The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

Analysis & Response 125 fewer factors motivating them. Their initial motivation is at stake because schools often assess the quality of their teachers based upon the net improvement of the students each year. Even teachers who only teach because it pays the bills must prove that their students improve from the beginning of the year to the end, a feat that is challenging to accomplish if their students struggle with the course difficulty and are uninterested. If students do not improve, the teachers risk losing benefits, bonus pay, or even their job depending on each school’s administration. Teachers play a critical role in solving this problem. If teachers fail to solve this problem, both they and their students suffer. One possible solution could include the parents reading with their children. This would certainly help the child, not only in their reading abilities but also in a sense that they can succeed and will have a support team to help them do so, even if that takes a great deal of work. This, in fact, would be the most biblical solution. Unfortunately, this is not as easy an answer as it would appear. Too often, students come from single parent homes where that parent must work, sometimes even multiple jobs. Even if the student has both parents, in the typical American household, the parents do not have time nor are interested in doing middle school reading assignments. Although this solution would help, no one would implement it. Another possible solution to this problem is to use comprehension questions to assess the as the assignment regarding the student’s reading and comprehension. After all, this will teach the student to look for key elements in the text and learn how to see the big picture of a story. It will also allow the students to determine major themes to that particular text versus subthemes or minor events. One could argue that they will need this type of reading for collegiate work especially in the sciences. Textbooks are often aimed at communicating main points, which are supported by subpoints, examples, and applications. Similarly, upper level essays and arguments often pursue this same goal. If the student can learn how to identify major points to an argument, essay, textbook, etc., then they are well equipped to gather the information they need in order to succeed in their field. Although this may be true— the student could indeed learn to identify pertinent information while sifting through less critical material—this is the very thing