The debate surrounding how to teach children to read is ongoing. What we tend to forget and ignore is how we learned to read ourselves.
I think it’s important to address what helped make us the readers we are today, or what problems we encountered. Perhaps we can recall what worked, and what didn’t, by remembering our own personal reading experience.
Here are some questions:
- How old were we when we learned to read?
- How were we taught to read in school?
- Did our teachers help us read?
- Did school provide a rich reading environment?
- When did we read fluently and comprehend meaning?
- What’s the first book we read?
- Was learning to read a pleasant experience?
- If we struggled to read, what did our school do to help?
- Did we learn with whole language, phonics? Both?
- Did we read before entering kindergarten?
- Did we do well on reading tests?
- Were we embarrassed because we couldn’t read well?
- Is reading still a struggle?
- Do we cherish reading novels? Fiction? Nonfiction?
My Own Story
You can skip this part if you want and analyze your own reading history. I enjoyed doing this and it made me think about how students learn to read today. I experienced some reading difficulties later in school.
- I was fascinated by reading at a young age. My mother read to me.
- I pretended to read picture books to my friend, even though I didn’t know the words. I wanted to read.
- I liked the magazine section of the A&P grocery store. When visiting my grandmother, she would purchase for me a Mickey Mouse comic book, or a Golden Book. Sometimes it was a little note pad to write on. It meant so much, though it was simple.
- I remember identifying interjections in comic books. I read a variety of silly comic books, but I also remember loving The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas in the Illustrated Classics. I found it here!
- I was lucky to get two magazine subscriptions which included Highlights for Children. I received American Girl when I was older.
- I learned to read formally in first or second grade. I had the same teacher for both grades. I learned with Dick and Jane. I know it’s the butt of jokes, but it worked for me.
- My third grade teacher taught us phonics. We had a small green chart and a sliding cardboard strip with consonants and vowels. We recited the sounds together everyday.
- We had a Monday pretest spelling list, workbook exercises, and the post-test on Friday. This was the spelling routine through 8th grade, and I am a decent speller.
- We didn’t write in journals, but every teacher gave us ample opportunities to write stories. I love to write. I love words. I do wish I’d taken some Latin instead of several years of French in high school.
- I loved Geography. I enjoyed reading about and looking at the pictures of people living in faraway lands, and how they lived.
- My world grew sweeter when I got my first library card. To this day I haunt libraries no matter where I go.
- I attended a country school, and I don’t remember an elementary library. But my third grade class was well stocked with books. I loved checking them out. My high school was newly built and had an excellent library.
- I liked most genres, but didn’t care for dog and horse stories. I don’t understand this because I love animals.
- I read all about Abe Lincoln when I was young and couldn’t wait to visit his birthplace on vacation. I was disappointed. The log cabin was in a building!
- The first novel I read completely on my own was from the Honey Bunch series. I graduated to The Bobbsey Twins. One summer I read every Nancy Drew book from the library! I didn’t just read series books, but I got hooked on them for a while.
- I once missed most of Christmas Eve because I was given The Wizard of Oz. I read the whole book in one sitting.
- In junior high and high school, my technical reading slowed, and I didn’t do well on standardized tests.
- I went to a reading remediation class for a while to try to improve my reading speed.
- I’ve never done well on standardized tests. I read slowly if I’m not interested in the material. It caused some hurdles in my schooling.
- I didn’t always like the books we had to read in English class in high school, but To Kill a Mockingbird and Les Misérables impacted me the most.
- I still love to read, but I read too many technical books about education. I need to read more fiction.
- I also still love picture books, children’s and middle school and young adult novels. Like many, I try to pen some of my own.
- I credit many people for helping me learn to read, including many teachers.
That’s my story. What’s yours? What reading points does your story make for children today?
I am sure I love to read today because it started out enjoyable. Although reading later was somewhat difficult, I continued to enjoy it.
One point that parents might take away from my experience is the age they place their child in kindergarten. I wish my parents would have waited for me to be older before placing me in school. I have a late birthday, was always the youngest in my class, and I think that’s why I sometimes struggled in school.
While I am against retention, I think Redshirting, waiting until a child is older, or, as old, as their peers, might be appropriate. Of course, it would depend on the child.
