Coming from a family with an incredible love for classic literature, I am no stranger to big books and complex plots. I do admit that I consider myself less of an avid reader as the rest of my family, but I would distinguish myself as a reader who is described in the third point of the “Preformative Literacy in Action” segment, a reader with “willingness to take risks.” I say that because I am not easily intimidated by text font too small, pages too plentiful, and storylines perceived as boring or hard to follow. I don’t believe that I am a fast reader or better interpreter, but I do believe that I can consider myself cultured. An example of this is when I was 10-years-old and my parents had me read All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. A hefty book, such as this one, really helped me develop the mentality that I could conquer any book.
I completely agree that I read differently depending on the task or subject. In history, for example, I find myself filtering through information just for main points and supporting details. This would never be a strategy to read a novel, nonfiction or fiction. Because it is a novel, details play an important role in the outcome of some circumstances, which calls for more attention and depth. I believe that the ability to recognize and connect the text to outside and personal situations plays a huge role in making me a stronger reader. Connecting text to other text, my life, or society helps me reflect on the reading and dig deeper to truly understand every aspect of it. I believe that the purpose of the reading (whether it be for pleasure or academics) effects whether or not I am a weak reader. The mentality to completely interpret the material must be recurrently addressed in order for me to put in my best effort.
Strategies, as I have learned, are extremely vital when it comes to literature. English is a unique subject because you can always learn something new from it. In this document, it explains as it’s first and foremost point, that a capacity for sustained focused attention is an “attribute required for the reading of difficult texts.” This is definitely something I can review and practice with my own reading and comprehension. Setting aside and respecting the time I have for complete apprehension will benefit my reading immensely.
Reflecting on my experiences of annotating and taking notes on Things Fall Apart, In the Time of The Butterflies, and Much Ado About Nothing is quite pleasurable because I considered myself a very detailed annotator. I looked for key facts and proposed questions in my head that would be similar to the ones on Mrs. Molyneaux’s quizzes. But I do admit, I leave out one novel on purpose, The Book Thief novel gave me a run for my money and I found myself with very low scores on quizzes. I was able to obtain a core model of the themes quite well, all my good essay grades being on this novel. I struggled with the memorization of details that included symbolism. Although annotating novels was not anywhere close to being a new experience, I found myself lacking in this department for The Book Thief. In result, it made me more or less hate the novel. This experience will help me review and search for details and hidden symbolism while I am reading. This already helped me with In the Time of The Butterflies, so I looking forward to it helping me with my junior year and future writing encounters.
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