... reading poetry and prose where the author draws the reader into the story with good imagery. Last year I read more books on my own than were assigned by the teacher. Unfortunately, the books that were reading assignments last year were required to be dissected chapter by chapter, ruining the flow and magic ... between my expectations of the course and the actual classes, the year seemed to pass slowly and disjointedly. For instance, in Novel Study we would read a chapter, then stop and thoroughly analyze that section of the book. I could not sustain interest in the novel with this kind...

• Word Count: 568
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... something new from their classmates or they may discover something themselves just by verbalizing their thoughts. Discussion also eliminates confusions that students may have. Encouraging students to read to each other and to bring books from home is a great way to keep students interested and help them to develop good reading skills. I think it is a good idea as well to allow students ... to borrow books to take home. I will try my hardest to keep students motivated to read and participate. In order for students to stay motivated, they need to be able to make choices. If students are n...

• Word Count: 3469
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: High School

... of the month. Another program that helped increase my literacy skills was the Book-It program held by the public library, where children would receive a grand prize for how many books that read in a month. The first major literacy moment of my life occurred in the third grade when I joined the Reading Competition Club. My elementary school endorsed literacy by encouraging students ... to read and answer comprehension questions about the books they have read. At the end of my elementary school career, I had won at least three of the reading competitions; the third one I won was for stude...

• Word Count: 870
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the two types of literature In the poem, "A Study of Reading Habits," Philip Larkin talks of being unhappy both in his home and at school. He read books where the good guys fought the bad guys, books where the good guys always won the battle. In his adolescent years, Larkin talks of wearing one inch glasses. He wasn't very successful when it came ... made it virtually impossible for him to identify with any characters of any book. So he stopped reading because the books no longer were interesting to him. There are many different reasons why people read books, however, all people are dif...

• Word Count: 496
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... special cookie sundaes. Being literate means being able to live in this world successfully. I grew up in California, where as a child I loved my dolls and books. My mom was very involved in my education, and although we didn't have much money, she did everything she could to make sure I got the education ... mom after school to pick out five books (that was my limit). I was having my books signed by my favorite author, Wendelin Van Draanen where I was her biggest fan and read all of her books, multiple times. Wendelin Van Draanen was special to me growing up. Her books were actually based...

• Word Count: 1057
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... many people who are illiterate. When I see those people, I really thank God that God give me an ability to read. Actually, I do not like reading. One reason is that it takes too long to read books or other reading pieces: newspaper, Internet articles, etc. I read books very slowly, so I get bored easily. However, when I finish reading a book, I feel like I may get some information or knowledge ... from the book. As I read books, I feel many different things from each book. I read a book called "The Tree" by Bernard Werber. This book is full of imagination. The people who believe there i...

• Word Count: 570
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... watching TV when it was necessary. When I was young, I was in this program from the local library that awarded you on how many books you can read over the summer. The way they examine the number of books you read was by having to write a book report on each book. At the end of the summer, they would count who ... read the most books and you would receive an award for it. I was in that program for only one summer, since I never understood what was the reason behind it. ... to really pursue. If the program had a better way to show the importance of reading maybe things would have been dif...

• Word Count: 613
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... viewing paintings, they can also watch a movie instead of reading a book. There are actually documentaries that will talk about books or paintings. There is less enthusiasm to go see a painting or sit and read a book, when watching something tell you what happens is so much easier. There is much less thinking necessary to ... that the lower class could not view the art. They could view paintings because they did not have the money and they could not read books because they were not smart enough. With the upper class being more educated it is also assumed that they would be able to get mo...

• Word Count: 1413
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... a new world filled with any adventure I could imagine. Some of my earliest memories are of my godmother reading to me in the evening. One of the first books to spark my interest was Charlotte's Web; I read it front to back at least five times. Up to that point, I had enjoyed reading for recreation; it wasn't until second grade that I became interested in ... . She said that we were to write a new journal entry at least twice a week. I remember being hesitant at first, as I wasn't sure what to write about. So far, I had only read books with somewhat outlandish plots. "Writing about my own...

