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This blog Writings and Readings models blogs to students in courses ED 345 and ED346 and demonstrates various uses of blogs for sharing information, learning, and personal reflection.

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Essay for Entrance to PhD Reading Education Program
My mother says I learned to read when I was one year old. I do not believe that story. However, I do know that by the time, I was four years old; I had read War and Peace, Alice in Wonderland and Remembrance of Things Past by Proust, which was my favorite. I also read all of the Dick and Jane books. So, if nothing else, I bring to the doctoral program an extraordinary range of reading experience.

Now I stand before the “doctor” door, timidly knocking, but knocking just the same. But why? Do I really want to subject myself to years of hard work burning the midnight oil and riddled with anxiety? Yes. I have an overwhelming desire to learn and to experience the gratification that comes from such a challenge.

My years at Oakland have taken me down paths I hardly knew existed. While I have encountered a few brambles and thorns, I have met many wonderful people who have helped me think in way I had not thought before. My professors have proposed ideas and questions that have awakened the sleeping dragon within me. That dragon demands to be fed. The doctoral program offers the possibility of a satisfying meal that the dragon within now requires.

During my time at Oakland, I have encountered research and experience that has left me with answers as well as questions. I now have a better understanding of literacy instruction, yet I feel incomplete. For instance, in conducting a case study on Ellie, a fifth grade child, I learned much, but came away with questions as well.

Ellie’s development through the early grade levels indicated she had grasped certain concepts by the end of third grade. She read fluently and her word recognition was satisfactory. Yet, two years later, at the onset of fifth grade, she was in trouble, particularly in comprehension. Ellie’s situation led me to wonder why her comprehension of narrative and expository text was now well below grade level? Ellie says she enjoys reading, but does not read much at home. Her writing is also weak. What has happened in the intervening years? My work at Oakland suggests possible answers. She needs to learn to enjoy literature, and she needs more effective instruction in comprehension and writing. How can I persuade her to love reading? I believe a greater exposure to literature would help. I feel that more background in children’s literature, comprehension, word recognition, and research. If I had a greater understanding of these areas, I believe I could be of more help to children like Ellie. I believe that the doctoral program will provide the background I need so that I can begin to answer the kinds of questions that arise in my daily teaching experience.

An area where I need additional experience is technology. While I have some background in technology, I do not have sufficient knowledge and experience to make the most of what I suspect technology can do with literacy instructions. Teachers and children need to be more knowledgeable about literacy. Perhaps technology can help teachers find new avenues in helping children comprehend text. Or, perhaps there are or could be programs that group children with similar strengths and weaknesses. Such a program could help teachers create lesson plans that are more pertinent to children’s needs. A program that helps children comprehend different genres of text would also prove useful to classroom teachers.

As I approach the completion of my Master’s degree in Reading and Language Arts, I realize that there is much I do not know about teaching children to read and write. It is true that I now have more strategies and ideas for teaching literacy than I had before I started the Master’s program. Yet, I am certain that I need a stronger background in theory, literature, writing, methods of instruction, technology, and especially literacy research.

While I have been exposed to literacy research, my background is thin. I would like to learn how to design and conduct research studies and use statistical procedures for analyzing data. Currently, I do not have the knowledge and skills to conduct formal research. I am interested in knowing more about teaching inference. My teaching experience suggests that children need help in making inferences from text. I’ve wondered what types of text are likely to be most useful in fostering inference among young children. As a substitute teacher, I have worked at many different grade levels. In the school districts where I work, many different types of textbooks are used. It is my observation that many textbooks lack voice, and this often translates into uninteresting text. This raises the question, “What types of text are most useful for teaching inference?”

In districts where I teach, I have seen abrupt changes in texts from one grade level to another. For instance, a second grade text may contain a significant number of picture clues to aid decoding while a third grade text may have far fewer picture clues. I suppose this works for some children, but it leaves other children frustrated. I suspect that abrupt changes in text across grade levels could lead to comprehension and word recognition problems for children. I have tried to solve this problem by supplementing texts with pictures, diagrams and maps. This helps, but is difficult to accomplish effectively, and I cannot always do it. I have also made an effort to improve the quality of the inference questions I ask and this also helps.

One of the more effective strategies I have used is to ask predictive questions prior to and during the reading of a story. The children are nearly always able to make predictions and seem to enjoy the DRTA procedures. At the closure of a story, I sometimes ask inference questions such as, “Do you think this story has a special lesson? If so, what might that lesson be?” Usually only one or two third graders can make this inference and a few more can do so by fifth grade. At sixth grade, as many as half can do so. Why the difference? I’d like to know the answer. Perhaps research can supply an answer.

One Sunday afternoon, I caught a PBS documentary on reading. It followed the case of a young boy who had failed in reading and its effect on society and the child. Early on this youngster had gotten by on charm. Eventually, however, he could no longer cover up his reading difficulties. At eighth grade, he dropped out of school and began hanging out with the wrong crowd. He was soon arrested for stealing a car. In juvenile detention, he met a teacher who taught him to read and he progressed as far as a fifth grade reading level. When released, he reentered school, but was still behind his grade level, and he soon left school again only to repeat the past. He is presently in the juvenile system.

I believe the doctoral program will enable me to find ways to support readers such as this young boy and the teachers who teach such children. I also have three boys of my own. I am hoping that I can be a role model for them. Perhaps they will learn, through observation, that if their mother can succeed in a challenging program so can they.