I can hear my heart pumping faster and faster. With every breath, it pumps a little faster. I count each person ahead of me in my roll of straight desks. Pam will read paragraph one. Carl has paragraph two and Donna will read paragraph four. That means, I will read paragraph five. I go over every word making sure I can pronounce each one correctly. I am not aware of what the others have read. My only concern is not to make a mistake. It is my turn. Yes, I made it. Wow, glad that is over! What I have described is my early reading experience in elementary school. Reading was not something you did for pleasure. Reading was something you maneuvered through making sure you didn’t explored by the bombs of vocabulary. It was not something you enjoyed. My parents were very strict about education. They knew their children were intelligent. So if you were not doing well in school, you were playing around. I remember every time I had to read or go to the board to answer a problem, I would always make a mistake. I believe it was due to the amount of stress and possible failure. When my teacher told my parents that I was having a problem at school they thought I was just being lazy. I was immediately punished. Reading was not a wonderful activity for me.
That was not until Mr. M. came to my school. He would read
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By using a journal we were able to capture many key points that we could refer to later. We continued this journaling process in math. As we work through math problems we looked at the relationships of numbers and what certain processes meant. “Aha moments” were posted on sticky notes and place on a KWL chart or recorded in journals. This was used as a way for students to document what they learned that day. At the end of the day each student contributed to a class reflection of the day. This reflection also found its way in their writing
Because of his cultural background my father found my brother's poor performance in school incomprehensible. I too was puzzled by my brother's attitude towards school. He and I grew up in the same house with the same parents and the same set of values. Yet, he seemed to not care about school at all. For a long time, my family and I attributed my brother's C's in school and obvious inability to concentrate to laziness and a lack of motivation.
Childhood experiences tend to stay within a person 's life, including the ones that have taught you something as valuable as courage. For me, such experience that taught me how to be courageous, as I am presently, took place when I was about the age of 8. I was traveling with my family from one continent to another to reach our desired destination: America. Before, I had lived in the same city for as long as I remembered and knew everyone around me. I knew my whole village in and out like it was at the back of my hand and was comfortable in whatever corner I went. So as one could imagine, a hometown girl, who hasn’t been exposed to any other areas besides her birthplace, planted in an immense airport, in New York City, wouldn’t result pleasantly. When we were waiting for our
School was an overwhelming place for me as a child. The teacher told my mother many times that I was great at socializing, although, I took too much time cleaning my desk and thus never finish the assignments. The teacher would send me home with simple books to practice reading to my mom. I would bring them home to read to my mom, but my mom never wanted to listen to me read and so I never practiced reading. She later told me that she felt they were “stupid.” To this day, I wonder if she knew the effect she had on my reading development.
My ongoing journey of literacy began in 1993. I was four years old. The memories I have of my first few years of school is very blurred, as they happened over twenty years ago. However, these early years of my life is where I believe my literacy journey began to take form.
Lots of observations were collected whilst the children were making their maps and working together to find the word treasure, so I have highlighted just a few to address the overall understandings of the findings.
From a baby to a grade schooler, I had an extremely short attention span; therefore, the only time I enjoyed having books read to me was before bedtime. Because I was energetic, my mother was forced to lock the door while she was reading so I would not scurry out of the room. Despite my concentration issues, I enjoyed reading books with my mother. One of my favorite books was The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh because I was intrigued by the characters, especially Eeyore. When I moved on from my obsession with Winnie the Pooh, I transitioned into an obsession with frogs. My mother started reading Froggy books to me, such as Froggy Learns to Swim and Froggy Goes to School. Along with Froggy books, I took pleasure in reading Curious George and The Rainbow Fish because I was an inquisitive child who was entertained by the iridescent colors of the rainbow fish.
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
The seven pillars of effective reading instruction are an important base to an effective and engaging classroom. Teachers, who are able to apply each of these pillars to everyday learning in the classroom, reach their students and provide instruction in meaningful and approachable ways. Each of these pillars provides important ideas and information that work together to create an effective learning environment in the literacy classroom. By accessing and including each of these pillars in my classroom environment, curriculum and instructions, students benefit from the more effective reading instruction possible.
Colette Tayler (2015) describes the first eight years of a child’s life as years of
The student assessment that I choose for my students to complete in my geometry class was to write in their personal journals. By writing in a personal journal and reflecting on the lesson they learned, I will be “Activating students as the owners of their learning.” (William, 2007) After each lesson, usually at the last 5 to 10 minutes of each class period, I had my students write in their personal journal of what they learned and what information they were not completely sure of. At the end of the class as my students leave, I will hold on to their journal and look through a few of them to see what they understood and what they still need help with in understanding. The students will have three questions they can answer on their journal entries, they are:
A lot of my classmates taunted me for receiving good grades on all my tests. It was obvious that I had different morals than they did. Their parents did not care what grades they got. My parents were never harsh, but they would always make me feel guilty if I did not receive high grades on my report card. At times, I would feel pressured to not preform exceptionally in school because of the constant verbal abuse. In fifth grade, I received my first ‘D’ on an English test because some of my classmates dared me not to study for the test that week. Lucky for me, I had very supportive parents unlike some of my other classmates. They explained to me how important it was to maintain a high GPA; I would go much farther in life than they would because of my academic drive. I took their advice to heart and from that moment on I never let negative peer pressure effect how I performed in
I recall being in the first grade, and my teacher Mrs. Simms was quite fond of having all her students read aloud. Naturally the first couple of weeks in class I was anxious for my first reading assignment. After hearing my fellow classmate's butcher words and read like robots for weeks, I figured I couldn't possibly do any worse. When I finally received my first reading assignment I was so nervous.
Reading and books became a real struggle for me from elementary all the way to high school because I found it hard to comprehend the books that I was made to read. These books were not interesting to me and I found myself starring at pages for hours at a time and would not know or understand what I read.
My grades in elementary school were poor because I had trouble paying attention to things that were not challenging. I tried to play sick just about every day but my parent were not falling for it. My favorite classes were gym, music, and art. Competing in sports is where I spent most of my time. The words of my parents and teachers went in one ear and out the other. “School just wasn’t interesting to me”
The more unequal the United States’ education system will grow, the more our poverty line will struggle. Most people believe that hiring tutors or staying long hours after school will help, but little do they realize that all of that can be avoided if every child is given the opportunity to an inexpensive early education. An implemented universal early education program would contribute to a rise in grades, keep families connected, and hope for a better future.