4th Grade Slump
English 102
22 January 2012
4th grade slump!
When I see my little cousins reading a book, I see their eyes are shine with excitement, and they can’t wait to read the book out loud to their parents or to me. As they get older, that excitement in their eyes is gone and I would wonder, why? Then I took this course and found out what the 4th grade slump is. So, what is 4th grade slump? There are many reasons why educators call it the 4th grade slump and there is one simple explanation: when a student or child goes on to the 4th grade and loses interest in reading, its because they are expected to “read to learn”, not “learn to read.” Basicaly, when someone hears about the 4th grade slump, they think that it's just children who loses their interest in reading. It’s not just that though, it’s more than just reading. When a child loses interest in reading, then the willingness to want to learn more will be declined and they will suffer in later school grades. In my articles, none of them mentioned about how video games can be a helpful tool to children’s learning abilities. In James Paul Gee “good video games + good learning”, he mentioned how video games can be helpful and can develop children’s problem solving abilities in certain games or even in card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, by using complex content and using specialist language. Other than video games, the 4th grade slump affects poor children as well. In “Poor children’s fourth-grade slump” by Jeanne S. Chall and Vicki A. Jacobs, they did a study on poor children and normative population on six subjects, and they found out that poor children do get affected by the 4th grade slump, because of the low class. In another article “What is the fourth-grade slump” by Pam Withers, she mentioned about how fake reading could affect your child and decline your child’s learning abilities and self-confidence in academics. Also in “fourth-grade slump” by Karen Springen, she talked about how "No children left behind" has created
22 January 2012
4th grade slump!
When I see my little cousins reading a book, I see their eyes are shine with excitement, and they can’t wait to read the book out loud to their parents or to me. As they get older, that excitement in their eyes is gone and I would wonder, why? Then I took this course and found out what the 4th grade slump is. So, what is 4th grade slump? There are many reasons why educators call it the 4th grade slump and there is one simple explanation: when a student or child goes on to the 4th grade and loses interest in reading, its because they are expected to “read to learn”, not “learn to read.” Basicaly, when someone hears about the 4th grade slump, they think that it's just children who loses their interest in reading. It’s not just that though, it’s more than just reading. When a child loses interest in reading, then the willingness to want to learn more will be declined and they will suffer in later school grades. In my articles, none of them mentioned about how video games can be a helpful tool to children’s learning abilities. In James Paul Gee “good video games + good learning”, he mentioned how video games can be helpful and can develop children’s problem solving abilities in certain games or even in card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, by using complex content and using specialist language. Other than video games, the 4th grade slump affects poor children as well. In “Poor children’s fourth-grade slump” by Jeanne S. Chall and Vicki A. Jacobs, they did a study on poor children and normative population on six subjects, and they found out that poor children do get affected by the 4th grade slump, because of the low class. In another article “What is the fourth-grade slump” by Pam Withers, she mentioned about how fake reading could affect your child and decline your child’s learning abilities and self-confidence in academics. Also in “fourth-grade slump” by Karen Springen, she talked about how "No children left behind" has created