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Translates From French To "I Love To Read"

The student learned a great deal from her internship teaching experience. She discovered that reading is about understanding, and that it is both essential and difficult. She also learned that writing development in students is a fascinating process to observe. Additionally, the student critiqued the word study program used in her classroom, suggesting a compromise between word patterns and sight words would be better. The student believes literacy should be the central focus of any classroom.

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Christine OBrien
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
29 views

Translates From French To "I Love To Read"

The student learned a great deal from her internship teaching experience. She discovered that reading is about understanding, and that it is both essential and difficult. She also learned that writing development in students is a fascinating process to observe. Additionally, the student critiqued the word study program used in her classroom, suggesting a compromise between word patterns and sight words would be better. The student believes literacy should be the central focus of any classroom.

Uploaded by

Christine OBrien
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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April 28, 2011

Dear Dr. McKool,

This past semester has been an incredible time of growth and learning within my

classroom at Rider as well as my experiences in Mrs. Shwom’s first grade classroom in Wicoff.

My encounters during my student internship as well as my knowledge gained from your

classroom are sure to stay with me forever. I have grown as a life-long learner, I have changed

as a college student, I have felt the life of an elementary school teacher, and I have learned so

many things that this one letter could not contain it all.

One of the most important things I have learned is reading. Just that simple; I learned

what reading is. Reading is understanding. Anyone can say the words “J'aime lire”1 but how

many of them know what it means? What good is reading, if you do not understand?

Understanding what you read is reading. Reciting, saying, pronouncing, etc. are what we do

when we do not understand. Reading is also hard. Growing up, reading came easy. I would

look at the page, know what it said, and turn it. This semester gave me insight into a struggling

reader who does not race ahead, but rather falters and stays behind. Through this time in the

classroom, I have learned how to encourage students to the finish line and become fluent,

interested, blossoming young readers. Reading is everything. Reutzel and Cooter state that

reading is essential for our knowledge based world, but even before the internet and Twitter,

reading was everything. Reading opens up the world, and without literacy, the world is literally

a closed book.

1
translates from French to “I love to read”
One of the most fascinating things I have learned this semester is how students learn to

write. Gretchen Owocki opened my eyes to the great pastime of kidwatching; watching kids and

observing their development will be exceptionally helpful when assessing writing development.

Watching students learn to write is such a fascinating way to spend my time as a teacher. The

opportunity I have been given to observe students learning about punctuation, quotation marks,

and different types of writing has made me realize that learning about writing never stops. There

is always some new technique or new idea to be taught. Students will also never tire of getting

their ideas on a piece of paper. Someone will listen to their thoughts, and their gravitational pull

to that idea makes me love writing even more than they do.

Everyday, through interacting with the students, I was able to form educated decisions

about teaching. For example, Mrs. Shwom’s students participate in word study, a program

directly extracted from Dr. Donald Bear’s Words their Way. While the program has its

advantages, it also has some noticeable disadvantages. The children are taught solely by using

and learning word patterns, and the most noticeable flaw is that they lose the exploration of sight

words. Many words in our language lack pattern, and the children appear to be without guidance

for those terms. I am not confident that, through the Word Study program, they will ever be

taught certain site words. Rather than learning phonics, syntax, and what Reutzel and Cooter call

“word attack skills” (Reutzel and Cooter, 2008), they learn word patterns. I think this could be

problematic, since the English language is not lacking in eccentric words. I think that word

study, in conjunction with a phonics or “word attack skills” program, is a more suitable way to

teach children to spell and write words. I feel that every classroom needs to come to a

compromise between word patterns and sight words. Students should be responsible for words

that do not follow patterns, but they will also gain incredible knowledge by learning word
patterns. Students should have words that they simply need to memorize but they should also

base their learning upon patterns they can identify within words. It seems unfair to ask students

to memorize every word in the English dictionary, but it is even less fair to ask them to search

for a pattern in a word where one does not exist.

Children should be constantly reading and writing throughout the day and I think this

should go without question. A passion for literacy needs to be nurtured early on. All

opportunities to read are good opportunities. Students should be surrounded with posters,

images, and student work encouraging them in their educational endeavors. They should be

surrounded by words that will nourish their growing minds. Word walls are a great way to make

that happen. In addition, an astounding library is necessary to a good classroom. Hundreds of

books should fill the room, on shelves, in boxes, on tables, in drawers, and anywhere else, a

student could get their hands on it. The students should also be given any opportunity to write.

If possible, students should write short stories every day. Every opportunity to write, like

reading, will be beneficial. Like daily writing, students should spend at least 20 minutes per day

reading independently, if not more. Students should be read stories as well, either by the teacher,

by peers, or by anyone else who is willing to help these students grow.

I believe literacy needs to be the sun in the garden of a classroom. Everything revolves

around reading and writing, and without strong, sincere foundations of literacy, everything else

will falter. All reading is important, but allowing children to read what they enjoy will build a

path they will follow for the rest of their lives. The same philosophy is followed for writing;

writing about what a child is passionate about will fuel them to write again and again. Watching

children’s faces illuminate during story time, and glow as they read their tale of how they broke
their arm, is the best way to assess success as a teacher. Growing a love for literacy is what I

strive for as a teacher. Everything else will follow.

After these few experiences, I cannot wait for my own classroom. I cannot wait to teach

again and to expand my knowledge and experience. Every day is a new challenge for Christine,

the teacher, and a new reassurance for Christine, the student. My growth as a student amazes

me. My growth as a teacher is unbelievable. I cannot wait to get my own little garden of a

classroom and my own little flowers for students. Your guidance, along with the guidance of

Chen, Owocki, Goodman, Baer, Reutzel, Cooter, Diller, and everyone else who helped me down

this path has helped me grow taller than I thought I would. I have learned so much that this one

letter does not do it justice, but merely represents the grass of what is sure to be a beautiful

garden.

Thank you for the lessons I will never forget, the stories I will tell my own students, and

the opportunity to grow as a student and a teacher,

Christine

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