This post was featured on The Nerdy Book Club today! It is similar to my back story, but a bit different.
The Late Bloomer’s Path to Becoming a Reader
by Gigi McAllister
Unlike many teachers, growing up I was that
quiet, painfully shy girl who never participated and lived in fear that
everyone would find out that I was dumb.
I was the one who could not understand what I read because it was all
just words to me. Well I’m grown up now
and I am really angry!
I have read many children’s book blogs to
find new books for my students and to read inspirational stories. Most of them are wonderfully positive stories
describing people who were born with a silver book in their hand or were reading
Little Women at age 5 and haven’t stopped since. I am green with envy as I read about adults
who grew up as voracious readers and how books helped influence and shape their
lives. I am so happy for them, but this
was not my path. My path to become a
reader was paved with shame, disappointment and self-doubt.
Reading was not really part of my
childhood. Sure, I had to read in
school, but I was reminded, by my constant failure, that I was not a good
reader. My teachers “demoted” me to the
“low” reading group in what I assume was an attempt to help me, but it just
made me feel more stupid. I felt like
they did not expect much of me and I lived up to those expectations. I just didn’t get it. I would try to read my little blue basal
reader, but try as I might, it just didn’t click. No one ever showed me that
books could be wonderful escapes and reading could actually be fun, NO
ONE!
So what’s the big deal? I can obviously read
now. What did I really miss?
Well…A LOT!
I missed out on being a super sleuth with Nancy Drew or Harriet from Harriet the Spy. Ramona and I never got
into trouble together in Beverly Cleary’s Ramona
series and I never watched Charlotte save her friend Wilbur in Charlotte’s
Web. I also missed Judy Blume! What was the early 80”s for a young girl
without Judy Blume? Ok I did read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to see what the big deal was, but I missed out
on sharing fears with Sheila Tubman in Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great. I would have loved to hold hands with Mary
Lenox in the pages of The Secret Garden. And traveling to Narnia with
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in The
Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis would have been amazing. I could go on and on.
I did not become a reader until I started teaching
in my early twenties.. When I understood what all the fuss was about,
and realized what I had missed, I felt cheated
We teachers need to remember that yes, we
need to teach skills and strategies like cause and effect, sequencing and
author’s purpose. But we must never
forget that it is our ultimate job to inspire and help create lifelong
readers. So let’s keep the emphasis on
the books! I’m sure you can find at
least one student just like me each year in your class. Please show her (or him) that there is more
to reading than just reading words. Show
your students that reading can entertain you, inspire you and change you…forever.
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