Interesting fact, “One in five adults around the world cannot read or write, with the highest rates in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa” (Devashish Patil). As undergrad student Patil explains, reading is a very crucial part of life; on the contrary, a large part of the world cannot do so. Whether one out-weights the other or not, my positives and negatives on reading are for the most part equal with one another. Although I have had bad experiences to combat those good ones in reading, overall it is still important and has changed the way I perceive life to this day. Reading has impacted my life in many positive ways, such as reading with my mom; however, in negative ways as well, such as embarrassing class moments. These can be shown through past memories I have had, my family's experiences with reading and how it relates to me today. When I was in sixth grade, about once a week we read as a class. While reading, the teachers would pass around a microphone to random students and they would take turns reading a page at a time then pass it on to the next student. I can still remember sitting in my desk anxiously tapping my foot, hoping and praying my name would not be called to …show more content…
David Denby, a staff writer for The New Yorker, talks about why children nowadays believe reading is not so much a hobby anymore rather than a pest. “Reading anything serious has become a chore, like doing the laundry or prepping a meal for a kid brother” (Denby). When I get assigned a tiresome or dull book to read for a class, often I will dread every time I open it, which reflects widely on all my readings as a whole. On the contrary, when I find a tremendous book that takes me away and I fall in love with, I can read it with no problem and just for fun in my free time. Furthermore, no matter an amazing book or dreadful one, they both have impacts on my
In the essay titled “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading” written by John Holt and published in Reading for writers in 2013, Mr. Holt discusses why most children aren’t interested in reading. Mr. Holt spent fourteen years as an elementary school teacher. He believed classroom activities destroy a student’s learning ability. Mr. Holt never let his students say what they thought about a book. He wanted his students to look up every word they didn’t know. People can learn difficult words without looking them up in the dictionary.
On October 10th, 2017 at Springhurst Elementary School, I conducted a “Reading Interest Survey” and the “Elementary Reading Attitude Survey.” These surveys were conducted on a 1st grade student, Jax, to determine what his feelings are towards reading in different settings, what genres he prefers to read, and interests. It was found that Jax doesn’t mind reading, but prefers a few different topics. This was evident through his raw score of 30 on recreational reading, and a raw score of 31 on academic reading.
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
My whole life I have never been the greatest at reading, but I have always tried to improve and push myself to do better. Reading and writing areis twoone of the needs of daily life. With that being said, you can conclude that I have always struggled. My problem was I always read too fast through the books or writing prompts, and I never remembered what I had read. But, with help I overcame my problems and started getting better at reading and writing.
Over time reading has built a reputation to kids of being a waste of time and very boring, but reading is not all that bad. Reading acts as a mirror and a window. Last summer I read the book "Lord of the Flies", which is about the life of young boys who ended up on an island with no adults. In the beginning they were civilized and create a small society, however, over time, the children started to separate into two tribes. This led to the disbanding of their laws, as the children started to fight and act like savages. Over the course of the book, the children became less and less civilized because there were no adults or consequences for any actions. The book really portrayed the idea of whether humans
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course
Growing up in working class family, my mom worked all the time for the living of a big family with five kids, and my dad was in re-education camp because of his association with U.S. government before 1975. My grandma was my primary guardian. “Go to study, go to read your books, read anything you like to read if you want to have a better life,” my grandma kept bouncing that phrase in my childhood. It becomes the sole rule for me to have better future. I become curious and wonder what the inside of reading and write can make my life difference. In my old days, there was no computer, no laptop, no phone…etc, to play or to spend time with, other than books. I had no other choice than read, and read and tended to dig deep in science books, math books, and chemistry books. I tended to interest in how the problem was solved. I even used my saving money to buy my own math books to read more problems and how to solve the problem. I remembered that I ended up reading the same math book as my seventh grade teacher. She used to throw the challenge questions on every quiz to pick out the brighter student. There was few students know how to solve those challenge questions. I was the one who fortunately nailed it every single time. My passion and my logic for reading and writing came to me through that experience, and also through my grandma and my mom who plant the seed in me, who want their kids to have happy and better life than they were. In my own dictionary, literacy is not just the ability to read and write, it is a strong foundation to build up the knowledge to have better life, to become who I am today.
In today’s society, a vast number of people are well educated. They have the equal opportunity to choose their own path in life by getting an education. A primary educational aspect of every human being is to learn to read. Being able to read is a primary goal of people in human society, as well as important in itself to society; it takes people far beyond their wildest dreams. A person who is literate has few limitations on what they can do; the world is an open playing field, because a person that is literate has the ability to become very successful in life.
One statistic I found said that 45% of seventeen-year-olds read by choice only once or twice a year. That percentage is declining every year. In the future, I’m worried that we won’t have anyone who actually wants to read books anymore. In the novel this is a goal, at one point the D.H.C. proudly says “They’ll be safe from books and botany all their lives.” (35) like reading is dangerous. Although, in the book the people are trained into not liking books from an early age by getting shocked when they come into contact with a book. “Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks- already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked.”
When I was younger, I didn’t like reading much at all. I always questioned my teachers what was the purpose of reading; I never got an answer from either teacher until I was in the seventh grade. Starting junior high school was different from elementary. In seventh grade, we were in our reading class for two hours a day. I asked the teachers why didn’t we have the privilege to stay in our other classes for two hours; I never received an answer from my teachers.
Reading was never something I fussed about growing up. As a child, I loved genres of realistic fiction. I was hooked on The New Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley, Goosebumps, The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes, Judy Moody, and especially, Zoobooks and Highlights magazines. My mother was always ready to help build my reading and writing skills. She took me to the library constantly to feed my passion for books and knowledge. I loved exploring the shelfs, organizing the books, and filling up my library cart. I tried keeping a diary in elementary school to keep track of my outings with my parents and grandparents to museums, zoos, movies, and libraries. This flash of writing enthusiasm was spun from books I read in the 4th and 5th grade that were
I have gained some insight from certain readings. "Who Shall I Be" really struck me in a good way. It talks about the reality of positive and negative consequences resulting from some sort of change. Changes can be dangerous at times. Not physically, but mentally. I guess it could be physical in some situations. I feel I have become a more mature reader since high school. Reading experience leads to reading success. That’s my opinion. I used to not be able to focus when I read, but you just have to stick it out and read and read and read. I feel I am a focused reader now, I try hard. I have also gained mental reading confidence. You break that down.
Reading has been a part of my life from the second I was born. All throughout my childhood, my parents read to me, and I loved it. I grew up going to the library and being read to constantly. Especially in the years before Kindergarten, reading was my favorite thing to do. I grew up loving fairy tales and thriving on the knowledge that I could have any book I wanted, to be read to me that night. Having no siblings, my only examples were my parents, and they read constantly. Without a family that supported my love of reading throughout my childhood, I wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I have and do now.
Reading – we do it every day. In almost every aspect of our lives and often take it for granted. Reading is essential for human communication and increasing knowledge. However, because reading is so important even a small change can have a significantly large impact on our modern society. We are currently in a midst of a cultural revolution. In which the printed word is being transformed by the digital.