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Summary of the article
In this case, the article under review is about chapter eight on television and audio,
whether they are hurting or helping literacy by Jim Trelease. Jim here is trying to educate people
on the use of television in modern homes, making parents fail their duties of bringing up
children. As per the article, many people thought that the introduction of computers in the current
world would automatically dull television presence in families, which has not been the case.
Television is largely to pass key information to people since from their arrival. They were during
the creation of awareness to people during the Vietnam War, Hurricane Katrina and the struggle
for human rights. Family members use television sets in homes to watch the news and even for
entertainment purposes (Trelease, 2013). However, parents should be keen on how children are
using them because overusing does after children's academic performance in school. Therefore,
there is a need for oversight and control of how children use televisions, especially during their
free time.
According to the article, children need to know their roles. There is a need for parents,
especially those working, to control the rate at which their children are using television because
it can ruin their grades and behavior. Parents need to balance work and raising children; thus,
television should not be the only crowd family has; there should be a special time for the family
to interact and share things in life. In modern society, there are a lot of responsibilities. Thus,
parents should follow the example of Sonya Carson, a single mother as per the article and a
hardworking woman in inner-city Detroit. She had two sons; at first, limiting them from
watching television was hard as she was busy trying to provide for the most of the time
(Trelease, 2013). But when she realized their poor performance, she had to have time with them
and show them how bright they were, as seen from the quote "Bennie— you're smarter than this
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report card." So it means there is a need for parents to have time with children and know what is
making them fail. The next thing Sonya Carson did was to limit the time the boys were spending
watching television to three times a week. Also, she committed them to read two books every
week and writing a report about them. Such a way of life made the two boys the best people the
world depended on, as Dr Ben Carson is one of the best pediatric brain surgeons while his
brother is an engineer. Thus, although good, parents should know that television can hurt literacy
and therefore, they need to control how children use it.
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Reflection
` As per the article, parents in the modern society where things are getting digital needs to
be there for there to have children for better academic performance. How children perform in
school might be due to the kind of lifestyle their parents subject to them at home. So it is good
for parents to have time for their children and guide them appropriately. Parents need to know
that although television is a good device for the family, controlling how children use it is the best
thing they need to do. As seen in the family of Sonya Carson, where the academic performance
of Ben Carson is improving after the watching hours are reduced to three times per week, parents
in modern society should limit their access to television sets for their children. Additionally,
television watching time should not be the only meeting time; there should be a special time for
parents to meet their children and know what is affecting their academic performance.
Therefore the content from the article is very important in life for parents and teachers.
As a teacher, I will apply the content to give the assignments to those kids who are not
performing well so that I can keep them busy during their free time. Like what Sonya Carson did
to the two sons by assigning them to read books and write a report, I will use the article's content
to help learners boost their grades by giving them assignments based on their weak areas
(Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper & Simpson, 2017). Additionally, I will use it in the classroom to
guide learners on how they are using their time. Warning them about how watching television
programs for long hours will affect their academic performance will be part of my lessons.
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Brochures
Television-brochure
The first brochure, in this case, is "the connection between television and school scores",
which is about the effect of overmatching on children's academic performance. I chose this
brochure because it helps parents and teachers know one of the main factors affecting the
performance of the current generation. After all, parents have valued modern life full of
television watching without knowing how it can affect academic performance. I have learned
from this brochure that television watching should be limited for children like what Finland is
doing because when a kid spends more time watching, the performance will be poor (Kostyrka-
Allchorne, Cooper & Simpson, 2017). Television watching causes children to have attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, affecting school grades. Thus children should not watch television
for more than ten hours a week, and children below the age of two should not be allowed to
watch television programs. So this brochure is beneficial as it educates the public on the effect of
modern media, especially television.
Ten Facts Parents should know about Reading
The brochure about ten facts about reading shows the parents the importance of
commissioning children to read rather than watching television programs. To the brochure,
reading is indeed the first important step for children because they will be able to tackle
questions and problems from other subjects like mathematics and social studies. When a child
has a problem reading them, it means that a particular child cannot understand things well. Thus
I have chosen the brochure to show parents how to prepare a child for academic excellence. I
have learned from the brochure that parents need to have time to read stories with their children
