Chapter One Response

I thought that this chapter in Adolescent Literacy was extremely informative.  Until I read this chapter, I had no idea how much of an importance is placed on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the schools.  It seems that the goal close the achievement gap in schools is never-ending.  As a future educator, one of the most important things to me is the happiness and successfulness of the students.  When I read this chapter, it was really sad to see how many school administrators are only concerned with the test scores their students get.  Beers gave one example of this when he was talking to a principal that said, “NCLB demands what?  That we close the achievement gap.  How do you know when that’s happened?  Kids pass the damn class” (Beers, 2007, 3).  Hearing the principal talk like this was surprising because the students need to feel like they are worth more than a test grade.  Reading about Derek and Collin really made the situation real.  I was sad for these two boys because both of their feelings were hurt due to test scores.  Derek has been “focused on the huge progress he had made and, until that moment, had felt good about that progress” (Beers, 2007, 2).  He was happy with his progress, but it still was not good enough.  I think that this mentality in the schools is going to cause the students to give up all together.                                                                                                                     

I was surprised to find out how many different shifts in literacy there have been.  Beers explained, “Literacy is a set of skills that reflect the needs of the time.  As those needs shifts, then our definition of literacy shifts” (2007, 7).   In today’s world I think the most important thing to realize it that the students need more from literacy than just getting their school high- test scores.  It is up to us as teachers to individualize literacy for each student and classroom.