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In You Can't Learn Much from Books You Can't Read by Richard L. Allington, the author discusses the roles of textbooks in the classroom. The textbooks that are used in grades fifth through twelfth don't match the reading levels of the students reading them. Classrooms use one textbook and go off the "one-size-fits-all" approach and now classrooms are using textbooks with a reading level two or more levels more advanced. This approached is shown by the achievements of US fourth graders shown to be the best in the US and then when they hit the misuse of textbooks, the achievements go down. The solutions to change this problem is to have multiple levels of text in the classroom, have student choice, and have individualized instruction. Student choice consists of having an assignment that can be done multiple ways so the student can pick the way they can excel and be interested in. Teaching the students different techniques to solve problems is part of the individualized instruction and seems to work very well.

In the book The Trouble With Boys, author Peg Tyre discusses boy's problems at school and what parents and educators must do. By interviewing hundreds of parents, children, experts and teachers, Tyre offers diverse explanations and facts on why the educational system is failing boys. This book is written in 20 informative chapters that provide important facts on ADHD, the necessity of recess, the vanishing male teacher, single-sex schooling and boys and literacy. In Chapter 11: Boys and Literacy, Tyre begins with scary statistics showing that boys have consistently scored less well than girls on tests measuring reading and writing. She also argues that the "male literacy gap" is not a new problem and may be spawning a national crisis. This is becoming a national crisis because "high-level reading and writing skills are essential not only to economic success but to economic survival" (135). Tyre then asks who or what is to blame for "the male reading deficit." Is it biology? Is it culture? The only clear answer is the "small differences get amplified by the careless, and sometimes crushing, messages that boys often get about the importance of reading from their parents, teachers and communities" (142). Boy's conclusions about reading and writing are shaped through schooling and home attitudes towards literacy.

"Reading is the most important academic skill and the foundation for all academic learning. If our children cannot read, they are on the road to academic failure. Teaching children to read must be our highest priority." The Orton-Gillingham method is language-based and success-oriented. The student is directly taught Reading, handwriting, and written expression as one logical body of knowledge. Learners move step by step from simple to more complex material in a sequential, logical manner that enables students to master important literacy skills. This comprehensive approach to Reading instruction benefits all students.

This article spoke about how scholars believe that children who are read to by their family members will most likely have better literacy practices. They have greater tendencies to try and read without any formal instruction compared to those who wait for instruction. They believe that the "comfortable atmosphere" of their own hom and the soothing voice of their mother (or in some cases their father, grandma...etc) generates as reading being something calm rather than a task. Children get to learn about all new things and can be explained to in a way that they can understand. Their parents are able to speak to them in a language easyly understood by their children and be able to meet their unique needs. The connection between real life situations and that of a storybook are made which makes it more simple for a child to understand and actually be able to personally relate to.

In Priscilla Griffith and Mary Olson's article, Phonemic Awareness helps beginning readers break the code, the authors give examples of how phonemics help children learn to read. In the article they quote Cunningham as saying "Phonemic awareness has been defined as the ability to examine language independently of meaning and to manipulate its component sounds." This is important because a child is able to break down a word to find out what it is. The authors also state that when children know how to rhyme or can recognize rhymes they have an easier time reading (516). Another example the authors give is when a child is able to break apart the phonemes of a word to create spelling by assigning the letters to represent the sounds (518). The authors believe phonemic awareness is important because "while phonemic awareness is not needed to speak or understand language, it plays a critical role in learning skills requiring the manipulation of phonemes-specifically word recognition and spelling." (518). This is important because the kids should be learning to read and spell by breaking words apart and not just by memorizing whole words.

Sharon Pitcher's "The Literacy Needs of Adolescents in Their Own Words" discusses the problems that youth in today's classrooms face regarding reading comprehension. She examines these problems and seven case studies of students and their particular situations. Throughout her article, Pitcher argues that without classrooms' recognitions of when they need to modify their teaching techniques to its students' needs, the students will not fully develop the reading techniques that they need.

