How Did You Learn to Read? by Mrs. Creech's class Dear Secretary Riley, The effects of the National
Reading Report are going to be intense and long-lasting. They will affect
every teacher's practice in some way. We can no longer close our doors
and teach. This report is not going to end the Reading Wars, but cause
more controversy. I've never considered myself to be any kind of a radical.
I'm just a teacher who cares about children. When a friend suggested Carol
Edelsky's book Making Justice Our Project, for summer reading, and said
that the intro blamed whole language teachers for its problems, I picked
it up and started to read. Altweger and Saavedra in the intro state, Whole
Language Teachers must become part of a larger educational effort to transform
education and society in the direction of equity and social justice....
we must begin to see ourselves not just as whole language educators, but
as educational activists with clear pedagogical principles. So I asked
myself, how can I do that? At one time I naively thought I had the ear
of NICHD higher ups. Actually, I still don't know if I had any effect.
I just knew they needed to be listening to teachers, not just physicists,
and scientists, and psychologists. Recently I answered my question by enlisting
my students and parents in trying to get the ear of Secretary or Education
Richard Riley. I just told them about the report and they answered. Here
are some of their thoughtful comments to him.
....reading
is important because if you did not read, you can't read. I learned to
read by reading books. I like to read Goosebumps. I learned to read by
reading them...
Dear
Secretary Riley,
...How I learned to read?
My family taught me. My favorite thing is reading.
Dear Secretary Riley, I'm
in first grade and do second and third grade work. I learned to read when
my mom was reading a book to me and I was watching her read.....
Dear
Secretary Riley,
My name is Matt. I am in
the third grade and I am going to be 10 on August 18th. I am doing good
in my work. I have two cats and one dog. Their names are Mickey, Mel and
Sam. The dog is a boy. I also have a brother. His name is Lyle.My parents
helped me read and my friend Danny helped me too,,,,,,
Dear
Secretary Riley,
My name is Kelly and I think
that phonics is not what helps children read. I think having people read
to them helps. I learned to read by having my parents read to me and by
reading.....You can't learn to read words like pterodactyl by dumb phonics!
That's pretty hard.
Dear
Secretary Riley,
My name is Krissy and I
am seven years old. I learned to read by my mom. I don't need phonics because
I know how to read. All the people don't need phonics. They read by reading.
Dear
Secretary Riley,
Through the years I learned
to read by sounding out letters and breaking them into syllables and looking
words up in the dictionary with my mom, dad and teacher. I started out
reading The Hungary Caterpillar and now I am reading anything from chapter
books to college books. So you see, kids don't just need phonics. There
are many different ways to learn how to read.
Dear Secretary Riley, My
name is Max. My age is 7. I am in first grade in Mrs. Creech's class. My
favorite colors are green, blue and red. My mom helped me to read one sentence
and then I read the whole book. I enjoy reading and my favorite books are
Dr. Seuss.
Dear Secretary Riley, Hi! My name is Sarah and I am eight years old. I learned to read by my mom cheering me on. I like to read. I am also good at art.
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