Reading and Things

Well, my name is Marisa Ramirez, I am from Willits, California, a pretty small pass-through type of town. I am a Liberal Studies major, third year here at Chico State but only my third semester in this major. I want to teach grade levels K-5 (yes, at some point all of them, not at once though obviously). I recently had routine surgery to get four teeth pulled (for braces) but an artery got nicked resulting in an emergency surgery and me spending my last three days of break at Enloe and this past week in excruciating pain. YAY! Actually, not so fun since I haven’t had a solid meal since last Thursday night and can barely talk. It’s okay though, because I’ll get my braces on soon and it will be worth it in the end. I do have a really amazing boyfriend who has been very helpful with all of this considering he is also a Chico State student majoring in Recording Arts dealing with his own work. I also have three younger siblings, two of which inspired me to become a teacher, along with my many younger cousins. I simply adore children. In fact, I think I get along with them better because they’re honest and just the sweetest things-except when they’re throwing a tantrum, but those only last about five minutes so it’s easy to get past in my opinion.

To me everyone can be a reader. Some people read books, some read manuals, others read from their phones, social media, recipes, students read whether it’s required or not- basically, everybody, with the ability to, reads. Yes, I know, some people don’t know how, in fact my mom couldn’t read for the longest time and I would help her learn how. I am not embarrassed saying that either because I think everyone, everywhere, no matter what age should learn and know how to read because it is an amazing experience. If you don’t think so, try going a day without reading ANYTHING. Life would be pretty boring even though there’s pretty pictures and videos. I honestly have this entire stack of novels I have been planning on getting through but haven’t. I am just so lazy sometimes, I won’t lie. I get home from work or school sometimes and just want to sleep. I think I do read differently in a relaxed setting though where the texts aren’t required and I’m not obligated to look for themes or emotions or whatever some teachers try to get you to do. I prefer to read and have all that come to me because it’s harder to enjoy something if you’re constantly looking for “hidden messages”, in my opinion anyway.

This was actually my second time reading “A Puzzle to the Rest of Us: Who is a Reader Anyway?” by Bronwyn T. Williams, and it is still a great read. A lot of what is said is true, especially the part about people having different perceptions of what a “reader” is based on their upbringing and what other teachers or peers have told them. I don’t think reading fast makes you a “good reader” necessarily because that can also make you miss a lot of information whether you were looking for it or not. Reading fast is what works for some people but for others, including myself, they can read very fast then not even know what they just read and have to read it multiple times, which is also not a bad thing. Reading a piece of work multiple times doesn’t make you a bad reader either. I think distinguishing between good and bad readers or even strong and weak readers is unfair, because anyone could excel at reading lyrics or comics but take more time and attention to read a novel. My main take-away from the article this time around was in his last paragraph on the importance of having students understand, “there are multiple ways not only to read but also to be readers.”

Oh yeah! I LOVE giraffes, they’re awesome.