Tasha PeeteMemphis, TNRetired English Teacher
Lesson Pal
As a young child, I enjoyed reading so much. My mother was very much aware of this, so when she took my sister and me to get our ears pierced, she gave us a reward for sitting still. My sister asked for a wind- up Smurf toy, but I simply wanted a Little Golden Book. My love for reading continued throughout elementary school, but for some reason, my love fizzled out when I got to middle school and high school. During those years, I was in advanced classes, and I simply was not interested in the texts that were being provided. Whenever a teacher said anything about William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, or Nathaniel Hawthorne, I cringed. I felt the same way in college. My love for reading did not return until I became an English teacher. It was at this point that I was able to make reading fun for my students. When students saw how passionate I was for Shakespearean plays and other literature, they became passionate themselves. As a result, I believe that it is important for students to have teachers who are passionate about the subject that they teach.
I probably lost my love for reading in the upper grades because many of my teachers often would tell me and my classmates to read complex texts on our own. We would then have to write an essay. However, they would not explain the text to us. Instead, they would just expect us to be able to pass tests on the literature without further explanation. My teachers assumed that because they were teaching advanced classes that we did not need assistance with the reading. Even though my college professors did have discussions about the assigned reading, I still did not enjoy reading as much as I did when I was a child.
When I first became a teacher, I made the mistake of repeating the same teaching methods of just allowing students to read on their own without explaining the texts. When I saw how bored they were, I knew that I would have to change quickly. In order for students to fully understand the text, I began l
