Creating Connections 1.1 Choices
23 01 2008Choose one of the descriptions of literacy events in your life and comment on it here. Comments should be about a page long.
TESRALA11
Learning how to teach beginning reading
Choose one of the descriptions of literacy events in your life and comment on it here. Comments should be about a page long.
The first word that anyone knew I could read was “Exxon.”
I had a hard time learning to read.
Reading for me was difficult. In fact, I was forced to repeat first grade because I was unable to read. The following year I managed to learn to read. My favorite series as a child was the Berenstein Bears. However, the transition from childrens books to chapter books was not easy. I could read. However, my comprehension was poor. I did not understand or fully comprehend what I read. Often times I chose not to read. It was a chore, and I often felt inadequate when I could not understand what I read. It was not until fifth or six grade, when I discovered the joy of reading. We began a reading program at school. Soon, I found a book that I loved. It was a mystery. I could not put it down, and when finished, I was anxious to begin another book. From that point, I always had a book in my hand, and my comprehension level improved greatly. To this day, reading is a large part of my life. My impovement in reading can be attributed to the teachers in my life and my parents. Through reading I have also found that I loved to write. My concentration is in English. I realize, looking back that even if a child is struggling with reading, with the appropriate support and opportunity, they may learn to read well and learn to love reading.
I think I started to learn how to read in Kindergarten. I had always been read to growing up. I have two younger sisters and my Mom stayed home, so we read a lot. I remember in first grade having a hard time reading. My teacher Mrs. Urkfitz placed us in reading groups where we were to read aloud. I was really shy and was scared to pronounce any words that I didn’t know. Instead of sounding out words I was unfamiliar with, I gave up. Mrs. Urkfitz was in tune with what was going on, and helped me. She introduced me to Miss. McDermott who helped me gain the needed confidence to sound out words. After a shaky beginning, I came to love reading. I am so thankful I had teachers who cared. Reading is essential to basically everything. I don’t know where I’d be without the school and home support.
I’m not sure when I learned how to write, maybe in kindergarten or first grade. I remember learning cursive in third grade, and copying the letters on special paper with dotted lines. I remember being given assignments to write stories, and enjoyed coloring the characters that went with the stories. I think this is about all I remember about my early literary experiences!
In my life I have had significant literary moments. The first time I remeber to start literarcy was in kindergarten. The teacher made centers of writing, numerous ideas, reading and sounding words out and listening to sounds on the compter. For a few years, reading was diffucult for me. I never understood all the vowels. The words were hard for me to sound out. Throughout the years of elementary school, I learned how to read and write successfully.
One main struggle in elementary school was cursive writing. I never got the concept of cursive writing until entering the 5th gtade. My teacher made the students write in cursive everytime. I believe that made me a successful writer.
When I was in third grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Soderbloom. Growing up she was my favorite teacher because she inspired me to always work to my full potential. When I was younger, I did not like to read books more than I had to. Mrs. Soderbloom invented this “game” where she put each planet up on the back wall and she gave us each a spaceship with our name on it. To move to each planet, you had to read a certain amount of books. The very end of the line was the sun. To get to the sun, you had to read 25 books and if you reached that then you were allowed to have a pizza party with all of your friends. Each book we read, we had to get a signed piece of paper from our parents prooving we read that book. Any book we read in or for class did not count. She turned reading into a game with prizes. Because of that, I started to enjoy reading. I reached the sun about five times during the span of the year, I was one of the highest readers in the class and I recieved a reward for that at the end of the year. Mrs. Soderbloom inspired me to enjoy reading. I was lucky because Mrs. Soderbloom moved up to fourth grade the same yaer I did and she was my teacher that year too. I want to be a third or fourth grade teacher because of Mrs. Soderbloom. She inspired me to help children just like she helped me. She will always be one of my favorite teachers because I really do want to be a teacher just like her. I still go and visit her when I am home, and everytime I go, I learn something new.
