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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
As an emerging reader there were books I loved. My favorite book was If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. I wanted to be read this book so often that I memorized it before I could even read it. Though I was not able to read the words it was a the first time I thought I was reading. Therefore building that confidence to learn to read and learn the words. Building that background knowledge was key to learning to read -
Kindergarten
My kindergarten teacher is a person I will never forget. I still remember learning in her classroom. She would have us "dig for dinosaurs" in our sandbox as we learned about dinosaurs. We made stone soup when reading Stone Soup. Her teaching was fun and effective -
1st grade phonics lessons
The phonics lessons we did in first grade are stuck in my memory. We listened to cassette tapes for each sound and blend. Those early phonics lessons were fun because we got to use the cassette player but they also were so important to my reading development -
Summer Field Trips
My parents were a large influence in my literacy development. We wet on many field trips as kids. They were day trips to different historical places all around Maryland. St.Clement's Island was one of my favorite trips. These trips were much more than a field trip. It was a time for us to all talk about where we were what happen in that particular place. All these experiences would help build our vocabulary and our background knowledge. -
Vocabulary
I remember my 4th grade teacher and remember all the vocabulary words we had to memorize. It was my least favorite subject. A orange book with the word and the definition. It was followed by three or four writing activities. It was boring and hard. The vocabulary was never connected to any other lessons but separate. I know I don't want to teach like this. That vocabulary was completely lost for many in the class. -
Baking with Recipes
Learning to read recipes was another significant literacy moment for me. It brought a new excitement when I was able to read recipes and then see a finished product. Recipes will have different foods or words that I was not familiar with. Reading this provided an opportunity for conversation, usually with my mom, developing a better understanding of cooking. I was having fun but I was developing my literacy skills as well. -
Summer Reading
Summer Reading is on my timeline twice. This first time is in a negative way. As many have those terrible summer reading lists. I remember just hating the books we had to read. It created a negative feeling towards reading. This books were on the lists for years and years, never updated. It was sad to be forced to read books that were of no interest when I could've been reading for enjoyment and still working on my literacy. -
7th Grade Speech Contest
My 7th grade English teacher encouraged our class to participate in a Speech tournament. I entered and memorized my short story. It was the first time I had ever done this. I got on stage and received a second place award. I was very proud and then wanted to continue on. I was able to learn the importance of inflection to make the words mean more -
Parts of Speech Contest
In 8th grade our teacher had us play a parts of speech game. Two people would go to the board. She would have us write a sentence then race to diagram the sentence. I remember how much fun those competitions were but also those parts of speech were ingrained into us. -
High School Summer Reading
Our high school summer reading list helped develop my love of reading. Reading for a while seem like work. The books we were able to choose from in high school were enjoyable. I wanted to not just read the words but really think more about what I was reading. I found myself wanting to read more. The words were not just words but much more meaningful.
