Reflection About Reading

As a child I began reading in first grade. I have never had any reading difficulties or struggles. By the time I was is second grade my mom had to threaten me nightly, grounding me from books because I would get lost in the stories and stay

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

For average kids who lead an average life, usually learn how to read in kindergarten or first grade. However, my story is a little below average. Like every other kid in my class, I was read to by my parents, but not explicitly on how to read. Entering kindergarten early with a lesser developed brain, already put me in a rough spot. And with a string of incompetent teachers, I never learned how to truly immerse myself into a book until third grade. My poor education leads me to have inferiority issues in my future and constantly believe that I will never be good enough.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I was never able to grasp what I was reading. It was always a chore and I would speed through it or avoid it entirely. The extra help I received was meant to help me provoke, my eventual, love for reading, but at the time only made me feel as though I wasn't smart enough to read what everyone else my age could. While most kids would push themselves to read books like Harry Potter, I was the kid who was still reading the Magic Treehouse series. It was through the assistance of my parents encouraging me to read 30 minutes every night that caused me to love reading and become the reader I am today.

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

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

Reading is a basic skill that students develop and improve throughout their whole life. There will always be room to improve a person’s reading skills; whether they be nine or ninety, one’s brain will always be building and making new connections and like Jonathan Seagull, one should strive to improve.

Through the early years of my life, learning how to read was a main focus in school. Every day I would walk into elementary school and within the first hour, I would be called out into the hallway. I would sit down and

While I was in middle school in sixth grade I actually didn’t know how to read books or any story my teachers would give me. As I was reading through the passages they would give me, I noticed that while I read a story it wouldn’t stick to my head. I then told myself that it is going to be difficult to read passages since nothing would click in my head. There were times where the teacher would have the students and I take mini quizzes and I would hardly understand on what the reader was talking about. I would fail the quizzes due to the reason that I never gained much knowledge in reading. Articles and stories would always be tough for me to read since I didn’t have many experience in reading.

As I begin this semester, I find myself trying to come up with new ways to succeed in my education and further develop my understanding of the topics I have enrolled myself into. This semester I feel is going to be a challenge though, the work load is seeming to be much larger than I had anticipated for preparing for most of my classes. If I’m being completely honest, this would not have been my first choice of a class to take, it’s not a subject I’m passionate about or necessarily like. I don’t usually understand all of what they do or what they are talking about. This is one of the few class I have left to take to earn my Associates Degree. Focusing on this class in specific, I hope to gain a better understanding of our government in general and gain the ability to easily decipher and understand what I read for this class.

My 3rd grade teacher Ms. Drew helped me learn how to read. Out of all my teachers I ever had I really appreciate her because she wanted to help me and had patient’s other teachers didn’t have with me. Without Ms. Drew in my life I would not even be where I am today because now-a days without being able to read you will be considered stupid and uneducated. She built up my confidence in reading by telling me I can do it, it worked because all the time and patients she put in me. I knew I can read I just was a hard-headed kid who needed somebody to sit down with me and show me how important it is to know how to read as an black male. Some problems I had when reading out loud is going skipping over words, struggling pronouncing words and just feeling ashamed and stopped reading when I miss pronounce a word.

This semester I spent some one on one time with Elizabeth working with various reading assessments and after conducting multiple assessments on Elizabeth I have determined that she is reading at grade level and progressing well. She is an articulate second grader and very focused during our assessment time. She had noted during our interview that she enjoys reading and that she tries to read at least once a day while at home.

Before I understood the meaning of words or letters, I loved to read. There is a picture of me in my childhood photo album, where I am sitting in a wagon surrounded by books. I am wearing red plaid overalls and a bright green shirt, my hair is in pigtails and I am fixated on the book which rests on my lap. Although I do not remember this moment, I can tell you exactly what I was doing: I was examining the pictures of the book and making my own story. I was pointing to each individual word on the page and saying what I thought it was based on the story I created. This was my favorite way to pass time at this age, staring at pictures and pretending that I could read as if I were an adult.

Ever since I was a little girl I had a very hard time with reading. My mom would beg me in read every night before bed, but instead I ignored her. She would tell me that if I read before bed every night that I would become a faster and better reader. Yet again, I decided not to believe her. I knew at some point in my life, I would have to start reading I just did not know when that time would come.

I recall my first obstacle at age four, while playing a game with my cousins who were a few years older, but smaller in size and they called me dumb because I could not read. I cried and begged my grandfather to help me learn to read. I was determined to learn how to read and it didn’t take long before I was reading. Because of that adversity reading is my favorite pastime.