1 of 16

Write now Article Tools

I never liked being called "bookish," but I have been hearing it ever since since primary school years. Grades 1 through 3 I boarded at a Catholic military school.

In the Juniors Yard there was a cabinet to which Sister Cristina had a key. In it we kept any privately owned toys or equipment such as baseball gloves, balls, tops, bags of marbles, and yo-yos. I was the weird kid who kept a book in the cabinet. The first full-length one that I read was an adventure story targeted at el-hi girls. I don't know how I came into possession of it, but I remember the basic plot and the title, "Linda Carlton's Island Adventure."

The only classroom activity that remains in my memory was standing up to read aloud. Poor readers stumbled and hesitated, sounding out difficult words. I tried to show off by reading as fast as I could get the words out. Finally, the nun slowed me down to a reasonable rate, and I stopped spraying book pages and nearby students with spittle.

When WWII ended, I left the detested boarding school and began 4th grade at a parochial day school. St. Barnabas School had a radical approach to teaching spelling. All students were periodically given a hundred-word spelling test. If you had a perfect score or only missed one or two words, you were put in the section for 9A and 9B spellers. Miss a few more and you were in 8A-8B, and so on down the numerical scale. I never misspelled more than two words and often got 100%. Consequently, I was in the 9A-9B spelling group - for five consecutive years and had the same list of words thrown at me.

During spelling period each new word was discussed in terms of meaning and any tricky orthographic problems presented. Mnemonic devices were suggested. "There's a lot of air in the middle of a prairie." "There are two s's' in dessert because you want two helpings. Then the class spelled the word aloud with eyes closed while "writing it in the air." Then we took pen or pencil and wrote the word on the topmost line of a sheet of paper; then we turned the paper upside down and repeated the action; then turned the paper upright and wrote the word in the upper right hand top column, until eventually we had columns of words - the top half right side up, the lower half upside down - eventually meeting in the center of the binder paper.

I have no clue where they got the collection of spelling words. I do know that I learned to spell some words I never wrote or typed more than once or twice in a half century of studying and teaching

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The making of an English teacher?
We want to hear your view. Write now!