Research Term Paper - The Exposition

“What are the most common challenges student readers and writers come across at all

stages of writing and reading and how can we actively fix these problems?”. I believe all

students have common gray areas in literature that can be fixed through institutions and school

teachers if the areas are being actively observed, researched, defined, and worked against.

Observing these common issues through a cultural lens changes multiple aspects on how

teachers can strategize to promote advancing through literature despite cultural differences and

learning deficiencies.

Childhood and early stages of learning how to read and write at home preps children for

school teachings of literature. I remember growing up in my predominantly white neighborhood

in North Carolina with two parents who had a mix of the sounds of the Caribbean and Brooklyn,

New York. I was taught basic phrases and how to read and write from workbooks. I knew all the

vocabulary from Dick and Jane like the back of my hand. I remember writing the alphabet on

worksheets in cursive and print. My father would gift me poetry books from black authors such

as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. I remember studying Angelou's poems and writing

styles and being fascinated with them as a young girl. Angelou used a lot of literary devices like

apostrophes, anaphoras, repetition, end rhymes, similes, metaphors, imagery, and alliteration.

She would write about her childhood, family, and experiences of racism that I could relate to. I

also grew up hearing different dialects and phrases of patois that I adapted into my language of

English that made me culturally stand out at school. Annette Henry touches on a study where

Black Teachers used African and Caribbean culture to help personalize and develop a culturally

supportive learning experience for students I wish I had growing up. The study site was located

in a lower income and predominantly Black area in Ontario, Canada.The school had a student
population that was 80% Black. The study showed the importance of analyzing students to better

help them succeed in courses like English and Writing. (Henry, July 2006)

English and Writing teachers have a big impact on students and how they learn and

interact in a healthy way towards peers and literature. I have vivid positive memories of reading,

writing, or activities that involved them that teachers turned into fun ice breaker activities where

we had to ask classmates questions and write their names and interests to learn more about each

other. My earliest memory of reading and writing was as a baby reading Dr. Seuss and writing

cursive in guided practices. The formats and requirements frustrated me most about reading and

writing as I learned and progressed through school. Free writing and getting to choose the topics,

or authors is what pleased me the most about them. I specifically enjoyed reading Nancy Drew,

Baby Mouse, and Geronimo Stilton. I was a part of my elementary school’s book club, and I

remember winning a free book from the book fair once for checking out the most books in one

year than anyone in my grade.

Writing and reading in wide arrays of genres and forms can sharpen students’ skills in

literature. I remember completing many writings in the past. I have written informative, creative,

funny, timed, short, long, mysterious, and many more genres. I have done many readings such as

Biographies, fantasies, poetry, fiction, horror, dramas, thrillers, and more. My most memorable

writings were my 5th-grade graduation speech, my first trip to Grenada writing in elementary

school, and my college application essay. My most memorable reading was The Hate U Give and

reading Amanda Gormans Inaugural speech/poem. I could relate and understand everything,

especially the way she carried herself so well and the speech came out beautifully. Only six

wordsmiths have read in the U.S. Presidential Inaugurations, and only four presidents have heard

them so this was such an accomplishment. She is a young black girl whose speech embodied me
and many black people worldwide who saw a brighter future ahead for us with Joe Biden and

Kamala Harris in office.

Teacher-led techniques for students can help create a template and organized way for

students to take in and comprehend literature at all stages in their journey as students. I think my

feelings about and habits of writing and reading come from visualizing, activating schema,

questioning, inferring, determining importance, and monitoring for meaning and synthesizing. I

got these habits from school through English class, this is how students at my school adopted

their habits. These habits helped me both as a writer and reader. Me growing up learning how to

read and write helped me build a base to move up from. My past in English class has made me

the unique kind of writer and reader I am today. I have worked on organizing my thoughts in

charts and layouts before writing. I have learned how to write opinionated, fact-based, fantasy,

fiction & nonfiction, and many more genes.

In order to work through a cultural lens of evaluating and defining my research question,

I researched intel from multiple sources on why students have literacy issues and ways to combat

them. In Grace Tatter’s article English Learners and Reading Challenges; Helping educators

gain new tools to assess, intervene, and support struggling readers (and language learners) she

identifies that the two most common struggles for students are the lack of instruction and

support. I had instruction and support from both my parents and teachers throughout my

experience as a student and I know without this guidance I would have more issues with my

comprehension in literature. Tatter makes the excellent point that whether the issue roots from an

actual learning disability in reading or if it’s more of an academic learning skill issue it still

needs to be addressed. Tatter feels as though students need support as they are tasked with

absorbing skills and content in English while they’re learning the language. As we observe
common literacy challenges for all students through a cultural lens this is important to note. I

learned from immigrant parents who knew English but with a dialect to it. This caused minor

issues for me in English class growing up, so to consider students who might not have

English-speaking parents or understanding teachers/ circumstances to help guide them is an

issue. This source lists the best practices for identifying reading disabilities in English learners as

of right now. These practices include; assessing language and literacy in the non-English

language, using informal and dynamic assessments that allows English learners to demonstrate

what they know and how they learn, using multiple measures that cover oral and written

language competencies and actively consulting the manuals of all standardized tests administered

in schools to investigate how English learners are represented in the norming sample. (Tatter,

October 2018, p.1)

Students and Teachers are both valuable components to a brighter future for literacy

comprehension and skills for students. In Elizabeth A. Gruenbaums book Common Literacy

Struggles with College Students: Using the Reciprocal Teaching Technique, the Reciprocal

Teaching technique is introduced and explained. Gruenbaums explains it as so, “The Reciprocal

Teaching (RT) technique involves a group effort between instructors and students, and among

students with their peers, focused on bringing meaning to the text.” (Gruenbaum, Spring 2012,

p.110). This technique is a dual technique that involves both the teacher and the student to

enhance student comprehension and meta comprehension. This technique can help address

research and writing skills as well by using the summarizing technique RT suggests to help

students in using headings and keywords. This allows the students' needs to be the full focus of

the teacher without making the situation seem forced or targeted. RT encourages student

interaction because it allows students to lead discussions and facilitate their learning through
peer feedback and tutoring. RT allows instructions to actively model skills and strategies by

giving specific and concrete examples of good reading behaviors, research strategies and

providing examples of stellar writing. Overall RT encourages self-monitoring for students to

advance in reading and writing and acts as one solution to a common problem to most students.

