Hello, my name is Linda Bohland and I am currently working with Exceptional Children in Yadkin County at the K-5 level. I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Reading Education because through my years of working with EC kids I have developed a passion for finding ways to teach ALL my kids to read and to read well. I am Level 1 certified in Wilson Reading and use that as well as the Appalachian (Dr. Morris) methods of teaching reading.
I was fortunate as a child to have been taught a combination of whole language and phonics when learning to read. I store many special memories of wonderful characters such as Alice, Jerry and Jip and Sally, Dick and Jane. Yes, it was a long time ago! I also have memories of the dreaded black composition notebook that was used for all that difficult phonics study.
I have always enjoyed reading and attribute that to teachers who read wonderful stories to us in ways that made us feel a part of them. Learning to read as I think back on it seemed fairly effortless when I compare it to the difficulties some of my students have with accessing the printed page. Different kids respond to different methods of teaching which led me to try and discover all the possible ways to reach those who struggle.
Writing did not come as easily to me as reading. It was not stressed nearly as often or to the degree that it is today. When I look back at a few of my saved public school stories it amazes me how my 7th grade writings can almost be compared to 3rd grade expectations today. I have learned to spend less time focusing on the mechanics of writing and more time encouraging my students to express themselves freely. Without realizing it I was stifling them by placing limitations on them, stating what and how they should write. I want to make sure they don’t have the struggles with writing that I have always had.
I look forward to discovering how race, gender and class play a role in literacy learning and to sharing ideas through blogging.
Linda Bohland
Comments (2)
Writing is something I have a difficult time teaching. I teach first grade and it is so hard to get my students to write "freely" as you mentioned above. I think we drill in student's heads so much about spell this right, where's your capitals, where's your punctuation, that we forget to give students the time they need to express themselves in their writing. I believe we need to give students time to "just write" and not focus so much on the mechanics of the whole process!
Posted by Jamie Brackett | June 2, 2010 6:56 PM
Posted on June 2, 2010 18:56
Linda,
I also am a work with EC students and have taught with Wilson. (Love it!). I found though that I was lacking in my understanding of how to teach students to understand and make sense of their reading. Writing also proved difficult. We are told to teach kids to look for main idea, make inferences, draw conclusions, write a summary. What I find though is that the kids do not make a connection to what they are reading. Writing has been a challenge for the same reasons. We have been given "programs" to help them know when to write capitals, put a period.....but they get stuck with mechanics and how to write a "catchy beginning." They need to know that writing can be a way to express themselves without limitations. EC students have great difficulty with writing. They often get can't get pass how to spell corectly and writing is a painful experience. If you have any good ideas on how you have made wriitng successful, I would love to hear them.
Posted by Susan Hines | June 5, 2010 9:24 AM
Posted on June 5, 2010 09:24