I don’t actually remember my first time reading, but my mother always told me that I taught myself. My earliest memory of reading was every night before I went to bed my mother would help me read a story. My favorite book when I was younger was Where the Wild Things Are. I still have that book on my bookshelf back home, and I look through it every now and then. The first chapter book I ever read was The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien when I was in third grade. It was also the first time I ever wrote a book review. I think I wrote a one page review on the book, and I know I didn’t understand much of it. That’s a really tough book for a third grader to read, and I have no idea why I tried. My mother is a teacher and she’s always been hard on me about concentrating on learning literacy. If my penmanship was sloppy or if my grammar was bad my mother always corrected me or made me re-do an assignment. I always complained about this, but looking back now it was for the best. I went to a parochial school through most of my elementary years, and the teachers there stressed literacy a lot more than my public school teachers. Most of my literacy skills I have were learned during these years. Since reading that book in third grade, I haven’t really read many books since then; although, last year I read a twelve-hundred page book for one of my classes (the longest book I’ve ever read). Reading doesn’t interest me as much as it does to other people. I can’t sit still for very long, and I can only concentrate while reading for twenty minutes at a time. It is a skill I know I have work on to be successful in the future. To me, writing is much different than reading. If I am writing about something interesting or if I know I wrote an awesome paper, I actually enjoy the writing process. However, many times (especially at school) when I’m forced to write a paper, I hate the writing process and can’t concentrate on the task at all. I have a love/hate relationship with literacy, but hopefully I learn to enjoy it and appreciate it more.
When I was in first grade in Marcellus, N.Y. I was placed in a reading group called something like The Bluebirds, Cardinals or some other bird name. I think these names were used so that the children would not be able to tell whether they were in the “smart” group or the “not-so-smart” group. Of course I don’t remember which group I was in or whether I was smart or not. I also don’t remember a single reading event in school, but I did learn to read.
Reading was not a large part of school since our groups met for a short period of time, but our seatwork lasted the entire morning. My trips to the library and the ordering of books from Scholastic were more appealing to me because I could get books about topics that interested me such as trucks, trains, sports and more. Reading groups were too boring and not at all stimulating. When I look at the amount and quality of literature that my children have to choose from today compared to the stories I had to choose from (way back in the 70’s), there is no comparison. The focus in schools should be encouraging the love of reading so that students will become life-long readers and learners.
I remember when i was about 4 or 5 my grandma would babysit me and she would teach me to read words like cat sat bat etc. That is when i first started to read words. When ever i was with her, she would make me sound a word out and try to read it, I remember reading my 1st book in second grade because i had to do book reports on them, There were for people who really helped me to read they were my mom, dad, grandma, and my second grade teacher. They all took all the time they had free to help me to read.
As i got older, and i had to start righting real papers , my mom was the one really helping me out. If she did not like the way i wrote it because my handwriting was bad she made me re write it over and over until it was neat. If i had one spelling error i had to re write the whole thing over again. Yes it was very annoying but she did it to help me improve and do better in school. My dad did the same thing though, he would make me write it over and over if something was wrong but he was not as tough as my mom. My mom is an ESL teacher (English as a Second Language) so she teaches children how to read and write in English so i know where she is coming from. I would say my mom and my dad both had a very big influence on my literacy life. I feel they both prepared me very well for school and college and the future. All the fights and argument’s we had about writing something for the 10th time has taught me the rights and wrong of writing. And i appreciate them so much for that.
Through out elementary school I had a hard time learning to read. I don’t think I truly learned to read until I was in about fifth grade and my parent had me see a tutor. My mom was not happy with the way my school approached teaching me to read. I got by in class and my teachers thought I was learning but I really was not. My mom wanted me to learn to read in a more phonics-based approach but my teachers used whole language, which I still don’t understand that approach.
I attended a year of summer school after third grade to help me read at a private school in town. My fifth grade teacher would come to our house for an hour a night on Wednesday to work on my reading skills. Today I can read but I do not enjoy it. I believe if I had enjoyed and learn to read well in my earlier years of elementary school I would enjoy it more today.
