reading and comprehension and see these steps as building blocks that must be completed one at a time.  A more progressive educator would adopt the Whole Language approach and see instruction as exposure to words in context and meaningful use.  Because oral language has been a part of our history since the beginning of human life, it has become ingrained and intrinsic.  We have evolved with the natural ability to acquire oral language.  This is not the case for written language and reading.  Gee points out that in addition to natural and instructed learning processes, there are cultural processes and reading is one of them.  Though it is clear that humans learn best through cultural processes, in which they are guided through new skills by a “master,” reading is still taught in our schools in an instructional manner. 

Gee points out that the fourth grade slump so often discussed by educators is caused by the switch from learning to read through instructional processes to reading to learn, using an information rich text.  Students who may have succeeded in learning to read despite the method in which they were taught, will inevitably struggle when the focus of reading becomes comprehension.   He argues that rather than assessing things such as phonemic awareness when making predictions about a child’s future reading skills, educators should evaluate “language ability.” This broad term encompasses vocabulary, expression, recall, comprehension, and interaction.  This early ability is developed through family, community, and school language interactions. 

Sources:

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.