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Literacy Timeline
Reflect deeply about situations, events, and people who impacted your literacy development between grades four and eight. How were you taught content area literacy in middle school? What events occurred or didn’t occur that shaped who you are as a reader today? Based upon your experiences, you will formulate professional content area literacy goals for your future teaching. -
4th Grade - Computer-Based Reading Programs --> Students read authentic books at their reading levels
In 4th grade, going to school was just another task for me. I dreaded reading aloud in class. I hated reading, all types of reading. I did not like reading out loud in class, I did not like reading to myself, and I just did not like reading at all. My school had an Accelerated Reader program that monitored our reading, and I was always at the head of my class...thanks to big books that were made into movies. I watched the movies and then took the tests and passed! Points and all! -
1/2 Way Through 4th Grade - Computer-Based Reading Programs --> Quizzes provide frequent monitoring of students' comprehension
While I was in 4th grade, my teachers did not know that I found new ideas to achieve my AR test scores. I do remember her, Mrs. Calhoun, specifically telling the class not to rely on the movies of the books to pass the AR tests because they were different. Was she open to my new idea of passing the test? I will never know because I never told her that I was passing that way. Do I think it worked for me? Of course! Because of that, I think my determination to get high AR scores increased. -
4th - 5th Grade 1999-2000 - Read Alouds
Reading was always difficult for me. I was pulled out of my class for two years to go to a reading group so I could be reading at the grade level I was supposed to be at. I always loved when the teachers read books to the class because we were all on the same page at the same time. -
5th Grade - Reading Projects - Read another book by the same author/ read other books from the same text set
In 5th grade, I finally found a book series that I liked reading. I have always loved kids, so naturally, The Babysitters Club books jumped out at me. The only thing was, I no longer had the Accelerated Reader program. I believe this is when the 6 Flags tickets came in for reading a certain number of hours throughout the year. I always seemed to get the tickets, but I don't think I actually did all that reading. I think my mom fibbed a little :) -
1/2 Way Through 5th Grade - Social Action Projects --> Get involved in a community project related to a book
In 5th grade, my school handed out Pizza Hut tickets and 6 flags tickets for the students that read 100 hours during the year. While this is a good incentive to get students to read more, I was not motivated to read. The library had some events in the evenings where someone would go read books over the summer and hosted family nights as well. I went to some events and thought I would become a good reader that loved to read when I left. Once I got home, I gave up that idea once again. -
5th - 6th Grade - Spelling Strategies --> Weekly Spelling Tests - Sound It Out
While reading was difficult for me, I loved spelling and writing my own stories. My grandma would always come over in the early mornings to babysit my brother and me while my mom went to work. Every day my grandma would get out our list of spelling words for the week and quiz me during breakfast. At the time, I didn't like it because I was just waking up, but now I am so thankful for her and her working with me every morning! -
6th Grade - Reading Strategies --> Study Strategy
Ironically, I still did not like reading...whatsoever, but my Homebase (the room where you start the day in for announcements) was the school library. Think it was a sign? I remember being in my LA classes and having books assigned to us for reading. I would make my mom take me to the library when we got these books and I would check out the books on CD so I could listen to them be read to me. I would take notes from the book so I could participate in the discussion in the next day's class. -
1/2 Way Through 6th Grade - Spelling Strategies --> Dictionary Use
I loved spelling so much that I was in the school’s spelling bee for the whole 3yrs of middle school. I hated speaking in front of people, but I overcame this fear when I was spelling. I was confident in my spelling and made it to the top 5 the first 2 yrs. The spelling bee broadcasted on the tv’s in the class's when the spellers and myself were spelling the words out loud. I got the confidence boost I needed and was able to look past my fears and the distractions to focus on what I loved doing! -
6th - 7th Grade - Writing Strategy --> Poetry
I was always good at writing in my elementary school years. I loved having free writing time in the mornings in my LA class. During that time we were allowed to write about anything and everything! I had quite the imagination and my thoughts just took off! I wrote my own "short stories", my own poems, and I wrote about what my weekends were like. To this day, my favorite poems are Haiku poems because they are simple and still don't make a lot of sense to me! -
7th Grade - Reading Strategy --> Comprehension - Guided Reading
Still in the same Homebase room and in the same predicament with books being assigned and checking them out on CD. The difference with this year, however, was that we started reading more plays in class. We had to sign up for specific parts to read aloud to the class as we read on. I disliked reading so much that I took the zero participation points for the day just to avoid reading in front of the class. -
1/2 Way Through 7th Grade - Writing Strategy --> Response to Literature - Write a Prequel or Sequel
Being in my LA classes, I dreaded silent reading and taking tests. I've never been a fast reader and always felt like I was falling behind when everyone was flipping their pages. Generally, I would flip pages in the book and go home and listen to the chapters on CD that I was supposed to read in class. Writing helped boost my confidence in this class because I always had great feedback from my teacher. Occasionally she would ask to keep a copy to use as an example for her future classes! -
7th - 8th Grade - Literacy Centers --> Computer - Students do word processing, perform webquests, search the internet, create PowerPoint presentations, and complete other activities
In middle school, we had a computer lab class that we took. I remember going to this class to practice our typing skills and to see how many words we could type a minute. The teacher would give us practice time and then turn the lights off to test us and our typing skills. The Mavis Beacon-like program would have words in sentences that we had to copy and then would score us at the end of the time allotted for that section. -
8th Grade - Reading Strategies --> Test-Taking Strategy
I made it to 8th grade without having to read a single book! Reading was just another hard task for me. I hated taking tests in class because I always felt like everyone was reading faster and going faster than I was, so I would start to panic and rush through the test. I had a great LA teacher that year who would spend the time looking through the parts of the play we were reading, and she would pick the smallest parts out and assign them to me so I would get my points for the day. -
1/2 Way Through 8th Grade - Literacy Centers --> Computer - Students do word processing, perform webquests, search the internet, create PowerPoint presentations, and complete other activities
When I was in 8th grade, there were classes offered over the summer at the public library and at the school that offered a computer and typing class to teach the students of McHenry how to perfect typing skills and how to keep yourself safe in chat rooms. I remember taking this class with my friends and thinking that it was such a great way to help us improve our computer skills. For the students who took this class, we were put in the next level-up computer class during the year. -
Where To Go From Here
Knowing how much I struggled throughout my upper elementary years, I want to encourage my students every step of the way and hopefully show them the fun in reading, writing, spelling, and working on their inter and intrapersonal needs. Some of my teachers really tried to help me, but others just didn’t know how much I hated parts of the class. I want to make sure I have a check-in each week to see what my students want to practice on more and try to accommodate all their individual needs.