I can’t remember at what age I started to learn or what my very first book was but I can remember that I loved to read at a very young age. I was constantly found reading a book whether it be inside or outside the house or even in the school. I found at a very young age I could get lost in books with my imagination. I loved Berenstein Bears, and Goosebumps. When I was young I would memorize an entire book and re sight it back to my parents. I found that reading helped me in a lot of subjects and I rarely ever struggled in elementary school. When I left elementary school I lost interest in reading and started hating to read. I found reading to be a very uneasy task and I rarely ever understood what words meant. I struggled in a lot of my classes and had little imagination. When I was in my senior year of high school I decided to challenge myself and go up and beyond what was expected of me in school. I enrolled in a BOCES program called New Vision Education. One of my professors, Ms. Miller, made us read a book every month and write a one page report about it. After that we had to explain to the class what our book was about. The first month was shaky and I struggled with the book as well as my report. After that month though I was reading classics like Catcher in the Rye, Clockwork Orange, Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, Grapes of Wrath, Why the Caged Bird Sings, and The Great Gatsby. I began reading and I found how much it influenced my entire life. I was more imaginative and I was doing really well in school. I started pounding out 2 or 3 books a month. I began reading anything I could get my hands on, new or old. I’m a sophomore now in college and ever since my senior year I love reading. I try to read anything that interests me and I try reading as much as possible. I find that through reading a person can relax. I think reading can help a person in their life and in their education.
I spoke to my mom before I started writing this blog so that I could get a better understanding of what my reading skills were like. I knew the alphabet before I entered Kindergarten at around age 4 and was reading childrens books in Kindergarten. I was a pretty quick learner when it came to reading and I think that it helped having 4 older siblings who were constantly reading to me.
Two of my favorite books consisted of “The Little Polar Bear” and”The Jacket I Wear in the Snow”. I believe a main reason why i liked these books is because they were filled with pictures and it became easier to associate the words with the pictures.
Reading has always been something that I really enjoy doing. When I have to read for a specific class it doesnt bother me very much as long as the topic is not completely boring. When I was younger I read all the time, my mom thought it was very important and that it would help to increase my vocabulary. This has helped me in the long run because reading hundreds of pages for a class doesn’t seem like a difficult task to me anymore.
In my previous job as Education Outreach Coordinator for the Finger Lakes Independence Center I was in charge of creating a booth for the Kids’ Bookfest at Boynton Middle School each year. Local organizations set up booths with activities for children centered around books, the mission of their organization, and a central theme. For instance, the last year that I participated the theme was, “Rolling Along with Books”, or books about transportation. As a disabilities educator, I created a booth where kids could play a matching game and win prizes, all about mobility, such as powerchairs, guide dogs, and wheelchair ramps. The book I chose to highlight was, “Arnie and the New Kid”. Other organizations offered great activities as well, all focused on children’s literature. I really enjoyed participating and the children seemed very excited about reading.
I do not remember when I learned to read. I know that my family would read books to me when I was young. Every time I would visit my grandparents I would ask to look at the Amelia Bedelia books and Where the Wild Things Are. While my parents talked with my grandparents, I would lay on the family room floor reading. It did not matter how many times I had read the books; they still had a magical quality to them. I would be in my own world while I was reading. I have never been able to capture that same feeling since then.
My second grade teacher had an important influence on my literary life. I remember she read Charlotte’s Web to me for the first time. I loved that part of the class. There was something special about story time. I will never forget the day we got to the last page of the book. I looked at her with a sad face and she smiled back at me. It was as if she understood how I felt. She helped me enjoy reading.
This same teacher also allowed our class to read our own stories in front of the class. I was not good at speaking in front of people, but I managed to get up in front of the class to read my stories. It was a great way to investigate out imagination skills and help us share ideas with others at a young age.
I do not remember specifically the first time that I read a book, but I do remember that before I even entered elementary school I used to beg my parents to teach me how to read. I was so intrigued my learning, and books especially, that it was all i ever talked about. Because of this, my parents started me in kindergarten when I was only four. I was the youngest in my class, but I was one of the strongest readers because my parents would read with me all the time. Every chance that we had, I would ask them if we could read together. But regardless of what went on during the day, every night before bed, my mom and I would read a story together. It started out by her reading to me, but then not long after I was able to read by myself with very little help. This really helped me become a stronger reader because just like anything you do, the more you do it the better you become at it, so by the time I was in first grade I was a very strong reader and my teacher would even let me help the other students who were not so advanced. I loved being able to help them, and I remember being so excited to know that other people were benefiting from me knowing how to read.