The article was about a study done by an Irish doctor that noticed that children would do better in math and reading if they made the same movemnts they made while they were in the womb.Children who were having issues in learning and understanding subjects in school were now doing much better after attending several Primary Movement classes. This article is very much related to the subject for my research memo in that I want to investigate about the impacts that children have while they are in the womb and whether children who are read to have a later advantage in their reading, writing and math skills while they grow up opposed to those who arent.

In National Writing Project National Reading Initiative Keywords Project by Marcie Wolfe with the New York City Writing Project, there are many "keyword articles" that have to do with education. The keyword that is most applicable to my research project is assessment. In this article Wolfe compares what peoples views are about what the definition of Reading assessment is. She describes it as "data, interpretation, and formal evaluation." She emphasizes on student work over time like a portfolio.

The article, Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, is arguing the point that the types of literacies are expanding every day, and people need to be kept up on them. The authors, Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan, state that to be a fully functioning member of society, you must acquire and understand a new literacy; a digital one. They also state, "Today, we still seek better communication methods, only now we have myriad more choices, along with new tools and strategies and greater knowledge of effective communication". Technologies will not just be used to communicate though anymore, it is being to "create, to manipulate, to design, to self-actualize". In the New Literacy and Education paragraphs, it is stated that classrooms today are less advanced for the students who are being put in them. Almost all of these students are digitally literate, but teachers are presenting ideas in the ways they always have. Maybe, it is not just the classrooms that need remodeling, but the teachers need to attend workshops and become more accustomed to dealing with these new types of literacies. Schools who are looking to hire teachers need to look at what background the interviewees have, or require a pre-requisite for computer literacy. The authors also state that today, students are "digitally savvy". They don't believe that teachers should be re-typing overheads into PowerPoint's. There are so many different technological ways to teach things to students. It just isn't the same anymore to just use a whiteboard and an overhead projector. "As an example, now teachers can do a PowerPoint presentation with streaming video, instant Internet access, and real-time audio-video interaction, and they can do it with relative speed and ease".

Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan in their article "Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century" state the reason the definition of literacy has gradually changed through time, will always be changed, and that the history behind why it has changed leads to the definition itself. They assert that through the technological advancements the thought processes in the humans mind have drastically changed; and in order for literacy to keep up with this rapidly changing "E-generation" Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan express that our minds need to be open to this change. They state that "vision combined with practical, recognizable goals and incentives that encourage people to embrace new digital and visual literacy skills individually and collectively" will allow there to actually be a change universally.

This article discusses how literate once meant a person's ability to read and write. Now that technology is rapidly changing, our society is learning to adjust to it. Now, literacy has a new definition. According to the authors, "Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments." Older generations are having a more difficult time adjusting to it than the teenage generation. Learning technology is starting to seem like learning a new language. Although, it's a priority for society to learn to acclimate to these changes in order to learn and communicate effectively.

The article I choose to read is very similar to Gee's Book we have been reading. It begins by talking about a teacher in New York, who is teaching a 6th grade class. But, this is no ordinary class, he is teaching these students through video games. These kids not only have the opportunity to watch video games and plot the characters movements, but they also have the chance to create games themselves. I then goes on to talk about what it would be like if the way we educated kids completely changed.

Laura Robb the author of "Multiple Texts" realizes that students are individual and that by being in the same grade doesn't mean they are at the same reading levels. By using multiple texts that are at wide range of reading levels on same or similar topics will let every student contribute and participate.

This article shows us what this new thing "race to the top" is all about. In this article you will read about how much money the government is putting into this program for "incentive" to help schools be reformed and gain better test scores. It is a great article to read to get you started on knowing what is race to the top, but it makes you also question, why are we spending all this money just to make test scores higher? is the problem deeper than this? This is what i will be looking more into and hopefully getting some answer to post of here relating to this topic.

In this article I have read was Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating multimedia in the K-12 classroom. I came across this article when I was messing around on the Brain Pop site. As I was reading through this article they pointed out that the students in K-12 are different in the way that they are "Digital Natives." They use this term as to describe who has grown up with technology verses people that have not. This describes the people who have never known of a world without technology.

