Reading Literacy Journey
When I was a child, my parents read to my siblings and me as often as they could. At least once a week, they would read devotions or Bible stories, and my mom even began reading Harry Potter to us. At the time, I did not realize how much I would appreciate Harry Potter, but I can now say that I have read the entire series. I am very fortunate that my parents took the time to read to us because it has helped me in the long run concerning my reading comprehension skills. I will say that when I have children I will undoubtedly do the same for them because I want them to enjoy reading as much as I do. I even read to my fifteen year old sister sometimes before we fall asleep. Right now, my younger nieces do not enjoy reading, but I want to make sure that they have the opportunity to learn that it is enjoyable and beneficial to them to read more often. Other than my experiences with reading at home, reading textbooks for school usually involved heavily skimming the text for answers to questions on homework assignments. In all honesty, my focus on reading depended on which class I was reading for. As far as strategies for reading are concerned, I have never really relied heavily on any because I am comfortable with my own reading strategy and reading abilities.
My experiences as a reader in general involves many fantasy and science fiction novels for young adults. My first major fiction novel series that I adored was Eragon, and ever since I read the Inheritance Cycle I continually read other series that are similar. Other than fiction, I also love to read news and science articles because I like to read about how the world is developing. Concerning reading material, I do not prefer to listen to audiobooks because I am not sure I would actually pay attention as well as if I had a concrete version of reading material in front of me. However, I have recently wanted to buy an audiobook of a book that I have read several times, so that I am at least entertained while I am driving. In school, I came to love reading books when others did not, mostly because no one else actually cared to read the books, and they completed their assignments without much detail. I would never be able to b.s. my way through a literature class, and am still unsure how some people accomplished it. Based on my experiences before this semester, I expected that the ability to read well in college goes a long way because of the pace of the classes. It is typically very fast and there is always a lot to cover, so being able to read well allows you to go over all of that information with a better understanding of
the material. I am grateful that I have a good background in reading for this reason. Not everyone is exposed to the love of books and literature, and therefore, may have difficulties embracing it. Even with the abilities I had when I came into class this semester, I learned that I still have much to improve on. I have developed a stronger ability to recognize and search for critical information in texts that I either miss or completely ignore. When we were summarizing information for the professional communications essay, I ignored some critical information in an article because it seemed similar to another point that was made in another article that we used for the essay. After delving back into the information, I realized that the information was not as closely related to the argument in the first article I read as I had thought, which proves that I do need to slow down and make sure I recognize all of the critical points in a source that I am reading. Along with the ability to recognize more critical points, I have also improved my reading and study abilities. I used to choose to have a completely quiet environment while reading, but I would become so bored that I would often daydream; however, I have recently started listening to piano music while studying texts for
classes, and it has greatly increased my focus on the material. I am better able to retain the information that I read, which helps my performances on tests and other assignments.
The truth is that the journey of literacy never truly ends. There is always room for improvement since language is ever changing and shifting into new forms. The key is to practice often, challenging the mind to think in more critical ways, and develop more advanced skills in understanding language and ideas.