I think I began to learn to read in kindergarten, but I’m sure it didn’t sound like much until first grade. I remember being told I was very adventurous by my teacher Mr. Brune. He told my mother that I was always willing to stand up in front of the class to read them a story, despite the fact that I could barely pronounce any of the words. Often, if I didn’t know a word, I’d make up my own story to go along with the pictures. Starting off, I stuck with things I knew. I remember reading the same book everyday during quiet reading. It was if the story never got old. At the end of the year he gave me the book to take home, and wrote on the inside “Dear Christine, I think you’ve finally mastered it, best of luck in second grade.”
I’m not quite sure when I learned to write; probably around the same time I learned to read. I remember third grade being a year when I concentrated on my writing heavily. We were taught cursive, and were required to practice daily by tracing the outline of each letter in a special notebook. In addition, we took part in something called writing workshop where we were able to create our own stories. Upon the completion of each story the teacher’s aid would put it into a hard cover that resembled an actual book cover. The stories were then displayed on a shelf in the classroom for everyone to read. I remember it being a fun way to get the class to experiment with words.
I remember starting to learn how to read when I was in kindergarten. Learning how to read came easy to me, but I remember that I always had a hard time of understanding what I read after I finished reading any type of material. Reading comprehension was something I definitely struggled with when I was younger because I was just reading words and not really understanding what the material was truly about. Now, I would say reading is my most preferred learning style because I feel I am able to absorb more information that way. In my early stages of reading, I grew up loving Dr. Seuss books and many of the other popular children books at this time. When I was younger, I loved to read all the time. I would definitely say that my parents had the most influence on my literacy life because they are the ones who taught me how to read. Before first grade started, they would read to me all the time and then would make me read to them by sounding out all the words. Most of the reading took place right before I went to bed where I would always a choose book and we would we rotate each night taking turns reading. As the days went on and I read more and more, it became that much easier to read. When I first learned how to write, I was around the same age as well. I remember learning how to write by just copying random letters and words I would see in a book and anything I saw with writing on it. I learned most of my writing in school where we would work in workbooks and practice writing letters and then forming words with the letters we had just learned. One thing I really struggled with pertaining to writing was cursive writing but with a lot of practice and the help of my parents and teachers, I soon was able to get the hang of it. My favorite form of writing was always poetry because I use to love making up poems that ryhmed.
When I was a kid, reading before going to bed was an anticipated event. My dad worked all the time, so when he would put us to bed we could pick out any book we wanted. My sister and me would always pick the longest book so that we could stay up later. One of my favorite books was The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss. It was about all the different types of people, animals, and creatures that are going to bed all around the world. However, my dad putting me to bed was a rare occasion. Most nights my mom put me to bed and read to me. When I got a little older, I wanted to start reading chapter books like my big sister. My mom bought me the book Sarah Plain and Tall for my seventh birthday. I can remember that the book was a little challenging. My mom read me the book first and then I read it to her. This was the perfect birthday gift, I loved the book and it sparked my interest in reading. From then on I read all the books I could get my hands on. Other books that became favorites of mine were Charlotte’s Web and Matilda. As I read more my writing and comprehension skills improved.
Also, I feel that my parents are responsible for my love of reading. Without their reinforcement, I don’t think that I would developed the reading skills needed to be a good student.
Reading has always been and always will be a major component in my life. It is hard to imagine that there was actually a point in my life where I had no clue about literacy and couldn’t even tell words apart. More then once between the ripe ages of three and four and five as well I could be found trying to read a book upside down or just plain making up my own versions of the story and ‘reading’ it to my dolls and stuffed animals or even coming up with an entire new plot and set of characters all together. Needless to say my imagination ran wild with all the potential every single book could hold within its bindings. From the title page to the very last word that was written for some reason I had always had the feeling that books possessed everything and anything with countless possibilities. When I wasn’t reading I was at least pretending to or coming up with my own based on the illustrations within.
Since my passions for books started at a young age it was only natural that I asked everyone around me to either read to me or help me learn how to read. There was rarely a night before I learned to read that I went without a bedtime story, to say the very least, and once I could I usually fell asleep with a book in hand.
The main player in my quest to read was my grandfather who started helping me even before I started kindergarten. He taught me the alphabet and which letters where consonants and which were vowels. He even kept going after I constantly hounded him about why ‘y’ was sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant. I was even reading my first books at his side (the very basic ones at first of course). I even had my own mini rocking chair in his living room right next to his regular size one a basket full of beginner reader book in-between them. We could often be found on Sunday afternoons rocking in our chairs side by side with our glasses on and books in hand. It was with him that I first began to read and through his inspiration that my love of reading novels grew and developed as I got older.
