Abstract

The global human population is explored through a variety of sources that provide insight into concerns such as overpopulation. Notably, challenges such as climate change necessitate discussions on sustainability to determine how advances in public health systems can be matched with food security campaigns, and environmental preservation initiatives. Each source used provides a unique perspective on the topic. Moreover, empirical studies provide information that facilitates the advancement of knowledge on the issue of human population. Essentially, empirical studies are considered because they provide information which is relevant to the establishment of evidence-based practices related to human population and sustainability. Clearly, overpopulation is a real threat to preserving the diversity within ecosystems. Through the collection of critical information on the subject, innovative solutions can be achieved. Developed nations with a relatively larger population representation have to be involved in sustainability interventions, implying that regions such as the United States are key determinants of population management.

Keywords: Population Growth, Sustainability

Literature Review

Human population is an essential factor, this determining the state of human welfare and viability of the natural world.One of the most significant concerns for the current generation is improving their well-being and that of the world and consequently sustainable human development, a factor that makes overpopulation one of the most dangerous issues in the world today. According to Reuss (2018),overpopulation has an environmental and economic effect, an increase in the world population associated with a rapid decrease of available resources, this compounded by neglect towards resource management. The Earth’s population is over 7.5 billion people today and increasing at a rate of 80 million people a year, which is approximately 220,000 in a single day, meaning if the current trend continues, there will be about 9.2 billion people in the planet (Reuss, 2018).

Such drastic increase in the number of people in the world leads to a scarcity of natural resources and an exponential degradation of the environment and critical resources such as water and energy. The United States, along with China and India are some of the most populated countries in the world, the United States of America, in particular, experiencing rapid population growth. As this population increases, there will be an over-use of natural resources, and as they are linked, overuse of one will lead to a strain on the others making the planet unsustainable.

Martinez (2016) explains that overpopulation occurs when the density of a region increases to a point whereby it can no longer adequately support the population, which is the carrying capacity, leading to a decline in the quality of life, environmental deterioration, or population collapse. Homo sapiens had existed on earth for around 100,000 years and was not until the year 1804 when it reached one billion and edged past the earth’s carrying capacity in the mid-1970’s at 4 billion people. Here, Martinez explains that the state of the population today would require 1.6 piles of earth to adequately sustain the existing population, the high rise owing to improved health care and consequently reduced the mortality rate (Martinez, 2016).

An increase in the human population is bound to have a significant effect on the environment. For example, the more people exist, the more garbage will be produced, this leading to increase in toxic residues being deposited in the ground, water, and the air. For example, States such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island have been identified to be on the verge of reaching their limit of garbage space (Martinez, 2016). Topsoil degradation is also an effect of overpopulation, causing a reduction in food production. In this way, an exponential increase in human beings without intervention is bound to damage the environment further and cause global warming resulting from an increase in greenhouse gas release in the atmosphere.

Overpopulation is reaching an unsustainable level in the world today, with resources such as water, food, and fuel continually decreasing. This challenge is already affecting more than 750 million people in the world today, these having no access to potable water, and an additional 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation. Food production is also becoming a challenge, forcing the people to adopt extensive farming to sustain the high number of people. According to Kazemi and Ghorbanpour (2017), the increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are high pollutants in the world today, contaminating water and soil and consequently threatening other life forms and crops.

Since the industrial revolution, the human population has significantly increased, prompting the upcoming of new factories these with the aim of supporting the high population. In the 19^th century and 20^th century, coal has been used to run industries, a fuel that negatively affects the environment, carbon fuel also used to facilitate transportation of the human beings (Kazemi & Ghorbanpour, 2017). These represent some of the main problem human beings impact on the environment, problems bound to further increase due to the constant increase in the population of the world.

Kopnina and Washington (2015) explain how the expanding population has become a threat to humanity, undermining the resource base. However, regardless of the adverse effects of overpopulation being widely discussed and identified amongst the ordinary people, the topic remains shunned in the relevant political and academic fields, with critics claiming there is no global overpopulation issue. The issue has been divisive amongst the people primarily between the northern and southern communities, with some governments trying to boost their population believing that growth in population is bound to stimulate the economy or give them a political and economic advantage over their other rivals in less populated neighborhoods. Another element making the issue of overpopulation be overlooked s a perception of the sacredness of human life.

