TOW #3 - Bedtime Story is Key to Literacy

Most people have memories of being read to bed each night by their parents, and most would agree that kids start reading through this experience. However, this round of bedtime stories end someday. Less parents are reading aloud to their kids because they are spending more and more of their time working or commuting from work, and this is negatively affecting children's literacy. The Guardian's article, "Bedtime Story is Key to Literacy, says Children's Writer Cottrell Boyce" says that parents are now stopping the bedtime stories too early.

This text cites the famous children's author and direction Frank Cottrell Boyce, who is a credible source because he won the 2004 Carnegie medal for his children's book, Millions. He says, "The joy of a bedtime story is the key to developing a love of reading in children...They're being taught to read [in the classroom] before anyone has shared with them the pleasure of reading - so what motivation have they got to learn?" This decline in parents reading to the kids are lessening kids' interest in reading, which also harms literacy. By citing a famous and successful author, the text is reaffirming this claim.

Stastics about the frequency of bedtime stories are also included. According to YouGov and Scholastic, "many parents stop reading to their children when they become independent readers, even if the child isn't ready to lose their bedtime story." A fifth of surveyed parents stopped reading to their kids when they were nine, and about a third of kids around ages 6-11 wanted their parents to continue reading, but they did not. This fact gives credibility the fact that even when kids enjoy this reading time, their parents stop when they think the kids can read themselves. Even though the kids can now read, their desire and interest in reading isn't cultivated.

Finally, the text quotes another professional, Michael Rosen, a children's author, who said his parents read to him even when he reached his forties. Although that might sound crazy to some, Rosen said as he grew up, he was read stories such as Great Expectations and the Catcher in the Rye, and he was always able to enjoy reading. Because he has succeeded in the area of reading and writing, it becomes more convincing that a continuation of parents reading to their children advances a child's literacy and love for reading.

Many parents who read to their kids will probably wonder, "When should I stop reading to my kids?" This text simply answers: never stop. Not only does reading to kids improve literacy, but this also creates a time of intimacy to boost the relationship between the parents and their children.

TOW #2 - Visual Text: "Happy Never After"

I was looking through a plain social media site when I came across this - and it made me freeze for a bit. This visual text is a campaign by Saint Hoax, an artist from the Middle East, and uses photoshopped images of Disney Princesses to raise awareness of domestic violence. The collection is called "Happy Never After," and has the tagline "When did he stop treating you like a princess?"
Disney Princesses are viewed as the iconic perfect fairty tale characters with perfect happy endings and perfect lived. These princesses are the last ones for people to have expected to be victims of domestic violence. By placing domestic violence on these Disney Princesses, Saint Hoax emphasizes the cruelty of domestic violence. A thought can easily run through people's heads: "How could anyone do this - to Jasmine? To Ariel?" Saint Hoax stresses the fact that anyone - even princesses - can be victims of domestic violence.
Underneath the tagline, "When did he stop treating you like a princess?" He adds, "It's never too late to put an end to it." The first thing anyone notices about this poster and about domestic violence in general is its cruelty. The graphics are gruesome and horrific, which can easily lead people to believe that there can't be a stop to it. However, with those tiny letters, he's giving the small but existent hope: "It's never too late to put an end to it." Many people don't realize that domestic violence can be stopped if the situation is properly dealt with, but many give up or simply succumb to it because they think they don't deserve better. Although it isn't one of the most obvious aspects of domestic violence, as represented by the tiny letters, it's still there - and people should realize it.
This is overall a very dark piece that ruins the childhood feeling of many, but that stabbing, hurtful feeling is what makes the campaign effective, and it's what raises awareness of domestic violence.

TOW #1 - Teachers Aren't Dumb

In America, "teachers" are adults who are present in our lives from kindergarten to until we're ready to leave the nest for college. Because America is known to give lower salaries to public teachers compared to other first world countries, the top students tend not to go that route. This results in a situation where most teachers are seen as people who were "not that smart" in high school. In Daniel T. Willingham's op-ed "Teachers Aren't Dumb" in the New York Times, Willingham claims that teachers seem to be "dumb" not because of they are actually dumb but because the teaching education they received is, in fact, "dumb."
Willingham explains that teachers weren't the low-level students by establishing logos and ethos. He says, "It's true that the average SAT score of high school students who plan to become teachers is below the natoinal average. But planning to teach doesn't guarantee that you'll...be hired. The median SAT score for those who actually do end up teaching is about the national mean for other college graduates" (Willingham 5). By using these numbers, he shows that teachers actually scored on par with the national average for standardized tests when they were in high school. He also acknowledges the opposite side's possible argument that students who want to become teachers tend to score lower on standardized tests. Then he proceeds to refute that claim, which makes his argument stronger.
He also includes facts to explain the low quality for teacher preparation to establish logos. He said, "In one study, 42 percent [of reading teachers] could not correctly define 'phonological awareness.' Of greater concern, those who educate future teachers don't know them either. Emily Blinks-Cantrell of Texas A&M University and her colleagues tested 66 professors of reading instruction for their knowledge of literary concepts. When asked to identify the number of phonemes in a word, they were correct 62 percent of the time. They struggled more with morpheme, correctly identifying them 27 percent of the time" (Willingham 8). These are facts that logically show how the education teachers receive is lower than what is expected for teachers to learn.
Willingham ends with a short metaphor: "Teachers who don't know these methods are not stupid; they've been left in the dark" (Willingham 14). This sums up the entire process pretty well, and is a simple way to wrap the text. If teachers were taught the necessary material, they would probably would be able to teach with good rhetoric like this text.

IRB Intro Post #1: The Tao of Pooh

For my IRB this cycle, I chose to read The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.  When we learned religion in seventh grade social studies, my teacher briefly mentioned this book while we were talking about Taoism.  I always had that book in the back of my mind, but never got to reading it, but when we were introduced to the TOWs I thought this would be a good opportunity to start.  Winnie-the-Pooh and Taoism are two very different topics - or so it seems - and it'd be interesting to dig through the author's rhetoric to connect the two.  I've always loved Winnie-the-Pooh since I was little, so I don't think I'll have trouble liking the book, and I hope it's a fun read just as I've heard people say it is.