Amit Hasan
Professor Conroy
English 101: Section E
2nd October, 2019
Reading Expanding Knowledge in Education
Reading is one of the most important skill a human can possess as it allows everyone to navigate the world around them. Readings allows people to not only understand languages but to also know how and what to reply to others. Reading also helps understand mathematics which is another form of language and it helps people understand the world in a numerical format. Signs are all around help people navigate to get to and from places or helps people understand what actions they should take. For example, reading a map allows people to get home from work while reading a price tag allows people to know how much they have to pay to purchase a certain item. Then there is reading books, which include stories, novels, facts, historical events, or personal reflections as well readings that dictate certain professions. Whether a person chooses to extract information from reading or other mediums, reading is one of the most impactful ways of learning in the education system in the USA. The sources, “Knowledge in the Classroom”, “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss’?”, “Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own”, and “Interactive Book Reading in Early Education: A Tool to Stimulate Print Knowledge as Well as Oral Language”, explain the different roles that reading has on the expansion of knowledge in the education system.
To begin, the website article “Knowledge in the Classroom” by Daniel T. Willingham was published by Reading Rockets, as states in the “Contact Us” page of the website. It talks about different ways teachers can help children make connections with the knowledge they learn every day in class. The intended audiences are teachers, parents, and administrators who are responsible for helping children understand the importance of reading. As it states in the “Mission” section of the website, “We bring the best research-based strategies to teachers, parents, administrators, librarians, childcare providers, and anyone else involved in helping a young child become a strong, confident reader” (Reading Rockets, “About Reading Rockets”).The tone of the article is serious since it is talking about the importance of children understanding to make connections on their own and it also gives strategies on how teachers can accomplish that in class. As it states in the article, facts are useful when students can connect the information with knowledge from other subjects rather than just memorizing pages of information (Willingham). The purpose of the article is to help teachers and parents to enhance the ways of learning information for students and also be able to take something away to help them understand with connections to their own lives. As it states, teachers can provide opportunities such as helping students understand words using the context of the sentence rather than just looking up the definition when reading novels (Willingham). The genre of this article is an educational journal and the medium is an educational research-based online article. As it states in the “Mission” section of the website, this article was taken from the quarterly journal from The American Federation of Teachers and this article can be accessed online and on DVD from PBS television programs (Reading Rockets, “About Reading Rockets”). The stance is that it is important for students to be taught different ways to extract knowledge. It explains, “This process begins at home, long before students attend school” (Willingham). Finally, the language used is formal as well as informative; words such as “teachers must”, “emphasize strategies”, and “mindful connections” help explain the importance of students learning in new ways as well as how teachers and parents also play important roles to help students in future education.
The magazine article “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss’?” by Annie Murphy Paul was published by TIME Magazine as it states in the “About Us” section of the website. This magazine article is about how students usually tend to forget or lose their reading skills over the summer and how teachers and parents can prevent this problem. The intended audiences are teachers and parents because they are responsible for observing the reading of students. As it states, “The loss of learning that grade-school students experience over the months when classes are out[…]parent to stock up on workbooks and flash cards, or to enroll their children in educational camps and enrichment programs” (Paul). The tone is serious because the problem of losing reading as well as math skills is a big concern for teachers and parents for their children’s education. As it states, students from lower income households lose more than two months of reading and math achievements compared to students from middle and upper-class households (Paul). The purpose is to help parents and teachers figure out effective strategies to limit the skills lost. As it states, parents taking their kids to the library to check out books as well as read to them are great habits than can be carried over to the summer which can help students thrive the following school year (Paul). The genre is a social-science research-based book and the medium is science journal/online scientific magazine blog. As it states in the “About Us” section of the website, this article was taken from Brilliant : The New Science of Smart written by Annie Murphy Paul herself, and she also writes scientific blogs based on research about education and psychology on the Ideas section of TIME Magazine (TIME, “About Us”). The stance is reading books can reverse the problem of losing literacy skills and even help students improve their reading scores after the summer. It explains, “the researchers believe that giving students a choice of reading material…not only are the kids more motivated to read the books, but the words and facts they learn build on knowledge they already have” (Paul). Finally, the language used in the article such as “parental involvement”, “learning loss”, and “seasonal disaster” helps portray a serious problem among students’ knowledge and education over the summer and how even reading four or five books can prevent the decline in reading achievements according to Paul.
