Reflection Of Reading And Writing

I sat in my fourth grade classroom staring at the bookshelf when suddenly I caught a glimpse of a dark blue book with a heroic being on the front. I lifted the heavy book and began reading Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. As soon as I started I fell into this mythical world where gods, monsters, and heroes all existed. It was a rollercoaster through my emotions. The thrill. The suspense. The surprising new book had a grasp on me, to stop reading it would be difficult. I felt attached. As soon as I started, I finished. Devastated, my chase of this feeling has never stopped, no other book has given me the same fulfillment as Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. As a young reader I would love to find the same joy and thrill (as I did back

Writing has always been something I dread. It’s weird because I love talking and telling stories, but the moment I have to write it all down on paper, I become frantic. It’s almost as if a horse race just begun in my mind, with hundreds of horses, or words, running through my mind, unable to place them in chronological order. Because I struggle to form satisfying sentence structure, it takes me hours, sometimes even days, to write one paper. It’s not that I think I’m a “bad writer,” I just get discouraged easily. Needless to say, I don’t think highly of my writing skills. When I was little I loved to both read and write. I read just about any book I could get my hands on, and my journal was my go to for my daily adventures. Although it’s

Writing has become an intrigue part of education as students are routinely asked to demonstrate their knowledge through writing. Students will utilize their ability to write effectively throughout their school years and on into their careers. At the close of this semester, I now understand the terminology “writing across the curriculum”, and how I can implement it in my own classroom.

Growing up I was never the best writer or reader. Every time I read a certain book for school, I tend to just read past the lines and not know what I just read. Some material would be interesting but never caught my attention to the point that attracted my interests. Writing was extremely difficult since it takes a lot of patience and exact wording that I need to use to make my essay come out clean. Plenty of ideas would come up when I am writing my paper, however I just don’t know how to get it all down on the piece of paper. My mind would go off tangent to think about the ideas that I wrote before on the paper and then I will try to include those ideas into my paper. This causes a negative flow throughout my essay and results of the

picking up a book starts a journey by opening the first page to reading the last. It concise of twists, turns, and childlike excitement . When I was younger I read book for class , never for enjoyment . I hated talking in front of people having them watch me speak. Growing up with a speech impedient I doubted my ability to express myself. Repeating words after word it was frustrating . It wasn’t till I got older that I finally learn appreciate books . Through reading I was given another voice.

“Time's up, pencils down, papers to the front everyone”. I had sixty minutes to write a narrative essay, and I thought I had blown it out of the waters, as usual.I was raised in a literate household.My intelligence was never questioned because it was embedded into my DNA. From a young age, I had no choice but to excel in writing; it was one of the only ways that I would get praised.

For many students, writing an essay is not their strong suit, and I was one such student until this year. In middle and high school, I dreaded writing essays mainly because I despised how we were forced to follow a strict format to develop our ideas. The universal structure that I was taught included an introduction, 3 to 5 body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. Even within each paragraph, we had to adhere to follow a strict outline. The introductory paragraph had to be written with an attention getter as the first sentence, followed by introductory details on the topic and a thesis that outlined the subject of each body paragraph. Body paragraphs had to start with a topic sentence that described the focus of the paragraph while connecting it back to the thesis. After the topic sentence, claims and supports should follow. The conclusion should restate the thesis without copying it verbatim from the thesis; in addition, as you restate the thesis, you should include some of the details discussed in the body paragraphs. Finally, you end the conclusion by connecting the focus of the paper to something greater.

As a child, reading was always a endeavor to look forward to. It all started when I was in Kindergarten and my teacher would read us books at story time after lunch. The whole class would sit in a circle, sitting crissed-crossed-apple-sauce, lingering on every word she spoke from the colorful pages of a lucky book. I remember thinking to myself, “I wish I could read books and create a world in my head that only I could interpret.” The following year, as a class, we would go to third grader's hallway and one class would improve our reading skills by reading books with us. I was excited that I could finally start to learn how to read to myself and explore an author's work of fiction. By third grade, I could read any book that I wanted to. As a class we would go to the library once a week and check out any book. However, I read a book in a couple days so I went more than one day a week. The best parts of the year were when we had a book fair. It was exciting to see all the new books that had recently come out. I loved to cast my vote on which books they should purchase and add to the library. In addition, there was always a jar filled with candy or little toys that we had to guess how many were in the jar. The person who guessed the closest got to keep the jar and got a free book. Honestly, no one could resist buying something from the school supply section. It was filled with things such as food shaped erasers or pens with poof balls attached to them. Those were the times

The reading and writing practice that were done in class help me implement new technique in my writing. There were presentations in class that discussed different ways to become a better writer. The skills that were developed help with my writing and can use the skills to implement in others course, helping to form better essay. I learned about words that are not recommended of being used, how to transition, and where to look for good scholarly articles. A practice that was done for every assignment was to go over the first draft and finding new ways to improve upon it. Going over the first draft help me improve my writing.

Learning about another country was something I was not use to before this class. In other classes we would study the history of America and only briefly discuss other countries. The same was true for literature, so studying British literature was something different. This class helped me to learn about how literature and history are linked together. The writings of a certain time period can show a direct reflection of the events of the time. This class also helped me develop as a writer. The many strategies I have learned this semester have helped me to become a better writer with more professional standards through the development of writing strategies, revising strategies, and research strategies.

“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don't suppose many people try to do it.”. People read all the time. They read for information, for escape, for entertainment, for instruction, for guidance. They read recipes and tweets and texts. They read newspapers, blogs, and Facebook replies. As I reflect on my reading memories, I realize they represent the journey I have traveled, leading me to my current academic path. I grow very uninterested in the article that I’m reading, once I lose interest it more of me looking at the words and not actually digesting what I’m reading.

I have never despised reading; I just could not grasp the importance of reading and how it would beneficial to me and my growth. Not only were my teachers pressing this upon me but my parents as well, the passages that I had to read in class were not the problem. The dilemma occurred when the hours interfered with my after school free time and having “reading time” in school, I had no passion in becoming an author or journalist. Why must I sacrifice my free time to read a book that has nothing to do with my aspirations and goals in life? This was a reoccurring predicament that kept surfacing until the beginning of my fifth year in elementary school that would change my entire outlook on the matter.

How I learned to read was by my mother who would read Dr. Seuss books. I would listen to her read the books and look at the pictures to help me understand what she was saying to me. We kept working and working learning how to read before kindergarten. We would read about every night when she got off work to help me.

I found Fountas and Pinnell (2001) words so inspiring when they mention “we want literacy to become an integral part of students lives.” Reading and writing should occur often and children should present this need as a free-will. Literary usage should offer a wide range of materials, genres, audiences and the ability to self-reflect and think critically.

Apart from anything that was colorful or popped-up, I was disinterested with reading from a young age. I loved having my parents read to me, but had little desire to take the initiative myself. To this day I can still remember the first book my dad ever read to me, Go Dog Go. Those cardboard-like pages of dogs and the soothing nursery rhyme verses hooked me. The combination of the drawings and hearing my dad’s voice stimulated my cognitive process and allowed me to make personal connections with the text. Despite only being a curious listener this memorable story allowed me recognize the syntax of literature. Whether I knew it or not this was my first encounter with literature.