I could also have mild learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. While reading was fun, math was a different story. Still, I took all the tough classes in high school, I tried my best, and managed to do O.K. I have always loved to learn.
My grades were never great in high school, but in college I taught myself how to study. My grades soared!
If you’d like to share some ideas about how you learned to read, and what it might mean for children today, please feel free.
It would be especially nice to hear some positive stories about teachers who helped teach reading since it is Teacher Appreciation Week.
If you still can’t read well, don’t be embarrassed. Find help. It’s never too late to learn how to read, or, be better at it.
Thanks for this. As you know, I’ve been reading a lot of personal stories about how children DON’T learn to read–and often, the parent writing the story will say ‘when I was learning to read, we had phonics. And it worked!’ (As if phonics and phonemic awareness had been shoved into a locked closet, across the nation..) Any history of reading pedagogy in America illustrates the cyclical nature of reading instruction–how methods go in and out of fashion, how what goes around comes around.
I formally learned to read at age six, in first grade, using the look-say method and good ol’ Dick and Jane. But I already knew lots of words, because my parents traced their fingers across the text lines of hymnbooks, and if there was anything I liked better than reading, it was singing. We went to church at least four times a week, so I had lots of practice and I had quite the sight vocabulary in first grade: Jesus. Fountains of blood. Cross. Precious. Grace. Christian soldiers, etc.
My mother was a firm believer that first grade was the right time to learn to read, and the teacher was best equipped to do so. I hid most of my vocabulary from Mrs. Jensen, and just plugged along with the rest of the kids. I remember learning the alphabet and letter sounds, but nothing much about phonics, other than long and short vowel sounds. I didn’t know what a dipthong was until I took voice lessons, in college.
I was always in the top reading group–and there were always groups. I remember topping out of SRA reading kits in 3rd and 4th grades, and being allowed to go to the library instead, where I read a whole series of biographies with blue covers featuring black silhouettes. And Beany Malone! I loved Beany.
In 5th grade, my reading teacher collected a shelf of books for me, and let me read them and do ‘reports’ instead of being in a reading group. Lots of classic children’s books–Treasure Island, Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte’s Web. I can still see that bottom shelf, right near the fire escape. Reading was bliss. And continued to be bliss–my favorite thing to do–for the next 50 years, my whole life.
Both of my children were in elementary school during the height of the Whole Language era. Both learned to read, seamlessly, in first grade. I do remember occasional phonics worksheets, and the goal of creating a ‘print-rich environment.’ But I don’t remember a lot of stress over reading levels, being tested to see who was ahead or behind–or special grouping for remedial instruction. Both are good readers and writers today, as adults (good spellers, too), but neither does much reading for pleasure. They are children of the screen. As, I believe, lots of our non-readers today.
Most of what I know about reading difficulties comes from 30 years in the classroom, teaching kids of all ability levels, and observing how they learn–as well as formal study of reading challenges in graduate school. I am horrified by the ‘accountability’ approach which has elevated ‘skills’ (like Dibels) above a love of literacy. We will never develop fully literate citizens by deconstructing reading into a cluster of testable skills, stripping away the pleasure of stories and learning things.
Kids learn to read music (a completely different system of symbols and comprehension) because they want, very much, to play in a group. They learn by visually translating the symbols into sounds, and by listening to models of those sounds. There is always a kinesthetic element, as well. They can be part of the group before they have mastered all the skills involved–they can have fun making music without being tested or competing with other kids. If we taught music the way we teach reading, nobody would want to learn to play an instrument, or sing.
Thank you, Nancy. How interesting to hear about your exposure to music and your love for it at an early age. It always shines through with you!
I agree about Dibels. Ken Goodman wrote a whole book about it. If children are going to work on sounds, they shouldn’t be nonsense syllables that don’t make sense. Some readers even get confused with it.
I also love your description about how children learn music. I played flute but couldn’t always name the notes. I knew their placement on the instrument and still managed to play pretty well.
All children need exposure to music. Thank goodness we don’t teach it with the same pressure placed on learning to read!
Ms. Flanagan
“…the library instead, where I read a whole series of biographies with blue covers featuring black silhouettes. ” I remember those biographies like it was 50 years ago. David Farragut, Andrew Jackson, and more. My mother would sit on an old day bed scrunched up near the stove and the washer, reading to my brother and I from a series of books that came in the mail. The Story of Marquis de Layfaette gave me my first glimpse of the French Revolution. We were there at the Normandy Invasion introduced me to World War II history.
