How Geographic Location Plays a Role within Instruction: Venturing into both Rural and Urban Elementary Schools.

Students within various geographic locations have specific knowledge, previous experiences, and ways of life. Each of these plays a critical role in how students learn and therefore, how teachers guide their instruction to meet their students' educational needs. So why are research findings typically generalized nationwide when one-size-fits-all educational policies fail to account for regional intricacies? Until thorough, comparative investigations into the classrooms of rural and urban reading teachers are performed, distinctive characteristics of effective reading teachers cannot be revealed. This article provides descriptions of the unique differences and similarities in characteristics of rural and urban reading teachers gathered from a 10-week study into four second grade classrooms. By exploring these traits, educators can improve their reading instruction so their students have maximal opportunities to develop skills and strategies necessary for reading excellence. These discoveries are relevant not only to classroom teachers, but also administrators, specialists, and parents alike. Att names of schools and teachers have been changed to preserve their anonymity. Introduction Just how does a geographic setting affect student learning and teacher instruction? Based on recent research conducted in various geographic communities, the needs of rural and urban students are quite distinct from one another (Muijs & Reynolds, 2003; Rice, 2003; Taylor, Martin, & Fix, 1998). Students from rural settings, for example, likely have many unique characteristics when it comes to prior knowledge, subject familiarity, previous experiences, and lifestyles. All of these traits contribute to how students learn; it is not until these exclusive qualities are determined that an effective teacher can prescribe and implement instructional plans geared to that faction of students, ensuring that they have an ideal educational experience. Thus, it is crucial to explore the unique aspects of rural and urban reading teachers that enable them to reach beyond the cumcular requirements to educate their students with distinctive needs. For over 10 years, urban education has been the focus of educational research and support for several reasons: 1) federal financial aid has been allocated to schools that qualify for Tide 1 (2001) assistance, 2) urban students have been historically neglected or discriminated against and thus, a re-focus in cumcular studies has shifted to urban schools, and 3) many state universities have formed partnerships with local urban schools in an effort to research and facilitate necessary reading instructional strategies and implementation (e.g., Georgia State, Indiana State, Louisiana State, Minnesota State, and Ohio State). Findings which result from these research efforts indicate trends within urban educational environments, leaving rural communities with many unanswered questions. Further adding to this disparity, "the USDE [continues to use] resources allocated for rural education issues to fund generic programs that are just as applicable to suburban and urban contexts as they are to rural places" (Arnold, 2005, p. 1). Since nearly 8.8 million students attend school in rural educational facilities, it is imperative that these students be given equal opportunities to become better educated; however, this cannot occur until more research has been conducted specifically in rural schools. Furthermore, designing appropriate intervention plans for rural children has been problematic because of the limited number of research studies that have been performed in these communities (Lerner, 1995). While reading research in urban schools should not be overlooked by rural educators, its validity cannot always be transferred to rural settings. This idea served as the premise for diis investigation-observing rural and urban reading teachers to determine similarities and differences of how effective reading teachers guide and instruct their students. …