From my other post regarding which subject needs to be stressed the most, it is clear that being able to read and write is of extreme importance. However, how does a teacher go about this? Should teachers be responsible for teaching kids to read? Where should the parents come in?

For many children reading and writing begins early on in the home. Parents usually consider this very important when raising a child and start it even before the kid enters school. However, this is not always the case and every child does not necessarily have a literate parent in the home. We as teachers can not expect for our children to come to us knowing how to read and write. It is our job as teachers to teach reading and writing. The job lies on us and so then we must assume the question of how to go about doing this.
Children have the ability to learn from a very young age. They can begin learning and gaining knowledge by being read to. Eventhough they may not be able to read books themselves, they can learn alot by being read to. By reading aloud, children learn new vocabulary words and if we teach them correctly we can use the actual text to teach them new concepts and ideas (called decontextualized learning). We must spend time teaching children how to write and spell. It would be nice if children had some background knowledge of all this before entering the public schools but it is not safe to say that all will. The duty lies on us as teachers and we must do out best to instill in our children the love for learning.

I totally agree with Ryan. Many students do begin to read and write at home, and educators have proven that young children who are read to extensively in the pre-school years tend to get off to a good start in first-grade reading. I do believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to help those students who are struggling and are behind, but some of it does lie in the hands of the parents. Part of being a teacher is stressing to parents and the community the value of education and what they can do to help. It is really good when teachers get parents involved and have them value the education of their child as much as the they do.

I think also we should think about differences among cultures. We cannot assume that all cultures are the same and therefore teaching children to read maybe something that a particular culture expects of the teacher. I don't think we can always blame the parents. If they were brought up that way and believe a certain way then we can not expect parents to always teach there kids how to read and write.

I think that parents should begin teaching their children how to read. I guess one thing that we need to remember is that there are some parents that do not take the responsibilty of teaching their children. I think that is where the teachers need to come in.