Reading is a very important subject, but not so many teenagers believe so. Now that I realize how important reading is, I expect to be more interested and will pay more attention to the selections given. I haven't experienced much as a reader. Although, in high school I didn't pay much attention to the passages because I didn't find any interest in them. During my senior year at Warwick High School we began to read The Eyes Were Watching God, and loved it. Other books that caught my interest outside of school were Orange is the New Black, and also The Twilight Saga. Besides books I find reading magazine and newspaper articles extremely entertaining.

    Up until this semester, I have never been taught any specific reading strategies, but I am open to learn as many as possible if it makes reading that more enjoying. As far as reading difficulties, I would say I have a difficult time retaining information that's given, but I always re read whatever I don't understand until I am able to.  When I'm reading a selection for answers I typically skim for the answers first, if I cannot find the correct answer I'll read it word for word. When reading I find I am more engaged with a passage when I get to read it to myself. Audiobooks take away the creativity of giving characters a certain voice and image that you came up with, with your own imagination.

    When I was younger until the point I was able to read myself, my family would usually always read to me before bed when I asked. The only book I specifically remember is Dr. Suess. The rhyming and different pictures were extremely interesting to me, I found it very amusing at a young age. Although I don't have children now, in the future I will read to them. I will read a variety of books to get them to expand their vocabulary. Reading is very important and hopefully the upcoming generations enjoy it and understand why it's so amazing.

     In ENG 111, my class had several assignments that we couldn’t finish without reading the articles that were given. Because of the articles we had to read, our class as a whole learned many new things. While learning and reading new things, our english class was being taught new reading strategies to help improve our reading comprehension as well as our writings. A couple of the strategies we learned were; cornell note taking, SQ4R note taking, but also how to paraphrase from an article. Cornell and SQ4R note taking are extremely helpful when you’re watching a video, reading an article etc.. because it helps people identify important points in whatever they are taking notes on. Another pro about using these different strategies is that it will help students writing academic papers stay away from plagiarism. Paraphrasing from a source is fairly similar, but viewing different references helped me look at the various ways on how to do so. It was extremely helpful and very valuable for all the papers I have to write in the future.

     Critical and academic reading is so significant to every single one of our lives because it expands our knowledge. If people don’t take the time to read academic articles, journals, or novels they are not expanding their knowledge as much as they are capable of. After getting through this semester I have learned reading is extremely important.