The idea of diversity and capability of students based on their life experiences and

surroundings as children are big factors when considering common literacy challenges students

face. In the book Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers Strategies for Classroom

Intervention, 3-6 By Dorothy S. Strickland, Kathy Ganske, Joanne K. Monroe, the authors

explore factors like linguistic and cultural differences, learning disabilities, and students' lack of

motivation to understand settings in which students are most likely to be at risk for failure. The

main topics advise the reader to think about being more encouraging and sympathetic to the

students' needs and abilities when it comes to writing and reading. Through a cultural lens, this

should be the main focus in order to aim for being inclusive, accepting, including, being

strategic, and thinking about all the variables needed to be instructive in decision making.

Classroom implications include the teacher being an explicit reading model, book-rich classroom

environments, opportunities for choice, opportunities to interact socially with others,

opportunities to become familiar with lots of books, appropriate reading-related incentives, and

overall creating situations that inspire reading and writing.

Improving literacy skills so all students get a fair chance at a proficient reading and

writing education can start with studies and experiments. “The ICT (Information and

communication technologies) supported “Integrated Write to Learn” (iWTR) method lets

children in 1st grade use computers and other ICT tools to write texts and subsequently discuss

and refine them together with classmates and teachers. Handwriting is postponed to 2nd grade.
While the traditional method requires students to go through two development processes in

parallel, a cognitive (learning to read and) a motor (learning to write with a pencil), iWTR works

with one process at a time, first cognitive development, then (from grade 2) motor skills training.

iWTR extends previous WTR methods by more social work methods using a web site and peer

comment for providing social meaning and feedback.” (Genlott, Grönlund, September 2013).

This study showed “ that while reading skills were improved considerably the biggest

improvement concerned writing skills. Students in the test group wrote longer texts with better

structure, clearer content, and a more elaborate language.” (Genlott, Grönlund, September 2013).

This study was a breakthrough in figuring out how to help early age learners by analyzing their

behaviors and traits towards literature. In another study based in the UK, it demonstrated “that

there exists a range of understanding amongst students about the value of information literacy

skills such as brainstorming, concept mapping, reading for information and understanding, note

taking and writing an assignment.”(Herring, December 2021, p.1), the idea that “students have a

range of views on what they perceive to be the value of learning and applying information

literacy skills, and that these views range from the superficial to a deeper level.”(Herring,

December 2021, p.1) was also demonstrated. The study gave insight into students overall

feelings of confidence in their ability to “produce good work and also their feelings about the

efficacy of some of the suggested strategies given to them by the teachers and the school

librarian.” (Herring, December 2021, p.1). The results showed that students had a significantly

big preference for electronic sources of information over printed sources and that Teachers

supported the use of a scaffold and viewed the PLUS model as being of benefit to most students.

Through intensive research and surveys of students, institutions and school teachers have

been actively observing, and working against common gray areas in literature. Observing these
common issues through a cultural lens changes multiple aspects on how teachers can strategize

to promote advancing through literature despite cultural differences and learning deficiencies.

Accepting students' backgrounds and races to better create a safe environment is a great starting

point. Adding this awareness to techniques creates a stronger skill set in students. Techniques

such as the Reciprocal Technique, Information and communication technologies, Integrated

Write to Learn, and over all placing Classroom implications including; the teacher being an

explicit reading model, book-rich classroom environments, opportunities for choice,

opportunities to interact socially with others, opportunities to become familiar with lots of books,

appropriate reading-related incentives, and creating situations that inspire reading and writing.

Students and teachers can both work together for a more proficient future in literacy for students

everywhere. The common literacy challenges for students can be studied and combatted by

teachers through a cultural lens to promote advancing through literature despite cultural

differences and learning deficiencies.

References

Henry, A. (2006). Literacy, black self‐representation, and cultural practice in an elementary

classroom: Implications for teaching children of african‐caribbean heritage. International

Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 9(2), 119–134.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839960090202 (Peer-Reviewed)

Gruenbaum, E. A. (2012). Common Literacy Struggles with College Students: Using the

Reciprocal Teaching Technique. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 42(2), Spring

2012. (Peer-Reviewed)

Tatter, G. (2018, October 19). English learners and reading challenges. Harvard Graduate

School of Education. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/10/english-learners-and-reading-challenges.

Strickland, D. S., Ganske, K., & Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and

writers: Strategies for classroom intervention, 3-6. Stenhouse Publishers.

Genlott, A. A., & Grönlund, Å. (2013). Improving literacy skills through learning reading

by writing: The IWTR method presented and tested. Computers & Education, 67, 98–104.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.03.007

Herring, J. E. (n.d.). A critical investigation of students’ and teachers’ views ... Retrieved

December 12, 2021, from

https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol9/SLMR

_CriticalInvestigation_V9.pdf.