English Is My Favorite Subject

Education. Why is it such an easy word to understand but such a tedious task to accomplish? We come from a society that hands out education easily, however that education comes with a price. Jean Anyon explains this process through her research in From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Anyon dissects the socio-economic class that determines the types of instruction students receive. Through her research one can compare her findings to Mike Rose’s narrative, I Just Wanna Be Average, to be true and insightful. Rose speaks of his high school life as an underachiever as well as his ability to break free from the mold that he was once placed in. Comprehending both Anyon and Rose, I, myself, have come face to face with the

When we were required to read books for school, other classmates complained about it, but it was one of my favorite parts of class. Even though I didn’t always like the books, I liked to read books that I wouldn’t have picked out to read. I liked being surprised when I enjoyed a book that I didn’t think I would like.

Often times, we rely on the world to we live in to shape us. From mass media, to magazines to commercials, we always find ourselves seeking the next best thing instead of what we already have. The way society shapes us develops each and every one of us because we are persuaded by such advertisements. Robert Scholes of “On Reading A Video Text”, and Shirley Jackson of “The Lottery”, show appropriate examples of the world we live in today. Robert Scholes proves how distorted and misconceiving people construe the world through the “Lottery”, proving his idea of cultural reinforcement.

Upon entering English 111 on-line class, I had not taken an English class on-line before. In the past I have taken several other basic classes. English has always been a struggle for me, mainly writing and grammar. Neither, writing or grammar has come natural to me. The biggest challenge for me is putting my thoughts into words.

English has never been an easy subject for me. It is something that I've needed to work at constantly in order to achieve a grade that I am satisfied by or more likely, my parents are satisfied by. Throughout high school I have been a person who is naturally gifted in mathematics, physics and chemistry. These subjects are straightforward to me because I knew if I worked harder I would obtain a higher grade, but with English it always seemed that even if I put in more effort it wasn't a given that I’d see better results.

In elementary school, I loved to read. Writing was not a big deal either due to the fact that we did not have to write four page essays. It was in first grade when I started to like reading. Reading has just been freshly introduced, considering we had only completed one year of school. My teacher always read to us and I wanted to read those books as well. Throughout elementary school I started to read Junie B. Jones books, which were my favorite. All of the books were about a first grade girl and her different adventures. I had always enjoyed reading those books. Each book had a different topic which I would always relate to in some way. Although I liked to read, I did struggle with reading comprehension which made me dislike writing as well. I hated having to read and then go and write about it. To this day, I still do not like reading comprehension, but my feelings toward reading and writing have changed.

Applying the writing skills learned in English 101, which includes determining audience and purpose, organization, and grammar and mechanic usage, is also a major goal for students in their second semester of freshman English. The ability for a writer to determine their audience and purpose is essential for all writing. In my proposal essay advocating a plan to stop texting and driving I said “As the number of collisions from cell phone related distractions rises, something must be done to significantly reduce the regularity of this event. This problem affects all age groups, sexes, and ethnicities and it is in our hands as drivers to create safer, more responsible roadways.” In these two sentences, I stated the purpose of my argument which

Before I began elementary school, I enjoyed reading picture books, the touch and feel books and pop-up books. I loved the author Dr. Suess, because he was funny and because I loved the rhyming he did in his writing. I can remember before bed, my mom or dad would read to me until I got old enough to read myself. My mom has always enjoyed reading, if she is not reading a book, then she is reading a recipe or a magazine. My dad on the other hand, I have only seen him read one book, besides reading manuals for his tools. Reading was not a big deal in my house, all of us kids were told that we needed to read, but they did not force us to read. This brings me to Richard Rodriguez’s essay, in his household reading was not as important, but once he got to school, he realized that reading is one of the main activities. I can relate to Rodriguez because in either one of our households we weren’t told that we had to read before we did something else. Once I got to elementary school is when I realized that reading was not for me. Before school, I enjoyed reading, then once I began elementary school, I was forced to read, take tests over books, and read out loud in front of the class which made reading a chore.

I can’t exactly say that I remember learning to read. I was fortunate enough to have gone to a very good private school where reading and writing was taught in preschool and reinforced all throughout the elementary and middle school grades. Reading aloud in class was part of the daily curriculum, and because the school I went to was Catholic, we’d often read the readings in front of the entire school during our weekly Mass. I remember reading, but I don’t really remember the process of learning how to.

Ever since I was a child, I never really enjoyed the subject of English. Aside from me considering the subject to be boring my vocabulary always seemed to be lacking compared to my peers, and the time I spent on reading passages and answering questions about those passages was much longer than my classmates’. However, my literacy skills started to slowly develop, and I ended up appreciating English in my junior and senior years of high school.

Remember being taught something new in a mathematics class and thinking to yourself, “when am I ever going to use this in life?” Sure, not every mathematical theory taught in class will be used in your career, but from my experience, many of the skills learned in mathematics are frequently utilized each day. While mathematics may not be everyone’s favorite subject, I found it to be not only the subject I use the most outside of school, but the one that I enjoy the most, which is why mathematics is my favorite subject.

Yet it was the beginning of junior year that I began reading at the rate I do today. I can definitely attribute some of it to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. This book was assigned to us by Mr. Boyle, and it remains a favorite to me today. I’m not here to give a synopsis or a critique of the book, but the importance of literature is a central motif (to put it lightly). I suppose it was a combination of Bradbury and spare time that lead me to take to

Along with vocabulary, grammar is another area in which I had problems. For instance, I was still getting confused about proper sentence structure. I worked on this by completing a 30 page workbook full of different sentences to assist me. From learning verbs to compound-complex sentences the worksheets covered it all. I was starting to realize this class and Mr. Horbacz were all about fine tuning me for my big transition into college. The next thing I did was learn how to organize my thoughts onto paper and write an essay. I knew how to write a basic five paragraph essay, but my skills were limited. These are all things I struggled with at the beginning of the year, but soon I started to grow in each area.

Through the years of elementary school, I excelled in reading because of the comprehension I had and my love for books. We were always required to read a book, because we needed a certain amount of accelerated reading points each month. My favorite books were Junie B. Jones and Captain Underpants. I enjoyed reading during these years because it came natural to me and I admired the fictional aspects of books and the way they could make my mind run wild. The teachers I had I credit some of my success to because they helped me succeed in reading during elementary school.

From an early age I loved to read. At just two years old I would beg my mother to enroll me into school. I watched as my older sister meticulously picked out her outfit each night in preparation for the next school day. At such a young age I somehow knew that this thing called “school” was the answer to something spectacular. My home was chaotic and reading became an escape and helped distract me from the unpleasant family dynamic.