Literacy Autobiography

Reading was not always my strong point or my favorite when I was younger, but as the years went by and I got older I grew into liking, and then loving reading. When I was younger one of the first people to read to me was my mother. Although I cannot recall any memories of her reading to me, she told me she would always read to me and one of my favorites was Barney. She would always read me a Barney book before bedtime. 

           Now, my earliest memory of reading that I could recall was when I was in the second or third grade and I had to read chapter books and write book reports. Book reports were always fun for me to write because I love to write and once I start writing about something, it is usually hard for me to stop. However, one of my favorite books to read while growing up was the Nancy Drew series. I used to love reading these because they were filled with mystery and you never knew what was going to happen next. I think this is the moment when I started to like reading because I was reading something that interested me.      

          As I got a little older and did not have much choice in which books I could read, I grew to dislike reading a little bit. I remember reading the book Treasure Island in the sixth or eighth grade and I hated this book. It was difficult for me to understand. One of my greatest challenges at this time and leading up into my early years of high school was comprehending what I was reading. Reading books that I was not interested in or did not want to read made reading for me hard to comprehend and less enjoyable. I especially grew out of love with reading in high school when all I had to do was read for school and not for pleasure. I felt that I never had enough time to read on my own time because I was so busy reading articles, textbooks, and research for homework. I still felt this way in college as well until I got an iPad mini for my birthday one year, I believe it was around the time I was a freshman in college, and I started to read through iBooks on my iPad mini. This made reading so much more interesting and it was around this time that I started to appreciate reading more. I even started to read my favorite magazines through the iPad. The iPad mini was so much easier to carry around than a book or magazine so I carried it anywhere I went and popped it open any chance I got a spare minute to read.

When I was in middle school my favorite books to read were the Nancy Drew series. I loved mystery books, but then I grew into loving romance books and I still love them till this day. My favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. I love all of his books. Who does not love a good Nicholas Sparks book? I have read many of his books and not one of them has disappointed me. My favorite book of his is either between The Notebook, The Best of Me, and Nights in Rodanthe. Another awesome book is The Fault in Our Stars. I really enjoyed this book and the movie as well. 

       Now, as a preschool teacher, I am always reading aloud to my students and I love it. Reading children’s books are my favorite. One of my favorite children’s authors is Eric Carle. I love all his books and of course my favorite is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

          Reading to my students is fun especially when I get to put enthusiasm into it and use different voices for each character. When I became a preschool teacher, I, then, decided that I wanted to go back to school for my Master’s in reading specialist because I was in the position of liking reading, to disliking it, and then loving it. 

           I had my ups and downs with reading, but I want to help children learn to love it so they do not lose their love for reading like I once did. I want to help struggling readers not give up, comprehend what they are reading, and appreciate it because almost anything that we read can be connected to our own lives in some way. That’s the way I look at reading. Reading is our life written on paper and I would love to keep reading as a life-long habit that never gets old.