How I learned to read.

I learned to read through a variety of activities and centers that made the learning tangible, which is how I like to learn. In Kindergarten, we talked about environmental print, where you see the symbols and what they mean. Letter people were my favorite things to play with and learn about. They each had a story and it always contained the letter sound heavily in the reading. We had a center of blow up letters that had been stuffed like a pillow to play with and a letter of the week that we thoroughly learned the name of, the sound it made, and how to draw it. Fingerpainting was a neat way we drew our letters and all of the students decorated letters hung about the room throughout the week. In first grade, as we progressed, instead of the letter of the week, we had the sound of the week and all of our activities revolved around words containing the sound of the week! For show and tell, the object we brought had to begin with our letter of the week (and fit in a paper bag) and we would draw the letter and create a picture out of it or around it.

I may have mentioned already a pleasant moment in school already, but another occurred in first grade when Mrs. Smith would choose two students at random to have the tree house all to themselves during reading time, because during any other center time, it was always too full, too fast to ever get up there. It was marvelous and I remember getting to go up there freely several times throughout the year and feeling so special.

I had a frustrating experience repeatedly throughout elementary school probably beginning in about third grade; especially third grade. Popcorn reading was my worst nightmare! I still to this day do not like reading out loud to peers. I would be so terrified that it would be my turn next and that I would mess up and every one would know that I probably did not even pay attention to the story. I most definitely will not be using popcorn reading in my classroom.