Improving Studentss Progress Towards Success - 2233 Words

Often times in education young teachers speak loftily of wanting the best future for their students. This expression of empathy and passion for their student’s lives is easier to say than it is to execute. Comparably, when love-struck couple promises to do anything for each, even give their life for their dearest, the words are easier to say than to live up to the daily challenges and obstacles. It’s easy for a teacher to passionately express their well wishes for a student but much harder to live out the difficult commitment to facilitate their students’ progress towards success. For me this began with a realization that my content area subject was not the most important thing for me to be teaching my students, it was literacy. Only†¦show more content†¦In 2006 the ACT confirmed that reading and comprehending difficult texts directly correlates to academic achievement (ACT, 2006). Reading skills are arguably a prerequisite for authentically engaging wit h critical thinking and historical thinking skills in social studies. Social studies as a body of knowledge is built upon on the recorded interactions, stories and dynamics of past actors and to engage in the study one must be able to thoroughly comprehend and expertly analyze the documents (Cleary, Neumann, 2009). Such well-developed reading comprehension skills are so necessary that many researchers are describing the degree of literacy necessary to engage with social studies concepts and documents as ‘critical literacy’ skills. Stephen Wolk defines critical literacy and its purpose as â€Å"is not to tell students what to think but to empower them with multiple perspectives and questioning habits of mind, and to encourage them to think and take action on their decisions through inquiry, dialogue, activism, and daily decisions (Wolk, 2006).† Critical literacy is paramount to social studies; it is the ability of the student to go beyond thorough comprehension a nd to apply a creative and relevant critique and analysis of the past, present and future in order to fully participate as a citizen in our democracy. Social Studies is â€Å"about questioning and power, living for the common good, understanding and appreciating the past† and with critical literacy students are able