Peer review draft Justin Rivera

Justin Rivera

04/24/2022

ACR 150-0501

Prof. Barnes

Detrimental effects of illiteracy (DRAFT)

For this project I chose Option 4 the “Think aloud experiential study”. Option 4 required me to gather data about individuals’ experiences with a particular literacy. I had to ask my participants to think aloud and talk about what they did/didn’t understand while reading and to talk about their thoughts regarding the literacy they read about. Finally, I had to gather data on my participants’ relationship to identity, community, and hegemonic or counternarrative thoughts. As for my research method, I asked 2 people to participate, then I recorded our discussion and asked them 5 questions about the article “The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy”. Now my central idea was to bring awareness to the importance of literacy and the detrimental effects illiteracy can have on our youth. For those reading who don’t fully understand what literacy actually is I will explain. Literacy isn’t just having the ability to read and write, it’s competence or knowledge in a specified area; literacy is what gives people access to information.

I’ll be discussing my interview with Participant 1. After Participant 1 read the article I asked them a few questions about it. My first question “Since there is a link between illiteracy and crimes committed, how can we decrease illiteracy in the US?”. Their response was school’s should focus on progress rather than a passing grade and if a student is making progress reward them for it. That way student’s would be more motivated to attend school.  My 2nd question I asked was “How can learning/reading become more interesting for children?” due to the fact that children don’t respond well to or care to learn/read if it’s boring. Their response to this question was to make it relatable. Children respond well to learning if the subject of study has something with them. My 3rd question was “How do we help children become school ready?” because school readiness doesn’t start in class but at home. Participant 1’s answer was to give these children better access to quality food for energy while in school and to give them equipment that would help them finish a project at home. They said for example, provide wifi and computer access so if a child needs it they have it available and won’t fall behind. My 4th question was “Do you believe being proficiently literate is necessary to find success in today’s world? Why or why not?”. Participant 1 said absolutely! Everyone should have the ability to be proficiently literate because if you are capable of fully grasping and understanding things in your life; whether it be a trade or profession or anything really you must understand what you’re doing to find success. Finally, my 5th question was “What are your thoughts after reading this article?”. Participant 1 said this is a real life issue that needs to be fixed. They’ve witnessed all these issues first hand while growing up in a low income school; they witnessed fellow peers dropping out because they don’t see the point in school if they keep failing, their peers not having access to wifi/computers at home, seeing them really struggling because their family is financially struggling and that is heartbreaking.

Now I’ll be discussing my interview with participant 2 and their answers to my questions. I asked participant 2 the same five questions in regards to the article they read. In regards to question number one “Since there is a link between illiteracy and crimes committed, how can we decrease illiteracy in the US?” Their response was that schools should minimize class size to help students thrive so they can have more one-on-one quality learning with teachers. After asking them question number 2 “How can learning/reading become more interesting for children?” They said to tell children the truth about what they’re learning and why they’re learning it and to keep it relatable to important topics of the here and now. I then asked my third question “How do we help children become school ready?” Their response was for schools to observe what children are lacking at home so that way schools can provide assistance where it’s needed. I followed up with my fourth question “Do you believe being proficiently literate is necessary to find success in today’s world? Why or why not?” At first participant 2  was hesitant and wanted to say not really. However, their answer was you need to be literate to a degree to find success in today’s world. Have basic understandings and comprehension of the world and of basic literacy. To conclude my interview with participant 2 I asked them my final fifth question “what are your thoughts after reading this article?”. Participant too really had to think about it because they wanted to say a lot about illiteracy in the US; but answered by saying they like that this illiteracy crisis is being brought to light and that people are speaking up and want help those struggling whether it’s a known struggle or hidden struggle; they love awareness and transparency of this issue because they too believe it needs to be fixed and it came be fixed. 

Now I’ll be showing data that supports my central idea which was to bring awareness to the importance of literacy and the detrimental effects illiteracy has on our youth because illiteracy is a crisis. Below is a screenshot from the article I chose “The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy” and the statistics underlining the connection of illiteracy and incarceration in the US.

I remember my first time reading this article and thinking how crazy it is that 85% of all kids in the juvenile system are functionally low literate. I was familiar with most of the other statistics shown however, that 85% really was shocking. Only 15% of kids in the juvenile system are functionally literate. That’s a really low percentage for a country as rich as the US. The Department of Education is requesting 2.1 billion dollars to administer the financial aid programs for 2022. Why does it have to be a request when we see what illiteracy can do to our youth? They’re the future of our nation. This budget should be endless! 2.1 billion dollars is more than enough to open more libraries, more afterschool programs, better access to resources to help struggling students, and give children quality education that can make them better than just being functionally literate. I think it’s horrible that we have millions of children who are functionally low literate and have to request 2.1 billion dollars for education and not just that but we have the ability to implement better quality education but aren’t doing so. It’s sickening.

My overall thoughts about the detrimental effects of illiteracy is that as a nation we are fully capable of combating this crisis. I’m not talking about teaching with an iron first and never allowing children to be children or to not ask questions. However, we have the means and abilities to cultivate both struggling and non-struggling children’s minds. This isn’t an unknown crisis either, the Federal government and State government are fully aware of this, yet schools are still severely underfunded and lacking in quality education. We’re signing our own graves by not acknowledging the pressing issue because it can affect us personally. I have personally been affected by this crisis, I grew up dirt poor and struggled with reading at my grade level up until about the 9th grade and constantly received bad grades. It got to a point where teachers gave up on me and soon after I almost gave up on myself; I was about one day away from dropping out before someone came into my life and showed me I can thrive rather than survive in today’s world and that I didn’t have to be a statistic. And statistically speaking I’m not even supposed to be in college, I shouldn’t even be writing this paper. Yet, here I am. 

Finally, rather than allowing our youth to figure this out alone and possibly give up on the way, let’s change the approach to literacy. Make it progress over a passing grade, make learning interesting and relatable, and  motivate students; light a spark inside them to not give up on themselves. It won’t be easy and it never is, but honestly I believe making the changes that my participants and I have listed are some of the keys to combating this illiteracy crisis.

WORKS CITED

The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy Statement by

https://www.literacymidsouth.org/news/the-relationship-between-incarceration-and-low-literacy/

Miguel Cardona Secretary of Education on the U.S. Department of Education Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Request

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-miguel-cardona-secretary-education-us-department-education-fiscal-year-2022-budget-request#:~:text=We%20are%20requesting%20%242.1%20billion,the%20fiscal%20year%202021%20appropriation.