I too, probably learned to read hymns before anything else. My mother, a concert piano player, played the pipe organ at our church for 42 years. I was just recalling to my students this week the memory I have of standing by the piano, my nose barely above the keys, while she played Chopin’s scherzo in B flat minor.
Thanks for jogging my memory.
Nancy, Thank you for the opportunity offered for me to look back on the way I learned to read. First of all, I didn’t go to kindergarten. My mother took me to the open house, and the teacher was an old lady and seemed mean. I told my mother I didn’t want to go, and that was that. I started first grade as a mid-year in January, because my birthday was in May. I couldn’t read at all, and just knew the alphabet. I was taught with Dick and Jane like you. I think we worked on a letter at a time, a slow process. Somehow I was always in the top reading group, and cringed inside when listening to the less accomplished readers try to read. I didn’t consider myself an actual reader until I was in the fourth grade and read Black Beauty and cried. Without an emotional response, what is the point? I still remember the sickening feeling I had on the rare occasions we had to take standardized tests. I did well on them, but was somehow aware how diminishing they were, not to mention boring. I became an avid reader, and also loved Nancy Drew. I didn’t think I could become a teacher and teach reading–it seemed too daunting a task. Decades later, I became a Latin teacher at the RI School for the Deaf. As you probably know, many deaf and hard of hearing students struggle with reading, and Latin was a great way to highlight problematic issues with English print, such as inflectional and derivational morphology, as well as syntax. I also emphasized English words with Latin roots, so we read newspaper and magazine articles chock full of derivatives. (Who says Latin is a dead language?) One of my proudest moments actually happened today. One of my former students sent me the Teacher Appreciation post from facebook, and told me that when she saw it she thought of me and how much she had learned from my class. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Thank you for sharing, Sheila. I love how you mention reading well in fourth grade! I know reading by third grade is important, but you can still have hope after third grade! I helped middle and high school students improve their reading skills.
Why am I not surprised you heard from a former student. How lovely. Enjoy the week!
In sharp contrast, I offer up the following.
I was born the second son in a mining family in South Wales, seventy years ago next month. I had a twin sister who towered over me from the start and a brother five years my senior. There were no books in my home. My early years were not that happy unless I was able to roam the mountain above my house. A lack of maternal warmth left me struggling with my emotions and the development of my working memory suffered; something so important to the developing reader.
I have to confess I do not know to this very day how I learned to read. What I have to conclude from fading recall of that distant time is that it was left entirely to my teachers to achieve the vital task of turning me into a reader, no, an avid reader. For this I am eternally grateful. because it opened up the world to me.
This exposure to books was made all the more enjoyable and I believe formative in my choice of career because every school day ended with a full half hour when our class teacher read to the whole class. It is amazing how powerful the imagination is in drawing a child into the treasures that otherwise lie hidden away between the covers of a well crafted book. Freed from the processing demands of reading for myself, I felt captivated by a world of my creation. This was an approach to the teaching of reading that I emphasised in my own work with primary aged children. Equally, I feel it is one of the missing elements in so many of the reading approaches currently in use. Surely, making reading a source of pure enjoyment should be our main focus in motivating and enticing the novice reader to develop a nourishing relationship with literature and our inner selves.
Thank you for affording me this opportunity to ramble on, Nancy.
John, thank you for sharing your poignant reading story. It’s a lovely tribute to teachers and a wonderful lesson about the joy of reading, and how reading can positively lift children to new heights. My middle and high school students had difficulties reading, but they liked to hear me read stories even though they were older.
Your point about being read to, without worry, but for the sheer joy of listening and enjoying books, is a great one! Thanks again!
I want to add that many parents with children who have reading difficulties praise a program called Learning Ally audio books.
Some adults like books on tape too! https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-pleasures-of-being-read-to
And sadly there’s this. My guess it’s happening here too. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/21/only-half-of-pre-school-children-being-read-to-daily-study-finds
I learned to read despite undiagnosed reading difficulties and untreated “minimal brain dysfunction” (the 1950s term for ADHD). We had lots of books in our home, parents who read to their children (both were well educated), and regular trips to the library.