I am not positive how old I was when I read my first book but I remember exactly where I was, exactly who I was with, and the exact feeling I got when the last page was finished. My brother is nine years older than me, so when I started elementary school he was already in high school and he would come and pick me up every single day and walk me home. I remember asking him everyday when we got home if we can read another book and he always said yes. He would sit with me on my bed and read to me while I read the words I knew and on a good day I would read a whole page, until the day that he asked me if I wanted to try and read from beginning to end. I excitingly said yes. I can’t remember what book it was but I know it was a Dr. Suess one. I sat with my brother on my bed and read the whole entire book myself, and when the last page of the book was finished I was extremely happy. As I got older, reading became more and more interesting for me. I continued to read Dr. Suess as a child but then starting around 5th grade I progressed to Judy Blume. I read almost every single one of her books because it was very easy for me to relate to at least one of her characters in each story. I also enjoyed reading biographies a lot and learning about the lives of real people and interesting facts about them. As a child reading was one of my favorite things to do and I would go back and forth to the library at least once a week. As the years went on and I was forced to read for school I began to get less and less interested in the books that I was being “forced” to read and I was more interested in the books that I was able to choose to read for myself. Today, I still enjoy reading very much, for school or pleasure, and plan to continue my reading habits as I get older.
I think I started reading in kindergaten or first grade. I always loved to read when I was little because it came easy to me. I would rather read a book than watch tv. I went to a catholic school when I was younger and every summer we had to read a list of books before school started. One summer going into third grade, I had to read A Wrinkle in Time and another book that was based on science fiction. I could read the words but I couldn’t understand the content and that was a very frustrating a new concept for me. I immediately gave up because I didn’t think that I could do it. Reading was always so easy and fun for me and I never really had to work at it before that summer. My mother saw how frustrated I was, and she read both of the books with me a little bit everyday. Although it was a struggle I read both of the books. After that summer, I was always hesitant about reading.
I think the no child left behind has a big part in literacy in todays class rooms because you have to move thingd along and some kids might not be abke to keep up. As a teacher you have to follow a guide and make sure your kids understand what you are saying and doing. As teachers we have to make up a way to get all the students to understand with out geting behind.
In my personal opinion i do not think this is fair to the student or the teacher. For the student your asking them to do something that they couldnt do. Some students need to be left back because no everyone is the same and it may take them longer. Also that in away is putting more pressure on the student making sure they pass and that could become a factor for them to not do as well. For the teacher thye have to plan a way for all the students to understand what they are doing but also have a back up plan just incase. As a teacher you also try and work around other things you have an schedule extra time to help out your students and that can also be a fuss. Basically i think that the no child left behind should be looked at and think about not all kids have the same literacy abilities.
I had diificulty when I first started to read. My mom was concerend because at the beginning of the first grade I was still having a lot of trouble reading. I finally took off at the end of the first grade, and loved reading by the second grade. In second grade my favorite books were “Little House on the Prarrie” books. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Miosek, encouraged her class to read books outside of the books by awarding us with a prize after every book we completed. She allowed us to do sometime outside class reading by setting aside some time every day for reading time. During reading time we got to go anywhere in the classroom to read. This was fun because she would set up little forts and spread out blankets and there was always a competition to get the biggest fort. She determined the place of where each person got to read by who had read the most books outside of class. The person who had read the most got the coolest place to sit and read. This encouraged us to read as much as we could ouside of class. After we got done with a book she would also let us present the plot of the book to the class. This helped the class get over presentation anxiety. It also gave us an idea of what book we would want to read next. She also had us read a lot for class, but she always made reading fun. What she allowed us to do is act out the things we read. That way we weren’t forced to read one chapter after the next, but actually got a chance to take a break and have fun. Reading was a very important part of the second grade, and the way my teacher encouraged us to made reading much more enjoyable. She was one of the most influential teachers I have ever had, and ever sense the second grade I have enjoyed reading just about anything.