• Word Count: 1078
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... to do with his English classes. He loved to write, but he hated the compositions that he had to write in class. He described them as "agonies for teachers to read and for [him] to write (3). When Baker was assigned to his third-year English class, he expected "another grim year in that dreariest of subjects " (4). His teacher, Mr. Fleagle, was ... and I knew that that year, I was in for something BIG. I went in her class as a student who didn't have much of a drive for an education. I wasn't a bad student, but I didn't read much, I did poorly in math, and I never really strived to be be...

• Word Count: 1603
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... in, but the most inspiring class to me was my senior year English Four class. The most inspiring thing about it was the assignments that I did, the teacher and the books I read. The Assignments that were given to me in my English class in high school were things such as poems, and character analysis. I did much of character analysis for ... me many things about life and this inspired me to do well in her class. She also assigned many books for us to read that dealt with life situations. Many of the books we read in high school were fantasies and fictional. I think that these books that ...

• Word Count: 617
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... these essays for the mainstream audience for it to become a best-seller. She jokes and says she would never expect a movie to be made out of he book starring Julia Roberts. She also wrote she hopes by the time anyone reads her book that Britney Spears and N"Sync are outdated. This makes me think that she cares very little for pop ... realization that the profession she had got into was not it was all cracked up to be. She had in her mind she would get a job she loved, publish great books, and make lots of money. She ended up in entry level jobs, working late nights reading manuscripts. ...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... in, but the most inspiring class to me was my senior year English Four class. The most inspiring thing about it was the assignments that I did, the teacher and the books I read. The Assignments that were given to me in my English class in high school were things such as poems, and character analysis. I did much of character analysis for ... me many things about life and this inspired me to do well in her class. She also assigned many books for us to read that dealt with life situations. Many of the books we read in high school were fantasies and fictional. I think that these books that ...

• Word Count: 596
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to bring it back when he was done. Paulsen began reading books in the basement of his house. At first it took Paulsen about a month to read a book, but gradually he got to be a faster reader and was able to read two books in one week. As Paulsen later recalls, "When she handed ... the woods alone. He also goes sailing to get rid of "the hassles of life."" When Gary Paulsen first began writing, he wrote how-to books with incredibly long titles such as Dribbling, Shooting, and Scoring Sometimes (1976) and The Building a New, Buying an Old, Remodeling a Used Comprehensive ... a very unplea...

• Word Count: 1730
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... excerpt we read from Ralph Waldo Emerson's The American Scholar, it seemed as though Emerson's main goal was to create an extremely complex and overly-wordy written piece to confuse the reader. Upon deeper examination, however, Emerson's writing takes on a new life as he explains the importance and significance of books and ... Emerson's main points. Emerson also spoke of the many great authors of the past. He spoke of Locke and Bacon, and how many who read their books viewed them as god like figure. According to Emerson, however, writers are no more than men. Emerson believes that to b...

• Word Count: 940
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... an Indian American writer and Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and a human rights activist have been smiled upon because of their interest in books and learning. In his essay "The Achievement of Desire" Rodriguez wrote that, "With every award, each graduation from one level ... success'" (Rodriguez, pg.597). Basically, Richard Rodriguez is saying that because of his education he was being praised. In his essay "Learning to read," Malcolm X wrote that "As you can imagine, especially in a prison where there was heavy emphasis on rehabilitation, an inmate was smiled ... upon ...

• Word Count: 1991
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... were expected to fail in the non-Indian world (17). In order to overcome his hardship Alexie refused to fail as an Indian and continued to read as much as he could from his father's books. Another obstacle Tan and Alexie had to fight through was their language barriers. Tan had hard time with word analogies. Tan did not know how to ... are judgment call. She overcame this problem and continued to study hard and became a writer. Alexie as a young Indian boy, who wanted to read and write had to learn on his own to become a writer. Alexie learn to read with a Superman comic book. Alexie so...

