Strengths And Weaknesses Of Reading

In a math classroom, the teacher cannot neglect the need for providing a print rich environment. “Word walls are a technique that many classroom teachers use to help students become fluent with the language of mathematics. It is vital that vocabulary be taught as part of a lesson and not be taught as a separate activity” (Draper, 2012). Draper acknowledges the fact that words in mathematics may be confusing for students to study as “words and phrases that mean one thing in the world of mathematics mean another in every day context. For example, the word “similar” means “alike” in everyday usage, whereas in mathematics similar has to have proportionality” (Draper, 2012). Fites (2002) argues that the way a math problem is written drastically will effect a student’s performance, not just in reading the problem, but in solving the math equation as well. There is where the misinterpreting of different word meanings in math comes into play. Fites continues with the importance of understanding vocabulary not just in reading but for math as well with the correlation between improved vocabularies in math yields improvement on verbal problem solving

Writing has never been a real interest of mine. The only time I had to write any of my thoughts on paper was in school. I believed that one had to have that special trait or gift in them that made them a good writer, just like athletes are gifted in their sport. After reading the articles by Pat Mora and the other one from George Orwell, there can be many reasons as to why anyone would like to write.

"To write to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that can communicate with images and words that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one" (95).

In this essay, I obviously made a lot of mistakes, many of which I am not proud of. With mistakes in both grammar and organization, it’s quite obvious that I hurried. To begin with, the opening paragraph was good, but it all goes downhill from there. Both of the body paragraphs had mistakes in quotations and relevancy, and it looks like I just forgot to quote in them but went back and added a few words that were in To Kill A Mockingbird, even if they weren’t related to anything I was talking about. It’s a recurring theme in my essays to have a variety in vocabulary, combining simple words with advanced words.

In my essay, I should have used supporting details instead of repeating the same sentence in different words. I also should have eliminated the empty words I used and replaced them with words that had stronger meaning. Lastly,

One mistake that I didn’t commit in this essay was elongating my sentences. All of my sentences are straight to the point and include information that builds on the main idea. Throughout the essay, there are no run-on sentences and they are all based on fact. Something else I noticed was that each paragraph sounds cohesive, unlike in my first essay, the ideas are separated into paragraphs and the transitions of sentences from each paragraph works well. In this essay, I am also able to see that I have gotten better at explaining why a point that I made is

The essay was a little unorganized and jumped around a lot, so after properly reviewing it I realized that the essay needed to flow a little more so that the audience could get a simpler and clearer understanding of the essay. Because, I did not use heading I need to be to appropriately use the sections so that each one stood on its own and had a clear and precise subject on its own. So, I went through and reread each section and ended up changing them around so that it flowed smoother and had completed thoughts.

I would not necessarily say reading is the most gratifying activity for me, I would like to blame that on technology though. When I was younger and technology did not have a big impact on me, I read for hours on end, but now as I have gotten older and technology is all around me, I would rather scroll through Instagram and read about other peoples lives than read a novel. With that being said, I am by no means against reading and I enjoy reading when I find a good book, I just do not often make time to read books. However, I am much more interested in the news and memoirs rather than fictional novels. I find it entertaining to read life-changing events humanity has encountered. Although I have not continued to enjoy reading now as I did

In a traditional story, characters that are presented within the story is usually defined certain unique feature. One of those unique features being their strengths and weaknesses. The main character of the story usually doesn’t reveal their strength and weaknesses at the beginning but instead reveal it overtime throughout the novel. The character can either embrace their strength and try to overcome their weaknesses or they could deny it and run from the problem. If the protagonist is going through Joseph Campbell’s Hero Cycle then it is most likely that the protagonist will eventually face hardship and overcome the challenge and his weakness, while at the same time learning something about him/herself. Some story however does not follow the cycle and

“To write to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that can communicate with images and words that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one” (95).

This is the step where I take all the feedback I received and I make the corrections in my essay. My main ideas should be shown clearly in the essay with clear organization. In my compare and contrast, I made the correction by putting my three main points in my thesis. Then I showed these main points in each body paragraph. When going through this step, I also fix any confusing areas that the person who read my draft may have found. In my initial and preliminary essays, I do not pay much attention to grammar or spelling. Once I am working on my final draft that will be turned in, I make sure that these grammar and spelling problems are corrected. I ready the essay multiple times and even get a second opinion to check my spelling and grammar. I have found correcting these small mistakes is a skill I still need to work on. After reading my essay many times, I start to get tired. When I get tired, it becomes very easy for me to read over errors. To improve on fixing grammar and spelling errors, I could take multiple breaks in between times that I work on my essay. I have a habit of doing all the correcting in one

When I was around three years old, my mother stressed about the importance of being able to read. I remember not wanting to learn about the vowel and consonant sounds with her because she made it into a chore to sing my alphabets. I was home-schooled, so I grew up studying on my own. Before, my mom would be assigning me the homework. I never understood the books that I was told to read, so what I did was flipped to the back of the book for the answers. I became very good at it to the point that I noticed the answer for all the questions was, “Answer may vary.” I did not know what it meant, but I do know that it was the answer. When my mom checked on my work, she wasn’t happy.

Another error of my writing process was not having a clear and specific thesis statement. I would often combined to many thoughts and ideas all in one sentence, which made it very difficult for readers to understand my main argument. For example, in my fourth essay about performance-enhancing drugs, my thesis “Athletes are constantly recognizable to the public eye; their actions can affect the children and adults for whom they serve as role models, which is why many athletes depend on the use of performance-enhancing drugs to better their performance,” was very vague and was not the main focal point of the essay which it should have been. In recent years prior, I never had any problems trying to convey my message or point. College was entirely a different league. My professor suggested that I read other research papers to better understand how my thesis should sound and be constructed. My professor then told me that I needed to add that explanation into the paragraph so the reader can understand exactly what I am trying to get across with

Many people enjoy and have fun writing, but then again, many people dislike having to write, including me. Writing has always been something I was never really interested on for many reasons.

If you couldn’t read or write, how would you tackle your daily life? Being literate is a crucial part of everyone’s life; reading and writing are essential for a person’s success. Every single day, it’s used, whether it’s for an Advanced Placement Language class or reading a billboard as you’re driving past. As a child, I grew up reading on a daily basis and I believe that I am as successful as I am on behalf of it. Countless memories have been created, thanks to the multiple books that have been read and the umpteen amount of papers that I’ve written. Throughout the numerous years of my education, my teachers and parents left a long lasting impact on my reading and writing skills.