Running head: Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education to increase shared knowledge between students and
instructors
Emily McIntyre
Nevada State Collage

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

Abstract
The plan to standardize cannon readings at the secondary education level in all schools is introduced
to increase shared knowledge among peers and instructors. By increasing shared knowledge students
will gain confidence when explaining complex ideas. Reading not only creates shared knowledge,
since people learn through observation students will become better writers in different areas such as
grammar and writing for different audiences. The idea that reading influences writing was discovered
after an interview that was conducted with Dr. Gleason where he goes into greater detail about how
reading influences writing. Of course what one reads will affect the ways in which ones writing is
influenced. The best books for young adults and children are covered by the term cannon. The idea
of a cannon is controversial especially considering who decides which books are selected to be part
of the cannon. The idea of the cannon is a large academic conversation in itself.

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

The battle in secondary education in America between standardization and diversity rages
on. Students are diverse, they come from all different backgrounds and experiences. Schools are
now celebrating their students and facultys diversity, but meeting core standards is also important
to the school system. When all students learn the same concepts the same way regardless of their
background and location all students everywhere will have this same knowledge. The truth is that
not all teachers teach the same concepts the same ways and each student will interpret different
concepts in different ways depending on their personal experiences. Some people believe that
humans are inherently good while others may feel that people are inherently evil based on what they
have experienced. People learn through observation and personal experiences as well as what they
learn in the classroom. One of the most influential ways in which students learn to write is through
reading, a simple example of how people learn through observation. Unfortunately, no two students
from the same school or school district may have read the same books as part of their curriculum.
College students writing skills lack because they may not be reading in school as much as other
students or they may be reading different types of material. Research has shown that reading
influences writing in many ways. Outside research and my own primary research demonstrates that
when students read more they gain confidence in their own ideas, grammar, and writing to different
audiences. Implementing reading into the classroom setting is easy and not often done, furthermore
it creates stronger writers which are what Nevada State College (NSC) needs especially through the
idea of shared knowledge which also facilitates confidence in ones writing abilities.
When students have a shared knowledge or experience with their peers and or their
instructor they will have more confidence in explaining complex ideas. One may formulate an idea
from their personal experience, but will only be able to explain this idea in terms that a peers or their
instructor will understand. This is where shared knowledge comes in handy. If everyone has read
and analyzed the book Lorde of the Flies they can easily describe human nature with examples from

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

the book and everyone will be able to follow. Standardizing which books are read at different grade
levels and in different classes in secondary education will begin to start shared knowledge among
peers. Another important aspect would be that the books that are read should be read during the
class time, in person, to ensure that students are gaining experience with the book. There are many
kinds of books which is why the cannon comes in handy. The cannon is a list of books that students
in school may read. A review of the books included in the cannon will need to be done before
implementing reading into classrooms. There is controversy surrounding the idea of the cannon.
Questions are asked about who should be in charge of deciding the books that can be included or
not as well as which types of literature that students should be reading. I however am not going to
debate this issue in my paper to a great extent. I would like to see a standardization of reading in
secondary education in America because studies show that reading influences writing (Ahmed,
Wagner, & Lopez, 2014)( Choo, 2010) (Fisher, & Frey, 2013)( Kempe, Eriksson-Gustavsson, &
Samuelsson, 2011) ( Parr and McNaughton, 2014). Not only did I get the idea that reading
influences writing from academic articles but from the professor from NSC that I interviewed.
I interviewed Professor Gleason who happens to be an education instructor who focuses on
teaching education majors with a concentration in mathematics. Surprisingly there is a lot of writing
required for his class including papers that analyze written works. When an assignment is given to
analyze written work he said that his students often summaries instead of analyze. To analyze a
written work such as an academic journal you would read the journal then come up with an idea to
argue about what was proposed by the authors of the journal. Coming up with an idea to argue
would require one to formulate and write about their own ideas which would require one to tap into
grammar that will specifically enhance their argument and fits their audience. Students can also
strengthen their arguments by including an example that relates to both their idea and the papers
that is an example found outside of the paper. Of course finding an example not related to the