With some traditions and majority of Christians such as Roman Catholics believing every sperm is sacred, the conservative ideasof procreationinfluence communities and governments. Societal beliefs and norms have played a huge role in undermining the efforts to address the growing population issue.According to Kopnina and Washington (2015), the very fact that people love babies, for example,make it hard for the relevant people to address the issue of overpopulation, factors that have made it hard to implement family planning efforts.

Studies conducted reveal that the scale of human population and its pace of growth today led to loss of biological diversity in the world today, and with natural ecosystems and biodiversity having an intrinsic value to human life, the increase would lead to a detrimental effect on the environment (Crist, Mora, & Engelman, 2017). It is therefore essential to develop policies that seek to address the high population of the world and reduce the impact of human beings, protect biodiversity and human welfare. Crist et al. (2017) define one of the ways of addressing the population question is by prioritizing the demand, that is aiming for the achievement of a sustainable world through the provision of high-quality life to all people while at the same time safeguarding the biodiversity of the earth.

One central element in this drive would be to stabilizing human population. Excessive consumption is arising due to the rapid growth of the [population, the excessive utilization of the environmental resources leading to its deterioration and consequent adverse effects to the people, environment, and the world at large (Crist et al., 2017). A strict observance of the population also means the extensiveagriculture would not be practiced, and encroachment of environmental biomes and ecosystems will be no more, creating a more stable environment.

The global population is changing annually and there exist varied methods of explaining the trends as well as the expected trends in the future. Lutz and Qiang (2002) explain the influxes in population growth by using the demographic transition. According to the authors, in the early 1990s, there had been a reduction in the population in some countries, but the trend was constant in Africa with a constancy of six children per woman. The reduction in the population is mostly associated with high-income countries and can be explained using the demographic transition. According to the conventional theory of demographic transition, improved living standards are accompanied by advanced health conditions, which result in a decline in the mortality rate followed by a reduction in the fertility rate.

The theory avails an explanation of the variation in the population trends in a global scale with the industrializing countries having a higher population growth rate compared to the high-income countries. The high-income countries have a low fertility rate, which should be applicable to the low-income countries so as to ensure a leveled reduction in the global population rate. According to Lutz and Qiang (2002), with an increase in industrialization the global population growth rate is expected to fall in the future. The authors also point out that universal education, availability of family planning services and investing in reproductive health, and also perusing socioeconomic variables can be important in reducing fertility in the low-income nations.

Human beings vary from the other species and having an insight into the total encompassment of the global human population is a daunting task. Salmony (2006), documents that “the theory of human population number can be useful in the understanding the human population”.  Salmony withdraws the conclusions from research which holds to the notion that the growth of human population is a rapid cycling positive feedback loop in which the population growth is driven by food availability creating an impression that there is a need for increasing food production. There is a global population rise of about 2% annually and the perceived need for increasing food production is the root cause for the heightening of the global population (Salmony, 2006).

According to this theoretical perspective, the increase in food production does not end the hunger in the world, it only contributes to an increase in more hungry people. The author avails a comparison to the nonhuman species number remaining constant as a result of the failure in increasing food production. In totality, the document points out that the cause of global overpopulation is based on the attempt to increase food production. The author also links the population growth to some damages such as environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity.

The National Research Council (1994) points out that population distribution and growth can be determined by three factors; migration, mortality, and fertility. All the three aspects are affected by global change. With this kind of perspective, there is a direct correlation between the changes in global population and the changes in the world. There exists an interrelation between population distribution, composition, and growth with the global climate change, land cover, and land use. Additionally, the population age structure may have an impact on the demand for resources. The National Research Council argues that population growth is composed of multiple factors and is not independent as documented by some authors.

Some global factors such as climate change may result in migration which may heighten the population of some places. Migration is perceived as the cause of most global changes and has a positive contribution to the increase in the global population. The information by the National Research Council is firm on the perception that the changes in global population are consequences of global change which affirms also affirms the theoretical perspective availed by (Salmony, 2006). With this kind of perceived interconnectivity, the council suggests a research on global change on population dynamics and population dynamic on global change.

