James Patterson perfectly sums up my lengthy, arduous, and ever-changing relationship with reading. "There is no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books." As I grow older, and come to appreciate the influence that words have over the human mind and soul, this quote resonates with me more deeply. The interpretation of words has had an immense impact over my life, and is something I will be forever indebted to.
As a reader and writer I always faced given assignments with the intent of doing exceptional jobs and take a sense of pride in my work to complete my tasks. As a reader, I will bore myself through out an entire book and realize I didn 't understand a single thing. Although as a writer, I can go on for so long losing myself on a topic because it feels more interactive. Reflecting on my experiences as a reader and writer have been very bold, I never really found a joy or an interest to become the exceptional student who stands out amongst others because, I always felt ok with myself and my results with the way I did things.
For some people reading can be a difficult experience. For me it became difficult at the age of five years old. I really wasn’t an educational kid I was more of a kid that like to play with my toys and four brothers, whenever they came home from school. As I grew up reading became a little more difficult for me to master, at times in my middle school my teacher Mr.G would test us on how well and skilled we were at reading. Every day when it was time for him to test me I would get nervous and started to stubble on words and fail my test. By the time I was in high school I learned how to take my time and read, which has help me to progress my reading skills over the years.
When you’re young school is all about popularity and friends, but with a lack of word knowledge reading in class, especially out loud can destroy your credibility. I came from a blue collar background and none of my family ever attempted college, so I figured college wasn’t that important. During school, if it wasn’t interesting I didn’t want to participate or take the time to improve myself. Reading and writing was just another uninteresting, check the block, fake it till you make it, subject for me. I was a slow reader and often times I had to ask the teacher what a particular word meant. What was even worse was having to read out loud in class. Again, the fact that I was a slow reader and I often times mispronounced words caused me to be the subject of reticule and embarrassment. I started to hate reading because I couldn’t do it as well as the other kids; this continued from elementary
I haven't always been keen on reading as I am today. I can’t really remember the reason for my distaste in literature, but I think it mostly came from me just thinking that reading was too difficult or I was just me being a stubborn six year old not wanting to do it, but none the less I was like this for a lot of my earlier years. I was able to read a small amount of text because my parents teaching me, using Doctor Seuss books like Cat and the Hat and One FIsh Two Fish Red Fish Blue FIsh as learning tools to help me become more fluent. I never really understood reading until my stepmom moved in with us. Since my sister and I were still very young
It was with a teacher named Mrs. Cassie and a group of students who needed help with reading too. I read paper books that they gave me or I got to go to the library and pick out a book. At first, it started as read at your own pace out loud to the group and the teacher would help you with the words you didn’t know. Every time I started to read I would stutter and get nervous. If I knew that I was going to be the next reader, I would reread the paragraph silently over and over again to make sure I didn’t mess up. There were reading stages, the higher level you were at the harder the book was. I never was at a high level. After, a littler practicing with Mrs. Cassie reading got a little easier. I read in groups than would read one on one with the teacher. She timed me and marked every word I would mess up. I had to practice and write my times down every day. If the book wasn’t easy I stayed on that book until I was able to finish it. The times got shorter and the words went fast. I finally was able to read out
I didn't learn how to read until the third grade. One day i picked up a book with beautiful pictures and i so badly wanted to understand what it said. And so I did. It just clicked in my head all of a sudden and I was able to understand. Before too long I was reading everything in the school library. I would get lost in the different worlds and I learned the meaning of words I didn't know by reading the sentence/ paragraph it was in. Finally i felt like I had something that I was good at. I could outread my peers before too long and by the time I was 9 years old I was reading college level books with ease. I would be spending at least 4 hours a day just reading, finishing 400 page book in a matter of days. In reading I was able to gain confidence in myself at school, and when things got hard I could just slip into another story and forget about my
I’ve been reading as long as I can remember. The person who taught me how to read was my mother, I remember her making sure I knew how to read and write my name before I started preschool. After that point, I would read anything I could get my hands on that was my level. I also wrote, but not as much as I read. Magazines, the backs of cereal boxes, even the little books my mom would buy me. I remember my mom telling me “stop writing in your books, you’ll ruin them,” after that, I made sure to keep a pencil and paper with me in case I felt like I wanted to write.
