Literacy Challenges and Reading Comprehension
Literacy, with as much as it has everything to do with living, was not designed always to be easy and straightforward (Leland., Lewison \ Harste, 2017). The Common Core Standards (2010) require instructors to present students to progressively challenging texts so as to necessitate improving difficulty throughout reading comprehension through the primary grades. Based on the set of guidelines founded by McKenna (2015), any child’s educational reading levels is understood to function as the uppermost stage in which a student may read an unprepared textual content having 95 to 98 percent accuracy as well as 75 percent understanding.
Directed Reading Activity (DRA) vs. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
From the article, I propose Directed Reading Activity (DRA) approach for meeting development shared reading through the primary levels, as opposed to Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) approach to be the least productive technique. In DRA the instructor mostly provides vocabularies and contextual information preceding the reading exercise, and the students are required to read the stories quietly or loudly as the teacher supervises with random questioning which is then followed by ability enhancing activities and deliberations. Whereas on the contrary, it is not easy to establish the actual ZPD for every student, as it is difficult to cautiously track overall student performance to determine whether the students are getting adequate assistance to advance their reading abilities with time successfully.
Evaluating Students' Reading Ability
The models discussed in the article deliberates on the level of difficulty with support from the instructor. The article focusses more on progressive improvement on students’ ability to reading difficult texts depending on the degree support provided by the instructor. Based on my understanding, students’ ability to read difficult texts significantly advances with time if the instructor provides adequate support. Therefore, in evaluating students’ level of reading ability, the examiners should consider both the degree of difficulty as well as the support availed to the students.
References
Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common core state standards for English language arts " literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers
Leland, C. H., Lewison, M., " Harste, J. C. (2017). Teaching children's literature: it's critical!. Routledge.
McKenna, M. C., " Stahl, K. A. D. (2015). Assessment for reading instruction. Guilford Publications.
Stahl, K.A.D. (2012) Complex text or frustration level text: Using shared reading to bridge the difference. The Reading Teacher, 66(1), 47-51.
