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Bedtime stories are my earliest memories that shaped my reading. Although I did not know how to read in 1997, the stories that were read to me helped me to develop an imaginative mind that I would later use in stories that I read while growing up.
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Listening to audio books while following along with the book in my hand, helped to develop early connections to words and their meaning.
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Partaking in reading circles during my primary years of schooling allowed me to develop my comprehension of the English language. The teacher would have each student read a sentence or two and then have the circle suggest what the sentence infers.
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Having the ability to listen to the teacher's pronunciation further developed my ability to say a word/s that I struggled with.
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Watching/putting on plays further helped me understand the context of stories because it gave me a visual I could rely on.
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During my middle school years, my reading teachers would read about a paragraph of a story and then stop to interpret the text. I currently utilize this practice when I feel overwhelmed with a text.
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Creating plot diagrams while reading has helped me to identify crucial points in stories.
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During my first year of high school, I was enrolled in Read 180, a program designed to help students achieve current grade-level reading. This program gave me the opportunity to truly strengthen my reading abilities by helping me focus on the elements to reading.
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Adding annotations to stories, poems, and articles has helped build my interpretations of their meaning. The ability to translate/ annotate in my own words also helps when I refer back to what I read.
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Oral speeches have helped shape who I am as a reader today because they have given me confidence in reading out-loud in a classroom setting.
