Response to Coles and Woodside-Jiron

Coles talks about the "underlying assumptions" regarding literacy in the current debates. I think this discussion is very interesting because it addressed a lot of the issues surrounding "The Great Debate" over issue of literacy. How do we measure literacy and what is the rubric? These question are important because there seem to be no definite answer and no real solution to how we define literacy. Coles introduction is interesting because he talks about changing the term of debate and most people are focusing on issues that are not relevant to literacy. How do we measure or have a standardize rubric of children who are literate when there is no real definition of the term literate or literacy. I believe that children have different learning style and to place a measurement on how much they need to learn or know is irrelevant. Not just children, but all of us have different learning style and some people learn faster than other. So how do we measure which age of children should read on a certain level when they have different learning style. It make no sense to teach children one method and not the other. I believe we should use both in order to achieve the literacy level that we want our children to be. As teacher and educators we must adapt to different level and learning strategies because no one technique fit all. Teaching children how to read is important therefore educators must be sensitive to children who might not be that great or to student who lack reading skills. For the most part there are many ways and strategies of teaching children how to read so they could be literate. There is no right or wrong answer to the problem only solution to what work best for the children.

Both Coles and Woodside-Jiron point out ways in which "research" has been misused in the reading policy debate. Since both sides claim to be basing thier argument on research, this does not mean that research is meaningless. Research into the issues raises question and debate on how we teach children how to read and become literate. Strategy such as "meaning emphasis" or "whole language" are a great method, but it is not the solution. Educational setting is always open for debate so it is important that the curriculum is fair for children. How do we balance teaching children how to read in a level that is appropriate or the standard? We don't we just try our very best of our ability to teach children how to read and to become literate.