I can’t remember. I believe that it would have been prior to first grade, because my mother had already taught me to read years earlier. I do remember how inane (I didn’t know it at the time) it seemed to me that in school, there were books that included:
See Dick. See Jane. See Dick run.
See Spot. See Jane chase Spot.
Even at five or six years old, I wondered, “Who talks that way? It’s baby talk!” Of course, there were other students who had not been taught to read at home, so they needed that chopped up verbiage to help them along. The teacher assessed each of us for our reading abilities and created reading groups accordingly, and divided us into three groups. The goal was to have as many students reading at a Group One level by the time we went to second grade.
At reading time, Group One would take turns reading a sentence or two from a story; comprehension and building vocabulary were the measuring sticks the teacher used to gauge our progress. Often, the teacher would stay with us at Group One for just a few minutes until she saw that we were doing well, then she would go to help Groups Two or Three, both of which required more one-on-one instruction.
If a student struggled to keep up with his or her group’s level, he or she would be moved down a group, or if he or she mastered the group level, could be advanced to a higher group.
I started out in Group One and never deviated. Even at that young age, it made me feel great. Group Two students had to read only a few words or a phrase from a sentence because they were not up to handling full sentences yet. Group Three students were learning the alphabet and phonics.
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Randy D 