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Sesame Street formed a strong foundation for my learning and utilization of letters and sounds
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My Mother would read with me. She would help me sound out words, covering parts of the word so I would see and pronounce little chunks at first. I realize that this is now known as decoding and formation of morphemes in phonetics.
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My first book read independently.
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I first entered the formal education system. I was enrolled into a private Catholic school where I would meet and be educated by some of the best educators in my life.
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I was accelerated in the reading program since I was in Kindergarten. I would be sent to the 2nd grade classroom and the teacher wouldn't know what to do with me so instead of teaching me, she let me do SSR using a collection of short stories tiered by reading level and coupled with comprehension questions. If I was able to complete a story at %100 accuracy, I would move up a level. It became a game to me to try to get to the hardest texts as possible.
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The library I went to had a reading program over the summer where you would get a prize after you have read a certain amount of books. I wou,d spend so much time reading and soon associated it with free happy meals and gift cards to Toys R Us.
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It was in the fourth grade that I would be introduced to a very influential educator who would inspire me to read and appreciate English. She hooked us on grammar by utilizing gamification techniques to make learning parts of speech fun.
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Not my first Scholastic Book Fair, but at this one I began my first collection of a series of books: Jedi Apprentice. I would then await every next release, constantly visiting Borders or Barnes and Noble Bookstores.
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In 8th grade our school changed. They hired younger teachers because the old ones were retiring . Our new 8th grade teacher introduced us to something more than reading for fun or comprehension or appreciation of prose and grammar. She helped us to appreciate reading as a means of expression and understanding the world. Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, and The Things They Carried became a foundation for my developing adolescent emotions.
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I was chosen to read texts of scripture in front of a church congregation regularly on Sunday mornings. This turned the act of reading into more than just a personal act of taking information, but now a performance art to be shared with others.
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In my college British Literature course, I learned to appreciate the timeless themes that are present and so eloquently presented in works of classical literature. It gave me a greater worldview of reading as a portal to eras of life and the interconnectedness of the human condition.
