"Mrs. Evans, I can really read this book! I want to read it to the class after Calendar". Very confidently she placed it on the easel where other books for the day were waiting. After our morning exercises, I quietly left the "teacher's chair" and sat on the floor with the other children and Hannah took my place. Speaking to the audience before her, Hannah proudly said, "I can really read this book. I've been practicing it at home."
As Hannah reads and then stops to show the class the illustrations in the book, I smile. Hannah has learned an important lesson this year. Reading is for everyone. It is not a subject. It is not something people do in circles and groups determined by ability or specific skill weaknesses. Reading does not require twenty skill sheets a day. Reading is traveling to places one may never see in real life...one can really travel the world through a book. Through extended, self-directed practice, Hannah reads because her parents, her friends and her teacher does. She reads in order to share the new friends she has met in books with her classmates. And as she reads, the children in front of her are mesmerized, for they know they are readers too.
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Comments: 33
Hannah looks like she might well be suited for that chair... perhaps someday :)
I think helping kids learn to read must be one of the most exciting adventures there is.
So, my parents did- I was so bored because I couldn't go to kindergarten yet. They sounded out the words with me and I got it.
Life was wonderful because I was reading Dick and Jane in Kindergarten and amusing myself. I had been in nursery school for three years, so I was really ready for real school.
I remember helping in K and 1, with reading exercises, writing exercises and such.
The kids could do a number of sight words - about 12 or so I think and some kids were reading books. In Kindergarten.
In first grade, my daughter was younger than everyone by almost a year - Nov 1 - the deadline that year - so she did first grade twice - and knows that is the reason she is such a great reader - the first year, the emphasis on reading was on memorization.
the book was....
On Monday, the cat went......
On Tuesday, the cat went.
and so on. You must know that book. It was ok but the entire year, there was too much emphasis on memorization and not enough on whole language.
My daughter did learn to read but it was the second time she did first grade when she was writing books -
as in my skool teecher sez to rite how we see wrds - and then sounding them out = that she began reading at a very high level.
My son learned to read a bit in K but it was halfway through first grade that he suddenly began reading grade 6 through 8..
Reading is such a great skill to have.
You are an excellent teacher.
love
I think Hannah would be most comfortable in that chair. She has all the qualities that would make a good teacher. She is nurturing and kind and has incredible curiosity into how things work.
I love opening up the world of reading to the very young. It's truly a magical moment when it "all clicks" in the mind of the child and he/she can not only decode but can comprehend the written word.
Thank you for the feature. I think one of the best books I ever read was Jim Trelease's book, "The Read-Aloud Handbook". I have seen him several times and each time I am inspired.
Thanks for reminding me of a simple pleasure like watching a child read and succeed.
I love children so much and when I became a teacher, I knew why !
I wondered where the " gang " is and I had to find your names and trace you in here.
love and hugs luv
Although I recall learning the alphabet I don't remember at all when I first could read. I do recollect that soon enough books transported me well beyond my deprived childhood in the back blocks of West Oz. And that is one of the great things of being able to read.
You do a marvelous job with the little ones.
Yes, this is the place where I spend my days...and yes, they are my family.
Thanks for stopping by. But of course I was proud...as I am when all my children take the "risk" and step up to the "teacher's chair" and share their knowledge.
As you well know, books can transport you to anywhere you want to go and often they can provide answers to some of our most basic questions.
I am planning "to play books" with the grands over the summer, like an intense reading/playing/painting summer. We're doing "Family Camp!" instead of taking a vacation this year.
Ten, Seven, & Four year olds. It should be a blast...I'm planning it now. A book on swimming, sand and chalk art on the patio, a trip to the pool, a list of materials I'm acruing, of what floats and doesn't float, and island music on the first fair-weather day.
Three books on plants and birds and bugs, planting a tiny garden, starting seed cups, also Chia Pets they can take home, and a field trip to the botanical garden, with a lunch stop at the pink vegan restaurant, "Govindas."
My beloved son in law (the most incredible Uncle!) is working up his plan for them which will be Tuesday nights. He's going to do the same explore the world things with them in his own way: Multiculture and world exploration, critical thinking, logic, reason, etc. I do love that boy! He is so going to rock as a teacher!
Blessed be, and thank you, once again, for sharing the beauty of "your kids" with us.
They are awesome, and revitalize the rest of us.
Wilka