A Tale of Two Schools

As I watched the video, “A Tale of Two Schools,” I was very saddened by the fact that so many schools in such a rich country are not given the proper resources needed for students to receive the adequate education they deserve.  I found it very heartbreaking that children living in poorer areas of the United States are having so much trouble learning how to read due to the fact that their schools are not provided books for them to learn from.  In addition, the students are growing up in homes, apartments, or even outhouses where there is very little print and their parents do not care to read to them.  In Fort Worth, Texas, as the video mentions, three-quarters of the population is living in poverty, and since children are in and out of apartments, they are in and out of school and not receiving a proper education.  In Walton Elementary School, Reading Mastery is the instruction program that teaches letters and sounds, and also includes spelling, writing, and reading stories.  As I watched the video, it became evident that Reading Mastery is a positive program for the reason that it is very structured and gives students a lot of stability.  It also seems to be much more effective and has been more successful at helping students learn to read than the Project Read program at Bearden Elementary School in Sumner, Mississippi.  However, I feel as though Reading Mastery is very scripted and agree with critics that it squeezes creativity out of the classroom.  Because teachers read word for word from a script, the class is very robotic and makes the students act as robots. 

Although I find the structured routine aspect of the Reading Mastery program a bit annoying, I think I would still prefer to teach it over Project Read.  Jill Todd at Bearden Elementary seems to have a really tough time teaching her students, because the program is more complex, requires extensive teacher training, and grants freedom but with little professional development.  Because it is not very structured, it seems to be unorganized and thus makes it harder for students to learn to read.  On the other hand, Reading Mastery seems to motivate students and keep their attention in the classroom.  Even though Tevares is still struggling while his classmates are gaining fluency, his teacher, Mrs. Jackson, often encourages him and makes him actually enjoy being in school.  I loved how Mrs. Jackson used Tevares to help a younger girl with her reading skills and how she allowed him to become the teacher in the classroom.  In order for achievement to take place, students need teachers who are dedicated, hardworking, determined, and confident that every single child can learn and be successful. 

While these two reading programs certainly could be used in more affluent areas, I do not think either one of them would be.  Schools in affluent areas are more likely to have better resources, appropriate textbooks, and much more assistance when teaching children decoding and reading comprehension skills.  Therefore, I feel as though the reading instruction programs in an affluent area would make print readily available to the students at all times and thus be much more beneficial to their learning experience.  I also feel that, because students in affluent areas are much more used to print, teachers may not have to work as hard or implement such difficult programs as Reading Mastery and Project Read.  While I do feel as though Reading Mastery is effective and has been very successful, I believe that there are more effective techniques that can and should be used to help students learn to read.  I know that, if I were to teach Reading Mastery in my own classroom, I would make it much more fun for my students and not as robotic. Nevertheless, I do realize how difficult it is to teach students how to read and understand that student achievement requires a great deal of patience, devotion, motivation and love.