Time for blog 1

Why Hello Everyone! My name is Katherine. I am a transfer student from Temecula, Ca, which is near San Diego.  I have always been a Southern Californian girl until five days ago when I moved up here not knowing one person and honestly not knowing what to expect when I moved here. This place is definitely different from my hometown and I know it will take me a while to get used to. I have encountered my first one-way street and it scared the living shit out of me when I turned the wrong way on it! They don’t have those back in Temecula and honestly I’m happy they don’t because it’s just nerve wracking. I do have to say I am enjoying seeing so much green around here and being able to hear and see a train travel through this little quant town is pretty awesome. The most green I would see from my hometown is from the wineries where I was a frequent visitor living only ten minutes away from my ever wonderful endless supply and pick of the many different wineries we have to offer in a 10 mile radius. While I type I am on my third glass of wine and I’m hoping to finish this before I begin to not make sense and have really bad grammatical errors (oops too late!) oh well. So my story is short and I’m hoping to meet some new people to help with this transition and have some fun while I’m here! I started to really enjoy reading when I started high school. I would always have a new book in my bag and many of my friends never understood how much I enjoyed reading. Instead of participating in cheer practice I would be in the corner just reading away pissing everyone off because they wanted to get everything done so they could go home!  I write in my journal and create short stories when I am stressed. It’s a way to let off steam and its something that really helps me. I enjoy reading basically anything that captures my intention. I’m not picky and am willing to give anything a try. Have I read the Twilight Series and Fifty Shades of Grey? Yes. Will I ever read them again? No, once is fine. Like I said, I’m not picky when it comes to novels but if it’s written horribly and I can’t stop wanting to fix everything wrong, then I just wont read it again like I do with my favorites.

Describing a detailed version on what a good reader does when reading is something that I have a problem saying because I think that there are many different types of good readers. For instance, you have myself that can read a book fairly quick but I make sure that if its for a class or assignment I continually take notes. Does that make me a good reader? I guess that it can be said that a good reader wouldn’t need to take notes and would capture and trap every event in their brain. You can have a reader that reads slow and takes their time and goes to Google for every word they come across of that is difficult to comprehend. If they are having to Google at least 30 words a chapter, does that bring down the qualifications of being a good reader? They are reading and making sure that they understand every single paragraph even though it may take them twice as long as someone like myself who can read a book pretty quickly while understanding everything I read. You may have those good readers who do research on the author and plot for the books they are about to embark in. They fully emerge themselves into the story and think of themselves as the main characters to make sure they are truly connected emotionally to the story. I believe that there is really not a plain and simple definition of a good reader. Anyone can be a good reader by just picking up a book a reading it. You could even say that someone is a good reader by just reading a book in the correct timeline as other students even if they couldn’t tell you a lot about the novel. They are good readers because they can read every word and finish the book in a timely manner.

I remember in third grade, once a week, we would go to the fifth graders and they would read stories to us.  As we walked in the classroom we could pick a book and walk up to someone and they would read it to us. It was the one time that I felt no pressure on remembering everything about the story and that I could relax and thoroughly enjoy it. I went to a private Christian school and it was always a daily thing for us to read the bible, get a couple of verses or a story to remember from our teacher, memorize it, and at the end of the day we would have a quiz on what our teacher gave us. Reading became a chore for me and I remember waiting for that Friday when I could listen to someone read a book that I wanted to hear and have no worries about a quiz after it was over. My parents noticed that I wasn’t reading as often as I usually would at home. Reading wasn’t fun for me and my parents and teachers noticed I wasn’t happy at the school.  I was able to go to a public elementary school for my fifth grade year and I truly remember that year as one of my favorite school years.

I read a lot when I am out of school. I am one of those people who can choose something to read and are really not picky about what its about. Have I read some books that are awfully written and that I have wanted to correct? Yes, definitely. I like to read and if I am into the story and it captures my attention I will read it. Comics, mystery, music, romance, biographies, ect you name it, I’ll read it if it’s interesting. I was a big reader and in high school novels required for example, 1984, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, The Color Purple, ect were required to read I have already read them. My older brother owned all of the books and when he finished them he would give them to me. Reading books about the wars only made it more captivating when the subject came up in school and unanswered questions were answered and having more knowledge about the wars made it more interesting to bring up facts and easier to complete assignments.

For one thing, we need to explore with students the multiple and varied nature of reading. We need to remind them that they are constantly being readers as they go about their lives, and we need to talk with them about all the ways they engage in reading and for what purposes. (We can also remind them that reading is often pleasurable and can be so in school as well as outside of it.), Bronwyn T. Williams has a point here. Most of the time students connect required reading to a chore or unpleasant part of the curriculum they have to get through to pass the class. Most students don’t think about how they are reading most of the day. They are usually reading Facebook posts, Twitter, blogs, text messages, street signs, menus, ect and I know that they are not doing all of that and thinking “ Wow, I am reading right now”! Allowing students to pick a book they are interested in, as little as it may seem, to many it will mean they have a choice to what they read and they will be able to choose something interesting and easy to finish required reading assignments. I really enjoyed this article.