My Reading Experience

Sight Words

1997

Early on in Elementary School I remember learning sight words. These were words that we would come across frequently while reading and could not be sounded out. Example - "THE".

Teacher Read Alouds

1998

As a young student I loved listening to my teachers read! It was always fun to listen and react with my classmates. I also liked talking about the characters and our predicitions as a class.

The BFG

1999

I first heard this book in second grade when our teacher read it to us. I went on to read it again several times throughout Elementary School. It was my favorite book ever! I still love it and I love the movie that recently came out too.

Holes

2000

Our fourth grade class was assigned to read Holes and we all loved it! This book influenced me to believe that reading is fun. I have read it several times since then and my family loves the movie.

Creative Writing

2001

My love of reading in Elementary School translated to a love of creative writing as well. Reading expanded my vocabulary and made my imagination run wild. I loved using those skills to create stories of my own.

Harry Potter

2002

My fifth grade teacher read the first and second Harry Potter book to us. The school district probably would not allow this now but back then we really enjoyed it. It inspired me to read the entire series. My whole family read the series as well and it gave us something to bond over.

Reading Buddies

2003

In fifth grade I joined a club called "The Reading Buddies". Every week we would get together with younger students who needed extra help learning to read. We would take turns reading to each other and also test their comprehension at the end. I enjoyed doing this and it may have sparked my interest in being a teacher.

A Child Called It

2007

I read this emotional and interesting book in high school. It made me cry and it also introduced me to a world of other sad books that I did not know exsisted. I went on to read several more like this and for a good while I wanted to work for CPS beacuse of this book.

Assigned Readings

2010

English was always my favorite class but I was not a huge fan of the assigned readings. I feel like being assigned a book to read takes the fun out of it and it feels forced. In college I took a class called ENG231. That class was ALL assigned reading and essays. It was awful and it took a lot of determination to get through it and still try my best.

Reading to My Babies

2021

I love reading to my sons. One is four and the other is one. My four year old is desperate to learn how to read and enjoys when I point to each word as I read a book to him. It has been really cool watching him learn the letters, then the sounds, and now hes putting the sounds together and recognizing words.