Literacy Profile
I consider myself a reader. A reader not only a reader for content, but more like a reader ingesting the words, the formats, the ideas, and the tones in one rather large breath. I find the enjoyment of reading in books and plays sprinkled with wit and coated with brilliantly developed characters and plot. I enjoy perusing around the shelves of the fiction section and inching towards intriguing titles with a grasping hand.
As I recall, the very first book I mastered was Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop. The pictures and letters finally formed meaning with me at nighttime in my bed around the age of four and a half. For the next four years or so, I read when necessary, not fully grasping the grand span of ideas that could be found in books. One summer, when I was around the age of 8, my mother came up with a reward system for reading. The reward was monetary for every book read. This was the only summer that my mother ever offered such a reward for I believe I read at least 25 books. This sparked my love of reading and I no longer read for a physical reward; my bank of knowledge of literature and vocabulary grew immensely. As an adolescent, I filled my reading time with books of adventure. Series including, The Boxcar Children, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Twilight all lined my shelves along with many Border's purchases and of course the Classics. I was drawn to Adventure, Mystery, and Classical fiction novels.
In school, I usually enjoyed reading the novels chosen. Some of which included, Fahrenheit 451, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", The Devil's Arithmetic, Huckleberry Finn, and "Death of a Salesman". These titles I would consider to be classics or books that could teach an element of literature specifically. I would consider myself a very motivated reader, but I also know that there were a number of classmates that were reluctant to read or neglected the literature all together. For my own students, I would take an interactive approach to teaching literature so that they can see that it is not a bunch of letters on a page, but a series of well-crafted ideas strung together in a memorable arrangement of words that elicit an emotion response. I see literacy as not only reading, but a thirst for understanding.
I loved the Boxcar Children!
ReplyDeleteIn your final paragraph you say that you consider classics, like those you listed, as useful for "teaching an element of literature specifically." I'm wondering...can Adolescent literature do this as well?
The Boxcar Children was one of my favorites too! My brothers and I used to act out that series, pretending to be orphaned children adventuring in our backyard.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do the same exact thing... I search the shelves for an enticing title or (dare I confess it?) a flashy cover.