Literacy Profile

I guess I would consider myself a reader. I love reading books that make you think outside your comfort level. I'm drawn to the experiences that the authors put me through, and I often find myself trying to relate my own life and the events that occured thus far to the character's lives. Also, I like reading literature that covers popular issues of the time. An example of this is 19 Mintues by Jodi Picoult; it discusses the emotions that follow a school shooting. I began reading outside of school assignments in second grade. I read the entire Cam Jansen Mystery series about a girl who had a photographic memory and helped solve mysteries around her local town. As I got older, however, I began to read the Nacy Drew series as a young teen. By the time I reached high school some of my favorite books I read were I am the Messenger, Looking For Alaska, The Luxe Series, The Book Thief, Cat and Mouse, Elsewhere, Perks of being a Wallflower, Love and Other Four Letter Words, Tears of a Tiger, The Glass Castle, and many more. At home I keep a list of the books I've read, so I don't happen to reread books. I liked books about teenagers and their lives. I was more drawn to outcast characters than I was the "typical" characters. In addition to reading on my own time, being in honors English classes in high school made for a heavy reading semester. Most of the literature I was exposed to was old and outdated. It was hard to relate to and often I found the material boring and irrelevant. I liked reading novels, and tried by best to understand. I think the reason I felt the way I did was because I got sick of the same study guides, reading quizes, and then simply writing an essay on a topic relating to the reading. There was no fun in it, no creativity. Some of the books I read during high school were The Scarlet Letter, The Odyssey, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, Of Mice and Men, The Glass Menagerie, All Quiet on the Western Front, Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm, the First Part Last, Raisin in the Sun and others I cannot remember. Depending on the book I can be both a motivated and a reluctant reader. On my own, I love reading. However, reading the Odyssey was slow and hard to get through. I hope to someday encourage my students to enjoy reading by incorporating different activites that the typical study guides and writing assignments, and by mixing in different eras of books. Learning can be fun and outside the box, and I hope to bring that to the classroom at somepoint.