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Art Un ticle I.1 ited Sta In the ates News - Woodring College of ...

Art Un ticle I.1 ited Sta In the ates News - Woodring College of ...

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are also provided with tutoring (Krashen, 1996). Bilingual programs are designed to provide thisbackground rapidly for those with lim<strong>ited</strong> English pr<strong>of</strong>iciency.This analysis also forces us to reconsider <strong>the</strong> effects <strong>of</strong> homework. More time devoted tohomework appears to be related to better grades but not necessarily to higher performance onstandardized tests. This should not be interpreted as saying that homework is useless; obviously,<strong>the</strong> value <strong>of</strong> homework depends on <strong>the</strong> assignment and degree <strong>of</strong> engagement. <strong>In</strong> <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong>reading, for example, <strong>the</strong> research c<strong>ited</strong> above on <strong>the</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> pleasure reading suggests thatoutside <strong>of</strong> school activities that engage <strong>the</strong> student in interesting texts and that encourageadditional free voluntary reading will be highly effective. This is only possible, however, ifreading material is easily available. But homework that focuses on skill-building will havelim<strong>ited</strong> value.It would also be <strong>of</strong> interest to determine which aspects <strong>of</strong> SES are crucial: The case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> BoatPeople suggests that parental education is more relevant than current income. Better educatedparents, it is predicted, will be more likely to read to <strong>the</strong>ir children, provide access to readingmaterials, and be better prepared to help with homework. If this help is done in <strong>the</strong> firstlanguage, it is a form <strong>of</strong> de facto bilingual education. And <strong>of</strong> course we should be looking atmore than standardized test results to measure true academic success.© 2008 Dr. Ca<strong>the</strong>rine CollierAll Rights Reserved82

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