Translates From French To "I Love To Read"
Translates From French To "I Love To Read"
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.
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
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
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,
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
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
Christine