Attacking Literacy with Technology in an Urban Setting

Abstract

amon sits quietly in his seat. He lets his mind wander as the teacher stands in front of the class talking about yester day's homework assignment. He likes where he sits in the first row, fifth seat, because the teacher almost never looks in his direction, and he can just blend in to the class. He notices his classmates begin to clear off their desks and sees that they are taking out their World Cultures textbooks. Ramon begins to worry that the next assign ment is to read from that dreaded book. His worst fears are confirmed when his teacher tells the class to open their books to Chapter 6 for group reading. He has heard this before and he knows the routine. Each stu dent will read one paragraph out loud as they go in order through the class. Maybe today she will start on the other side of the class. No such luck as she tells the first student in his row to begin. With a lump in his throat and beads of sweat forming on his brow, he quickly scans down to the fifth paragraph, hoping that it will not be too long or too hard. His heart sinks when he sees the first word of the paragraph, Mesopotamia. As he looks over the paragraph, he also encounters Egyptian and pyramid. A sense of panic surges through him as he tries to figure out a way of avoiding reading out loud in class. He thinks about pretending he is sick or asleep. Finally he decides to go for a sure thing so he reaches over and punches the boy next to him on the arm. The boy screams and Ramon is relieved to know that he will not have to read in class today. In Orange County Public Schools (Orlando, Florida), district leaders concerned about creating a safe environment and success for all learners zeroed in on middle school students who in 1993-94 had been sus pended thirty or more days. Data on these students revealed that the majority were minority males who scored in the lower quartile in reading on the Stanford 8 Achievement Test. Whether due to days out of school for suspensions or lack of reading skills, these students were failing almost all of their subjects in middle school. It was no surprise to us that the discipline problem was, in reality, a basic academic deficit—these students could ot read. This data was the impetus for designing the Middle School Literacy Program. If students reach middle school and cannot or will not read, they will be unsuccessful in most classes and, in all probability, will have developed other coping mechanisms to survive. According to the students in the Middle School Literacy Program, these coping mecha nisms include misbehaving and even feigning eye prob lems and headaches to avoid reading and being embar rassed in class. Students verbalized that they would con front teachers, 'You can't make me read out loud! and get thrown out of class, rather than attempt to do what the teacher asked.