Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Myself as a reader
When I read this blog question I started to laugh. When I was a child, I had the hardest time reading. If I had to read out loud in class, I would try to find the easiest paragraph and raise my hand to read that one. Also, I had a lot of reading coaches and many of them made me feel very stupid. Eventually, my anxiety would get to me so bad that I would shut down and start to cry. I actually don't remember any good experiences about reading until I got into high school. Once, there we read books at home and then discussed them in class. This allowed me to read at my own pace and through this, I learned to love books. Reading by myself allowed me to relax and have fun with the material. My sophomore year of school, I read "Of Mice and Men" and I fell in love with that book. As a teacher, I will always try to remember that anxiety. Yet, it is hard because children must learn to read out loud. I think it is all in your approach as a teacher.
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3 comments:
I definitely had trouble comprehending most of what I read because I was so worried about the questions that followed. I was not able to really get into understanding the author's perspectives and why that was so until college and after, when, like you said, we were able to take our time and read when and where we liked. I do remember "Of Mice and Men" and even though I can't remember the whole story, John Steinbeck's use of imagery stick in my head. I remember him describing that girl with blonde curly pigtails that Larry? couldn't help touch right? Something like that, but that whole use of imagery helps me to "see" the story in my head so much better. And that takes a good writer and author to create that for you to make your own.
I'm so glad you shared your experiences as a young reader. I'm sorry that you had such a negative experience, and I would love to know what, as a teacher, we could do to relieve that anxiety with our own students. I'm glad that you eventually found your little niche in reading and started to enjoy it later in life. I worry that if children have such negative experiences with reading early on, they may be turned off from it as they grow up.
HI Holly,
Apologize for the late response. I usually get to it sooner, unfortunately this week I had projects that I got lost in. ;o) I don't think you responded to the posting before this one. But in any case, hope all is good and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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