Is the current American school system taking away from the beauty of children’s literacy?
Incredible is a fitting word to describe the beauty that is, children’s literacy. Children’s literature is a significant piece of a young boy or girl’s childhood. Literature does more than just intrigue the minds of millions of children. It seems that a lesson is always meant to be learned from a child’s book. Regardless of a reader’s awareness, a children’s author always embeds a meaning for each individual story he or she writes. For example, silly stories about helping doing daily chores, or sharing with others hits so many milestones for a child. The wonderful pictures catch the interest of our young readers and the words intrigue young minds and educate them about real world experiences.
When looking at the responsibilities of children’s literature, Quangen, an author of children’s literature, says “the basic purpose and value thereof are to adequately represent human society.” (Quangen, 2006)
According to an article written by Wang Quangen, children’s literature has “the basic purpose and value thereof are to adequately represent human society.” (Quangen, 2006) Children’s literature plays a major role in a child’s life because it is so quiet that it never makes a sound, yet seems to shape how children are supposed to perceive their surrounding world.
For instance, Clifford the Big Red Dog is a popular kid’s book that obviously engages students with the gigantic, strangely colored dog on the front cover. However, there seems to be hidden motive behind the large, adventurous pup. A motive that displays friendships that Clifford maintains throughout the series. Through the good and bad, Clifford and his best pals portrayed to children kindness, respect, and wonderful relationship building skills. Incredible was the word used to describe literacy and one simple children’s book is proof. The fact that a child can read a story and gain both knowledge and enjoyment from a small picture is incredible. With all of this being said, children’s literature is clearly crucial to the development of a child.
In general, literacy is the key piece to all education. Human beings without the ability to read or write severely struggle in today’s society. Technology is becoming extremely dominant and the reliance on reading is becoming more and more necessary. Richard Vaca, an author of reading and literacy curriculum books states that,
“Adolescents entering the adult world in the twenty-first century will read and write more than at any other time in human history.” (Alber,2014)
With that being said, a child’s ability to read and write has been taken to a whole new expectation.
Is the importance of passing the gruesome tests overshadow the enjoyment that once came with reading a good book?
As a former student, I am currently a pre-service teacher that can physically see how time has changed. All education has changed, but literacy in a school environment is losing might be losing its enjoyment. Structure and standardized testing appears to be taking over how teachers are required to teach literacy comprehension. Combining literacy, standardized testing, and strict assessing seems to be weeding out children’s drive for literacy success. Literary success is the beauty talked about in the essential question; is the current American schools system taking away from the BEAUTY of children’s literacy? Beauty is the satisfaction of reading the entire Junie B. Jones series in first and second grade because THAT was the book I WANTED to read. In today’s schools system, beauty appears to be achieved when Billy passes the standardized test revealing that he knows how to read. Overwhelming across the United States, testing and assessing students has taken over how educators shape their classrooms. The importance has been placed on the teacher’s ability to drill children with tests and challenges that do not engage our young readers and writers of the world. It seems the true beauty of literacy in elementary schools has vanished because children see current standardized literacy workshops as strict, structured, and busy work.
How does an actual elementary student feel about the current literary education?
Reading will be used more and more throughout a student’s life, especially with the heavy increase in classroom technology use, so the demand for precise instruction has been summoned. Therefore, our children need to be geared up, ready, and prepared. The significance of reading and writing development continues to increase, but signs lead to children not wanting to better form their abilities. Schools stuff ample amount of literacy information into the heads of students. However, while this information may be extremely educational, that jam packed bundle of knowledge is not sparking interest or engaging children of the twenty-first century. During research for the project, an interview was conducted with my cousin, Ali Trujillo, a young lady in elementary school. Questions asked are based from the article’s essential question.
Interview of fourth grade student, Ali Trujillo
The first questioned I posed to Ali was;
“Do you enjoy reading?”
—Ali quickly shot back with, “Absolutely, except I love reading right before I go to bed!”
Her answer was one that immediately caught my attention. As a pre-service teacher, this made me feel extremely proud that my little cousin read before bed. On the other hand, I did not allow the entire conversation to finish before getting excited. After receiving Ali’s response, the next question had to be;
“Do you not like to read at school?”
—Ali kind of slouched down in the chair and just stared at me as if she was embarrassed. Still having no answer, I countered my question with a couple more in an attempt to make her feel more comfortable with the situation.
“Ali, what’s the matter? Did I say something that you did not like?”
She sat back up and gave me the most serious look before she answered.
—“B”, she said, “My teachers make us read things that are boring and our books are already picked out for us on some silly reading level scale. I really love to read and everything, but having to read at school is treacherous.” (She is always trying to use her big words when she is around her cousin that wants to be a teacher.)
“What makes it so treacherous”?