This article describes what the Language Immersion Program is (specifically talks about spanish), how it is beneficial, what the drawbacks are, research studies, and how children are effected by using the program. The author's opinion is clear, so in her whole article she has a slightly persuasive tone and she makes the program look and sound amazing to probably everyone who reads it. There is some good information about the program and some research studies, and the benefits/drawback are very interesting.

In The Future of Thinking, Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg question the typical learning practices that we've grown accustomed to today. Before delving into the chapter I planned on writing about, I read a bit of the books introduction and overview, titled The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age. One particular line that stuck me was "How do laptops change the way we learn? And how should they change the way we teach?"(2). Their main focus here was to discuss how technology, and our sources of information has changed drastically, but that our education system hasn't.

In the article Myspace, Facebook promote Literacy, Debra Lau Whelan talks about how social networking sites can help you gain more than just friends. Social networking sites offer e-safety, "Staying safe, keeping personal information safe, protecting yourself and your belongings, making sure that we don't participate in bullying or other antisocial behavior, and helping out other people who might be affected by these issues, is a key part of digital citizenship." Responsibility becomes a central role on these sites because their safety is at risk. Kids are able to control childish behaviors or prevent themselves from making rash decisions by using safe tactics on the internet. These sites broaden horizons for the users, letting them talk to people they may not have talked to otherwise, creating a variety and diverse web culture, driving away from cliques on school playgrounds. "Collaboration, discovery, and becoming a team player are all encouraged because these sites promote working, thinking, and acting together." Social networking sites allow users to create groups online to help find other people with the same interest as you. This allows communication on a topic that many people all over the world share a common interest in. Diversity brings new ideas and helps these users see things in a different point of view. These teens are not trapped in just with their classroom but they can't interact with people all over the world. Teens messing around on the computer on social networking sites is not just leisure time wasted, "Being able to quickly adapt to new technologies, services, and environments is already regarded as a highly valuable skill by employers, and can facilitate both formal and informal learning," Computer skills are adapted from using these sites, making it easier for teens to perform computer tasks in the future at work. This article gave me a new outlook on Facebook and social networking sites. I always thought that these sites w

After reading David O'Brien and Cassandra Scharber's article "Digital Literacies: Digital Literacies Go to School: Potholes and Possibilities Digital Literacies," one will come away with a better understanding of the definition of "digital literacies" as well as how and why to implement this concept in classrooms. The authors discuss the importance of digital literacy's presence in the classroom and how to make that presence the most beneficial for both the students and the teachers.

The chapter "The Computer and Active Learning" from the book The Vitrual Classroom by Starr Hiltz really grasps the use of computers in the classroom. "Whether in CIA or in the Virtual Classroom, the student is forced to actively participate" this is one of the main ideas to this book and especially this chapter. Students who use the computer to learn are actively participating by answering questions after they are on the computer. The chapter also develops the idea that computer education works, but teacher and student communication is important, "it appears to be effective only if there is also significant communication between teacher and student". The article holds computer to a high standard by defining computer use as "an active learning situation", instead of taking a quiz later on what a student learned, they get to take a quiz right after they read it online. They response as they go, making computer use active learning. It also develops the idea of the computer as a social process; "this social process of developing shared understanding through interaction is the "natural" way for people to learn". The author believes that responding to peers work creates a process of learning that is never seen in the classroom. All of the ideas are great examples of why technology in the classroom works, and can be used to our advantage as teachers.

In the article Technology In The Classroom, author Jamshed N. Lam stresses the importance of technology used with children. He states in the beginning of his article, "Currently, there are at least twenty-five million illiterate people in this country and this number is increasing rapidly." He begins to give readers more statistics of how populations will increase and how some cultures struggle and will continue to struggle in school with their literacy practice. Lam then talks about how children growing up in poor homes have a difficult time reading. Since they do not have the money to buy materials to start them early, then they start to fall behind before they even start. "In school, they fall behind at an early age and can never catch up and thus the cycle continues (Bennett, 2002)."