Journal Article Review

Barack, Lauren (2009). Reading is fundamental, but literacy is key. School Library Journal.

Retrieved from: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6700578.html

This article is about a report published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) entitled

“Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Readiness.” In its report CCNY researchers point out that comprehension is a skill that students are struggling with “U.S. students actually lose literacy skills as they go through their schooling

ranking first in the world in the 4^th grade, but among the worst across the globe by the 10^th grade.”

To remedy this situation it proposes that all involved parties from teachers to elected officials “refocus on how they teach literacy…in these key years.” CCNY is suggesting the reallocation of money to support the embedding of literacy instruction across the curriculum and not just for “English teachers.”

In response Linda Braun, president of Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), voiced her disappointment by saying that it was a shame “that libraries and librarians are excluded entirely from your plan” since they have the expertise to help “broaden these skills in students.” Andrés Henríquez, program officer of CCNY’s Advancing Literacy Initiative, responded “it made no sense to call upon those leaders in schools who already have expertise in teaching literacy.” He pointed out that the real need “is to push other educators to develop these skills” regardless of what they teach.

This article is very timely as we are constantly hearing about cities and states throughout the country cutting education budgets. I am in total agreement with Linda Braun and her assertion that we use libraries and librarians and their depth of knowledge to facilitate the ultimate goal of offering our children the best education possible. In addition, it only makes sense to at least start with what we have, namely libraries and librarians, and expand as funding becomes available. Something that I am not so sure will ever happen. We talk the talk, but we don’t walk the walk in this country. We say we care about educating our children, but we never seem to have the money to do it right. You need look no further than NCLB to see that.

I could not end this review without addressing the lack of comprehension skills among my own students. Many times I’ve wondered “Why don’t they get it?” The only conclusion I have been able to come up with is the overemphasis on speed or how many words per minute (wpm) they can read. I have had many heated conversations with people in leadership positions at my school about the use of DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills). I have maintained that the purpose of reading should be thinking, reasoning, and understanding, in other words comprehension, and not speed. I have quite a few students who read slowly and comprehend everything they read. But because their wpm is below a set level they are labeled as needing Intensive intervention. On the other hand I have students who reach and even surpass the set goal but cannot tell me one thing about what they just read, and they are labeled as Benchmark. I understand that speed is an indication of the ability to decode. I have no problem with that. But, it is not the end all, be all and that is reinforced by my students test scores.