Analysis Of The Little Golden Book : The Ugly Duckling

Kim Brooks, we know has been “teaching composition at state universities and liberal art colleges and community colleges as well,” (Brooks 2) however what makes her truly passionate about the situation is her love for literature since she was a teenager. “Like so many, depressive, creative, extremely lazy high-school students, I was saved by english class” (1). Brooks demonstrates through these quotes her credibility, not only because she’s a teacher but because she truly loves writing and believes others should receive the education which she was fortunate enough to get. She was not apart of any clubs or extracurriculars, she wasn’t interested in other academic classes, so she knows how beneficial having the skills to converse, to write and to properly articulate one's self are. Brooks shares this personal anecdote, otherwise known as pathos, to relate to those reading, most specifically high school students like she once was. While focusing this piece mainly on English it can also be associated with other classes in high school as well. She is trying to illustrate how one can use what is learned in high school in their life if given the proper tools and taught skills which can be applied

In Francine Prose’ paper, “I know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read”, Prose describes why many high school student dislike reading literature that the American education system has preached. The premise of her essay is that today’s high school English classes are largely flawed in both material and teaching method. Prose contends that these practices are damaging to the students’ understanding and appreciation of literature. She harshly critiques the quality of required reading in American high schools and suggests a reconsideration of the English curriculum. She challenges the audience to acknowledge the curriculum’s impact on high school students and urges the audience to consider how it may addressed. Prose crafts her argument by using an appeal to logos, asking rhetorical questions and employing negative connotation.

The inevitable had happened; I, as a small child, was demanded to read. A little antisocial human being launched into a world of, at first, difficult words and lengthy phrases. While words and literacy were forced into my mind, I had reluctantly begun the adventure to enjoy and accept the art of literature. Later however, my hopes and dreams were crushed to pieces by a gruesome teacher with an interesting form of a so called “grading policy.”

In Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read: How American High School Students Learn to Loathe Literature”, the author is trying to explain why high school students are not asked to read more quality pieces of literature now a days. In my opinion I agree with Prose because I think the texts we read in high school are not challenging and not a lot of students enjoy the readings because they cannot relate. Prose uses the rhetorical strategy of degrading the books high school students are reading and she uses her own personal experiences to support her argument.

In “I Know Why The Caged Bird Cannot Read” by Francine Prose, the author tries to prompt the audience that the level of literature in schools needs to change. The piece highlights on how school literature should have more value and diversity than it currently does. Prose explores her point by comparing the reading lists from various cities around the United States and chastises the similarities of choices of literature for young adults. Using rhetorical questions, Prose calls for a change for literature to be chosen by value and lessons instead of popularity.

In his piece entitled “ Disliking books” Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, tells his story of how with some helpful insights he shifted from disliking literature to enjoying reading and analyzing the texts. The author shares that during his early school years he developed an aversion to literature as well as most liberal arts disciplines for not being able to find their application in his daily life. Coming from a middle class family, it was expected that young Graff would go to college. Since no particular discipline really interested him and his family did not own a business to set him up on a successful business path, he decided to major

In literary education, from childhood to maturity, individuals are taught how to write not to improve themselves as critical thinkers, but to fulfill the requirements given to them in a prompt. Whether to analyze or argue, this form of writing has led to a cease of literary improvement in students today, making many question the effectiveness of writing classes. Mike Bunns, in his article “To Read like a Writer”, explores this topic and stresses the necessity for young readers to critically examine the author’s choices in order to improve their own pieces of work. Bunns effectively argues to his audience of college students that improved comprehension comes from focusing on the rhetorical choices authors decide to make in their compositions by tying personal narratives with repetitive questioning throughout his article.

Throughout my years of schooling, I have become ambivalent about reading and writing. I have struggled in school to make myself enjoy writing. I didn’t mind reading as much, as long as it was to my interest. It has differed throughout the years I have been in school. Some years I have enjoyed both, reading and writing, and other years I have not liked either. Getting myself to enjoy reading and writing has been quite the adventure.

As a product of South Central Los Angeles the expectations bestowed upon me were less than remarkable. I grew up in a system of public schools where textbooks and classrooms where infested with graffiti and marker lines by students with no intention to learn. As a child growing up this kind of environment I did what I saw around me. Ignored my education and focused on making friends. Both my parents worked full time jobs so time spent with them was limited, I never cared much for reading or writing as a child, books where never a gift; more of a chore that was taking up time from my true interested. It was by these guidelines that I never saw the true magic behind literature until now a grown up.

When I was eight or nine years old, I decided I wanted to be a writer. By this age, I had already gone through the phases of wanting to be an artist, a cook, an astronaut and was extremely satisfied with my new choice of profession. After all, I loved to read so why not write? Reading was my true love: during second grade, I conquered all of Harry Potter over the course of two months. My mom’s rule was that I had to read the book before watching the movie, so I read and read. I would compete in, and win, all the school reading competitions as well as the summer library competitions. Writing, I decided, was the next natural step.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

Have you ever read such a great book that you became completely infatuated with it? You feel the pain, happiness, sadness that the characters feel; you feel as if you personally know the characters. You begin to forget that what you are reading is just a creative piece of writing because you are so infatuated with it. Reading for pleasure is a way to escape reality, a way to be inspired, a way to become more knowledgeable, and even a way to gain a new identity (Storm). In this day and age however, students prefer not to read for pleasure during their free time, such as summer vacations (McGaha). A major obstacle that students face today is technology. With technology expanding so rapidly, it seems that students are more focused on owning

Reading was the new outlet for my imagination and the stories I read fascinated me. They weren’t too unlike the scripts of computer games or the own stories I came up with on my own, but books actually had the action and emotional aspects written out. And again, while my peers were reading things about growing up, things that had morals and would teach valuable lessons (I remember one book about a shoplifter who had to do community service at an animal shelter), I read real fiction: Jurassic Park, Dragonriders of Pern, Lord of the Rings… Stuff of fantasy and science-fiction that let my mind stray from reality. Stuff that kept my imagination alive while I was being forced to learn multiplication and the names of countries. Of course, my teachers encouraged me to keep reading, as long as I wasn’t doing the reading in the middle of their lectures. But it wasn’t because of their influence, however, that kept me interested in books. It was because I loved it. It put pictures into my head and made me think. So I kept reading. But even then I knew reading wasn’t enough… Yes, the stories were fascinating, but they weren’t what I wanted. Back then I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but as middle school came to a close, I found it.

As a child, my interests were more focused on reading than writing. In elementary school I fell in love with books. Initially I read simple children’s books, much like everybody else in my class, but it did not take long for my passion to drive me to read more difficult writings. Fiction books quickly became a replacement for any childhood toys. Instead of blocks or stuffed animals I would ask my parents for books. Since they were aimed at young readers, they tended to be short. I found myself going through them within days, and then soon several hours. Towards the end of elementary school I was reading series like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was captivated, and reading truly opened up a whole new world for me.

Based on the discussion of Lucy’s personal interests inside and outside of school, it may be motivational and effective to inform reading and writing instruction by using her favorite book series, Jack and Annie by Mary Pope Osbourne. The series follows a brother and series through their time travels to places in the past, the future, and places that are only in their imagination. Lucy lit up talking about the book series and mentioned that she would like to take a magic carpet ride to Paris, France to ride around in an “electric wheel chair.” She made it known that the magic carpet ride would have to take place in the future because in the past there was “no sunscreen and everything was cheap.” Since Lucy enjoys time travel and animals, it may enhance her word and reading study by incorporate book with those themes. The Personal Interest Survey was the first assessment to be administered to the student. The next survey to be administered to the student will be the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey.