Broc Sorensen

2/12/17
Teaching and Reading in Content Area
Professor Thompson

Journal Article Critique

The Why and How of Promoting Reading in Secondary Business Education by

Hagler and Davis offers a look into some troubling statistics about the state of

reading in our country. The art of reading has become one that has been diminished

among the younger generation. The articles illustrates the technological advances

as the biggest reason for less students reading. A study by the National Assessment

of Education Progress found that few high school students read for enjoyment

anymore, and instead, were more involved in the usage of technology as opposed to

reading for fun. The report found that students spent 3 hours a day watching TV,

and those same students often scored lower on reading and math exams. Reading is

an essential building block of life, and starting early and often is key to continued

success. As the authors noted, reading is a skill and it continually needs to be

practiced in order to continue to be good at it. The researchers found that students

who are poor readers continue to remain poor readers, and that reading rates have

begun to slow dramatically as students begin to slack on their reading. Researchers

concluded that students need about 3 and half hours a week to stay sharp on

reading skills.

The authors then begin to discuss what Business Education teachers can do

to help mitigate the growing problem of literacy for kids in America. It first starts out

by stating that students need to do more writing, as studies show that can really

help increase reading level. Secondly, students need to learn more business
communication skills for the business world. A big complaint of corporate America is

the lack of business communication skills by recent high school and college

graduates. Business teachers need to incorporate this more into their material.

Finally, students need variety in what they are reading. The authors suggest

newspaper articles, magazines, and reading books by top businessmen in the world

as ways for to get variety in students reading in the business content area.

To me, this article provides some very intriguing ideas for how to integrate

reading into business education. I really liked how they laid out the research in the

beginning, showing the problem of literacy with teenagers in America. It was

important to illustrate the issue for the reader first and then present the options for

what business education teachers. I agree that technology is a real problem and it

has really cut into the free reading time, but it really does not describe how that

problem could be fixed. I really liked the suggestions that the authors brought forth

in trying to get more reading into the business content area. I think current readings

like newspapers and magazines peak students interest, because it is current and

happening around them. I also like the idea of reading a book by a successful

businessperson, but I would only have them read an important chapter or two from

said book. So, I really liked a lot of what these authors had to offer as solutions to

the problem. One reference I would like to explore more is the National Assessment

of Educational Progress by Finn and Ravitch. I would to see what other statistics

they found in their studies as they pertain to literacy for adolescents.

References
Hagler, C., & Davis, B. (1990). The why and how of promoting reading in secondary
business education. Journal Of Education For Business, 66(1), 13. Retrieved
February 12, 2017, from ebscohost database.