Reflection On My Reading Skills

This class has helped my writing in the way that I now try to think of the

In this course, I enhanced my reading and writing skills. Reading and analyzing stories allowed me to become a better critical thinker. Beside, Learning to review and identify errors with the help of my peers and my instructor improved the quality of my writing. Also, I gained valuable practice in evaluating the credibility of sources that I would include in my writing.Finally, I also want to thank this class since I become more confident in my writing and my reading abilities

I have always enjoyed English classes during my years in middle and high school, and throughout college I have taken a good number of them by choice. Even so, American Literature Post Civil War has taught me much more than I was expecting. I was required to read things I would not normally read and to interpret them in ways I hadn’t expected. It was, in some ways, more educational than my previous required English courses. There were a few specific instances where I learned aspects of writing and literature that were very impactful to my college and life experience, such as proper formatting for body paragraphs and their subsequent quotes, certain words that carried allusions to other texts when in literature,

“I either go to television or turn on the radio in my car” (Whitefield 2011). Before I started this class, that is what I thought about when someone asked me “Do you keep up with the news?”. Most people do not get the opportunity to learn about what is going on around the world in their everyday lives and how they can help out. I feel that being in this class I got the chance to learn more about life and what is happening everywhere, not just insignificant matters such as who Kim Kardashian is now dating or why Kylie Jenner got more lip injections, I am learning about the important things. I am getting the chance to learn about how I can participate in the world to make big changes because of reading The New York Times, “Why Local Newspapers,” and “Freedom is Intended as a Challenge.”

At the end of last year I signed up for this class because I love reading. I go through phases where I read a lot for a period of time and then there are times where I go for months without reading and this class fell into the phase of reading all the time. I’ve learned a lot while in this class, most of it being able to recognize literary devices like: personification and onomatopoeias.

Again before this class, my word choice was rather horrible. I used many dead words and did not even realize the amount of dead words that I was actually using in all of my papers. By taking this class, I realized that I needed to step-up my word choices, so I started using thesaurus’, put my paper into Grammarly, and began to use Google Translate more often. Resulting from this class, I now take more than just a day to write a paper, and I actually work from the day it is assigned to the day it is due. This class has taught me how to become a better writer, not use dead words, and make sure that I am completely satisfied with my writing before I turn it

As a future elementary school teacher, I have always thought the task of teaching kids could be a rewarding and gratifying experience. However, I recently realized that in order to obtain these rewarding experiences the teacher and students must work hard and with determination. Learning to read can be a very daunting task for a youngster. Therefore, as a teacher, it is your job to facilitate positive reading strategies from the start. Looking back at my experiences as an early reader, I can gain some insight as to what might help or hinder my future students.

As far as writing is concerned, it has never been a greater pleasure of mine than to write about something. This semester has provided me with a bundle of opportunities to write about a plethora of topics which I would not even have considered on second thoughts otherwise. The aim of this reflective essay is to discuss my Literacy Narrative “Experience in Reading and Writing”. I decided to reflect on this essay as it shows my learning path of the English language. This reflection will analyze the learning process I went through and how it was applied. The process of learning a language is to be able to understand, read, write and speak it effectively in order to enable communication. I will also discuss the obstacles that I faced and how I came through from it with proper guidance. The essay is to reflect on my role as a student, guided by peers and guides in search of verbosity. Moreover, the essay is proof of how far I have come from having ideas all over the place and not making sense. This essay shows that I can frame my thought coherently and provide a central topic around which everything could be related to. I believe that the essay would be inspiring and can help others understand that language is no barrier if you work on it and shall become one of the most important tools in life.

I have always been a part of conversations where people are talking about which books to read next. I always felt like the outcast as I did not enjoy reading, nor did I understand why people found pleasure in such a “boring activity.” People would say oh my gosh you will never be able to put this down. I persistently asked my mom what it was about reading that caught her focus, and how could I learn to love it. She told me I needed to find a book that caught my interest. I seldom found one.

If you ponder about it, most people wouldn’t make it in this world we live in today if they didn’t know how to read and write. Reading is everywhere and is a very important, as well as a necessary, part of the human life. Everyday activities include reading road signs, magazines, billboards, texts, newspapers, emails, books, labels and so on. Over the years of learning how to properly read and write, my family and teachers have definitely made a massive impact on my reading and writing techniques that I use today. Books have been an enormous part of my life, if not one of the biggest. They provided me with unforgettable memories that I am thankful for today as I use their advice throughout my life.

How I learned to read was with 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.

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

As a young child, reading did not come easy not even the slightest. I remember being held back in first grade because my mother felt my reading was not up to par, boy was she correct. My older brother and younger sister were in the same boat as I. One after another we repeated the first grade in an attempt to strengthen the skill which is still challenging to this day.

According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center in 2016, “About a quarter of American adults (26%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form.” I believe I form part of this demographic group because I don't like reading books. I would say that my past experiences have made me into being a non reader. Therefore, I will explain to you my process of how I learned to read and who influenced my success, what were my favorite books back then and now, and how my past experiences have shaped me into the reader I think I am.Thus, I believe that I am not a reader.

I have learned a lot during this course, such as my MLA formatting was incorrect. I was homeschooled through a really strict curriculum, and yet they never explained to me that I was writing MLA style incorrectly. Sadly, I just now realized this error and a majority of my papers have an incorrect format. I realized this in my research paper instruction paper, where the MLA format was explained. This class also taught me to take criticism when it comes to my writing. One of the worst things for me is when someone nitpicks at my work and finds everything wrong with it. I am thankful my peers did not do this when we had peer reviews, instead they kindly showed me ways of improving my work that was quite helpful. I learned to take criticism and realized that not all criticism is harsh, and criticism is needed to become a better writer.