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

assignment that each the instructor and student will understand may be complicated, which is why
having a shared knowledge is helpful and important.
Methods
I interviewed an instructor here at NSC and asked about the struggle in writing that he has
noticed in his students. Dr. Gleason was the one who put together the idea that reading greatly
influences writing for my paper. This interview was in person so to give my interviewee the chance
to expand on any ideas that I did not have a clear understanding of. I also stated in my proposal that
I would give anonymous surveys to students around both campuses at NSC asking how often each
person reads a week in hours and how confident they are in their writing skills particularly in their
confidence in writing about their ideas, the grammar they use, and writing to different audiences. As
well as wither or not they feel that what they read has influenced their writing in any way.
Unfortunately, I did not complete getting this part of my primary evidence done. I also would have
like to get in contact with someone from the Clark county school district and find out what it would
take to get my idea of standardized reading implemented into all schools in the district in particular.
I would also ask how I would go about getting this implemented as well. I would conclude by ask
how close the standards are to my implication and why they have been set that way.
Results

From the research that I did I found that many academics have been debating wither or not
writing is influenced by reading and in which ways reading influences writing. Ahmed, Wagner, and
Lopez (2014) described that Children who read for comprehension are more familiar with the
format of larger texts and story structures, and it is possible that skilled readers apply this knowledge
to their writing (p.431) they back up this claim with another statement that although reading and
writing are not inverse processes, they rely on similar cognitive mechanisms that allow for
simultaneous growth as well as transfer of knowledge(p.421). Parr and McNaughton (2014)

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

construct an accurate representation of how reading and writing are related when they give the
example of how Readers plan reading around a purpose and activate prior background knowledge.
Writers go through similar processes; they have a purpose and think about what they know or need
to know to accomplish this purpose. Readers construct their own meaning from interpreting cues in
text; writers construct meaning while composing so as to convey their desired understandings to a
reader (p.142). Professor Gleason, who I interviewed, gave every similar examples as to how
students writing is influenced by reading. As people learn from observation, readers will gain ideas
about using grammar, writing about their own ideas, and writing to different audiences. One
example he gave was that students often misuse words such as stake and steak, these two words
would never be written in the same context but sound the same which means students are relying on
what they hear for grammar instead of what they read. Dr. Gleason also gave an example of shared
knowledge when he talked about a time in which everyone sat around their T.V.s at the same time
and all watched I Love Lucy. What happened is that everyone everywhere in the US was able to talk
to anyone, even strangers, about the show and everyone could understand what the other person is
talking about. In todays diverse world not everyone watches the same show or has something as in
common as that time back then. There should be common ground when it comes to shared
knowledge and academics
Discussion
There is a lot that can be said when one is discussing wither or no education should
encourage diversity or stick to standards. Education should embrace both because both diversity and
standards are important in education. Standardizing all of Americas public schools will be difficult
and costly as well as stretch the amount of books available for each class but the benefit out weights
the cost especially when it means that our students will have better writing skills by the time they get
to collage. The reason that I am looking for the improvement in college students is because when

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

you write a paper in collage it feels more real world. My plan also does leave out any nontraditional students and may not be fully affective until the youngest students who are involved in
the standardization are fully in collage. When collage students writing can be improved by simply
encouraging students to read more in middle and high school the improvement outweighs the cost
of the implication and creates a generation of educated people with a shared knowledge.

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

8
References

Standardizing Reading in Secondary Education

References
Ahmed, Y., Wagner, R. K., & Lopez, D. (2014). Developmental Relations Between Reading and
Writing at the Word, Sentence, and Text Levels: A Latent Change Score Analysis.
Journal Of Educational Psychology, 106(2), 419-434. doi:10.1037/a0035692
Choo, S. S. (2010). Writing through Visual Acts of Reading: Incorporating Visual Aesthetics in
Integrated Writing and Reading Tasks.High School Journal, 93(4), 166-176.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013). A Range of Writing Across the Content Areas. Reading Teacher, 67(2),
96-101. doi:10.1002/TRTR.1200
Kempe, C., Eriksson-Gustavsson, A., & Samuelsson, S. (2011). Are There any Matthew Effects in
Literacy and Cognitive Development?. Scandinavian Journal Of Educational Research,
55(2), 181-196. doi:10.1080/00313831.2011.554699
Parr, J. M., & McNaughton, S. (2014). Making connections: The nature and occurrence of links in
literacy teaching and learning. Australian Journal Of Language & Literacy, 37(3), 141150.