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Strategic Reading - My Final Reflection

  • Madyson Podojil
  • Dec 18, 2017
  • 9 min read

Think about all the reading practice you have done this semester. In your view, what does it mean to be a reader? To me, being a reader is being someone who actively READS. By this, I mean not just scanning a page to get it read, but actually allowing yourself to be involved in a story and comprehending it as I read. Then, upon finishing the book, actually taking time to formulate an opinion on it based on thoughts and feelings throughout the actual reading of it. I feel that the Book Review assignment really helped to get me into this mindset of evaluating what I just read. Not only does this allow me to form my full opinion, but it actually makes it easier for me to tell other people about the books I liked or disliked and why.

  1. As of right now, do you consider yourself a reader? Explain. I absolutely consider myself a reader, and this class has helped me loads in that department as a whole. I read more books this semester than I’ve read in any other year of high school COMBINED. Now considering myself a reader, I feel like I have a better gauge of what I like to read, and I feel that I can help others find what they like to read by making suggestions based on their character or what content they enjoy. I’m happy to call myself a reader, and I really do enjoy reading. I fell out of the habit of reading a long time ago, but I’ve rekindled my love for it through analyzation of the books I’ve read on a regular and constant basis.

  2. Identify THREE strategies that you use while reading and explain how these strategies help you to be a better reader (These can be anything - not just things we explicitly had lessons on). One strategy I used was goal-setting. For instance, over conference break, I told myself I would finish The Female of the Species, and I did! If I set goal for myself I’m more likely to read a certain amount than I am just going at it with no goal in mind. Tracking my reading also helped, especially tallying up my reading from the past week. If I didn’t meet my goal, I was actually pretty disappointed in myself and consciously made the decision to make up for it in the next week. This goes hand in hand with finding the time to read, which was probably the hardest thing for me to do this semester, but I’m now officially in the habit of picking up a book in my downtime rather than just scrolling through my phone. Lastly, I don’t know if this would be really considered a strategy, but making my reading blog really helped me to read more as well, since I had an outlet to share my thoughts along every twist, turn, and new plot in any given book I was reading. I always wanted to write about the book I was reading, which in turn gave me motivation to read, and that cycle repeated itself throughout the semester.

  3. List all the books (with authors’ names) you read this semester. What were your TWO favorite books? Write at least two paragraphs—one paragraph per book—about why these books were your favorite

Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza

It (Abandoned), Stephen King

Go Ask Alice, Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks)

Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane

Jay’s Journal, Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks)

V for Vendetta, Alan Moore

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

Room, Emily Donoghue

Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh

The Female of the Species, Mindy McGinnis

Turtles all the Way Down, John Green

Another Little Piece of my Heart (Abandoned), Richard Goldstein

Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds

One of Us is Lying (Currently Reading), Karen McManus

Why do you have to ask me to pick favorites, man. This is hard. Anyway.

I’m going to say that my absolute favorite book was (aside from Go Ask Alice, because I’m sure you’re sick of hearing me discuss it) The Female of the Species, followed by Hyperbole and a Half.

The Female of the Species made me bawl my eyes out and angrily text my friend who recommended it to me in the first place. I closely related with this book and its characters on many different levels, almost to a T. Not only with Alex, but Jack as well. I felt that it oddly reflected my own relationship, and I think that’s why the end was so devastating to me. The book also visited the topic of finding yourself, which I don’t think anyone ever does perfectly. I think that throughout life, you become a different person, so you find yourself a million different times before you die. The book emphasized mortality and the fact that everything can just be gone in a matter of minutes, seemingly fitting to a theme we unfortunately experienced in DCHS this past week or so. The book deeply resonated with me and actually made me FEEL something, so much that I cried. Not to say other books haven’t made me feel anything, but this one actually produced a physical reaction, and I’ll be honest, I was a little depressed after reading it. I wouldn’t change that experience, though.

These reasons are actually pretty similar to why I really liked Hyperbole and a Half. The book was laugh-out-loud funny, I even read a chapter (about “special dog”) to one of my coworkers, and she couldn’t breathe, she had tears streaming down her face. I never got to that point, but I did have to take a break from reading a couple times because I was laughing. Another aspect of reading this book that I believe made it unique in comparison to others that I’ve read is the fact that I actually read parts of it to other people. I don’t think I’ve done that with any other book, ever. I read to my mom, step dad, boyfriend, friends, coworkers, and each time I never got any more sick of it, because it was just that funny. I had this intense need to share the book with someone, so, I figured out how.