The heightening of the global population has some damaging effects on the world. According to Bushnell (2010), the human activities result in climate changes and unless a faster intervention is sought there may be some detrimental impact on a third of the global population and this may include extinction. The author argues that carbon dioxide level is currently higher than it was in the past years and the rise is a result of human activities. The increase in carbon dioxide results in some climate changes including ocean acidification, loss of ice coverage and increase in temperature. The change in the global climate has had some damaging effects on the course of human history. Among the most prominent impact of climate change is the Permian extinction which resulted in decimation of animal life.

The Permian extinction was a consequence of a number of positive feedbacks (chain reactions) (Bushnell, 2010). According to Bushnell (2010), the chain reaction can cause temperatures increase which may result in ice melting, resulting in flooding of homes of a third of the global population. Additionally, there may be other secondary consequences prior to the flooding.  Essentially, Bushnell (2010) documents some of the detrimental impacts of the heightening environment damaging activities as a result of a heightening human population.

There are varied opinions on the future of the global population. To some, there is a possibility of its reduction while to most, including William (n.d), the global population is expected to rise. Despite the rise in global population, there is an expectation of a reduction in its growth rate.  The information availed by William add to the documentation by Lutz and Qiang (2002) on the demographic transition of the human population and its projection. Additionally, the authors state that the heightening global population results in resource depletion and is “the foremost cause of environmental degradation”. The depletion of resources is as a result of people taking from a common pool, “always making an unlimited addition to the limited world”. The worst part of the increase in human population is that it threatens the existence of other species and results in climatic changes. The author also affirms the postulation documented by Salmony (2006) by stating that ‘high population growth rate is a product of hunger and not its cause” more of the perceived need to increase food production is the cause of global overpopulation. According to William, the coercion methods of controlling the global population has failed, therefore, managing population increase calls for more diplomatic interventions such as access to employment opportunities, education, and reproductive healthcare.

References

Bushnell, D. M. (2010). Conquering climate Change: unless we act, the next century could see increases in species extinction, disease, and floods affecting one-third of human population. But the tools for preventing this scenario are in our hands.(2020 Visionaries). The Futurist, (3).

Crist, E., Mora, C., & Engelman, R. (2017). The interaction of human population, food production, and biodiversity protection. Science, 356(6335), 260-264.

Kazemi, A., & Ghorbanpour, M. (2017). Introduction to Environmental Challenges in All over the World. In Medicinal Plants and Environmental Challenges (pp. 25-48). Springer, Cham.

Kopnina, H., & Washington, H. (2016). Discussing why population growth is still ignored or denied. Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 14(2), 133-143.

Lutz, W., & Qiang, R. (2002). Determinants of human population growth. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 357(1425), 1197-1210.

Martinez, J. (2016). Too Many Humans, Dwindling Resources, and Not Enough Space. Earth Jurisprudence & Envtl. Just. J., 6, 108.

National Research Council. (1994).Understanding Population Dynamics and Global Change; Science Priorities for the Human Dimensions of Global Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Reuss, T. (2018). Social Innovation: Population, Resource Management, and Technology. Navigations: A First-Year College Composite, 2(1), 9.

Salmony, S. E. (2006). The human population: accepting species limits. Environmental health perspectives, 114(1), A17-8

William, C. (n.d). Are there too many people? Population, hunger, and environmental degradation

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How do People Who Commit Gun Violence Get their Guns?

The recent intensifications of crimes committed in the United States leave a lot of questions concerning the origins of the guns possessed by these individuals. As of now, the United States has the highest rate of homicides among advanced countries, which is partially linked to rather open access to guns on the gun market: ‘With 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 50 percent of the guns.’ (Zakaria, 2012). On the one hand, the right to own a gun has been granted in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Thus, people who commit gun violence may claim their right to the legal possession of guns. These people may frequently appeal to the historical reasons, linking the protection needs to their desire to purchase guns. On the other hand, there are some groups of the population whose gun possession right is not always based on the legal grounds. Thus, the origins of the gun possession comprise of the legal and illegal grounds in the country that regulates the gun ownership constitutionally.

