Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Playtime
The first memory I have of learning to read was in kindergarten, having to learn the alphabet and write the upper case and lower case of each letter on those double lined sheets of paper that help you line up each letter the right way. Eventually, we wrote words and then sentences on the double lined sheets, making sure to capitalize each word at the beginning of each sentence. I remember this vividly because it was my first time putting words together on paper to make a coherent statement. Another thing I remember about learning to read as I got older was doing my reading assignments in my after school program. During my after school program, or "extended day" as they called it, I spent most of my time playing games and eating snacks. However, for about 20 minutes each day, we had to devote time to reading. It could have been reading something for school or reading any of the books they had in the classroom. At the end of each week, we had to paint or draw a picture that would describe a part of something we read. Even though most of my drawings were stick figures, I liked this because I was able to put the words I read into a picture form; so if I wanted to go back months later and remember what the book was about all I would have to do is look at my pictures. It was a great beginners learning tool.
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6 comments:
I enjoyed reading about your experiences with learning how to write. I remember my childhood experience with learning to write was pretty much the same exact thing you went through, writing tons of big letters and words on that double lined paper. I gotta say that was probably one of my favorite parts of the day because I was pretty good with my letter skills and the teacher would leave me alone for that time period. Also, I think that your experience with the drawings during your after school program was a pretty cool idea. I can't remember ever doing many drawings to try to portray a book I was reading but it sounds like something that would be really fun.
I can really relate to your memories about learning how to read and write. I definitely remember those double-lined pieces of paper (that never seemed to be big enough...) and the 30 minute periods of READ that we would have in elementary school. One of my favorite experiences was learning how to write cursive which turned out to be a lot harder than it looked. I also had to create drawings of things that I had read about which I think is a great way to let the child cultivate their imagination and become more involved in the story.
I also remember that, the writing of the capital letters and then lower case, and then eventually putting everything together. I remember having some difficulties though. Also from the difficultues when I was in first and/or second grade I had problems with spelling and was becoming lazy with my writing because of that, and I did not want to read aloud for fear of not being able to pronounce the words. But over some time and lots of working on my reading at home I became a bit more confident in myself and my reading capabilties.
i can totally relate to some of the things that you said. I cant recall the first time i began to read but i remember some of the steps along the way. I definitely remember those pieces of paper with the huge lines, there were like 4 lines to a paper. Its funny because, no matter how big or straight those lines were, my classmates and i always managed to write outside of them, our handwriting was all over the place. I can also recall trying to wrtie cursive for the first time, another nightmare. I can't help but to think of Billy Madison...riRRuto?! "those are Z's...they look like R's." CLASSIC
Great example, Paul, of the connection between visual images and language in terms of learning to read. And the double-lined paper -- well, I don't think any of us will ever forget those. I think my penmanship is terrible today in part because I hated those lessons so much. I always thought of writing as a personal style and I didn't want mine to look like anyone else's. Now it's pretty much illegible.
I can definitely relate to some of your experiences. One experience that I rememeber was when I was in first grade, my school use to have this contest. For each grade level they gave out a piece of paper and for each book you read for the month, you would write it down. At the end of the month, those that read a certain amount, for instance 30 books, got a free coupon to pizza hut for a personal pan and a drink. This personally helped me because it made me want to read so I could get the prize, and I enjoyed doing it.
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