Two Challenges to Adolescents Literacy Development That Currently Impact Learning in US Schools - Essay Example

From your perspective and experience, what are two challenges to adolescents’ literacy development that currently impact learning in US schools? Why are these challenges having such a strong impact on adolescent literacy? Bringing up the level of literacy in the United States has been a problem with the problem even becoming worse with the adolescents. I have conducted my studies to find out about these challenges and according to my perspective and experience, the two major challenges are: the laxity in the teaching of disciplinary literacy and another challenge is the level of poverty making it extremely hard for the students to learn (Brozo). i. Disciplinary literacy This subject in the content areas of Math, Science and Social Studies should be a subject area to be taught to students when they are in the middle and secondary school setting and not the level at which they are taught currently. This may be given the approach of making the use of comprehensive strategies and subsequently teaching those strategies to adolescent readers. This aspect has been a challenge since most teachers or tutors have since believed that just the provision of adequate basic skills would suit kids with the adequate knowledge, which will enable them, read and write. This view once seemed feasible because at the time following it would enable schools produce an educated population for the countries needs. This was despite the fact that most of the students did not attain the highest level of education. Identity is an issue when it comes to disciplinary literacy; this is because it has many practical applications in classrooms. This is because it presents a challenge when it comes to a situation when one needs to understand their identity at different levels and how these identities shape what they see, view and understand texts. The identity challenge applies in the area of disciplinary literacy in the most basic sense to be able to deal with a given bunch of texts or academic artifacts; this is because this aspect requires that one is disciplinary literate in the area of study. This means one is proficient with the skills that would enable them pass the next level course by taking the material seriously and making sure that one is abreast with the skills required at every step in the process. Therefore, disciplinary literacy involves hard work with a strong foundation of the skills from the required disciplines which most of the teachers at the foundation level forego posing a challenge to the adolescents in terms of career development. It is considered a challenge in the majority because the few instances when it has been used it has brought in insights to many learners through useful applications hence enabling the setting up of appropriate foundations for students to progress deeper into their chosen disciplines (Brozo). ii. Poverty hence homelessness Poverty is a serious issue most so when it comes to the adolescents, this is even further propagated in situations when the same students both the rich and the poor share the same classroom setting. This is a problem because it would affect the level at which the adolescent poor will be willing to learn as the vice affects their innermost self in terms of how they feel and hence their motivation to learn. It is a worse scenario children being faced by poverty situations like homelessness when they are still in schools, this is despite the fact that the government existence while making expenditures towards unnecessary budgets. In the US, about 13 million children are faced with a homelessness situation due to low income while they can still afford to stay in the same classrooms with other students (Brozo). Although some children still manage to learn even in the states which they are in most of the adolescent students are poor students due to the lack of early literacy development due to lack of permanent stations. The state is even worsened, as the teachers may not be willing to understand the situation in which the children had to go through which even furthers illiteracy. 2. Reflecting on all you’ve read, discussed, and done (e.g., materials and strategies) in this class, how might you effectively meet each of the challenges you articulate in question 1? Thoroughly explain your reasons for choosing these approaches. Disciplinary literacy and poverty are serious challenges to adolescent literacy which if not curbed would even further the level of literacy to unmanageable levels. The only breakthrough is that the two aspects can be done away with progressively if not at once. The government through the relevant departments can launch for the programs advocating for anti peer pressure campaigns as the teachers also try advocating for the need for the students to stay far much away from bad peer influence as much as possible, the influence of popular culture and inclinations to biases must be discouraged. This would lead to a situation where the academic identities of the students cannot be influenced which further translates to the improvement in academic literacy. Other factors influencing and resulting into negative academic identity are factors like the social and economic conditions as well as the attitude and inclinations towards academic learning. It is evident that the individuals who do well in school had a god foundation at their young age hence positive reinforcement in line of their academic disciplines hence these factors have to be checked and regulated as much as possible. Disciplinary literacy has to be given a strong backing in the areas that are responsible for the literacy like the classroom setting where it has been ignored so much so that the teachers are able to make their students handle the menace of being disciplinary illiterate. Poverty is a creation of the government in terms of unequal distribution of the available resources. Therefore, the first step towards eradicating the level of poverty at the lowest levels is the utilization of the government revenue in the right and relevant areas of expenditure. This will be in areas such as those which would enable the underprivileged families have decent income through investing in projects which would create jobs, the government security has to be enhanced because it is during such times when families lose their hard earned life through the wars and their impacts. The government should have an elaborate disaster management plan to be able to compensate its citizens when such disaster occurs. In schools, the teachers should be in a position to identify the affected children, direct to them appropriate support by understanding the cause of their level of literacy, and accord them the appropriate assistance. The teacher understanding will ensure the students are in the position of being in a stable learning environment hence not being given harsh punishments like expulsion or suspension, which are the major destabilizing factors. The teachers should make a point of trying to build the confidence and bring back the long gone motivation of such children. Instead of fear and intimidation that the students live with, the teachers should bring into them confidence and belief to make the children understand that they are not the only ones undergoing the problem yet it is an international phenomena, which requires them to be among the problem solvers (Brozo). 3. Through this, course overall, what are your greatest insights on adolescent literacy development? What are the implications of these insights for your own classroom practice? Throughout the past three decades there has been an exposure presented by researchers of the adolescence literacy bringing clearly into the picture both the challenges and the opportunities facing the adolescence learners. This has though not been received well as the relevant bodies have not reacted well to curb the problem. My insight is that there has to be seriousness in terms of knowing the factors causing adolescence literacy levels to remain low, after knowing them, the relevant bodies should appropriately work on them so that no American child is left behind in terms of literacy. The federal government should also make efforts to connect the disadvantaged children with the available educational programs, which would support their learning such as the provisions of extension financial support to help in their upkeep through general provision of basic needs. Furthermore, the government should consider ways in which research and policy could be more forcefully directed towards the support of adolescents and their literacy learning by enabling researchers converge around the area of adolescents’ literacy research. However, No Child Left Behind says little if anything about the contexts for literacy, specific understandings of adolescence, and what teachers need to know and be able to do in order successfully promote adolescent literacy (Brozo). There is therefore a recommendation that the concerned stakeholders should engage in greater dialogue concerning the literacy of the adolescents and the challenges facing them through research and policy, which would ultimately build literacy from preschool through the middle and to the secondary years. The implications from these insights to the classroom setting and experience is that the implementation of the policies would restore confidence in the affected adolescents and this would result into uniform upward mobility in terms of academic performances and the teacher efficiency. This is because teachers’ efficiency is measured in terms of the students’ performance, which would drastically improve. The overall education system would receive a bust while national security will also be enhanced as the number of adolescents likely to become hooligans is highly minimized if not actually done away with. Works Cited Brozo, William G. Rti and the Adolescent Reader: Responsive Literacy Instruction in Secondary Schools (Middle and High School). Florida: Teachers College Press, 2011. Read More