Primarily, the historical reasons largely contributed to the current shape of the legal grounds that enable the gun ownership to any citizens, including those who committed crimes. The history of the gun ownership comprises one of the primary reasons why the gun ownership became prevailing. Throughout history, guns would help people to survive in the difficult circumstances and facilitate facing challenges. However, until these days, the United States had an adjusted legislative basis for the adoption of the gun control laws that were not strict enough which led to the increased amount of gun violence crimes committed in the country. The recent shooting raised the issue to the top of political agenda, as the country “has the highest rate of homicides among advanced countries” (Farley, 2012). Naturally, the citizens who desire to possess a gun can easily appeal to the historical reasons and claim their right to protect themselves. As soon as the gun occurs in their hands, there is little a government or any institutions can do to prevent gun violence and crimes. That creates an even growing challenge for the state, which allows the gun ownership and has limited control mechanisms to those who commit gun crimes.

At the same time, the nature of the right for self-protection is relevant until now, too. The gun ownership serves as a tool for many families in the United States who go hunting and use the guns appropriately. At the same time, there is a group of the population that neglects the original meaning of the gun ownership and creates a challenge for the state. If the gun ownership is managed effectively, there will be little threat of shootings, but the recent reporting of fires demonstrate that the landscape becomes significantly different as the guns are used to satisfy some mental and psychological desires. The historical roots of the gun ownership demonstrated multiple benefits to the population of the country, but are no longer applicable to the modern context.

It is also worth understanding that some perpetrators undergo some dangerous experience, frequently illegal, to pursue their guns. One of the origins of the gun possessions in the United States comes through the undocumented as well as unregulated transactions. Even those most perpetrators claim in their interrogators that they possessed their guns legally, there is also a large extend to the illegal gun possession. Some data suggests that 22% of the gun ownership in the United States comes through the undocumented and unregulated transactions, without any background checks of those who own the guns. The meaning of the illegal transactions entails the involvement of the disqualified individuals in the course of the background checks. For instance, they may have faced mental illnesses, the illegal status of residence or other issues. Thus, anyone providing guns to such individuals is taking part in the illegal transactions. Another source of the illegal gun possession questions the stores, as some gangs report their gun purchase directly from the stores without prior background checks. That demonstrates the need for strengthened background checks and strengthened gun regulations in the country due to a substantial amount of citizens who possess the guns illegally.

From the legal point of view, the political regulation of the right to own a gun is defined at the federal level.  The debate on the gun control and gun ownership is somewhat challenging to navigate, as a range of factors involved in the process is enormous. There are different positions of proponents, but it is no less important to understand those who still want to see gun ownership in the country. What is, however, essential to understanding is the fact that there is a substantial lobby of gun ownership organizations, which do not want to see the gun control in the United States, as it would negatively reflect on their incomes. One must be alert of the massive lobbying for the right to own a gun, which enables gun ownership among the individuals committing crimes, too.

To sum up, there is a need to impose a stricter gun control measures and ensure that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution remains protected. It will prevent the individuals who possess guns legally and illegally from further extending the criminal activities that frequently result in the deaths of the innocent US citizens.

References

Granderson, L. (2016). Opinion: Gun control is not the answer – CNN.com. CNN.

Farley, R. (2016). Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts. Factcheck.org.

Zakaria, F. (2016). Fareed Zakaria: The solution to gun violence is clear. Washington Post.

Human Population

            Human population is the global issue that I chose to research. The reason it is important is because of overpopulation. Overpopulation is when there is an excessive amount of people, in this case, in the world. “While at the beginning of the century the Earth had an estimated 1.6 billion inhabitants, this number grew to 6.1 billion by the end of the century, and further significant growth is a near certainty.” (Lutz & Quiang, 2002)With overpopulation things like global warming, pollution, habitat loss, more restrictions, extinction and many more issues likes these follow it. All of these issues are very bad for the environment and can cause serous harm to the Earth in the future. Questions that emerge from preliminary research are questions like how do we change overpopulation and how can we deal with it now? I think that overpopulation is definitely an issue that will take a long time to fix if possible. There will have to be new laws created and a lot of innovation to current products used. “Carbon-dioxide levels are now greater than at any time in the past 650,000 years, according to data gath- ered from examining ice cores. These increases in CO2 correspond to estimates of man-made uses of fossil car- bon fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. The global climate computations, as reported by the on- going Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) studies, indicate that such man-made CO2 sources could be responsible for observed climate changes such as temperature increases, loss of ice cov- erage, and ocean acidification.”(Busnell, 2010) Fixing the overpopulation will relieve so much all around the world and help it to be a better place for human existence to continue to live in.

