Learning to Read - Do You Remember?

[dash_two]

I had the Beacon Readers books at school as a little kid. These were meant to span several years of reading progress and were colour coded for difficulty level. One of them had the story of The Hobyahs, which is quite disturbing:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft27.htm

Also the name Shel Silverstein used to pop up a lot on kids' poems, and I read some of Spike Milligan's poems for kids as well, one I can still remember:

Down the stream the swans all glide
It's quite the [something] way to ride.
Their legs get wet,
Their tummies wetter.
After all I think the bus is better.

 

[kyser_soze]

Silverstein...that name rings a bell...I was bizarrely reminded of one of his poems over the weekend...

The Fanciest dive that was ever dove
was done by Melissa of coconut grove
She jumped straight up, did a flip
and a twist 3 times and a quarter
and then looked down and saw the pool had no water

Or something like that...

 

[felixthecat]

It always bugged me that I was reading The Hobbit et al at home and then being forced to read utter crap at school as part of the reading scheme.

I was utterly delighted when, way ahead of anyone else in the class, I finally finished the execrable prescribed "reading scheme" range and was allowed free reign at the school library for reading time.

I remember that feeling very well. Fortunately i could finish one of those reading books in an hour and be able to tell my teacher all about it. I was allowed to bring in my own reading book from home - until I brought in a good ol' Agatha Christie novel at age 9. It wasn't seen as suitable reading material and I was confined to the school library for a while. I managed to dig out The Owl Service and that was about it

 

[dash_two]

Silverstein...that name rings a bell.

Now I always thought Shel was a she, til I looked on Wikipedia today:

 

[ChrisC]

I couldn't read till I was ten. Now I'm one of the biggest readers out there. Words just flow, what ever book I read. My first book The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

 

[kyser_soze]

Now I always thought Shel was a she, til I looked on Wikipedia today:

Yup, that's the fella. I thought it was Joel but hey, it's him...

 

[beeboo]

I can't remember much of the process of learning to read - I remember not being able to read, and I remember being able to read easily, but no stage in between

I remember once we were sent home from school with letters for our parents about a surprise christmas party. Only one of the girls in our class could read (we had just started primary school) and she was very smug that she could read the letter and knew about the big surprise

 

[Santino]

What are all these symbols on my screen?

 

[yardbird]

I started this thread 'cos I was thinking of Stephen and miss him.

I don't remember how I learned to read except that I know that it was "look-see".
I do remember though, fun things with the gf's kids. Before nursery it was games. I labeled half the flat. Door/ceiling/drawer/fridge/brush/shoe. Silly but effective. When we sat with a book, they would point out the words that they knew and want to know what the others were.

Indulge me.
Stephen Cartwright was the illustrator of the Usborne Farmyard Tales and lots of other things - he will have helped millions of children all over the world to read (50 languages). Through college and for seven years he shared my flat and we was mates.
He was only 56 when he died in Feb '04.

Thanks for reading stories and for stories about reading .

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

My Mum taught me to read using Humpty Dumpty club cue cards/phonics (HD club was for a group for single mums back in the 70s)...was way ahead of my year by the time I got to school...school books were Ladybird, Peter&Jane, and we had them all the way thru til 3rd year infants (I remember one specifically beign a bit 'hardy Boys' and involved P&J holidaying at a castle/stately home and finding a secret passage in the castle etc)

Gonna teach mine the same way if I'm still in the UK. 20% of kids coming out of school illiterate...

I remember Humpty dumpty cards and I wasnt from a single parent family

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

In 1977 it was Janet and john.

:

Looks much the same.

 

[wtfftw]

I absolutely hated those red hat blah blah shit dog round the corner books. I wanted to read the hardback books about dragons and unicorns and stuff but obviously they were too advanced. I was late starting but I reckon once I got past the shit books it was all fine. I had a reading age of 13 or whatever (remember those silly tests) in primary school. I was a librarian which basically involved spending my lunch breaks reading as it's not like any other kids actually used the school library.

 

[kyser_soze]

I remember Humpty dumpty cards and I wasnt from a single parent family

I checked on this with my Ma...apparently the club itself was called Bluebell or somesuch thing, and they were a charity that gave self education packs to single parents - covered everything from nutrition advice, discounts at Mothercare for clothing and lots of home schooling stuff...

Anyone remember SRA cards? My son does them in the Dyslexia insutitute now

These are cards with a short story which then has some grammar followed by comprehension questions yeah? If it's the thing I'm thinking of we had them too...I can see, in my blurred memory eye, an illustration of two injuns on the front and a story about a bear...

 

[Roadkill]

Anyone remember SRA cards? My son does them in the Dyslexia insutitute now

Yep, I did SRA cards at primary school.

 

[kyser_soze]

Yep, I did SRA cards at primary school.

I'm glad someone else still calls it primary school...

 

[Roadkill]

I'm glad someone else still calls it primary school...

Why, what else would you call it?

well, aside from Junior School, I suppose.

 

[wiskey]

I was a librarian which basically involved spending my lunch breaks reading as it's not like any other kids actually used the school library.

when i started my primary school we had an infants library, a juniors library, a science room, music room and a cooking room. by the time i got to juniors we had 5 extra classrooms.

 

[kyser_soze]

Why, what else would you call it?

well, aside from Junior School, I suppose.

I've heard people call the last 2 years of it 'middle school'...

 

[Roadkill]

I've heard people call the last 2 years of it 'middle school'...

Wouldn't that be in places where they have a three-school system - i.e. first school, middle school and upper school - as opposed just to primary and secondary?

 

[wtfftw]

when i started my primary school we had an infants library, a juniors library, a science room, music room and a cooking room. by the time i got to juniors we had 5 extra classrooms.

I don't think our infants had a library as each classroom had a book/reading corner (that horrible corrugated scratchy carpet enclosed by bookcases) but the juniors had quite a big one. It was about two classroomsworth (unless you had room T which was Huge!). There were music rooms, no cooking or science but we did pottery and had a kiln.