Abstract
This chapter reports the work of a teacher educator/researcher as she supported teacher candidates to assess and tutor struggling readers in a public school in a rural, economically depressed, yet diverse, area. Alerted by the scores for listening comprehension the candidates were finding over several semesters that indicated little reading potential for the students being assessed, she worked with the school's principal to reassess one group of students at the end of the year to determine growth, and therefore potential success, of the school's new intervention program in raising listening levels. No significant results were found, yet school personnel made no change in their program to address it. The teacher educator/researcher subsequently followed the implications of the research to provide instruction in listening skills to students in two other schools. The chapter closes with a discussion of what may truly make a difference in developing listening skills for the children in this community beyond a commercial program.
TopBackground
Over thirteen years ago, the author moved from a suburb of a large southwestern city in the United States to teach at a branch campus of a university in a nearby state. The branch campus was located in a highly rural area that is also one of the most poverty-stricken regions of the state. According to the U.S. Census QuickFacts (U.S. Department of Commerce, n.d.) for the county in which the branch campus is located, the population density is 17.9 persons per square mile, clearly indicating the rurality of the area. In terms of economics, the median income per household between 2015 and 2019 was estimated to be $37,061. Those living at or below the poverty level were estimated to be 21.9% of the total population. Other important demographics include the ethnic makeup of the population; although white persons account for 65.1% of the population, American Indians are tabulated at 17.1%, Black or African American at only 8.1%, and those claiming two or more races at 7.3%. Additionally, while 82.9% are high school graduates and 13.4% hold college degrees, only 72.9% of households owned a computer and 39.4% did not have broadband Internet access.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Eurocentric: A term used to describe a point of view that centralizes European culture and ways of thinking at the expense of other cultures and kinds of thinking, consciously or subconsciously.
Cultural Discontinuity: The condition that exists when there are significant differences in styles and language of communication between diverse students and teachers who are Eurocentrically oriented, resulting in misinterpretations on the part of both groups.
Oral Language: Spoken utterances intended to convey meaning through generally accepted, although arbitrary, audible symbols usually thought of as words.
Alliteration: The term applied to two or more words which begin with the same sound.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: A pedagogy that is built on learning about, valuing, and incorporating into the classroom the characteristics, skills, aptitudes, and cultures of all students while simultaneously supporting high but achievable goals.
Reading Comprehension: The act of or ability to gain both literal and inferential meaning from written language.
Listening Skills: Strategies that a person uses in order to understand spoken communication.
Directed Listening-Thinking Activity (DL-TA): A strategy used to support students in becoming critical thinkers by making predictions about the topic to be listened to, utilize background knowledge, engage in active listening, and then determine the accuracy of the predictions.
Onomatopoeia: Words that are designed to suggest their meanings because of the way they sound.
Informal Reading Inventory: A set of graded reading passages, along with other related assessments, that can be used to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses in reading and identify at which levels of text they can read independently, for appropriate instruction, or only with frustration in terms of comprehension.
Listening Level: A term, also referred to as listening comprehension level, that refers to the gradations of listening comprehension expected at the various grade levels, usually determined by administering an informal reading inventory or other measure; the generally accepted level of comprehension required to meet a specific level is 70%.
Listening Comprehension: The ability of a person to attend to a spoken communication and apprehend its meaning.
Reading Potential: The amount that a students can be expected to improve their reading ability as suggested by their listening comprehension levels.