Reference

Bushnell, D. M. (2010). Conquering climate Change: unless we act, the next century could see increases in species extinction, disease, and floods affecting one-third of human population. But the tools for preventing this scenario are in our hands.(2020 Visionaries). The Futurist, (3).

Lutz, W., & Qiang, R. (2002). Determinants of Human Population Growth. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 357(1425), 1197-1210.

Literacy Instructional Teams

Teams that embrace literacy instructional practices mainly focus on providing the students with the required assistance. This help encompass proper instruction and planning essentially through the access and interpretation of diverse forms of data to come up with  great and enlightened instructional practices that aim at benefiting my learners (Collins, 2013). This paper will address my literacy instructional team, strengths of the members and how well they contribute to the effectiveness of the literacy instructional team.

Description and Strengths

            My current literacy instructional team is made up of three members. My main focus is on struggling learners and I channel my energy towards ensuring that they develop in different phases to get to the same level as top learners. Additionally, I greatly embrace compensating strategies and remediation since learners can discover the rules as they get more assistance on a one-on-one basis and have the most challenging parts read to them. For instance, if a child has their most challenging and important parts read to them, it becomes easier for them to understand as compared to when they are left to read on their own. The second member in the team is concerned with three factors (intensiveness, expertness, and extensiveness) while the third member assists me in dealing with top learners in the class. My strength lies in helping the learners handle their work correctly and fluently. The second member’s strength is in the expertise evident while dealing with the overall class. Finally, the strength of the third member is in creation of an interaction between the learners to deliberate on several issues to better their understanding respectively. Consequently, we form a complete cycle whereby every learner’s interests are fully catered for in terms of need and grasping capability.

Challenges

As a team, we have meetings where we discuss matters on how students are faring, which improvements have been noted, what strategies have worked, and students who require special attention (Collins, 2013). These factors enable us to support learner diversity. However, there are several challenges that my team encounters during the execution of activities. For instance, some learners are rigid and unwilling to respond to their weaknesses while others are so quiet consequently making it difficult to know the areas to pay most attention (Collins, 2013). These challenges create a disparity in terms of advancement and improvement among learners. On the other hand, these challenges are important because they help the team to increase the expertise, experience, and understanding of the learners thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the process. Fortunately, these challenges can be addressed through establishment of group discussions where learners can challenge each other and sharpen their skills, thus, enhancing solving of challenges among learners in levels where instructors cannot (Collins, 2013).

References

Collins, P. (2013). What can literacy teams do for your readers? Retrieved from www.lcosu.org/documents/pdfs/3GRG-PIP-05.pdf

Considerations When Working With Struggling Readers Program Transcript. [Interview transcript].

What is Diversity?

As a blunt term, the University of Idaho (n.d.) defines diversity as being “[any] individual differences such as age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and physical ability or disability” (p. 12).  However, I believe that diversity can be viewed, and defined, by using a much broader frame of thinking. Diversity is a concept that allows room for all languages, cultures, and thought processes to have a chance to learn, exist, grow, and change. In the educational realm, diversity is a requirement in the present-day. This is because students and their families are immigrating from all over the world. This can help the reputation and skill of teachers, students, and their institutions, as students with outside perspectives can inform instructors and peers when a certain aspect of speech or lesson planning is offensive or neglectful. This feedback requires instructors to develop and improve their lesson planning skills to a degree that they can anticipate any other feedback that they may get from students who come from diverse cultural backgrounds (Diversity and Inclusive Teaching (Archived), n.d.).

Nemeth (n.d.) writes that “Children under the age of six who come from immigrant families form the fastest growing segment of our population, [and] census estimates show that about 25% of preschool-aged children come from homes where a language other than English is spoken” (p. 225). This means that the classroom setting will be changing in the future. Diversity, when viewed as the overlying concept, welcomes this change openly. This is because diversity creates the room for the various languages and cultures that will be introduced to help positively influence the lessons that are taught and activities that are done. By doing this, the adjustment period that students and teachers will inevitably have will go from being disheartening and awkward to exciting and informative.

References

Diversity and Inclusive Teaching (Archived). (n.d.).

