Master of Education

I will be graduating this August with my Masters degree of Education in Curriculum and Instruction.  My hope and desire is to be able to create a curriculum that is literacy centered where students are made to read day in and day out in all subjects from the time they learn to read in Kindergarten and 1st grade.  The statistics are impressively awful...they will knock the breath out of you.

For example:

Did you know that based on the 4th grade reading levels of the students within each state, the state government determines how many more or less jail/prison cells they will need in the future for that particular group/generation of children.  SHOCKING!  It makes me so sad, that someone that cannot read well, is that much more likely to be in our prisons.

Now, this fix is NOT easy.  Students have to have  a STRONG ORAL language base.  Most children, especially those coming from low socio-economic homes, do not have this base. Linguistically "poor" first graders know approximately 5,000 words; whereas, they should be closer to 20,000 words like the linguistically "rich" children.  Unfortunately the words rich and poor here generally translate into their actual monetary lifestyles too, not just their linguistic abilities. 

We as educators need to help this growing trend of inefficiency come to a screeching halt.  As I said, it will be harder than it really seems.  BUT....if the students have to read day in and day out all different types of literature in ALL of their classes, they will have a better chance of learning to read properly and learning to enjoy SOME TYPE of reading.  This could more easily translate into them WANTING to read at home.

Therefore, as a Master of Education, ;)  I want to be able to create this literacy based program starting with the early years, and walked it up with the kids.  We cannot just start EVERY grade level doing this program when the children in those grades have NO IDEA what to do with all of this reading that they have NEVER been able to do or enjoy.  They will fail and I do not want that.  So we will start with Kindergarten and then move to 1st grade, then 2nd and 3rd and so on....until every level of students is doing the literacy centered programs in school. 

Of course, I do not want to send the kids that have not had this training to failure, so there will be a change in their curriculum as well, but it will not be so crammed with literature.  If they cannot read, we need to make sure they graduate high school with that ability, which MAY mean that the students need to stop and learn to read in the 7th or 8th or 10th grades.  The teachers would have to sell it like a bill of goods and they would have to make it fun....Learning to read at the grade is seemingly impossible.  There are too many walls and frustrations of failure blocking any possible progress.

Anyway, enough blabbing.  This is what I want to be able to do with my degree.  I certainly hope that I can make this happen.  I cannot do it alone; I will need a team, but I have to be able to do the research and presentations somewhere.

Please keep this idea in your thoughts and prayers along with my influence and abilities.

As my heading says....May I have all the LOVE and WISDOM I need.......to be the best I can be for these children!  THIS DESIRE IS WHY I TEACH!

Sincerely,
Mrs. ABC