About the News Articles...

I hate anything that comes from wikipedia so it was really hard for me to actually grasp the material. It is almost like I can’t trust it because I could right about how to build a plan and some weirdo in say Nashville will actually believe it to be true. But I did enjoy the definition of Literacy, well the traditional definition “literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen and speak.” This definition is pretty close to what I would come up with. It was interesting how in the article from Wikipedia said that “literacy has also been used as a way to sort populations and control who has access to power.” Never would I have thought that literacy or reading is a source of power.

In the Elizabeth Jaeger article I almost wanted to cry for her. When you see teachers work so hard to try and get an idea or a new way of teaching across and just get in trouble for it, it is so sad. Even though I am not a teacher yet, I am quickly understanding NCLB. This is my second graduate course in Education and I got to research the issues myself. I feel NCLB has great intentions, I feel it is a great thing to try and get all children at the level they are supposed to be at. I feel that it needs to be done in a different way, I think a big chunk we are leaving out are like the children in Elizabeth’s article who are non-native English speakers but who still have to follow the same standards. “Teachers who know better are teaching scripts instead of children because they fear the consequences of oppositions of these policies.” This ending remark hit home with me because I feel when I begin teacher, if I do not get high results on the standardized tests there is not shot of getting 10year.

After reading these articles I am wondering how the hell will I be able to teach reading/and or literacy to my students. Will my mistakes, especially as a first time teacher, hurt my students and their ability to learn?

I wonder about getting kids to enjoy reading first. Because whoever is making these laws up needs to realize without some sort of interest or fun behind a lesson, the students have no idea what is going on.