Low reading ability in a High School in South Dakota. What are possible improvement measures?

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Pedagogy - School System, Educational and School Politics, grade: 19.00, , course: Eductional Change, language: English, abstract: This thesis presents a change project for a High School. The High School is a rural school on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. According to MAPS tests administered during the 2014-2015 school year, a majority of students in the 9th grade had a third-grade reading level. This state of affairs was evidenced when a student was asked to read aloud out of a textbook during class. The low reading level ability was reflected in the low scores a great number of students received in Freshman Science class. Most were experiencing learned helplessness and would not even participate in class which led to discipline problems.

The purpose of an innovation would be to improve reading skills starting at the beginning of the students¿ life, and life in school in order for the student to have adequate reading capabilities in high school and beyond. That the teacher can affect the ability to read as early as Kindergarten is a possibility. It was found that a Kindergarten teacher¿s affective quality had an influence on working memory, which in turn effects skills in first grade. Most effective was the child¿s learning of independence through the way the teacher treated the student.

In another study, it was found that development of the phonological loop aspect of working memory predicted better reading skills for Chinese students. The studies suggest that reading skills in children can be affected even earlier than in Elementary School. The students would benefit from a reading program to improve skills, as well as the teachers who could assign reading assignments and have students read in class, the school would benefit because scores would increase.