One way to ensure that all kids will be successful in school and life is by focusing on literacy by the end of the third grade.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If children are reading well by the 3rd or 4th grade then everything else works.
Obviously, every child should be given the best possible opportunity to acquire literacy skills.
The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity.
Parents should be encouraged to read to their children, and teachers should be equipped with all available techniques for teaching literacy, so the varying needs and capacities of individual kids can be taken into account.
The only thing that everyone needs to look out for is keeping the students reading through high school and thereafter.
As a teacher you can see the difference in kids who have parents who were involved. That difference, by the time these kids get to the third grade, is drastic.
If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.
You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.
Children without access to quality early education programs start kindergarten with an 18-month disadvantage, and that gap continues to widen. By the time they are in fourth grade, many cannot do math or read at grade level.
I hadn't learned to read by third grade, which wasn't unusual for some kids. I knew something was wrong because I couldn't see or understand the words the way the other kids did. I wasn't the least bit bothered - until I was sent back to the second-grade classroom for reading help after school.