Personal Narrative: A Person Who Won T Read

My earliest reading memory was when I was five with the little golden book series. I loved getting new books and reading them. But most of all I loved when my mother read to me so I could look at the pictures as my imagination went wild with stories about Jack climbing up the beanstalk or a king searching a kingdom for a worthy princess.

“School made us ‘literate’ but did not teach us to read for pleasure.” -Ambeth R. Ocampo

After reading John Holt’s essay, How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading, I fully agree with what Holt is saying. He tells his audience that forcing children to read, use a dictionary and take quizzes on what they read has proven to deter children from enjoying reading. I liked reading it, I liked how he showed that he understood both sides of the situation, but then realized how important it was for children to just read. Even though they did not fully understand the material they still found parts of the readings that made them happy. I liked how Holt made the point about how embarrassed students would get when they had to read a difficult part in a book and classmates would snicker and giggle if they made a mistake. That is a real thing,

In order to truly and fully understand my history with reading, we must go back to the beginning of my narrative. The earliest memory of reading that I can recall is my mom reading me stories like The 10 Little Ladybugs. I absolutely loved when my mom or dad would read to me, and I wanted it to stay that way. I had no intention whatsoever to explore into my own individual reading endeavors. It seemed that my prayers would be answered, at least for a few years. It wasn't until I was in first grade that reading came back into the forefront of my very short attention span. We had started learning how to read, and I wanted nothing to do with it. My teacher, my parents, and even a few of my friends would try and get me to open a book but to no avail. This utter refusal to read

The more effort we use in studying the better results we will get. Certain people have a hard time comprehending school work from the first grade to throughout high school. For example, in the article “Saved,” the life of Malcolm X, the reader is told about Malcolm’s struggle with learning .One problem he had was he couldn’t write or read his own hand writing. The way he began to overcome his handicap was that he would copy and memorize words from the dictionary. When he entered prison he was illiterate. He could neither read nor write. Later on, to help his reading comprehension, he would spend time in the prison library. Spending an hour every day in the library helped to increase his comprehension.

As of late, the literacy rates in America have declined. In fact, over the past ten years “book reading [in] young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent” (why johnny won’t read pg. 575) Boys have a lower tendency to read than girls due to the fact that school forces them to read things that they are not interested in. Although in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read pg. 176,” Prose points out that

In all honesty, I don't remember a lot about becoming literate. I didn't have a special moment or time when I knew that reading or writing going to take me somewhere. According to my mom she started to read to me when I was one, so there wasn't anything that could've excelled me much farther before going into kindergarten. One of the requirements in elementary school was to read every night which I believe was an important factor of me improving my literacy. Reading and writing used to me excite me because I would immerse myself into a book or write a whole new universe on a page. I made reading and writing something personal to me. I now realize that every book and every piece of writing can be worthwhile in one way or another.

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.

The article Why kids should choose their own books to read in school struck a chord with me. Both of my children started school with what was classified as weak reading skills and both after being introduced to a genre and author that they truly loved became vivacious readers and rose to the top of their class. Research has shown that sustained silent reading and other independent reading programs have positive effects on student achievement results. While schools struggle with finding ways to include independent reading into their curriculum, the children’s librarian has the opportunity to connect children to books and help develop a lifelong love of reading.

Think back to that first magical moment where someone bought the story alive for you as a child. I can remember the first time my mother read to me a bedtime story before bed. That magical moment happened for me when she started to read and all of a sudden it was like the characters literally lifted off the page. The story almost became like a movie that she had let me watch that night before I went to bed. A magician is what she was to be able to make a book come to life right before my eyes. I couldn’t wait until I possessed the same magical powers. However, how surprised I was to find out that my journey to read would not be so smooth or quick as I thought. While

As a kid I used to read a lot and my family use to read to me. Reading was my favorite thing to do, but as I got older I got out the habit of reading. I stopped reading because there were a lot of distractions, such as watching TV, and being on my cell phone all the time. Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” I absolutely love that quote it inspires me and motivates me so much. I have so many early reading memories, school reading memories, and some reading obstacles that I have had to overcome, all influencing my current approach to reading.

I would like to preface this essay by stating that I am not fond of reading books. Starting in elementary school, with the way literature was handled, I began perceiving reading books as an obligation, nothing more. Few of the books we were made to read over the years interested me, so I tend not to read them out of my own volition. There were exceptions, of course – I enjoyed reading Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, for example.

My earliest memory of learning how to read was when I was about four or five years old. My siblings were mainly the ones who taught me to read before I even entered elementary school. By the time I did start attending school I was reasonably literate. One vivid memory I have that always comes to mind when I think of how I started reading was of my sister teaching me. We had these square little red Dora the Explorer books that were only 4 pages. My sister would have me read them out loud and waited patiently as I tried to figure the words out and get the pronunciation right. She made sure I was fluent in my reading abilities for that day before I could go play.

My earliest memories of reading start when my mom sent me to Christians studying school at six years old and the mentor would read out a handbook on heroes

“I want you to try it.” My dad said. He paused, then he continued” you never read and you aren't doing very well in literacy, so i need you to read”.But i didn’t want to, so i ran, ipod in hand, right up the steps to my room. I laid my bed and just looked at the ceiling... After a little bit I looked at my alarm clock and it said 11:30 in the morning on a saturday! I was going to waste my whole saturday in my room, waiting for my dad to come and talk to me about boring reading. I sighed the longest i ever have and layed back down.