NCTE Email

I hope that everyone in our class is a member of NCTE because their monthly email updates are WONDERFUL! I found a very interesting article on Adolescent Literacy today that is available for any members to read:


Excellence in Literacy Instruction

Reading in Middle and High School
Like their younger peers, only 31 percent of eighth-grade students scored Proficient or higher on the 2005 NAEP reading test. Yet the literacy demands for success in school and in life are rising.

NCTE supports educators who are striving to meet the needs of middle and secondary level readers. This includes acknowledging that adolescents are already reading in multiple ways and helping these readers grow their competence through engagement with various types of texts, encouraging wide reading for various purposes throughout life.

For more information on adolescent literacy, see "A Call to Action: What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students' Needs" at
http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/read/118622.htm

I also got really excited because I discovered an interesting writing project that helps provide hope for children who are struggling to achieve literacy in other, more under-developed and impoverished countries. The whole premise of the project is that if we teach students to have compassion for those less fortunate and make them aware of social problems across the globe, they will have a much better chance of growing up to become adults that affect positive change in America and the world. I truly believe that students have such a hard time focusing on anything that doesn't directly affect them because they are so self-centered (in general) at the adolscent stage of development. As teachers, I don't see why we can't take it one step further than the program of studies and integrate humanitarian projects into our curriculum. This project in particular has two sections: the first calls for artistically talented students to create portraits of children in orphanages around the world to help them build/maintain a sense of identity and heritage, while also giving them a keepsake as they don't really get to keep many things because they are always moving from place to place; the second is more pertinent to my classroom in that it calls for students of any grade level to create story books, SRIs, art projects that tell a story, etc. for children in Uganda or India who have been victims of slavery or war and are striving to achieve literacy against all odds. The first project I will send to our Art teachers at Fern Creek, the second I would like to try in my classroom. There is no reason we couldn't work on the project with Juniors after our unit on Contemporary Literature, giving them the chance to include the writing in their portfolios if applicable and also allowing them to complete a portion of their Community Service requirements for graduation.

So, I was just a little excited and wanted to share!! Have a great week!