Nemeth, K. (n.d.). Language and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom. Language-and-Cultural-Diversity.pdf [PDF]

University of Idaho. (n.d.) Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity Issues. Chapter_4.pdf [PDF]

Creating a Literacy Environment

Literacy development is dependent on instruction meaning that if one finds quality instruction, then they are likely to develop better literary skills. Children are passed through successive stages of literacy and in each stage there are qualitative changes in writing and reading tasks meaning that the quality of instruction has to change at all stages. The purpose of this essay is to describe the different elements of a literature rich environment in a classroom.

The early literacy lesson is about a kindergarten teacher conducting a literature lesson. The lesson begins with a ‘read aloud’ lesson after which the students perform a writing activity. The areas within the literary framework that can be observed from this media are reading and writing. The teacher is guiding the students to read and write on different topics like science, math and social studies. The classroom material is adapted to meet the learning needs of the students and also to motivate the students to reading. When in need of more information, students use dictionaries, computers, word walls, encyclopedias and their peers. The teacher is also of great help to the students in case they need assistance from him.

The Common Core State Standards is an educational initiative which has information on what K-12 learners should know in mathematics and English. The media example of teacher evokes conversation on language while reading aloud helps in improving the vocabulary of the learners. This can be integrated with the components of a literary environment where the classroom may be filled with pictures and words, and mathematical notions and expressions. The purpose of this is to increase student interaction with the course content thereby promoting retention of the content (Ragains & Wood, 2015). There is a session for practical everyday practice where students use signs, watches and schedules to understand the different ways in which words can be used. Children with learning disabilities like those with visual impairments are allowed to use Braille in order to make the classroom more inclusive.

The two components of the framework for literary instruction which I feel I am confident are the interactive and critical component. I feel I can instruct reading, writing and comprehension very easily. I also feel I have the analytical skills to critically examine and evaluate text. However, I feel that I need to develop more skills that form the basis for reading, writing and comprehension.

The literary framework can be used as a planning tool in enhancing literary instruction (Powell & Rightmyer, 2012). I will collaborate with my colleagues to ensure that we always have literary rich environments in the classrooms. This is where we will emphasize the importance of reading, speaking and writing. The materials that will be selected in the classroom environment will be those that facilitate development of language among the students. Together with my colleagues, we will inform the students to always relate the course content with whatever they experience in their daily lives. We will have a wide selection of books from different subjects to ensure that we can alternate the books. This will help evoke and maintain the interests of the students and also expose them to different topical issues. In order to accommodate the learning needs of the students, there are instances when the environments will be adapted to individual students. This is where as a teacher I will create both directed and group activities during the process of assessing student performance in the course contents. Students will be allowed to participate actively in the process. For example, students may be required to dictate some words. When a student who is not yet fluent in pronunciation dictates words, then the other students may understand the translation of oral language into written.

References

Powell, R., & Rightmyer, E. (2012). Literacy for all students: An instructional framework for

closing the gap. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Ragains, P., & Wood, M.S. (2015). The new information literacy instruction: Best practices.

New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Self Efficacy

When it comes to being an efficient literacy educator, there are several key skills which are important to success. These skills include being able to conduct reading assessments, analysing these assessments, monitoring the progress of the student and finally assessing the outcomes. I found completion of the self assessment useful as it forced me to evaluate my skill set critically. Personally, when it comes to my own skill set I feel that I have a good basis on understanding the subject matter which will be evaluated. However, I feel struggle with being able to come up with methods to help foster critical thinking and problem solving (Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse, 2009). While I know there are resources available, this area comes easy to me, and I feel like I may have some problems coming up with fun and innovative ways to help foster these skills in students.

Three assumptions that non-early childhood educators might make about the early stages of literacy development are first that learning to read is natural for all children. The second assumption is that phonemic awareness is intuitive and does not need to be taught to children. The third assumption is that there is nothing you can do if a child hates reading. As a literacy educator it is important to have an understanding of these and other assumptions. One reason for this, is it will allow me to be able to anticipate problems before they occur. For example, if parents believe that phonemic awareness is intuitive, it is possible that some children may not have had exposure to this concept, and may be lacking skills in this area (Reutzel & Cooter Jr, 2016). Furthermore, students whose second language is English, may not have had exposure to this concept at home (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003). Therefore, I can design lessons and activities designed to help students improve the areas.