The news article “Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own” by Motoko Rich was published by The New York Times as it states in the “About Us” section of the website. It explains how the percentage of children from ages 6-17 who read books by themselves has dropped over the past few years. The intended audiences are teachers and parents because they are responsible for monitoring children when they read. As it states in the article, parents and teachers should build connections about their children’s reading growth and teachers should encourage students to read to each other during class reading sessions (Rich). The tone is informative as it tries to make parents and teachers more aware about how and why students usually don’t read on their own. As it states, “for the older children — ages 12 to 17 — one of the largest predictors was whether they had time to read on their own during the school day” (Rich). The purpose is for parents to help their children understand the importance of reading books from a young age. As it states, students who are read to by their parents as well as have parents that read books themselves are more likely to read books for fun besides school (Rich). The genre is an educational research-based news article and the medium is the online version of the original newspaper that was printed. As it states, “A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 8, 2015, Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own” (Rich). The stance is that students don’t have the motivation and time to read books on their own for fun. As it states in the article, students usually read more books when they are young but as they grow older due to more time being spent on other subjects at school, it’s difficult to manage personal time to read books (Rich). The language used such as “read independently”, “infrequent readers”, and “reading for fun” helps portray that students should be encouraged to read more and be taught how to manage time on their own to make reading a habit.
The online database article “Interactive Book Reading in Early Education: A Tool to Stimulate Print Knowledge as Well as Oral Language” by Suzanne E. Mol, Adriana G. Bus, and Maria T. de Jong was published by SAGE journals as it states in the “Publisher Details” section of the database webpage. It talks about how interactive storybook reading can stimulate learning in vocabulary and print knowledge for students. The intended audience is teachers because they are responsible for the interactive reading sessions students participate in during class. It states, “As teachers appear to provide more cognitively demanding talk about books than parents, the literacy environment at school might be more stimulating for these groups of children” (Mol et al.). The tone is informative because it explains how the activities assigned by teachers can help students connect more with what they read. As it states, “Teachers who read to whole groups and accompanied the storybooks[…]interactive reading was reflected best in children who individually interacted with experimenters” (Mol et al.). The purpose is for students and teachers to realize how they can improve reading activities in class which lead to more enhanced learning of reading materials. As it states, during interactive reading sessions in class, students learn more about the story language and written format of texts which allows them to do more in-depth analysis of the plot and its characters (Mol et al.). The genre is an educational research-based journal and the medium is an academic journal which can accessed through the online database. As it states in the “Company Information” of the database, SAGE has published more than 1,000 journals about business, humanities, social sciences, science, technology, academics, and medicine which are available on the databases online (SAGE, “Company Information”). The stance is that teachers need to create better reading activities and students need to be engaged more in reading discussion which will allow the learning growth they need. As it states, teachers need to understand if it is possible to engage all members in a group during a discussion where students can challenge as well as learn from each other (Mol et al.). The language used such as “story comprehension”, “interactive reading”, and “positive reinforcements” help explain how teachers can create better techniques and discussion during class time which will benefit student with their reading skills and knowledge.
To compare the first two articles, the website talks about how students should be able to make connections on their own from what they learn in class, while the magazine article talks about how to prevent students from losing reading skills over the summer. Both articles describe effective techniques to enhance their knowledge from what they learn in class as well as how they can use that knowledge outside of school. The news article and the database research journal talk about how reading books correlates with students’ knowledge as the news article talks about how students should be encouraged to read on their own while the database research journal talks about what teachers should do in class to help students get the most out of reading discussions. One common theme among all four sources is that reading is emphasized as a powerful and mandatory tool for students’ education and knowledge. Another thing emphasized is that more improvements need to happen to help as many students as possible to enhance their knowledge because students are dependent on parents and teachers to guide them in their educational experience and help prepare them to think on their own. Students are encouraged to make connections and understand what they read by analyzing the readings, but teachers have to do a good job teaching students the process. Parents also play an important role since they are able to observe and help their children learn when they are not in school.
In conclusion, reading is an important tool for people to not only navigate the world around them but also enhance their experience in education. All four sources talk about different ways students are affected by their reading skills and how teachers as well as parents can improve their education experience. Reading is more beneficial than people may think because it allows them to assess the information they learn in their own personal lives. Reading also allows people to work together and figure out solutions to problems in other aspects of life besides education.
Works Cited Page
Mol, S. E., Bus, A. G., & de Jong, M. T. (2009). Interactive Book Reading in Early Education: A Tool to Stimulate Print Knowledge as Well as Oral Language. SAGE journals, Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 979–1007. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309332561
Paul, Annie M. “Do Kids Really Have ‘Summer Learning Loss’?”. TIME Magazine, Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., July 2013, http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/01/do-kids- really-have-summer-learning-loss/
Rich, Motoko. “Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own.” The New York Times, A. G. Sulzberger, Jan. 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/study-finds-reading-to-children- of-all-a ges-grooms-them-to-read-more-on-their-own.html
Willinngham, Daniel T. “Knowledge in the Classroom.” Reading Rockets, WETA Public Broadcasting, 2006, https://www.readingrockets.org/article/knowledge- classroom
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