I have been a teacher for nearly thirteen year. It is a job that I love and cherish with my heart, because it was my “calling” from God. Science is the subject that I teach and nearly half of my students are intimidated by it, because science was not taught during the elementary grades. While in the fourth grade, students may spend fifteen to twenty minutes per week on the subject.
I have noticed during the past few years that the reading and comprehension skills of students are very low. Many read or “call words” and cannot comprehend what they just read. Most of the information from the textbook has to be “spoon-fed” to the students. I will assign reading from certain sections in the textbook and ask questions from the reading. Nearly all the students look at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. I tell students to read the selection more than one time to get a better understanding the meaning. Since some students skim or look over words, their grades begin to decline in more than one subject, because they do not comprehend what they have read. More sophisticated reading skills, such as interpreting and analyzing need to be taught during the middle school grades and beyond. During the middle and high school years, students move from class to class and different skills are required. A student must not be only able to sound out words, but understanding plots to read longer, due to more complex texts in subjects such as science, literature, and social studies.
Many middle and high school students are at risk of becoming dropouts, due to the lack of basic reading skills. Studies have shown that there are more than six million students are classified as “struggling readers”. The MS Department of Education wants all students to score at proficient level on the MCT2 by the year 2014. With the poor readin
