Who is a “Reader” Anyway?
My name is Rebecca Autrey. I’m from Fremont, CA and I have lived there my whole life until moving to Chico to go to school. I just recently switched my major to liberal studies. After thinking long and hard about it I decided being a teacher was a passion worth following…despite what everyone has been telling me about a teacher’s salary. So far I’m loving all my liberal studies classes and I’m excited to learn how to teach elementary school!
A good reader goes at their own pace that they need in order to comprehend the material. They make connections to what they are reading and if they don’t understand something they go back and read it again. In school, teachers have always told me that good readers annotate their books. I have never annotated a book because I feel that it distracts me from the story and makes me a worse reader. There is more than one way to interact with a book and I don’t think you need a pen in your hand to be an effective reader.
When I was a kid my mom used to read to my brother and I every night before bed. We would all gather up on my bed with my mom in the middle and she would read us any book of our choice, and if we were good that day she would even let us pick two books for her to read! One of my favorite things in this world is being read to and I think having my mom read to me every night before bed is what made me love reading as a kid. And once I could read on my own, I carried on the tradition of reading before bed every night.
Sadly, that tradition has stopped as throughout middle school and high school reading became less of a pleasure and more of a chore. Now I only read required school books and outside of school most of my reading is done online in social media statuses and occasional blog posts. I also read every day things like lists, street signs, text messages and magazines. As I’ve entered college I have more free time and I hope to fill that by reading books for me and rediscovering the pleasure of books.
Williams claims that he doesn’t know what a “good reader” is. This is because there are so many different ways to read and there isn’t a right or wrong way that works for everyone. Williams shows how students precieve readers in a bit of a negative light as they described them with words like “alone”, “nerd” and “boring”. A lot of people don’t understand the joys of reading and I think that has a lot to do with the education system pushing us to read required books when one certain book won’t please all audiences. I think it’s important for students to have a choice in what they read in school so reading is less of a chore and more of a break from all the other required school work.