References

Lesaux, N. K., & Siegel, L. S. (2003). The development of reading in children who speak English as a second language. Developmental psychology, 39(6), 1005.

Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. (2009). Self-assessment for elementary literacy coaches. Urbana, IL: Author.

Reutzel, D., & Cooter Jr, R. B. (2016). Strategies for reading assessment and instruction: Helping every child succeed. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Retake Literacy Education

To make a positive impact on literacy education, educators need to create an appropriate learning environment in the classroom, school and communities. In the classroom, the educator needs an approach to assess each individual to create an environment that integrates the visual, auditory and physical projects to ensure an effective literacy education. The classroom and school environment should encourage independency of the learners, whereby each learner is able to make individual choices, projects and assignments. The community, to positively impact on literacy education, should encourage parents to get involved in their children’s learning and family learning activities be championed. More importantly, literacy educators need an approach that nurtures their students, facilitate development in their literacy work and promote extensive reading (Ribeiro, 2011).

Research in literacy education is important in helping me understand individual students, help in nurturing their literacy and where development is needed. Research has aided in encouraging independency among the students and an approach to improve their learning. High-stakes assessment and standards in literacy education indicate the performance level of students and show how the educator is influencing, motivating and nurturing the students. A gap in phonics and comprehension evidently shows the literacy achievement gap in the classroom. This gap is influenced by the challenges in individual learners and lack of a strong support back at home. It is evident in that some learners easily read and pronounce word, and effectively comprehend their reading materials while other learners are incapable of this.

Learning resources advocates for learning through problem solving. This is an effective learning practice as it enables the educator have knowledge on their students, their reasoning mode and interests (Ribeiro, 2011).Through problem solving, the educator is able to know each students shortcomings and work on it. This also enhances the students’ capacity in knowing the areas they are good in. It was implicated that encouraging students to take charge of their learning is a positive approach of which I support as seen where students came up with words they were good in and read texts that they could understand impacted positively in the class. In addition, a tactic of using tests in teaching whereby I used tests was an effective experience. Therefore, tests and problem-solving are a good approach in literacy education.

Reference

Ribeiro, L. R. (2011). The Pros and Cons of Problem-Based Learning from the Teacher’s

Standpoint. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice , 19.

Literary Gaps

I am an African American Pre-K teacher at a private school which offers learning to children using diverse learning ways. I am passionate about transforming the lives of children by helping them to acquire literacy skills. There is nothing more gratifying than watching a little boy or girl come to school without any idea on how to read and write and later leave our watch to go to the next education level fully equipped with these life-changing skills!

However, despite our school, my colleagues and I doing our best at imparting these important literacy skills onto our students, lack of family engagement in their progress seems to stand out as an obstacle that creates a gap in their learning. During school hours, many children seem to be doing very well by the end of the day when they leave to go home but seem to have forgotten everything they had learnt when they come back to school the following morning.

Close observation points this ato lack of family involvement in reinforcing the literacy skills they have learnt. Family members, especially parents and guardians, must recognize that the learning process requires active involvement of both the teacher and the family. Children should be encouraged to practice what they have learnt at school when they go home. Practical examples include making helping the children to spell, read out loud and writing (Kendra, 2014).

Parents of the African American descent are known for prioritizing working over spending time with their children. However difficult it is, they should try their level best to get involved with the learning of their children. Currently, most children view learning as an activity that begins and ends within classroom walls. Instead, they should view it as a continuous life process that happens everywhere with no confines (Dearing et al, 2006). Furthermore, children love to impress and by seeing the family is interested in their progress, they are likely to be more motivated to grasp literacy skills.

References

Dearing, E., Kreider, H., Simkins S. & Weiss, H. B. (2006). Family involvement in school and

low-income children’s literacy: Longitudinal associations between and within families.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 98 (4), 653-664.

Kendra, F. (2014). Bridging the Gap: The Potential of Family Engagement. Stanford, CA: John

1. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.