—“I just do not enjoy reading tons of random stuff that I never wanted to read in the first place and then they test us on this stuff. It is hard to read and concentrate on the words when I do not really care about the stories”.
“So, would you say that you are not engaged in reading while at school”?
—“I would say ninety percent of the time I do not like to do the readings at schools. I have no interest in them and they bore me to death. I mean, we do get to read books that we pick out, but only for a short amount of time and it is not like we get tested through these books.”
The conversation went on and on about reading and education, but the most important piece to pull from the entire conversation was her display of unhappiness with reading in her school. The girl loves reading, but cannot stand it in a school setting. I was confused at first when Ali conflicted her emotions about reading. On the other hand, I took a step back and let myself walk in her shoes. Seeing the world from both point of views helped me absorb a better understanding of Ali’s feelings toward literature. Upsetting, yet informative that maybe schools are starting to push the enjoyment right out of students. Today, enjoyment does not appear to be entirely included in children’s literature. Teachers and their performances are being heavily watched because of testing and assessment purposes and it is directly effecting students. Children do not see the fun or excitement in reading a book because it fills the curriculum requirements.
What is the best method for educating students through children’s literature?
Literacy has been instructed in elementary schools for hundreds of years and no one has come up with the perfect way to teach reading. An article on Education.com proposes methods that can assist readers and schools with engagement. The first idea suggests that classrooms maintain a wide variety of books and genres. Engaged readers tend to enjoy resorting back to a good book, so educators should not deny students the ability to re-read a story. Allowing children to have their own choice is a great way to let readers pick their engagement.
Social interaction among peers is another method provided by Education.com. Having the opportunity to share a great story with a friend can give children the drive to read and use his/her story telling ability to share their great book. For a reading to be successful, a reader must be able to comprehend what they read, while putting meaning behind it, and should be fully engaged in the text. A reader that is not engaged is unlikely to have the same concentration and experience as a child that is nose deep in a book. For instance, Warwick Elley wrote a book and talked about the struggles of second language learners in the United States. Students learning English are often times not interested in the books they are required to read, so they also have a difficult time getting engaged. Without the engagement, Elley reiterates the challenges a student faces when not intrigued by a book they are reading. In comparison to the second language learners, students are not engaged in their readings and enjoyment is slowly thrown out of the window. (Elley, 1991)
Is there a way to combine enjoyment and structure in a classroom?
Structure is a scary word that I normally do not associate with the word enjoyment. However, structure and enjoyment should run hand and hand in education. Structure shapes the way a classroom is ran and a student’s enjoyment means that a child is engaged in his/her work. As a teacher, having the ability to combine these two ‘polar opposites’ can lead to an extremely well ran class. Engaged students with a good structured classroom is a collaboration that can create a less restricted literary experience. Any reading environment that engages readers is going to keep students focused and interested in their work. Continuing to float away from reading enjoyment is taking a toll on children and their drive for literary success. It cannot happen overnight, but a slight re-evaluation on how reading is being instructed may need tweaked or a child’s will to read is going to remain a constant struggle. The will, the beauty of children’s literacy has not yet been completely overtaken by the current education system, but signs and experiences of current elementary students are leading in the wrong direction of engaging reading in school. Flooding books onto children could slowly be driving away the enjoyment a child has of reading a book.
Genre #1 Poem
“The Child Who Cried for an Engaging Book”
Reading and reading for standardized test scores
If I read more boring books, I may hit the floor
I do not like reading in school
The books I must read are not cool
The books that I can’t read
So totally rule
I want to read some fun
I want to open a book, take off, and run
Run to a place where I can read in the sun
Or open a book and not close it until I’m done
However, in school that is certainly not the case
I read at a slow pace
Or just put my hands over my face
And think of a better place
With books that engage
And spark interest on every page
I am trapped in a cage
Teacher, please let me out
Give me an enjoyable book or I am going to shout
Please don’t make me pout
I just want to like what I read
I do not ask for much, it’s a simple need
A book about sports? Wow, thanks teach
My interest is pumping
I must take a look
It’s a miracle, finally, an engaging book!
Genre #2 Obituary
Death of Standard I Testing in children’s literature!
References
Alber (2014). How important is Teaching Literary in All Content Areas? http://www.edutopia.org/blog/literacy-instruction-across-curriculum- importance.
Elley (1991). Language Learning. (375–411). University Of Michigan.
Grey (2014). Is the American school system damaging our kids? Readers Digest. Retrieved from http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/american-school-system-damaging-kids/.
Knell (2010). Motivation Children to Become Lifelong Readers. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/motivating-children-lifelong-readers/.
This article helped me shape my essential question. It simply asks the question if the current American schools system is actually ruining our children?
Trujillo (2014). Personal Communication. Vincennes, Indiana.
Quangen (2006). The Aesthetic Responsibility of Children’s Literature. Retrieved from http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=691.
