Aaron Patterson

4/26/16

English 111

Dollieslager

Literacy Narrative

      As a child I was never read to, at least not that I can remember. In my earlier years of school, I never took reading too seriously because it never seemed too hard. It never started to become a problem until I reached middle school when I needed to be able to read at a decent level to complete my assignments. Though even in middle school, I seemed to have bad reading comprehension. I would try to read through a passage and fully understand it the first time, but I always find myself reading it over and over again until I finally understand what I am reading. Sometimes when I would take a test, it took me time to read everything so when my time was running up I would have to try and look through the passage as quickly as I can to try and get the answers but I hardly ever got them correct.

      I have a one year old son that I occasionally read to. When he picks something out and gives it to me, most of the time it’s just a picture book with pop outs or Dr. Seuss books. I know he doesn’t understand much but I see him pointing to pictures and repeating the words after I read them to him. Hopefully he will catch on to reading a lot better than I did and be able to have a good reading comprehension.

      I usually don’t read until I have to either for class or homework, but I do agree it is important to my success. I would like to learn how to comprehend what I am reading better. I’ve never been told I have reading difficulties but it would make a lot more sense if I did. I’m not the first person in my family to attend college, a few of my family members have attended college before.

      Since the start of the semester, I have learned important things about critical and academic reading. I have learned to point out a main idea of a passage I am reading to help me connect it with the rest of the information in the passage. Instead of just trying to read it over and over again, I’ve learned to take notes as I am reading. Of course I’ve always known how to take notes, but now I have better idea on how to take notes by putting them in Cornell style. This helps me by making a summary at the end of my notes, helping me better understand all the information.

      Another important academic reading strategy I’ve learned is SQ4R. This strategy helps me by giving me steps to take to better understand what I am reading. The process of SQ4R is to survey, question, read, recite, write, and review in that order. I survey what I’m reading by skimming through the chapters to get an idea of what the passage is about. Also reading the title and any extra information the passage has. I question what I’m reading by giving myself questions to answer about the passage. Then I just simply read the passage and recite the answers to the questions I gave myself. Once I recite the answers, I write them down with other notes I’ve taken. The last step is to review and skim through the passage again and to also review my notes and the answers to my questions. This process has helped me better understand what I’m reading and to find the answers about the passage I am looking for.

      I have learned plenty academic and critical reading strategies through this semester. These strategies have been very helpful to my reading skills. SQ4R has helped me be able to understand what I’m reading better and putting my notes in Cornell style has helped me organize my information from the passages I have read. This class has helped me tremendously towards my academic and reading skills and has had a very positive impact on my education goals and success.