educational narrative

Pierce, Julie

10/7/12

English 101

Educational Narrative

 

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.” I believe that when AG Grayling said this he captured the importance of reading beautifully. He truly understood that reading opens the door to countless opportunities. Without reading skills, simple everyday tasks would serve as a challenge.  Without reading skills, writing would be impossible.

 Learning to read is one of the single most important things I’ve done in my short life. This is important because so many other things I’ve learned are because of the simple fact that I am a great reader. I not only read but comprehend on a level that is more than adequate. Something that at one time seemed so difficult and useless has become the foundation of my learning as well as something I find great joy in doing. I read and write for fun these days.

Reading has also helped me improve my writing skills.  Steven Spielberg said “Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.”  This quote helps to show the connection between reading and writing. As I mentioned earlier, the two skills go hand in hand. I love being able to express myself, my opinions’, and my voice through writing. I also enjoy being able to understand and appreciate other peoples writing. This helps me to gain new thoughts as well as critique my own reading and writing skills.

I think that I enjoy reading so much because it has been in my life for as long as I could remember. When I was young, before I could fully speak a sentence, my mom was reading books to me. My mom is an English major and fully understands the magnitude of reading and the importance of starting that habit at a young age.  Studies have shown that children who have a solid learning foundation of reading skills, become adults that have more self confidence, public-speaking skills, and tend to show more advancement both socially and economically.

Besides being a necessity, reading is just plain fun! Thanks to gifted authors, through reading you can be anyone, you can go anywhere, and you can accomplish anything you could ever dream of. What do you think people did before Facebook and texting? They read and, shocker! They enjoyed it! The days of recreational reading are dwindling and rapidly becoming few and far between. Many young people are missing out on the joy of reading and don’t even have the slightest clue that reading a good book could very well be inspiring, thought provoking and potentially even life changing.

There is something to be learned from almost every book even if it was written to entertain and not to inform. You could be reminded of the strength of love, the power of family, or explore your imagination in a new world who’s name you can hardly pronounce.  Reading someone else’s work allows you to open your mind to their way of thinking even if you decide to disagree, it doesn’t hurt to be exposed to a contrasting opinion.

The brain is a muscle and needs to be exercised regularly to keep it sharp. Reading often forces you to use your critical thinking skills in a way that computers and TV simply cannot do. It would be hard to read a book with your mind on auto-pilot. When reading, if you don’t comprehend something, you will usually go back and read the sentence again to gain further understanding. When you stop to reread and understand, it provides a stimulating activity for your brain. Meaning that you are actually learning! Most of the time, computers and TV do not provide any kind of engaging feat for the brain.

"46% of American adults cannot understand the label on their prescription medicine" (The Literacy Company). How sad and unbelievable is this statistic?! Almost half of grown Americans cannot understand the instructions about how to properly administer their medication. This puts them at great risk as well as others especially their children. Medications for children are very different than that of adults. Even for medicine as common as aspirin, there are different dosage requirements for children. A parent could misconstrue an essential step and their children could become very sick or even die. If you haven’t seen the importance of reading before, I sure hope you understand it now!

Could you imagine going through life not being able to read? How could you expect to obtain even an entry-level job? If you were to tell an employer that your reading skills were very minimal, don’t you think he would much rather hire someone with at least decent reading skills? It could even be dangerous to walk down an unfamiliar street if you were unable to read street signs or other signs that could be warning you about an up-coming hazard.

How could you expect to learn anything if you couldn’t read? All the knowledge you would have would be obtained through life experiences or information you heard from other people. Information that you would have no idea how accurate it was might I add. You wouldn’t be able to research topics simply to satisfy your curiosity. Everything you knew would be questionably correct, hear say. I could not imagine going through life having to second guess every single thing I thought I ‘knew.’

Imagine you’re in a foreign country where you don’t know a single word in their language. Can you imagine how lost and hopeless you would feel? Not to mention feeling inferior! This is the best analogy I could come up with to explain just how hard it would be to function in this country without being able to read. Now imagine you’re still in that country and need to get somewhere across town quickly. How are you going to effectively communicate what you need? It would be rather difficult!

