I Read My Favorite Book

We had what was called ‘Renaissance Reading’ and we had to meet our A.R. goals every 6 weeks. If we met our A.R. goal, then we would be rewarded. I didn’t mind all the reading because I absolutely loved to read, and I still do. In 6th grade I had a 12th grade reading level. I was very proud of that. I met every one of my A.R. goals in junior high and every year I got to go to Lake Tomahawk. It was so rewarding and I loved to get the day off of school. At Lake Tomahawk they let us swim, go down slides, jump off the blob, play sports, ride kayaks, etc. Being able to have that experience really influenced my reading and made me want to achieve my goals. Now that I am in high school, we don’t have A.R. goals. We don’t get rewarded for our achievements. We are treated like adults sometimes. Since I got into high school, I have not read as much as I used to. I would read the required books for my classes, but I did not read on my free time. In addition to that, I do not have a lot of free time. I enjoy reading and writing and it is very influential to my

While my love for reading sprouted, I soon became obsessed with writing. My passion for reading only helped my writing skills to prosper. In fifth grade, I had a teacher who very well understood that reading and writing were important. Every day, we had a half an hour to write about whatever we wanted. Boy, my imagination ran wild. I often wrote fiction stories. My favorite part was when the teacher allowed us to share our stories with the whole class at the end of the week. This one activity really sparked the beginning of my love for writing.

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.

After a grueling first quarter, I was completely miserable, with terrible grades, low self-esteem, and no end in sight. I was hanging on to the hope that there would be some epiphany moment, a moment where suddenly my writing soared, along with my grades. That change did happen, but not all at once‒ it began during the third quarter, when my teacher, Ms. Boynton, asked me to stay after class, along with five other students. She asked if we would each be interested in participating in The Atlantic and College Board Essay Contest, in which we would each submit an analysis of a famous American speech. I was truly stunned that she had chosen me over so many other students in the class, since I had felt so lost for so many weeks, but it was exactly what I needed as motivation to keep on improving my writing. As I worked closely with her on my contest submission and other class work, I came to realize how much she cared about me and wanted to help me succeed. With that being said, she never made it easy; she continually pushed me, knowing that I could always do better if I set my mind to it. Last September, I began her demanding course with the intention of purely surviving, not necessarily thriving, but that

Many of my teachers were unwilling to spend one-on-one time with me to allow me to understand at the correct pace, that was until last year when Sarah Wansley stepped in and really helped me to understand grammar, reading, and writing. The most recent book I read was Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, although the book was required for a school project I now consider it to be my favorite book. During the research of Alboms memoir I learned not only how to research and look at the background and continuations of some novels, but also that there are books for everyone to enjoy and get lost in no matter how many book you have read and found completely boring. I often found reading to be just that, reading, I never digested and understood the text. I would read a sentence and two seconds later I could not tell you a single word of it, because I was never digesting the words on the page to make sense. That is the main reason I did not enjoy many books assigned for school, I would only read it to answer the questions on the study guide and then a majority of the time I would fail the tests because I never took the extra time to enjoy the

From a young age, I was considered a competitive individual in the activities I participated. Once I was given a challenge I would try my hardest to be number one. I have always loved to read, enter spelling bees and public speaking competitions. I have encountered many challenges in life, but writing has always seemed to be the most tedious activity. Soon I began to have to read more books, write papers, and do even more presentations. With everything piling so quickly, that competitive spirit within myself passed and was replaced with fear of not doing well. My fear lead to my struggles in my classes, especially English.

As I read the comments on my Instagram post, I laugh. I had posted a picture from when I was little, so of course, my friends had to make sarcastic comments on it. While I was reading them I noticed words like “lol”, “tho”, and “bc”. I was five in the picture and I was not taught to write like that. No one was. We were taught to read beyond our level, write grammatically correct, spell right, and speak clearly. Well at least that was what my sister, Riley, taught me when we turned her bedroom into a classroom and played school. Riley is two years ahead of me in school. When she would come home, she would teach me what she learned that day. I loved playing school and it gave me an appreciation for reading and writing because we did it for fun. This also allowed me to strive for more than average since she was teaching me things the others wouldn’t learn for a couple of years.

When I first began learning how to read and write, I often found myself struggling to grasp the concepts. Looking back on my experience, I can recall how a lot of the other kids in my class encountered no difficulty. Compared to the majority of them, I worked at a slower pace and required more frequent help from my teacher. Eventually, it got to the point where I questioned if the idea of being able to read and write independently was even possible. Although I was struggling and would often get down on myself, I never let the obstacles I encountered stand in the way of advancing my skills. As a learner, I desired to improve and believed that I had the ability to do so. Therefore, I took action and began receiving help from my older sister.

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.

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales

From elementary school to the beginning of middle school, I loathed reading and writing. It was undeniably my worst subject and my teachers could tell. With each piece of classwork and homework I turned in, they made notes on how I needed to be more descriptive, check my grammar, and try to engage my readers. I simply did not understand parts of speech, sentence structure, diction, and everything else involved with articulating sentences in the English language. As I continued getting criticism on my work, I decided that this subject was not for me. I felt defeated, and my plan was to do what it took to get by and accept my failure in English. This negative mindset continued until the middle of 6th grade when I learned about the Future Next program.

At this point in my life, reading would definitely not make a list of my favorite things to do, but this wasn’t always the case. Some of my youngest memories involve reading, and many of these memories are enjoyable. Every night before bed my mom would read to me, and I remember begging to read just one more before she tucked me in almost every night. This is when my love for reading sparked. Throughout grade school, I continued to read frequently and never found it to be a chore; however, once middle school hit I no longer included reading as a past time or found it pleasurable. Looking back now I realize this was when English class included more forced literature, and school consisted of reading extensive pages in textbooks. Reading

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.

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.

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.