Sunday, January 10, 2010

reading

Reading is important for safety. But I want to remind everyone that reading is also a leisure activity. I still to this day love to read Amelia Bedelia, Ramona and where the siewalk ends. I think that choosing books that get children excited to read is important. When your interested and its fun it becomes not work. In grade school I wish my teachers would have picked some fun books instead of the boring see jane go up the hill. Later in school, I had a teacher who read to us. We were in 6th grade but we looked forward to it every day. She picked books that engaged us. It made me look for books as exciting as she found.
Writing is also important. Writing is story telling to letter formation. I know that everything today is computerized and most things are typed. I wonder....I've heard.... they no longer teach cursive handwriting. I know that some students have poor penmanship and it would be easier to grade typed papers but there's something to be said about a good old fashioned snail mail letter. I hope that art never goes away. I know a little off topic but not too far. It was just on my mind.
A friend of mine teaches and she went home to CA over the summer.She wrote each of her students a postcard. They loved them. On the first day of school they talked about it the whole day. Its a big deal to get mail when you're young. It's still a big deal to get something in the mail other than bills and catalogs.

2 comments:

  1. Reading needs to be FUN! I remember in elementary school all the fun books we read! Come to my house and check out my bookshelf! Ceiling to floor FUN children's books that I take into my classroom and read to my son! I love story time at school, whether on type or my voice! And I think the boys really enjoy it too (would you agree Jen?).

    I high school I actually enjoyed reading Crime and Punishment (a little dorky I know). But because I enjoyed it I was one of the few who UNDERSTOOD it! I also enjoed the Great Gatsby (even if I can not spell it). Again, I understood it. I hated Hamlot, never did get it completely.

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  2. First, I agree I think teachers need to make reading fun and something that student are going to enjoy. Not even student is going to enjoy every story that the teacher reads but it's important that the teacher tries to find enjoyable material. I also enjoyed reading to my younger students. It was always so rewarding to see them enjoy what I was reading.

    I think the cursive topic you brought up is interesting. I know that I have one student that has their regular school teaching them cursive. However, I think she is the only one out of all of my eleven students. I know that in one of the classrooms that operate at a different time than mine teaches cursive to the second and third graders.

    I think that after I graduated high school is when I really started to enjoy reading. I found that my favorite author is Jodi Picoult. I really enjoy her writing and I have gain a new hobby in the summer.

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