Isobel Washam’s Autobiography

Dr. Moorman

I can’t remember a time in my life not being able to read. I have always enjoyed reading, even as a youngster. I enjoyed telling and recalling stories as a toddler. I’m not sure if being able to recall stories or certain words is really considered reading. I feel this is a part of readiness to reading. I didn’t struggle with reading in school. I had very strong phonetic and sight word instruction, using the Dick and Jane series. My mom read us all the Mother Goose Rhymes and fairy tales. I remember repeating phonetic rules to myself when I would spell words. I continue to use this practice as an adult. I believe I had a very good balanced reading program in elementary school. My parents put a strong emphasis on education and were very involved, throughout my educational career.

As early as first grade, I excelled in the area of spelling. I remember was learning to spell the word all, at a young age, from a commercial for the detergent ALL. Spelling became a game, reading signs as we traveled and grocery store items as we shopped. The first series I recall reading, was the mystery series, Nancy Drew. Today, a good mystery is my favorite type of book. I enjoy the intrigue.

I have very good memories of my elementary years. We lived in a small community with one elementary school. Everybody walked to school and everybody knew each other in the neighborhood. My parents knew most of my teachers well. The saying, “it takes a community to raise a child”, is appropriate for my elementary years. That was true for all the children in this area.

I made the decision in high school to work with children. I love children and wanted to work with them. I started my college career with a major in psychology. I was raised with a good background in this area with my mom and my uncle being in this field. My summers in college were spent as counselors at camp working in a summer school program for LD students. My goal as a camp counselor was to get experience in the area of child psychology. However by the end of the summer the valuable experience of working with LD students intrigued me. My junior year in college one of my professors asked what I wanted to do with my degree when I graduated. I told him I wanted to work with struggling or troubled children. He mentioned the new law, PL 94-142, and the area of need in education, being Learning Disability students. He persuaded me to change my area of concentration to education, even though it was too late to change my major. He convinced me that I would be more effective going into special education. I finished my major in psychology and went an extra year to get my certification in the area of Learning Disabilities.

My first year of teaching wasn’t gratifying. I started a Learning Disability program in a junior high. This wasn’t what I thought I really wanted or was thinking I was going to do. (Welcome to the real world). From junior high I went to high school. I enjoyed each grade level, but still wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do. Eventually I was able to get into an elementary school. I felt this would enable me to be able to work with the students in the way I had visioned. I still wasn’t happy with the progress the students were making. I have been trained in several reading programs such as Wilson, Stevenson. Still, I didn’t feel, prepared enough to meet each of my student’s needs.

Finally after many years and raising two children of my own, I decided to go back to school, pursuing a M.A. in reading. This has been a great experience and going back to school is helping me find a more of a positive direction.

I have always believed reading is the key to open multiple doors of opportunities. I have raised my two children with the same love of reading that I possess. I read to them at a very young age. Even as they grew older I read to them. Some of my favorite memories are all of us crawling into bed and reading a book. As they got older we advanced to chapter books. Even as late as their middle school years, I would manage to steal some of their time, to read to them without protest. I tried to instill in them the love and importance of reading. My daughter struggled with reading up until second grade. I was very concerned and couldn’t understand why. I thought I had done all the right things. I was very involved with her instruction in the classroom and tried to understand why she was having difficulty. As a teacher I had students that I worked with on a daily basis with similar difficulties. I wanted answers. I began tapping resources, pulling materials and researching this topic, hoping to address her needs. This also helped me as a teacher. I let my children and my students know how important reading is, and the world it opens up to them.

A typical day of reading is unbelievable. I get up and I start the day by writing a note to my son. I consider this reading also. Then off to work. As I’m driving I’m reading the road signs. Through out the day as a teacher, I don’t think a period of more than 5 minutes goes by that I am not reading. It may be a working one on one with a student, me reading a story to the students, or working on math word problems. I never really thought about it in that way. Even while not at work, reading is still a major priority. I go to the grocery store and I’m reading grocery list, ingredient labels, prices, and cooking directions. Then when at home, I sit down to read the newspaper. I’m reading when I work on lesson plans. I’m reading assignments for my graduate studies. Even before I went back to school, I always had a book that I was reading. I have magazines that come to my house monthly that I read. I’m reading the mail, and writing checks for my bills. Finally I will check my e-mail. I’m reading responses and replying. That’s a lot of reading done in one day. I’m reading for knowledge, for information, to relay information and knowledge, and for pleasure, all in one day. If I had a good book or a good article I could stay up all night to finish it. I believe that reading is done for a variety of purposes.

Looking back on what is done in a typical day; I often ask myself the question, “Are we teaching kids to read?” Are we successful in our programs and techniques? Do we really give students the understanding of the importance of reading and the need to be successful readers? I don’t think we are for the most part.

I love working with my students. My students are poor readers. I work on their weakest skills. I try to show them how important reading is and also show them that it is enjoyable. I share different types of literature with my students to open doors of interest and to empower them to become better readers, learning to love reading as much as I do. I try to encourage my students to read everyday. I also try to get parents to realize the importance of reading every day with or to their children. I encourage them to let their children to share in the reading of directions to a recipe and go to the grocery store to read the ingredients. I suggest discussing things with them that are of interest to the child and helping them find readable material on their subject. Letting the children listen to tapes in the car as you drive and encouraging the children to keep journals on trips are other suggestions I offer.

I usually keep the same students for years. I really enjoy seeing the students mature academically, personally and socially. I really love to see my students get excited about something they have learned. I enjoy seeing “the light bulb goes on”, and listening to statements like, “Oh I get it!” I feel I am finally achieving my goals as an educator.