Developing a Conceptual Framework for Advocacy

Identification of issue for policy action

This is the initial stage where the organization identifies a problem, sets the agenda and target institutions for creating change (Sharma, n.d.). This organization, The Child Advocate, is focused on various forms of child abuse which result in mental health issues. The organization promotes policies to support children and the parents and professionals who work with them and advocate for them. The contributors in this organization note that children are prone to various forms of abuses which increase the chances of mental health issues during childhood or in their adulthood. The major forms of abuses targeted are emotional abuse, neglect and physical and sexual abuse. The organization supports these concerns using statistics which indicate that one third of girls and one fifth of boys suffer from some form of abuse (The Child Advocate, 2015). The national structures to respond to cases of child abuse are inadequate despite the fact that the trauma caused by childhood abuse can result in biological changes and lifelong problems. Besides, many children die every year as a result of maltreatment or neglect. Reports indicate that about 1,770 children died in 2009 because of various forms of abuse (The Child Advocate, 2015). The aim of this organization is to rectify these issues by supporting children and those who are involved in ensuring their welfare at family and health care levels.

Solution formulation

The organization proposes legal, education and medical solutions to the problem of child abuse in society (The Child Advocate, 2015). The legal solutions are meant to safeguard the interests of the victims in court cases on child abuse. The organization seeks to assist the victims and their families to secure legal services and thus reduce the barriers to achieving justice for the victims. The legal solution is feasible because it takes advantage of existing structures in communication and advocacy for children’s rights. The organization depends on the national and state advocacy resources and agencies to help the victims and their caregivers. Educational solutions are meant to help parents and professionals working with children to identify alternative options for children with special needs. The process aims to guide the caregivers in identifying if a child needs special education and the available steps required to secure educational opportunities. The organization proposes medical solutions to provide important information on psychiatric issues through medical research on child abuse and mental health. The information from various research studies is identified as important in formulating effective responses to cases of child abuse. The education and medical solutions are politically feasible because they require the formulation of policies to support academic needs of children with special requirements and implementation of medical recommendations on the needs of children with mental health issues.

Building political will

Political will involves creating support and collaboration with important stakeholders in implementing the proposed solutions (Sharma, n.d.). The major stakeholders in this case include the professionals, parents and policy makers in political institutions. This organization uses various strategies to create awareness about child abuse and its effects to the society. It is actively involved in spreading news releases about children undergoing mental health care, safety for children and cases of child abuse in the society. The information creates the necessary awareness about the risks faced by children to the public and policy makers. The organization is a major participant in conferences on mental health services where the members create awareness among professionals in health care and legal services. There are initiatives to educate parents on the best approaches on child care and the available options for dealing with cases of child abuse.

Policy action

Policy action is concerned with actualization of the proposed solutions by gaining the support of decision makers and creating awareness for other people to act towards the set objectives (Sharma, n.d.). This organization uses initiatives to inform judges and attorneys about children’s needs. Judges and attorneys are important in safeguarding the interests of children in the criminal justice system. The aim is to ensure that the legal professionals do not take action which may worsen the situation of children, such as through incarceration of youths with serious mental disorders. The organization uses initiatives to educate parents and professionals dealing with children on issues of child abuse. Parents and professionals in child care are important in supporting development of protocol in juvenile psychiatric hospitalization and ensuring commitment to long term care for those affected by mental health problems (The Child Advocate, 2015). The organization is involved with the activities of the House Democratic Policy Committee‘s Public Hearing on prescription of stimulants and antidepressants to children. This initiative is meant to facilitate development of laws to prevent unapproved use of medications on children. The organization uses custody visitation to monitor the progress of children who live in orphanages and provide mental care services for children living in poor families. The initiative is meant to avoid situations where parents are forced to place their children under the custody of state agencies so that they can be provided with health care services. These activities are done in collaboration with national and state agencies.

Evaluation

Evaluation is meant to assess the effectiveness of the initiatives adopted to advocate for various solutions to a problem (Sharma, n.d.). The Child Advocate does not provide details about the effectiveness of their programs to achieve better outcomes in protecting the interests of children against various forms of abuses. However, the organization provides opportunity for public comments on their initiatives. The comment section is important in collecting views about the importance of the program to the public and identifying opportunities for improvement through the suggestions made by people outside the organization.

References

Sharma, R. R. (n.d.). ​An introduction to advocacy: Training guide. Washington, DC: The Academy for Educational Development, SARA Project.

The Child Advocate. (2015). Our goals. Retrieved from http://childadvocate.net/