Red Pen ~ Red Ink

My first paper from one of my classes was given back last week. All I could focus on was the "RED INK" I never even saw the grade.

Writing for me has always been a challenge; I still believe I need to be tested for dyslexia. I can remember in 3rd grade, private school, struggling and being very far behind the other students in my writing abilities. We were often asked to write stories for homework. I was so frustrated with not doing as well as the other students, that in 3rd grade I had a master plan! I went home and pulled out one of my favorite Strawberry Shortcake books and copied it word for word on my lined paper. In the back of my mind I knew I was doing something wrong, but it was worth the risk to me then. I just wanted to be praised like the other students. There was no understanding of what plagiarism was to me in 3rd grade. The teachers were so proud of me; my paper got passed around to all the other teachers in the building. I was a super star! I felt horrible!

How unconnected were my teachers to not know this was not my own writing. We should all be more in touch with our student to know better, or did they just ignore a greater issue?

I do not have ANY memory of writing in 4th and 5th grade. Was I even being taught how to write properly? I remember reading, but no writing, and we all know that “Good Readers also Write.” (Nettles)

High school was a trip for me in writing. I had a good friend, Valerie, who was an exceptional writer. I would have her proofread all my papers for me. Valerie would “pretend” to be some sort of teacher; she really enjoyed the fact that I needed her for this duty. She would get out her RED PEN and just start in on my work. It was a massacre of sorts, complete blood bath. She should have just rewritten my entire paper! It always made me feel like complete crap, and took me right back to 3rd grade.

To this day when I see RED INK on a paper I assume bad. The correlation of RED INK and horribly written work go hand and hand in my head. I need to release this association, but after 23 years of the same idea imbedded into your head it is a very difficult mission.

I got an “A” on the paper that I just got back!

The “A” was written in RED INK at the top of my page!

Literacy Program Approved in KC

SFA ~ Success for All

I have an entire class this semester focused on teaching students the tools to become readers. We will be spending many hours this year in the classroom working one-on-one with students on reading. Our school assignment changed today since the literacy program was approved for the Kansas City school district. We are now going to a school that has quickly woven in the new curriculum.

For 60-90 minutes every day students from preschool to eighth grade will be participating. Grade level does not matter for this new curriculum; it is based on reading level. Every teacher: Math, Art, Science, History, etc…. will now be required to be a reading teacher as well. This new program is called Success for All

http://www.successforall.net

T his program went into full force this Monday August 28, 2006.

Technorati : Kansas City School District, Literacy, SFA
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Positive Reading Experience - 4th Grade

There are two books that I can recall perfectly from my childhood that really opened me up to enjoying stories. The first book is Dorothea Warren Fox, Miss Twiggley’s Tree. This is such a wonderful book from the 60’s; I believe it was republished in 2002. It is about a women and her dog, puss, who live up in a weeping willow tree. She sends the dog out to do all the shopping because all the people in the neighborhood believe she is odd. When people would come to visit puss, the dog, would entertain them while Miss Twiggley hid. One day a hurricane came and the entire town was under water, all except Miss Twiggley’s house in the tree. Puss invited all of them up to the house, and in summary everyone realized what a great person Miss Twiggley was and just because she chose to live in a tree she was a normal as you or me, and maybe even a bit smarter.

The second book that moved me into enjoying reading when I was young is Arlene Mosel, Tikki Tikki Tembo. This is a fantasy book for me when I was young it was the book I remember that opened me up to other cultures besides ours, and the feeling that the world was larger than just where I lived. In this book the first and grandest son had an extremely long name that you just had to sing every time they came to it in the story, “Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo.” Catchy little name isn’t it!

Can you remember some of your first children’s stories that you fell in love with?