Literacy Autobiography

As a teacher I am very interested in the best ways to teach reading and writing because I am a special education and language arts majors. I think reading and writing are the building blocks for the rest of a student’s academic career. The experiences that students have early on with reading and writing can affect them for the rest of their schooling. It is important that teachers teach reading and writing in a way that emphasizes its importance but is also fun. I was lucky enough growing up to attend Lakeview School district in Battle Creek, MI. My elementary, middle, and high schools were composed of very fun, motivated, and skilled teachers. I can still remember specific examples from my schooling that have helped shape my views about learning and teaching reading and writing

From a young age I have viewed myself as a good reader. It all began in second grade when I was in a second-third grade split class. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Heffner and she made reading interesting and fun for me. At the beginning of second grade I was reading at grade level, by the end I was reading at a sixth grade level. I believe there were several reasons for this increase in skill. The first reason was that for homework every night we had to read for at least twenty minutes and have our parents sign our reading log. We were held accountable for what we were reading because we also had to write in our journals about the book we were reading. The next aspect that spiked my interest in reading was the huge library that Mrs. Heffner had in her classroom. She had many different kinds of books at varying grade levels because the range in reading level was so wide. You could check out books from the classroom library to read at home and you couldn’t take another book home until you brought that one back. Another reason I was learning how to read better was because I saw that there were third graders reading chapter books like the Boxcar Kids and Babysitters Club and I wanted to read those books too. I started to read more difficult books and over time I could comprehend them. The last aspect that influenced my love for reading was that my parents supported me by reading with me, buying me books, and encouraging me to read with them. Throughout my schooling I enjoyed reading for school and as a hobby. I get to share my love for reading by teaching students how to read. I am observing in a kindergarten classroom where the students are learning how to read. I like teaching them their letter sounds and watch them sound out words and read picture books. I like that they are so excited about being read to and learning how to read. I hope that when I am a teacher I will inspire students to love reading, just like my teachers did.

I also like writing and was influenced by my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Busler, and my twelfth grade teacher, Mrs. Olett. Both of these teachers used different strategies to teach writing and make it fun and interesting. Mrs. Busler used strategies like peer conferencing, class brainstorming, one-on-one conferences with her to discuss our writing, and publishing our work in a class portfolio. The main thing I liked about Mrs. Busler’s class was that the topics we wrote about were interesting and there was freedom in what we could write about. Mrs. Busler helped improve my writing because of all the conferencing we did and because I was taking more time to work on my writing because it was being published for the whole class to see. I also learned a lot about writing in Mrs. Owlet’s twelfth grade English. Mrs. Olett taught me how to write an analytical essay, which has helped me a lot in my college career. In this class we mad arguments about books and articles and used evidence throughout the text to support our claims. The strategies I learned in this class have helped me immensely in college. If it weren’t for this class I would still be struggling to write a good analytical essay. Mrs. Heffner, Mrs. Busler, and Mrs. Olett were great teachers and made me like reading and writing. They used strategies in their classrooms that made reading and writing interesting and fun, so I wanted to do it more often. When I am a teacher I hope I can inspire my students just like my language arts teachers did for me.