Bookworm

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Bookworm

• My Life as a Reader and a Writer
• Merryellen Towey Schulz, Ph.D.

Prepared as an example of a literacy story for
Education 352, Teaching Language Arts College of
Saint Mary
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I loved Dick, Jane, and Sally. I wanted a nice
family like that with a smiling mommy and a happy
daddy. Spot and Puff were so cute, and I am
still looking for Zeke, the handyman.
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Ig-pay atin-Lay??
What did pigs have to do with it? For that
matter, what did Latin have to do with it?
Little pictures have big ears.
Were they like a rabbits ears? I was onto this
one. They just didnt want me to hear what they
were saying! So, of course I learned to listen
especially closely when I heard these words.
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Naughty words?
!_at_!
Why was it all right for adults to use some words
that children were punished for using?
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Alphabet Quilt
Instead of sleeping during afternoon nap time, I
would lay on the bed tracing the letters on a
quilt and matching the sounds to the pictures of
animals sewn next to the letters.
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Omaha World Herald
As he read the newspaper, I climbed on my
fathers lap and asked him to teach me how to
read. He showed me these words and told me to
look through the front page and find them.
Eisenhower Rosenblatt the
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Stories
At Grandmas house, Great Aunt Hazel read fairy
tales and fables to my sisters, brother, cousins,
and me. She died when I was 8 and I became the
reader. Rumpelstiltskin, Dick Wittington, The
Emperor and His New Clothes, Sleeping Beauty, .
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Books, Books, Books
I loved books and the places I could find them.
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Poetry
My very first poems.
Teachers read poetry after lunch. Below is a
link to one of my favorites.
Raggedy Man by James Whitcomb Riley
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Handwriting
It seemed like everyone had a different name for
me.
I experimented with handwriting.
Merryellen
Merry Ellen?
Colleen ?
Merryellen
Mary Alice?
Merryellen
Merryellen
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Sources of New and Unusual Words
begat beatitude hallowed myrrh Vietnam Tet cold
war espionage Hanukah karati
The Bible
Television
Movies
Church
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Writing

• Because I had to keep secrets, my writing was
  somewhat inhibited in school. However...
• In third grade a story I wrote about watching a
  cardinal outside my bedroom window with my sister
  was published in Highlights.
• In sixth grade a piece I wrote about how much I
  enjoyed learning science, especially electricity,
  was published in Highlights.
• In Creative Writing, a haiku I wrote was
  published in Totem, and my teacher submitted a
  story of mine to Seventeen Magazine.

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Haiku A blind man can see more than a man who
can see only the darkness. Merryellen
Towey Omaha North High School
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The Power of Words
In AP English my senior year, I wrote the truth
in an assigned autobiography. It changed my
life. My teacher became my advocate and helped
me obtain scholarships that funded my entire
undergraduate education. I learned that writing
from the heart is very powerful.
My dream came true and I became a teacher.
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Adult Years

• Read to our children everyday.
• Continue to read many many books.
• Constantly learn more about teaching reading
  and writing - everything.
• Use childrens literature extensively in content
  teaching.
• Write grants for money to enhance teaching.
• Wrote many papers and a doctoral dissertation.
• TECHNOLOGY!
• Read to my grandchildren.