I don’t remember when I first started to read but I do remember that when I started to read it was really hard for me. My mother helped me a lot when it came to reading. She would always read me my favorite stories before bed and I would try to read along with her. I would sit to listen to her telling me stories for hours. I also had to sit in my room for a half hour just reading a book or magazine before i could play. As I grew up, throughout school I was placed into classes that offered help in reading and I remembered that i never really got reading homework like other kids. While my friends had novles to read my teachers would send my class home with pages out of the text book to read. But because i loved stories I would find books that seemed interesting and read on my free time. My mother would always tell me she was happy that i still enjoyed reading even though I wasn’t good at it. To this day I still try to find time to read for pleasure outside of school.
I was always the shy one when growing up during my grade school years. I don’t believe I had any difficulty learning how to read, but I used to have trouble remembering what I did read when studying for tests.
After several years, after graduating from high school, I attended college for the first time and earned excellent grades. Reading became necessary as well as fun. Reading newspapers and news magazines were almost a daily routine.
I am now married to a book author (Subtle Deception: a Womans Struggle to Let Go of an Internet Relationship) so reading is a regular activity at home.
I remember first learning to read in Kindergarten. I had a difficult time at first learning to read because I found it hard to sound out the words. My favorite book to read was “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” This was one of the first books we read in Kindergarten. I loved this book because it was fun to read and I liked the pictures, it was also the first book I learned to ready by myself.
My parents were the biggest influence on my literacy life. Both of my parents work in education so they knew the importance of learning to read especially at an early age. My parents constantly read to me when I was young and would always read a bed time story to my brother and me before we went to bed. My mom is a librarian and always had a lot of books for my brother and me to read as we were growing up. As I got older my mom found books that she knew would interest me and so I grew to love reading and still do today.
I remember beginning to read in 1st grade. I loved the Frog and Toad books, they helped boost my confidence in that they were at a feasible reading level for me and at the same time they provided a slight challenge. In addition, I loved Amelia Bedelia books. My mother used to read me a story every night before I went to bed and I remember attempting to read them with her. I enjoyed this greatly. In addition, I loved reading to my little sisters every chance I got. This experience provided me with a reason to continue reading and enjoying it outside of the classroom. Another memory I have about beginning to read is being in groups in my 2nd grade classroom and reading aloud to one another. I remember my teacher telling my I was reading to fast. In our groups we learned a lot about how to read to others at an appropriate speed and tone.
I’m not sure the exact age that i began to read but i do know I began reading some easy books before i entered kindergarten. I was very excited to learn how to read better books, I kept telling my mom i wanted to read more books with pretty pictures. Throughout school i learned very quickly how to read and was soon reading books that were above my grade level. I loved Dr. Seuss books, Amelia Bedelia books, and books by Stephen Cosgrove, my favorite of those was “Sassafras,” which was about a little elephant. I feel that having a sister that is 7 years older that used to read to me made me want to learn how to read to try and keep up with her. In school i also used to be very good at making up stories and writing them down, but when it came to writing about a specific subject I still have some trouble.
As a child I remember one of my favorites books being The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I had a bunch of books, but I read that one over and over again. I loved the relationship between the boy and the tree. I remember wishing a tree outside my house would come alive that I could climb on and that could move (very vivid imagination even these days). I still own the book and found it when I was looking for pictures a few months ago. I read it and still love it to this day. Even though it’s simple reading it’s states very valuble lessons, that your best friends are the ones that give unconditional love, they stick with you through thick and thin no matter what. I find that I have a best friend from my childhood that although may have hurt my feelings at one time or another, I’ve stuck by her no matter what and I can’t help but think I may have learned how great a good friend can be, even if i’m always on the giving end, I know it’s helped her a lot.
Also, my mom said that before I could read she always read me the condensed versions of the disney books, The Little Golden books, and I would rather watch a disney movie these days then almost anything else.
Learning to read was easy for me. Since I was the first child and first grandchild I guess I was somewhat spoiled and a lot of people would read to me. My uncles and aunts were all younger than my parents so they didn’t have kids of their own yet either and they would love to help me learn. Once I went to school I was excited that I could already read a little and couldn’t wait to keep learning more. I used to love reading shel silversteins “where the sidewalk ends”. It was a collaboration of short poems, I always thought they were pretty funny.