My Memory of Language Arts

 Until recently, I have really struggled with loving language arts as a whole. Certain aspects like grammar and writing always came naturally to me, so I enjoyed activities pertaining to those areas. Reading, on the other hand, was a completely different story. I know I went through a span of many years throughout my grade school career where I absolutely dreaded reading. I wasn't as good at it as I wanted to be, and although, being the competitive person I am, I pushed myself, I couldn't get myself to enjoy it, mostly due to the ways in which I was being taught it.

Beginning in kindergarten, I was given the opportunity to choose what I wanted to write about. Every Friday, the teachers sent home a broad topic every student had to write about, but the student could write about anything within that topic. There was structure, but also room for creativity. As I continued through elementary school, I remember that most writing assignments followed the structure that began in kindergarten. This method of teaching writing even continued in middle and high school. For instance, in middle school, every sixth, seventh, and eighth grader was required to participate in the oratorical contest. Again, a specific topic was provided and students could be creative within that topic. The fact that I had a say in what I wanted to write about is really what made me fall in love with writing. It's interesting how the opportunity to be creative can make a huge difference in terms of a person's feelings towards a certain subject or subject area.

By the end of first grade, my younger brother (who would start kindergarten the next August) taught himself how to read. He was taking Accelerated Reader (AR) tests, which are basically quizzes online, on books that were either just below or at my grade level. Being the older sister, there was no way I would let my brother surpass me in reading! Therefore, my brother's early success with reading motivated me to read more and more. I found myself wanting to read all the time because I couldn't let my brother become better and more fluent than me. Once I reached second grade, however, my love for reading started to dwindle away. We hardly, if ever, were allowed to read books of our choice. I can vividly remember that every Monday morning began with the whole class reading the same story together. Then, throughout the week, we would have workbook pages about that story, which were meant to teach reading comprehension. Finally, every Friday, we would have a 10 question quiz about the story that we read as a class on Monday, and our report card grades for reading were calculated from those quiz scores. This method of teaching reading and reading comprehension continued through fifth grade.

By middle school, I finally had some say in what I was reading. Of course, there were texts that the whole class was required to read, but we also were able to pick one book of choice each quarter to read and take an AR test on. As I found myself starting to love reading again, high school came. I had absolutely no say in what I was reading, and I was required to annotate every book I read. While I understand that annotating is a useful tool in gaining a deeper understanding of a book, I definitely did not want to put any effort into it if I had been assigned the book. Additionally, being a competitive gymnast and training 20 hours a week during high school, I had no free time to pick up a book of my choice and read it. Not soon enough, the summer before college approached, and I finally didn't have to worry about required summer reading books. I could read what I wanted to! This is when I really got into The Hunger Games series. I also started to reread books that I had read in high school, such as The Great Gatsby, because I wanted to be able to enjoy them for once instead of worrying if my annotations were good enough for an A+ grade. As of right now, I particularly like science fiction and romance novels, but honestly, I would pick up a book from any genre and read it because I can finally exercise my right to choose.

From my experiences in elementary school, I would apply the same structure/creativity model that I was provided with in elementary, middle, and high school. When students are given choice, they are more likely to be engaged, do good work, and learn something from their work. In terms of reading, I know for a fact I will not make my students read the same story together as a class, complete workbook pages on the story, and take a quiz about the story. For one, this method of teaching doesn't take into consideration that students in the same grade are at different reading levels. The struggling readers continue to struggle because they are reading books that are too difficult for them. Therefore, I will make sure I divide my future students into reading groups based on their reading levels, so that every student can learn and progress. Additionally, I will give my future students many opportunities to read books of their choice so that they learn to love reading at a very early age. I don't want my future students to have to experience the same kind of reading instruction that I did.