Hi! My name is Patti Poplos. I earned my M.Ed. from Wilmington University in Delaware, but it wasn't a licensed program. I'm finally working toward what I should have done in the first place which is to complete my elementary education licensure. I live in Kill Devil Hills with my husband, Andy, and our son, Jake, who is 10 and in 5th grade. We recently adopted a black lab puppy named Acorn. He is a great addition to our family. I work with Andy at his fireplace store. I also work at the College here teaching Compensatory Education to the most amazing group. I also teach English as a second language with another great group. We are also very active in Jake's sports, cub scouts, school, and Church activities. In my spare time I enjoy baking, photography, scrapbooking, reading, and gardening. Growing up I read the usual Dr. Seuss and Mother Goose books, but my favorite book was Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. It remains one of my favorites today, although I primarily enjoy mysteries.
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| My sister, Debbie, and me. I think I was about 2 here. |
Upon reflecting my reading history, I realized how little I remember from that time. Perhaps it is my age or perhaps it is because we moved a lot growing up because my dad was in the Air Force. I started school in Berlin, Germany where I attended both preschool and kindergarten at an Amercican school. My sister, Debbie, was two years ahead of me in school, so I learned much of my first reading from her. What she learned in school, I learned from her. What I learned, I used to teach to my sister, Jacqui, who was a year behind me in school. We have a younger brother, Chuck, and I'm pretty sure by then we would all teach him what we learned. Mom and Dad used to read to all of us and had us read to them when we were able to do so. We had many books in our house to choose from and going to the library was commonplace. They were both "readers" and still are. They always tell the story of how they would find me in the hallway at bedtime reading an encyclopedia when I was three or four. I'm not sure why an encyclopedia because I'm quite certain I couldn't really read one at that age. When I was in first grade, I lived in Delaware and had the most amazing teacher, Mrs. Denny. I loved her style. I remember she would have us read at different levels, which was great for that time. She is one of the reasons I wanted to become a teacher. I remember how she made learning fun! Back then, we were given "Dick and Jane" books to learn to read as well as Basal Readers. These books used rote memory and repetitive words. This was not what they call "Whole Language" and was also before "Phonics". We did not have invented spelling, although I am sure I made mistakes and was corrected for the mispellings. We memorized words and spelling words. We read the same words over and over again.
In fourth grade, we lived in Omaha, Nebraska. We had a children's library in our neighborhood. I remember my sisters and I taking our brother's wagon to the library and loading it up with books. We could not read enough! We also created plays and skits. I remember, though, having an assignment where we had to do some research. I don't remember the details, just that for whatever reason, I did not like the assignment, which was odd for me. I do not want my students who are enjoying their school experience to have this feeling.
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| My son, Jake, and me at Skyline Drive in Virginia in 2010. |
Literacy is ever-evolving. Theories change, approaches change. But, if we can engage students, then they will have a better change of enjoying their reading and literacy experiences. What I first found interesting in the article, "Letting Go of the 'Letter of the Week'" by Bell and Jarvis, was how they said literacy was everywhere. It is more than words, it is symbols and how they all connect to help us get along in the world. I never thought of literacy that way. By using this theory, we do know that young students come prepared to school with reading ability. Our son would tell us where the Jeep dealership was on the way to daycare, or where to turn to get McDonalds. I always thought of it as emergent reading (and cute), but I never thought of it as "reading". Using this approach, we can turn away from starting with what students do NOT know, but rather start with what they DO know. Using the positive to teach literacy. I love this approach and can't wait to try this in my classroom. The authors also still use phonics with their teaching, but use them in a different context than choosing a letter each week. They make connections to the child's world with the new word. In our second article, "Characteristics of Exemplary First-Grade Literacy Instruction, by Morrow et al, the authors tell us that exemplary teachers have literacy-rich environments for their students. They include the wall displays in teaching literacy with weather charts, classroom rules, and student work. Exemplary teachers encourage social interactions with grouping of desks. There are spaces for both independent work as well as group work. They have many different types of reading experiences, including read-aloud, partner reading, guided reading, and independent reading. An inportant aspect of their literacy-rich experience is centers with large collections of books and audio books. The authors give me a good picure of what I should have in my phyical classroom as well as what I should offer my students within their routines. I'm looking forward to applying these in my classroom. I do feel that, although my experience was a bit unconventional with moving so often and having a different teaching approach (appropriate for that era), my experience was for the most part similar to what the authors describe. I also had a literacy-rich family. All of these combined make me who I am as a person and who I will be as a teacher. My good experiences combined with what I am learning will give me a sense of what students should get from a classroom. I had a great homelife and not every student will have this, so my classroom needs to be a place that encourages students to learn. The experience I had in fourth grade with that one assignment is not something I want to bring to my classroom, so I will strive to remember that feeling of unease and be creative with my assignments. I hope to be more like my first grade teacher Mrs. Denny and bring a sense of uniqueness to my room, making learning fun for all students.
