Learning to Read

Ali:
My first memories of reading started in kindergarten. This was the easy stuff; small words and lots of pictures. As the years started to progress the reading got harder and harder. As a young child I remember not being the strongest reader. I must not have done extremely well on those tests they would give you each year because I had to get extra help with my reading. First, I had to go to extra help in my elementary school and then go to tutoring outside of school. I remember this like it was yesterday. My neighbor happened to be a teacher so a few times a week I would go to her house and read to her. I hated going to her house; I tried everything in my power to get out of it (which never worked I may add). She made me read the book "Saving Shiloh" and I just hated it. The only good thing about the tutoring was that I would get cookies! To this day I still vividly remember the tutoring. The funny part about this whole experience was that as soon as I got older the lady, who the next year was my third grade teacher, moved out of the house. The family that moved in had young children so I would babysit for them and go back to that same house. Every time I go back to that house, I remember Shiloh the dog and the cookies I would always get from my tutor when I was learning to read.

Katie:

I was introduced to reading in kindergarten.  The first step was learning the alphabet.  Sounding out vowels and consonants after our teacher wrote them on the white board.  We then had to come up with words that started with those letters. From then on I learned to read picture books and little kids books. I had a two favorite books; "Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" and "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  I must have read them both a million times. Finally I think I just had them memorized so they didn't help much. My mom then introduced me to "hooked on phonics" which I hated. I would get stickers at the end of each lesson. I loved those stickers. Those were my first memories of learning how to read.

Between these two stories, the general concept of learning to read was the same. Both of us were first taught to read in kindergarten. We remember reading picture books and small words. Then moved on to longer books. Those books we read will stay with us forever. The most important similarities were being rewarded after reading. Ali received cookies while Katie got stickers.  Our generation  did not realize the importance of reading. We just read to be rewarded. Reading is so common to us that we take it for granted.