Joseph Sanacore

Understanding the Fourth-Grade Slump: Our Point of View

Abstract Educators know that an achievement gap exists between students of low-income and middle-income families, a gap that is especially evident in fourth grade and beyond. This essay explores issues related to this gap, including primary-level children being immersed in narrative text and, therefore, unprepared for the challenges of informational text and content-specific vocabulary; lack of available material children are interested in reading; and limited reading opportunities created by a focus on high-stakes, test-preparation regimens.

Turning Reluctant Learners into Inspired Learners

Motivation is a key factor in promoting academic success, and intrinsic motivation is especially important for developing autonomous learners. Reluctant learners, in particular, benefit from intrinsic motivation that makes learning relevant to their lives. In this article, the author describes commonalities of reluctant learners and presents definitions and frameworks for understanding motivation. The author also suggests a variety of strategies and activities for turning reluctant learners into inspired learners.

Struggling Literacy Learners Benefit from Lifetime Literacy Efforts.

Becoming a lifetime reader is predicated on developing a love of reading. Children with special needs and their less challenged peers both deserve equity and equality of educational opportunities that promote the lifetime reading habit. To support this direction, a strong commitment is needed from teachers and administrators, whose collective energy is aimed at determining childrens attitude toward reading, immersing learners in different texts, engaging students in choosing resources and in reading them during school time, and helping children use skills and strategies in meaningful contexts. Although this perspective is beneficial for all learners, those who experience difficulty with reading profit from scaffolds that support the same instructional direction intended for learners who do not.

Showing Children That We Care About Their Literacy Learning

Children and their teachers are more likely to achieve success when genuine caring is connected to literacy learning. This connection is important because it increases the chances of success across the curriculum and through the grades. Among the ways of demonstrating a caring attitude is to provide children with opportunities to make choices, to nurture their emotional and intellectual transactions with text, to help them use bibliotherapeutic literature to cope with personal problems, and to encourage the use of picture books for older children. When caring teachers and administrators support these and other approaches, they enjoy the realization that children they helped during the school year have demonstrated substantial growth and development, emotionally and academically.

Middle School Students Need More Opportunities to Read Across the Curriculum

Abstract Independent reading in the content areas is essential for advancing students’ literacy growth through the grades. Middle school students, in particular, profit from opportunities to engage in actual reading and, simultaneously, to be supported from an appropriate structure. Specifically, they need substantial time to read, frequent immersion in a variety of texts, easy access to balanced classroom libraries to support in-school and at-home reading, active participation in drama-based activities, and interesting contexts for learning word meanings. These and other sources of support increase the effectiveness of independent reading across the curriculum by helping middle school students not only improve their reading, but also enjoy reading as a lifetime activity.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast: Literature Circles as Reflective Practice.

Abstract Becoming an effective literacy learner requires a bit of slowing down and appreciating the reflective nature of reading and writing. Literature circles support this instructional direction because they provide opportunities for immersing students in discussions that encourage their personal responses. When students feel their personal responses are nurtured and respected, they develop confidence to grow beyond status-quo thinking and to engage in critical perspectives on meaning making. These reflective practices from personal to critical are important ingredients for effective literacy learning.

Connecting Rimes to Meaningful Contexts

H elping young children become successful literacy learners requires deliberate effort from classroom teachers. Demonstrating appropriate literacy behaviors, providing opportunities for practice and application, and nurturing a love of reading and writing all help promote a positive foundation for literacy success. More specifically, children need to develop competence and confidence with the semantic (reading for meaning), syntactic (using word order), and graphophonic (connecting sounds and print) cueing systems. Although the act of reading is primarily a meaning-making process, budding readers benefit from developing ease and facility in recognizing words during reading. Quick recognition of words provides readers with more focused energy for fluency and comprehension, and this direction is important for all children, including those with special learning needs. Children who struggle with reading usually have specific issues with word recognition and other reading skills and strategies. These individuals are sometimes reluctant to read and, therefore, can profit from instructional strategies that foster both word recognition and reading fluency (Salend, 2008). The professional literature provides a plethora of such strategies, including integrated processing for reading unknown words (Pemberton, 2003), syllable-based learning for breaking challenging words into syllables (Bhattacharya, 2006), varied prompting and cueing for grasping unfamiliar words (Gipe, 2006), and using lyrics and words from songs and poems to teach phonological awareness (Salend, 2008). These and other strategies are particularly helpful when children have opportunities to use them in the context of interesting and meaningful books and are supported in their efforts by caring and effective teachers who know how to differentiate instruction.

Will Obama's My Brother's Keeper and Similar Initiatives Have a Positive Impact on Low-Income Students?

ABSTRACT Barack Obamas My Brothers Keeper is designed to narrow persistent gaps that boys and young men of color confront often and to help all young people achieve their potential in college and career. An important part of this initiative is comprehensive mentoring that supports students in schools and in communities. Because ethnic-minority students have extremely low graduation rates in high school and college, an essential question is addressed: Can My Brothers Keeper and similar initiatives with a mentoring component be effective in helping minority students to achieve success in elementary and secondary schools and in college?

Serious Ideas and Middle School Students.

Abstract With support, young adolescents crave the challenge of learning about serious ideas through serious literature. Middle-level learners also enjoy opportunities to become immersed in activities that foster a deeper understanding of serious ideas. After discussing the value of using serious narrative literature, a rationale is provided for supporting its relevance to young adolescents. Then, pertinent materials and activities are presented for helping middle school students to be successful with serious narrative literature.

Computer Applications: A Schoolwide Innovation.

he Hauppauge Middle School, located on Long Island, New York, is part of a comprehensive K-12 school district, whose students are largely middle class. The district has been recognized widely for its innovations in language arts. Here we describe the successful implementation of a computer applications program at the school. The program is highly innovative in two regards: it involves all the students, who work on computers located throughout the school, and it was set up by members of the English department, who now staff the computer lab.