Hello, my name is Karin Scott and I am a first grade teacher at Fall Creek Elementary in Yadkin County. I have been teaching for ten years and I have been in first grade all but one of those ten years. I have been in the Reading Graduate program for two years and will graduate next spring. My experience thus far with ASU has been wonderful. I have learned so much in my graduate classes that I have been able to implement in my classroom, and that has been great!
My earliest memories of reading in school was in the first grade and reading Dick and Jane. I remember my teacher flashing sight words at me and I had to read the words back to her. The older I got I remember whole class reading activities where we would sit at our desks and take turns reading out loud to the whole class. This made me very nervous, because I wasn't a very strong reader. I don't remember ever spending time just reading in class, like silent reading time. Nor do I remebmer going to the library to check-put books on a regular basis. I never remember reading with my teacher in a small group or one-on-one. It was always whole group activities. I'm sure my teacher's read out loud to me through my K-3 years, but I don't recall any read alouds until later in elementary years. I know times have changed, but I think about all the research we now have about reading to children and best practices in how to teach children to read and I stop to think how different my learning experience would have been if only I had the same exposure to books at an early age. As I reflect on the reading opportunities that my students and my daughter has today to read, I hate that I didn't have the same opportunities as a child.
I don't recall my mother every reading to me as a child. I think it was becasue she and my father were so...busy working and trying to provide for our family. I do recall reading with my grandmother. My grandparents lived in Maryland and I would go spend the summers with them and my mother always made sure I hade plenty of reading practice books to keep me busy over the summer. Despite those efforts on behalf of my mother and grandmother I still struggled in reading. I had no interest or desire to read.
As I grew older it didn't stand out as bad and didn't seem to be a problem for me. After graduating with a teaching degree and I actually started teaching children to read in the first grade, reading has become my life. I want to teach my students to read and I want to immerse them in good children's literature so that they will have a desire to be life long readers. As I continue through my graduate work I am learning how to teach struggling readers to read and it has been so...rewarding. Several years ago these struggling readers would have been labeled, but now we are doing what it takes to reach these students and it has been an awsome experiece.
I am currently taking Children's Literature and we have read many books within all genres. We had two author's blogging with us and discussing their work. It's amazing how all subjects can be integrated through good literature. I have learned that the old days of using the text books to teach the curriculm are long pass. If teachers have the right trade books for instruction these books can provide more in-depth coverage of topics than a textbook while accommodating various reading levels. This way everyone wins.
I just recently had to complete a philosphical questioning activity with my first grade students and this was an eye-opener. Our topic was bavery and what makes a person brave. There were various questions I asked about bavery and we had a great in-depth discussion. I was blown away at the responses to some of the questions. Children are natural-born philosphers and we need to give them oportunities to learn and discuss issues. For so many years we (adults) have tried to protect children from the world they live in, but it's their world and they need to know how to function in it. They need to be prepared for what's out there and they are already thinking about worldly issues so why not lead them in these discussions and allow them to become thinkers and not just followers. The only way to guide them through these types of discussions is to share great literature with them and use the topics in those books to not only teach the curriculum but also life-long concepts/issues. By immersing our students in good literature they can learn about the world in which they live and my goal as a teacher is to help my students become life-long readers.
Karin Scott