Shannon Slate
RE 5040
Intellectual Autobiography
Covers up to my neck, in mama’s bed with the big red children’s bible stories book on top of the comforter, were my earliest memories of reading. I knew I loved reading because I wanted to be able to do what my mama did each night.
Looking back over the years, I would have to say all my memories of reading are fond ones. I watched my parents read their bibles, magazines, newspapers, and of course there were plenty of children’s books in our home for my brother and I to choose from.
The earliest of my experiences with reading I can’t remember but my mother filled me in when I went to her with my questions. She said she talked to me and rubbed her belly while she was pregnant. She also informed me that she sang and read to me when I was just a baby. She always valued reading and wanted my brother and I to value it as well.
When we would stay the night with our grandmother, she would always sing to us just before we went to sleep. Her songs were always soft and slow. I could close my eyes and picture what she was singing about so clearly. My favorite song was “You Are My Sunshine.” When she sang that song I always felt so warm and loved. I truly believe singing helps children learn language, imagination, and so many other things.
I remember memorizing my little books with records because I played them over and over. I had the Gremlins, Rainbow Bright, Lady and the Tramp, and many other children’s stories on record. I would sit in my room and play them on my record player. I still have them in my classroom and let my students listen to them. It’s obvious to me now that almost all my memories of reading were at home. I’ve never thought about it but I don’t remember anything about reading at school until I was older.
I spent hours at home playing school. My daddy says I played school long before I went to school and he wondered how I knew so much about what went on inside a classroom. I loved teaching my dolls. They would sit in the floor around my little white rocking chair as I read to them. At least I thought I was reading to them. I made sure I took time after each page to show them the pictures and many times I stopped for their comments and questions.
My best friend, Amber, and I would play school every chance we had. We had chalkboards with colored chalk. Our daddies even mounted our boards to the wall in our basements, so no matter whose basement we played in we had our own classroom. We had desks where we graded papers and we even took our mean students to the office. Like myself, Amber also teaches now.
I also remember reading in Sunday school. When I was in the Beginners class at church one of our teachers, Lucille, would read us bible stories. We all sat around her in our little wooden chairs and she sat in a big green chair. She didn’t just read the stories. She acted them out for us. She used her hands to show us things like the rain and sun and she always changed her voice to make it go up and down and loud and soft. Between Sunday school and preaching our class always sang a song that Lucille had taught us. Each song told the story we’d learned that day and I made sure I did my hands just like her.
To move up to the next class at church you had to be able to read because we each had our own courtly, which was a book of weekly lessons. We did round robin reading every Sunday. I was always a little nervous when it was my turn because for a long time I was the youngest one in there.
All through school I loved reading. It was my favorite subject, but it was my big brothers least favorite subject. As he got older, I watched him struggle to read. He went to a reading lab and hated reading. When I was in third grade and he was in fifth I was tested and placed in AG (Academically Gifted) class. The test showed that I was reading on 12th grade level. I rubbed it in as much as possible to my brother, which I think made him hate reading even more.
I especially loved reading the Sweet Valley Twins series. I think I had nearly all of them and I read my favorites over and over. I was always reading. I guess you could say I was a “bookworm.” All my old chapter books are at my moms in my old room and I encourage my nine year old niece to read them. She also loves reading. I think that because I loved reading those books, I expect her to love them as well.
When I was about eleven years old I was determined to write a book. I was inspired by Laura Ingles Wilder’s, Little House in the Big Woods. In 5th grade I had a wonderful student teacher that read us this book. We read a chapter a day and I always looked forward to this time. One day we even made butter by shaking a jar with the ingredients and a marble inside. It was just like the butter in her story. So, I began writing a story about a little girl who lived a long time ago. She wanted a doll but she knew her papa and mama couldn’t afford it. It turned out being a short story that just lay in my desk drawer. I never did anything with it but I didn’t want to throw it away either.
I joined the
I moved back to my hometown and enrolled in the teacher education program at the nearby college. This is what I was always meant to do. As I began to observe and spend time in elementary classrooms I knew that’s where I had to be. Teaching really was where my heart was.
I now teach first grade which is a huge stage in reading education. I watch my students read everyday and I see their excited and frustrated faces. Learning to read truly is a different experience for each unique child just as it was for my brother and I. Teaching children to read is a very difficult challenge, but the rewards are unbelievable. To see a child light up with excitement that they have found within the pages of a book is unexplainable. This is reward enough for my to meet this challenge daily head on. I love being a teacher.
I think several things intellectually
influenced me. I was always supported at
home and I grew to love reading at such an early age. I was surrounded by so many different types
of texts and provided with many reading opportunities.