1) What were your first experiences as a teacher of reading? Discuss the
students, and situations, you encountered.
I started teaching 1st grade in 1985. I was given a basal reading
series and 3 reading groups, already assigned to homogeneous grouping,
based on Kindergarten progress. The principal that hired me, retired in
December, and I started with a brand new principal in January. It was her
first
job as a principal and she was quite excited to send six K and 1 teachers to
a workshop and then a graduate level course on "Whole Language." I was then
able to branch away from using the basal and try out new ideas.
2) What did you do in response to your first attempts at teaching reading?
I continued to read and keep myself current about what was
important in teaching first graders to read. I attended several whole language
conferences and continued to learn how important good literature is to
teaching a love of reading.
3) How did these first experiences, and your background as a reader, shape
who you are as an educator today?
I was able to prove to myself immediately that using the basal
alone wasn't the best way to tech reading. I was reassured about the
importance of read alouds and children's literature as texts to use to teach
reading.
4) Open response to the reading
Although I was fortunate enough to have a lot of good training,
changing grade levels and difficult demands on teachers, made me begin to
seek help in looking for teaching guides to make my life easier. Like Donalyn,
I would plan lesson after lesson, to help me "teach" certain books.
Although some of these ideas have turned out to be good activities, the "book
guides" I made, ruined the books for the kids. I still catch myself asking the
kids to "do" too much with some of the books they read. I guess it boils
down to the accountability factor, and trying to be sure to meet all of the
standards, as well as prepare my students for the tests.
Suzanne /4/NY
_______________________________________________
Mosaic mailing list
[email protected]
To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