In conclusion, reading is obviously extremely fundamental for learning as well as daily life as an American. The skill of reading can either open or close doors and opportunities depending on if you choose to unlock its potential. Reading is essential for any job you will ever have. There will always be something you’re required to read. Once you get past the ‘have to’ part of reading, I hope that you find the same excitement I often find when I read simply because I want to.   

1 paragraph of my essay

Learning to read is one of the single most important things I’ve done in my short life. This is important because so many other things I’ve learned are because of the simple fact that I am a fantastic reader. This has also helped me in my writing. Something that at one time seemed so difficult and useless has become the foundation of my learning as well as something I find great joy in doing. I read and write for fun these days. I love being able to express myself, my opinions’, and my voice through writing. I also enjoy being able to understand and appreciate other peoples writing. This helps me to gain new thoughts as well as critique my own reading and writing skills.

How blogging has helped me write

It gets my mind in the writing mood, which helps me think creatively

I can see other classmates work and that helps to improve my own writing styles and techniques.

Critical thinking skills

Writing to a certain audience

Essay format

Put things in perspective

Helps to brainstorm

Analyzing prewriting

Looking at the fundamentals

Looking at other peoples ‘voice’

Plan ahead

Personal/peer examination

Classification Paragraph

When asked what you would like to do before you die, many people would answer “travel.” People travel for various reasons. Some travel for business while others travel to see family. But, I think that when people talk about wanting to travel more, there talking about ‘fun’ travel. ‘Fun’ travel can also mean different things to different people. Some people envision themselves on a warm beach with light blue water and pale white sand while others dream of exploring Europe with nothing more than a back pack and a map. There are also countless ways or means of travel that can depend on preference as well as affordability. Flying is very common for long distances but trains can also be used when trying to save money. You can travel by car, boat, or bus as well. All in all I think Mark Twain summed it up perfectly when he said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Malcolm x

            
I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm X’s excerpt about how he taught himself to be a better reader and writer.  It was inspiring that while in prison on robbery charges, he decided to take some control of his life and future. Malcolm had a role model that he admired because of their vast amount of knowledge and his confidence in any conversation.  Malcolm wanted to emulate him; so he decided to start reading lots of books.  Malcolm soon realized that the reading he was doing was pointless because he didn’t understand most of the words. In order to gain understanding, he needed to back track. He chose to read a dictionary and write down the words and their meanings. He goes on to say “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” I can relate to this statement completely because I chose to write my narrative about my own learning experience with reading.  Although my story differs greatly from Malcolm’s, I share his passion for reading and I appreciate the doors it has opened for me. I can also relate to Malcolm when he talks about his ‘craving to be mentally alive.’ What a remarkable way to describe those of us who love to learn! I also feel this ‘craving.’ I love to learn and explore new ideas, as well as learn about the people who came before us and how they shaped what I know to be normal.

Feross and how his story can help me write mine

The first time I read Feross’s story, I had no idea how I was going to be able to relate this to my first paper. This assignment required me to think deeper to find the connection. The article was not well written or enjoyable, but it’s obvious he has other talents that don’t include writing. However, I was impressed with how much he had taught himself at such a young age. It’s very rare that a person his age would be so interested in learning that they would take their free time to teach themselves about computer programming.

I found his desire to learn inspiring and motivating. Learning is something we will do every day for the rest of our lives and the fact that he understood its importance at his age is astounding. Feross mentions many times that the key to learning something new is to do it over and over again, gaining hands-on experience every time. This is the connection I found to the paper that I will be writing.

Although I know nothing about computer programming, I do know what it’s like to learn something that isn’t necessarily easy. I can remember when I was in second grade learning how to read. I remember how foreign the words looked to me. I remember being so frustrated with myself for not learning the first or second time I tried. Everyone older than me could read, so I never expected it to be a challenge for me. However, as the saying goes, “misery loves company” I did feel better when I learned that my classmates were also struggling and becoming frustrated with the whole process. I also learned that compared to them, I was actually doing a lot better than most of them. Eventually I mastered it and it wasn’t much later that I fell in love with reading and especially writing.

The process of learning something can be frustrating and often difficult but in the end its also very rewarding. In order to be good at something and appreciate it, we must first learn. In the words of Clay P. Bedford, “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”