I read therfore I am a reader of the word

How would I describe myself as a reader? I see myself as an avid reader. I love to read. Reading has always been second nature to me, almost innate. I developed a love for books in my early child hood, as far back as I can remember. Maybe it was because my mother was also a lover of books and a Librarian. My sisters and I were read to every night, and when we were old enough we went to our my mother's job after
school, which happened to be the library. There, we were exposed not only to a plectra of books and resources, we were also exposed to up and coming authors, poets and musicians. It was then that I aspired to become a writer one day. My sister and I loved to read so much, that before we reached the library we would go to the "candy store" and get our favorite sweets, sour lollipops and bubble gum. ( It's a wonder that I have any teeth left) We would then, select ten or more books and go to the back room and read to our hearts content. This is one of my fondest memories.

As a child I loved to read fiction (fantasy and some mysteries). I created stories and told them to my family and friends. My favorite authors and books then ranged from Mother Goose, Dick and Jane, Grims fairy tales, Nancy Drew (she's coming back), Eager Allen Poe, Shakespear, Richard Wright to Nikki Giovanni and a host of other venues of books and author works. As a young adult I started expanding my interest in non fiction, based on current issues and personal interest. I enjoyed reading my text books from classes such as Psychology, Biology and Literature. Book choices were then made on connections to those text types. As I still yearned to write I began a self study on African American female writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou, and began reading with an author study focus. Today I still love to read , although my time to read plays a strong part in how I read. Life, or lets say the trends of society and the demands of work and children manipulates the types of text I read. So my reading now for focused purpose, and Less for entertainment. I read more building based books to enhance teaching style, articles printed out, and now I am beginning to do more reading from the computer. The reading from the computer has been used in the past for research geared to projects for informational needs on a personal as come by bases. Now I read my e-mails more frequently, and of course the required readings for this class.
I find myself using the computer more than books on a certain level, because I know I can probably find the most current data. As for reading for pleasure and personal interest, I read for the most part non-fiction books. I read more spiritual based text and motivational text.

In my class I teach reading through a model known as Ramp-Up. It is a literacy curriculum developed for remedial readers. It is developed for students who are reading on a third grade level or below. Note, I teach middle school language Arts. This program is very rigid yet done in a least restrictive manner. My class has a library set up and is categorized according to Genre. Fiction, Non Fiction, with sub categories of history, science, and Author study. The class begins with Independent Reading, where the student selects the book he wants to read, and reads independently for approximately 10 or more minutes. Having the student select his own book promotes high interest reading. During this time the student should be practicing reading strategies modeled by me. After IR the students are to complete a daily word study. Here the students are given a list of words that they will be exposed to in the lesson routine. Students are required to copy the words on an index card and define them. There is a class assessment on these at the end of each week. Following the Daily word study the students are to participate in a read aloud/Think aloud activity, where most of the daily words were derived from. The teacher reads aloud stopping occasionally to model a reading strategy. The students read along silently in their books. After the RA/TA there is a whole class discussion. the goal is to promote comprehension skills and it allows students to view the perspectives of each other as well as increase their desire to read. Students usually work in cooperative groups of three to four students, where they will be engaged in preparing book talks, paired reading, and creating a picture book. Our students are trained to peer teach to elementary students through the picture book activity. They also collaborate in practicing a skill or lesson from the whole class instruction. During the IR process, students will be seen individually for a conference to discuss their progress. Here I will have the student read a passage to me and I will point our strengths and areas to work on. Areas of concern are reading fluency, strategies used level of books and genre selection. During the Small group Independent work period, I work with select groups or individuals with activities or provide lessons to strengthen ares of concern. I have work stations in my class where students will on a rotational process be involved in one of them. A listening center, Book Talk preparation, Timed Reading, writing workshop, We do have a computer station (that's when we can get to the computers-it's a work in progress). A lot of supplemental material is used in my class. Students read articles from computer print outs, their work books (the sixth graders had work books) the are always reading their own work from source books. A lot of effort is pit into developing a comfort zone for the reluctant and struggling readers. A environment is created to stimulate the love for books and good reading habits. This year we did a Genre study on Virgina Hamilton. we dissected her as an author, discovered how she developed her love for books and writing. Need I say more about this wonderful reading program. Through this process, I have witness significant progress in many of my students, specifically the ones I had for two years. many are reading at home where they barely read before. Their parents are joining in on encouraging them to read more. The only challenge now is to get some of them to venture into other genres and more challenging text for independent readings.

The next question is how do I feel about technology in reading? I believe it is an essential element that needs to be filtered more effectively into our course curriculum. I feel this way because of the rapid changes in society with higher technology. The population of students I have in class still show the need for computers in the home. The average student today based on studies show that they spend a lot of time interacting on the computer for social purposes. So it would be most effective to build strategies for students to learn how to comfortably read computerized text. Computers offers a wide range of skills for our readers to develop. Like reading informational text, following directions, research skills and writing skills, just to name a few. Technology is a tool that can enhance reading development. Computers and other interactive devices have become the new forms of literature. It gives a current and new definition to literacy.