Re 5040
Dr. Gary Moorman
WHEN and HOW did I learn to read? Wow, what a question! I can honestly say that I had never thought
of this until I began to teach and felt like I had failed one student who did
not show much growth. When I saw him not
succeeding I began to think, “What am I doing wrong?” I tried to walk in
his shoes and remember back to when I was in 2nd grade and how did I
feel when learning to read.
All I could remember was that I knew
how to read. I do not remember struggling until later in my education when I
was asked to read longer books and literary works and analyze them. I remember getting standardized test scores
back and my math score would be out-the-top but my reading scores would be
“average” or “slightly below.” I would
question my mom, “But mom, I can read, I have always been able to read!” Her reply would be, “I know Janet, but you are not understanding WHAT you read!” OH! I
never knew until then that reading does not mean just being able to read the
words, but it also means understanding the words.
This brings me back to how I learned
to read. My mother is a
schoolteacher. She is a high-school
English teacher, and predominantly teaches remedial children. My father graduated from
I remember
when I was young listening to the books-on-tape. I can remember memorizing my favorite books
and then reciting them for company.
Everyone was so proud and it made me feel SO good too! I was reading!! My mom and dad would always brag on how well
I read. When I began school, I wanted
everyone to be proud of me there too. I
would read as fast as I could and would get so upset if I mispronounced a
word. If I did not know a word, I was
taught to “sound it out.” We were taught
letter sounds and rules. We were taught
when the vowels were long and short and what consonants could go together and
which would work.
As I began to teach, I tried teaching
this way. It was how I learned and I
thought that this is how to teach reading.
Another colleague quickly told me that I was wrong! We teach children to read for meaning. We go over phonics but we stress to READ FOR
MEANING! When I give a miscue, (reading
assessment) if they miss a whole word but it does not change the meaning, I do
not count it wrong. As long as they can
tell me the meaning of the story, they are reading. They do not have to read EVERY word. This totally went against how I learned to
read. However, this would explain how I
knew how to pronounce almost every word but did not understand what I read.
This brings me back to my first year of teaching and my student who could
not read. I tried everything. My assistant or I would read with him each
day. I made him a sight-word folder. We worked with books-on-tape, leveled
readers, flashcards, graphic organizers, etc…
I was so frustrated. I finally
had him tested and it turned out he was learning disabled. He had a processing disorder. I did not know much about teaching a child
with a processing disorder. All they
told me was to use a lot of visuals. I
also tried using manipulatives to help him read;
overlays, markers, etc… It seemed to
help and I realized what I had been told several times, “Every child can learn to read, they
just may learn different ways and at different speeds.” As a teacher, you have to keep digging until
you find something that works.
I always wanted to be a teacher.
There was a period in high school that I wanted to be a Marine
Biologist, but after taking AP Biology, I quickly changed my mind. I always held teachers up on a
“pedestal.” I thought teachers knew
everything. Growing up as a teacher’s
daughter, I thought it was fun hanging around school all the time. You got to write on the overhead and
chalkboard all the time and I loved to grade papers.
I started having doubts when I was at
Appalachian in my “block courses.”
Honestly, I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” It did not seem like it was going to be what
I had always thought teaching was. I
started to feel that I had just chosen this path because it seemed like it was
the easiest and my mom was a teacher so I was to be a teacher. What if I had chosen the wrong career? It was also in college that I had discovered
that I really was a poor reader. How was
I going to teach others how to read?
After
student teaching I felt a little more comfortable. Of course, anyone is going to be scared when
starting something new. I truly think
this is what I am supposed to be in life.
I love my students and I love to watch them grow. I realize that I am always learning. I do struggle with teaching reading. I am always trying to find a new or better
way to teach the strategies. Until I
began teaching, I never knew you had to teach strategies, I just thought
reading was like walking, when you were a certain age, you just learned. Learning and teaching these strategies to my
kids have also helped me in my reading skills.
I have realized that you never stop
learning to read. Being in a graduate
program, I have come to see that I still have problems with reading. I find myself relying on the strategies I
teach my kids to use
to help me read some of the required text.
I still am not sure the best way to
teach reading. Do you teach phonetically
or teach for meaning? I have come to use
a balance of both in my classroom and it seems to be working. The one thing that I am sure of, being able
to read is a blessing.