I’m not sure when I learned how to read…my most vivid memory (indeed, one of only very few memories) of elementary school was Mrs. Gilbert, my third grade teacher, reading Charlotte’s Web to us.
I don’t know if I was taught through “look-say” or phonetically…but as a young reader I used both in word analysis when I came upon something difficult. I vaguely remember working on phonics…and flash cards, so it’s possible that my teachers, in the mid-1950s Chicago Public Schools were ahead of their time and developed their own form of “balanced literacy.” It’s likely that they didn’t like the overemphasis on either one or the other, and balanced it based on what their students needed…as good teachers do.
I became a teacher (eventually a “reading specialist” and Reading Recovery teacher) to help those students who struggled like I did. The idea that there’s one “right” way to teach all students to read is as absurd as claiming there’s one right way to plant a garden. Teachers need to be able to adapt to a child’s needs.
How you overcame your disabilities, Stu, to help others, is an inspiration to us all. As is your wonderful blog. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce. Unfortunately, this leads virtually nowhere when it comes to reading, for I cannot recall when I did or how. What I do recall is the plethora of really good history books for young people that abounded in those days. I am convinced that my love of history was a fire fueled in extreme youth, perhaps before I was born.
I am a 62 year old father of an eleven year old girl. The contrast between her experience and mine might be instructive in the discussion you seem to beg. As her sixth grade ends, I am amazed at the vocabulary she has amassed. She just got through with Jane Eyre, and was not too fired up,about the idea of someone falling in love with an older man. She walks through Harry Potter like a scythe in a wheat field, and will consume book after book from the library.
When she was small, a good teacher in day care introduced them to sounds and sight words without making it a chore. Always very verbal, she loved that. In April of her kindergarten year, we heard her in her room reading. We assumed it was one of the books we had read to her and that she had memorized. A couple of days later, it was clear that she was reading. In two weeks, she could read almost anything she picked up.
Her experience led me to ask other parents what they observed. Many indicated this cascade of reading that poured out all at once. Others observed a more linear plodding. Some voiced concern that reading was just hard for their kids. One day it dawned on me that I was hearing stories that confirmed the obvious truth about all biological organisms, that their experiences fall along a very wide spectrum. I have always observed this in my classes. Why should I be surprised? In a pond, the frogs are of all sizes..
Given that, we should give kids plenty of time to come into reading. I am convinced their writing will follow as their reading gels. It is unfortunate that we play into the tendencies of parents to want their children to be superior to others and for children to compare themselves to their peers.
I appreciate especially hearing about your daughter and how she is such a great reader. And I agree that learning, in general, falls along a wide spectrum. Thanks for sharing your keen insight, Roy.
My brother, who is 50+ now, learned to read when my grandmother took him aside every day for one year to teach him phonology and phonics. She learned to do this at Madison Teacher’s College when explicit and systematic teaching of the components of early literacy was de rigueur. .
We both were taught to read using whole language and thankfully it worked for me — this was 1970-73 and phonics and other foundational literacy components were ignored. My brother, who is dyslexic, was very lucky to have a grandmother who taught first grade for 30 years and knew what would help. He now runs his own company.
How many other children didn’t have this luxury and failed to meet expectations and perhaps thought they were stupid? And why do we continue to put children through this nightmare when they are capable of learning to read?
It is interesting that phonics was ignored where you lived. I did my student teaching around that time, and the school I was in included phonics in their reading program. But I was in Michigan, so maybe they did things differently.
Thank you for sharing, Laura!
My story is a bit different. I can remember wanting to read various things, and my mother actually discouraging it because it wasn’t “substantive” enough. I later found out what a disservice this was, as reading anything, even a comic book, is worthwhile and can foster a love of reading. I struggled through school, and Mother would get upset when my comprehension and retention levels were not what they could have been.
Somehow I was able to channel my love of words and language in adult life, having become a court stenographer 40 years ago. It is very rewarding and satisfying work.
I still have the desire to go back and read those Nancy Drew mysteries that were off limits, and may be the only 65-year-old checking them out of the local library. But the little girl in me wants to complete that unfinished business.
Thank you for letting me express something that has been buried for so long.