Learning to Read, Essay Example

Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young’s persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with “below average” literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with “proficient” reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

Early language and reading development (such as the ability to read and write) starts in the initial three years of life and is connected to a kid’s soonest encounters with books and stories. The communications that youthful kids have with such education materials as books, paper, and pastels, and with the adults in their lives are the foundation for speaking, reading, and writing maturity. This new understanding of early reading growth supplements the additional new research supporting the key role of early encounters in molding mental health and development. Late research also upholds an experiential procedure of adopting spoken and written dialect skills that starts in the earliest stages of life, such as infancy. We now realize that youngsters pick up huge information of dialect, reading, and writing much sooner than when they begin school. Kids figure out how to speak, read, and write through social literacy encounters as mature people or more established youngsters connecting with them utilize books and other proficient materials, including magazines, and newspapers.

Early literacy distinguishes that dialect, reading, and writing mature from various prior aptitudes. Judith Shickedanz initially depicted classes of early literacy practices in her book, Much More Than The ABCs. Her classifications help us to see the importance of these book practices and see the movement youngsters make along the way to reading. Early reading skills are crucial to education improvement and ought to be the center of early literacy programs. By keeping tabs on the essentialness of the first years of life, it is possible redefine the association kids have with books and stories. Taking a gander at reading improvement as a dynamic process, it becomes clear to see the association (and significance) between a newborn child mouthing a book, the book handling the conduct of a two year old, and the page turning of a five year old. We can see that the initial three years of investigating and playing with books, being introduced nursery rhymes, hearing stories, beginning to recognize and distinguish words, and scribbling around are genuinely the foundations for literacy development and improvement.

With all the research and facts presented, it becomes clear to understand why many prominent figures of the past that struggled with early literacy development shared the similar struggle in reading early on. For instance, Fredrick Douglass, who was born into slavery in Maryland, taught himself how to read and right which prompted him into becoming a figurehead in the abolitionist movement. The means in which Douglass took to learn how to read was not easy, however. In his Learning to Read and Write, Douglass explained that for hours upon hours he would isolate himself with his master’s wife and she would teach him to read. Once she was no longer allowed to teach him per the request of her husband, he took an even more difficult method of learning to read through a number of unorthodox practices. For instance, he would challenge the white children in his plantation to reading competitions, making it a fun experience for them but a learning experience for him. Regardless of his methods, after an arduous experience, he fully taught himself to read and became the man he is known to be today. The point made when Douglass expressed “Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever” is a strong expression that is truly more meaningful than it may appear. The “freedom” that Douglass is alluding to is the capacity to learn. Anyone might be taught anything, yet once he or she figures out how to read his mind can endlessly grow.

Much like Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X also had a difficult process in developing his reading skills. Unlike Douglass, Malcolm X did have some literacy skills. However once he was incarcerated, he quickly realized he was not the most articulate person as he thought he was. In Learning to Read, a selection found in his autobiography, Malcolm X ambushes his ignorance and inability to read while detained for fighting the “white man.” He figured his intelligence would be and instrumental tool in combating those against him, particularly white people. He would read the dictionary for hours in the day and learn each and every word’s spelling in definition. In addition, he converted to Islam and began reading much of the religion’s scholarly text. It was a difficult process, but his innate desire to hone his skills for the purpose of attaining an ability made it possible, as was the case with Douglass.

I Just Wanna Be Average by Mike Rose is a great piece of text in analyzing how this possible on a human, non-empirical level. In his story, Rose highlights how the untapped potential of the youth is discouraging in terms of failing the next generation through personal experiences. Rose explains how he was assigned to a vocational program at his secondary school. While in this vocational project, Rose started to take in some seemingly useless or inapplicable skills from his educators that were to frequently ill-equipped, underprepared, or inept. The key part out of the sum of this is that no one ought to need to be an “average” individual. Everybody ought to set high requirements for oneself and go above and past the methods established to get them. Unfortunately, now and again schools’ frameworks restrict how far a person can go in terms of developing his or her ability. Schools can disregard how compelling or powerful knowledge can be, Rose states. Individuals should not strive for this mediocrity, but instead strive to push themselves the way Rose did to achieve all he has achieved in his life.

The overlap between these three stories is that human desire can trump conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom states that early literacy development is perhaps the only way to ensure a child can maximize his or her reading capability. Research seems to point in this direction. However, stories like these show that this does not necessarily always have to be the case. Additionally, new studies as of late prove this point and in fact point to an alternative form of literacy development.

The common fixes proposed for the illiteracy crisis incorporate an emphasis on skills and intervention at an early age. Some early intervention projects have had great effects. There is, on the other hand, an alternative that has not yet been genuinely viewed, one that has extensive support from recent research. This includes late intervention on free voluntary reading. There is solid confirmation that free voluntary reading is genuinely effective in developing reading skills. Quite frankly, those who read more read better have the ability to read and write better in addition to increasing their capacity to develop improved grammatical skills and have a more vast vocabulary (Krashen, 1993). This conclusion holds for true for native and non-native speakers of any particular language. What’s more, free reading is a pleasant experience; it is, actually, a positive experience (Krashen, 1993).

The sort late literacy intervention discussed here is perhaps the easiest sort of intervention – giving kids loads of great reading material, with the time and place to read. Contentions made for late intervention is by all account not the only plausibility. Actually, it is not a plausibility whatsoever for some kids. The individuals who demand that early intervention is the only way to maximize a child’s literacy rate state that once a kid is an inadequate reader, he or she will stay that way forever. It is difficult to concur with this negative perspective. When reading intrigues a child, and reading material is accessible, that kid can get up to speed effectively and it can happen at whatever time. This perception could hold truer than in the three stories presented earlier. Undoubtedly, early intervention is an effective measure of raising literacy rates and can alleviate some of the difficulties individuals such as Frederick Douglass and Malcom X had in their learning process. However, it is not the only means to achieving proficient literacy.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Random House LLC, 2007.

Haley, Alex. The autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books, 1999.

Krashen, Stephen. The power of reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1999.

Rose, Mike. “I just wanna be average.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing: 161-172, 1990.

Schickedanz, Judith A. Much more than the ABCs: The early stages of reading and writing. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1999.

Snow, C., Burns, S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1998.