My mother taught me how to read at a young age. She read to me before I could read which helped me learn new words and develop a basic understanding of literature at an early age. When it came time for me to attend elementary school, I remember heading to the library quite often. Books were organized based on what was thought to be the appropriate reading material for that grade level. I often found myself wandering down the isles with the older kids. I’m so grateful my mother encouraged reading as much as she did. If she hadn’t, it’s very possible I could have struggled with reading. If this were true, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did, or had the desire to read, which is very important in order to become as advanced in literature as possible.
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.
My reading experience has had a lot of ups and downs. I was never an over-achiever in my language arts or reading classes, which has affected my passion for reading. A lot of my opinions about reading have changed even just since this summer. I don’t have any recollection of reading before kindergarten except for learning the letters. Kindergarten was a struggle for me, but after kindergarten to third grade. In third grade I peaked and absolutely loved reading and writing, but it faded in middle school and has been fading since then for me.
As a kid, I was always really shy and spent much of my free time reading books. In 4th grade, the teacher required that each month we read a certain amount of short stories or books and write a summary for each. I always completed the minimum requirement and read plenty extra books. Throughout the year, I always had the most stars next to my name for top reader, not because I wanted to collect as many gold stars as I could, but because I really enjoyed reading. I had my eyes glued to a book even when I was at home. I
I am sitting at my work desk reading an autobiography called the Blood of the Lambs, and I ponder about the amount of time having passed since I have sat down to a nice personal evening with a book. Upon reflection, I realize that the path I took to learning to read wasn’t an easy one and involved time, effort, and hard work.
We all know many kids who do not like to read from elementary to college. In the early school years, there was always an instructor or, a parent to always guiding us. Or they would say it’s time for silent reading or even force us to read. This always worked for the best because kids to today love to tell stories to friends and families. Malcolm X went to the Norfolk colony’s prison, library everyday where he would stay for at an hour. He felt like he was in heaven just from seeing all the different books. He would be concentrating so hard on the books, which he would stay up past the normal time to go to sleep. Sometimes when it would be lights out he would try to read in the dark just because the book was just starting to get interesting.
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.
“As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive,” wrote Malcolm X. As I grew up I really wasn’t a reader. Slowly as I continue to read I started to enjoy it .Today I love to sit and read a good book every now and then. Maybe someday I will write my own book.
I remember as a kid, how my parents use to take me to the library every month pick out a book. My parents would let me take at least two to three books home with me and they would read to me every other night before bed. When I first started elementary school, my parents learned that I had a learning inefficiency. That was when I was put into to the special program with Ms. Quick. When I started to progress in school my parents were literally forcing me to read a book every other day. As started getting older, I started to not to like reading because it was always little things that I would struggle with but my parents didn’t give up on me. From third to fifth grade, my parents were making me read chapter books; every night before bed my parents made me read a story to them for thirty minutes and afterwards, they would ask me to give an explanation on what I read to them. By the time I started junior high, I was a great reader. From then on, I had no problem with my reading abilities.
As a reader I have learned that you do not have to always be interested in what you are reading, but be able to read it to your understanding. From an early age I have always loved reading, but as I grew up reading became harder for me, and the literature of the reading became less interesting to me.
Growing up I was a very avid reader. I remember the first books I successfully read by myself. They were a series directed towards preschoolers called, “Where’s Spot?” written by Eric Hill. There are over twenty books in the Spot series and I’m damn sure I read every single one of them. I would come home ever day after preschool and kindergarten and read the Spot books aloud as I was walking around the house. If you can’t already tell, I was a very self-absorbed child. And although the books are extremely simple, with about one word on each page, and any human being older than ten can probably tell you the exact plot simply based off of the title, I always prided myself in being able to read them. However, soon after I found reading to be a lot less rewarding because as most self-centered children I sought recognition for all my actions, as a dog seeks a treat for being able to do a trick. It became something I was expected to be able to do instead of something I was special for doing.
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
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
As a kid, I never had a real interest in reading. I would dread when I was assigned a reading assignment. Every night, in elementary, we did this paper called a Reading
Many different events in my life lead up to my ability to read. There are words all around no matter where we go, so not learning how to read was never an option for me. My mother got me interested in reading first because as a child she would sit me on her lap and read short children's stories to me. At night time, she would tuck me in and read me a bedtime story. Her voice flowed so smoothly through each word and she even mad the sound effects to make the story come alive. It became a point in time where I would no longer wait for my mother to read into me, I would take out a book and attempt to read on my own. Not knowing what any of the words meant or what they were saying I would try my best to read them still. That was only the beginning for me, when I enrolled in kindergarten and my teacher would assign homework to us there was always some form of reading that was required. I would sit at the kitchen table, struggling to pronounce each word.