• Word Count: 779
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... get good grades. First, you need to concentrate in class. The second way is to do your homework daily. And the last one is to read many different and interesting books. If you do these three things, you will definitely be an A student. Concentrating in class is very, very important because if the teacher ... not do your homework, you will get bad grades in your classes. If you want to increase your writing skill, you should read many different Interesting books. Or you could even go through a dictionary and look for words you have never heard before or have a hard time understanding. If...

• Word Count: 343
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... took a very different approach to his writing of this book. His book is nothing like any of the other western style books of his time or any other time. This is why I believe that The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark was such a success. Some ... people read books just to read and hear a good story. Some people read stories to try and find a meaning in things or find a meaning in life. Some people read to help themselves out or to try to advance their writing style. No matter what ... reason you read, there are always different ways people can perceive things and different wa...

• Word Count: 1294
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... to what she had to say. Her African-American heritage has greatly influenced her writing, leading her to be one of the most widely read poets of today. She was not an author who wrote to entertain, but rather an author who wanted her voice to be heard. Before ... played small roles in the Civil Rights Movement by doing small things as marching with other blacks to protest a recent hate crime. In Knoxville, she read signs and noticed other carious examples of segregation in her community. After her teacher, Miss Delaney, showed her the path towards a writing career, Nikki ... African-Ame...

• Word Count: 1670
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... and cracked himself in the forehead. He made me laugh, and I enjoyed that class a lot because we would read books quite often or he read them to us. Then we were supposed to write something about the book or draw pictures about what we read. So I tried to write a paper about a book called The Pearl. I thought I had done a ... semester I had Mr. Tinkle and he was pretty cool. What I mean by this is he did not give us a lot of work, he just gave us a couple of books to read. I was content with that. We may have had some writing, but I liked him so I don't remember it as a class I didn't l...

• Word Count: 1365
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... and cracked himself in the forehead. He made me laugh, and I enjoyed that class a lot because we would read books quite often or he read them to us. Then we were supposed to write something about the book or draw pictures about what we read. So I tried to write a paper about a book called The Pearl. I thought I had done a ... semester I had Mr. Tinkle and he was pretty cool. What I mean by this is he did not give us a lot of work, he just gave us a couple of books to read. I was content with that. We may have had some writing, but I liked him so I don't remember it as a class I didn't l...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... I got a hankering to watch Fried Green Tomatoes that inspiration struck. I was reminded that Fannie Flagg wrote the book of the same name. I had recently read and enjoyed Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! and I knew this was someone that I wanted to learn more about. Fannie Flagg is an author that ... the readers, but instead veils her messages with a delightful sense of humor. My only complaint about Fannie Flagg is that she hasn't written more books! Fannie Flagg was born September 21, 1941, as Patricia Neal, the daughter of a small business owner named William Neal. She lived in ... ...

• Word Count: 2687
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... have an education and knowledge of what is going on around them. In an insert from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography he talks about how he would read books on writing, and edit his own writings, and he said, "I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language and this encouraged ... talked about, and can input their thoughts. One cannot likely recall issues or ideas they have learned or read from their memories if they don't have an education. A literate person can read books and papers and learn information which they may use later. In a narrative by Frederick Douglass, Fred...

• Word Count: 1248
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... that spicy, but I was surely dating my random readings in the library. Each day, I would randomly pick a copy and open a random page to read. The school library used to be my lunch table for half hour. In addition to my passionate reading sessions, I had some great teachers throughout who ... admins. Today, one can use the internet to enhance your reading experience. I have read several books that led me to the internet because I wanted to know more about some of the things or people mentioned in the books. Other times I have written down words that I didn't know the meaning of ... and ...

• Word Count: 641
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School