Have you ever encountered struggling readers who are demotivated with reading and writing exercises? Well, I am sure that you have! Presently, I am at my wits end trying to accomplish these tasks with the students of a rural secondary school. I would greatly appreciate it if you could ponder on the following scenario and offer suggestions to assist me in assisting these students.
In this school, the students are deficient in reading and writing skills primarily because they do not see the relevance of education in their daily lives.Most of the parents in this village work in the fishing industry and do not possess much academic qualifications. Additionally, students come to the school with the mind set that they do not need to work hard to achieve academic success simply because these qualifications are of no value to them in their future careers as fishermen. Furthermore, there are those who believe that they can plant a field of marijuana which would be more economically viable to them than any legitimate job or business.
At the primary school level, these students have often been left behind and enter secondary school operating considerately below their expected level of performance. This, in turn, creates problems for the English teachers who usually teach approximately thirty-five of such students in one class. Some of them have become so frustrated that they have given up and have resorted to traditional teaching methods that are ineffective because of the needs of these learners.
The problem is further compounded when these students are not taught basic literacy skills which were not previously developed at the primary level. Their performance in the content areas subjects, in particular, is poor. The end result is a school that is under performing with ninety percent of the student body experiencing challenges in their literacy development. As a potential reading specialist, what can you suggest to help these students?
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