When I was little, I would enjoy reading books such as, Henry and Mudge, and also Captain Underpants. These were some books that I was able to understand because of them being less rigorous. As a grade school student, I was never the strongest reader. It was hard for me to understand and comprehend the material I was learning. In class, we would read short chapter books together as a class and take brief quizzes on the chapter then after. I believe the turning point to becoming a substantial reader happened when my family and I moved. I attended a different school in a different school district going entering fourth grade. Switching schools I think has benefitted me, and I think it was good I was still little because I felt as if the new school district I was in, District 303 in Illinois, give students more assistance and one-on-one to help us become stronger readers. When my class would start reading in class, I would step out of class and meet a
As a child growing up, I never really enjoyed reading or was ever good at it on my own. I never could understand the words and what they were trying to say in a story. I was able to read the words but putting them together was always tough for me. Whenever my teachers would ask me to summarize what I read, I would panic and break down greatly. I never could remember what I was reading after I had read it to myself or even aloud. This always caused a great amount of stress for me, especially having to read aloud to the class. I was never good at reading aloud and always felt so embarrassed to do so. I would despise going to class because I always seemed to get called on to read aloud the most. In elementary school we would get taken out of class
Things that looked so easy to me to read, I started to turn away from due to the fact that I was afraid that I would find that my reading skills were not up to my grade standard. I started to question myself as a reader. I thought I can pass a standardized test for reading but in my free time I cant successful read a picture book for fun. The more the issued stayed in my head the more I lost confidence in my reading skill and also myself.
Two years ago, during the second semester of grade nine, I met one of the most influential people in my life. Her name is Mme. Robalino and she is the head of the moderns department at R.H King Academy and therefore teaches French and Spanish. She taught me French in grade 9 second semester and one of my favorite memories of that class was when she made us read a book and then do a presentation on it, I thought that this was a waste of time, as I did not think that this would improve my French. On the day that the class received the assignment I went to her and asked her why we had to do this assignment, she explained to me that it was necessary to test our reading skills, she also told me about how she use to question things that she had to
Reading is something that is taught to everyone in their early childhood, the time I learned to read I was very fond of books. I loved to read novels to myself and to read them out loud to my sister. I like reading action, thriller, historical fiction, and mystery. During my early childhood we would have challenges of reading such as wrapped up and reading, golden dragon. These were reading challenges for students to read 20-25 specific grade novels during the school year and at the end you got a party if you read at least 5-10. I used to love reading and at that time I would read at least 20 books because I wanted to go to the party and win something with the lottery tickets I got. My childhood was fulI of reading, even if I read because I was greedy and I read because of the party, it still improved my reading level. As I grew and grew my reading
I’ve never been one to read much outside of school without being assigned to do so. After looking back at my childhood I think I finally understand why. When you’re a student in elementary school teachers want you to be interested in reading and they tell you that it will make you smarter. Their approach to this is to assign you many readings during your early school years, have your parents sign that you actually did it, and make you write book reports about what you read. I remember when I was a kid I absolutely hated some of these exercises and absolutely loved some of these as well. I distinctly remember being in kindergarten and having to read a book to a high school student. The five year old version of me was more than embarrassed when my reading skills were not up to par and I was having to do it in front of a teenage boy. I also remember being in fifth grade and having to read one book every two weeks and write and draw a report on it. I loved this. Probably because for once I got to choose my own books and they were never assigned for me. I thought of it as a
This course has expanded my knowledge and view of reading and writing vastly. Following each paper, reading, and class discussion I learned more about myself as a student, and the world as a whole. I have found the books Rules for Writers and Ways of Reading thoroughly helpful throughout the course. This class entails a variety of aspects of the problem-posing concept of education; it truly involves the students and teaches them to think, read, and write individualistically, analytically, and clearly.