5. What trends and/or patterns in terms of your reading habits do you notice as you reflect on your time in this class? I’m pretty eclectic when it comes to what I’ve been reading. Yes, the bulk has been realistic fiction, but I’ve read poetry that I loved, graphic novels I loved, biographies that I loved, and honestly, even though I’ve read a good variety, and it seems to have no real common trend in certain cases, I feel like I know myself better as a reader now. As far as who I’m reading, I’ve done no repeats as far as authors, so I don’t have a favorite author at this time. However, I do intend to read more Neal Shusterman and Andrew Smith novels sometime in the near future. I will say, I don’t intend to ever read another John Green novel again based on my “meh” attitude on Turtles all the Way down, and I’m slowly trying to wean myself into reading Stephen King books again soon. Through my reading choices, I’ve heard perspectives of a comedian who struggles with depression, I’ve heard the inner thoughts of a girl tormented by her OCD, I’ve heard the internal dialogue of a man with split personality disorder, a girl who battles drug addiction, and also a horny teenage boy who was involved with the occult. I’ve witnessed a kid discerning a decision that could define the rest of his life by conversing with the ghosts of his past, I’ve seen how a cold-hearted and untrusting girl was able to let herself be loved just moments before her life was taken while trying to save someone else. These experiences have all left at least some amount of impact on me, and allowed me to see things from the eyes of others, stopping to stand back and realize that things aren’t always as they seem, and everyone deserves to be heard.

6. Write at least a paragraph about TWO things you did well this semester—one paragraph per thing— and why you think you did them well. I think I exceeded even my own expectations as far as reading in general goes. I’ve made time for it, and I read quite a few books this semester. More than I was expecting to. I honestly believed I’d only read 6-7 books, but I read 12+. I think I’ve successfully made reading a priority in my life which was one of my goals this semester, and I couldn’t be more happy about it. I also think I’ve done well at analyzing my reading. Not only my habits, but the contents of the books I read. Analyzing a book after finishing it has become a big part of my life, which is another reason that I’m glad I started my own reading blog. Now I love dissecting the books I read and picking out exactly what I like or dislike, it goes hand-in-hand with any reading I do now, and I’m glad I formed that habit so that I can be more knowledgeable about the books I’ve read, as this practice forces me to comprehend the books more and more.

7. Explain which *components of the class have most significantly influenced your reading throughout this semester. Specifically address at least 3. Genre exploration has influenced my reading quite a bit. Without exploring different genres, I never would’ve read Long Way Down or V for Vendetta. I loved both of those books, and they reminded me that going outside of my comfort zone can be pretty rewarding. Personal conferences with Mr. Hall also helped influence my reading in the sense that it forced me to go back and think about what I read, through doing that I realized that the books I read that I really liked are the ones that first came to mind to discuss, and ones that I totally forgot to talk about clearly didn’t make as much of an impact on me. Lastly, Booktalks! I LOVE listening to booktalks, and the majority of the things on my TBR list are explicitly from book talks of Mr. Hall and other students. It allows me to get a brief understanding of a plot line before even picking up the book, and if I don’t like the booktalk, I know to not read that book.

8. As you listen to the audio of the first reading conference you had with me — accessible via “Shared with Me” folder in Google Drive (Dowling Google account) — what stands out? In particular, how is your current relationship with reading different from that of this early point of the semester? I really enjoyed listening to this recording for more than one reason. I’ve really changed as a person to a surprising amount from the beginning of the year, and reading is only one of those aspects. I’m much more calm and less worried about the future than I was before. However, in the reading department, the number one thing that stuck out to me is that I didn’t get one of my goals accomplished: finishing books that I’ve started in the past. They’re still on my TBR list, but I guess I got so caught up with other books that I didn’t even think to squeeze in Coraline and The Jungle, which were both specifically mentioned in my conference. I’ve also noticed that I did expand, much more than I initially thought. I put myself in a bracket at the beginning of the year, saying I only liked the darker stories. But I actually read a couple light-hearted novels this year. Overall, the recording surprised me because I didn’t feel that I’d changed all that much, yet here we are. Early in the semester I was very preoccupied with the fact that I didn’t think I’d have time to read, but as I’ve stated numerous times now, I really have made it more of a priority, heck, I have a book next to me right now as I’m finishing this up, and I’m at work. Where I specifically said (in the recording) I probably wouldn’t be able to read.

9. Complete the following: Reading three books in two weeks was my best moment in class because I felt SO accomplished and it motivated me to just kept diving into one book after another. I helped make it my best moment by expanding what I read through genre exploration, as two of those books were Hyperbole and a Half and Long Way Down, both from genres I never would’ve considered prior to this class.

10. Evaluate your progress throughout Strategic Reading this semester? Are you satisfied with your performance (behavior, participation, attendance, effort, growth) in this class? Why or why not? I am 100% satisfied with myself, not to say there’s not room for growth. I am rather impressed with myself and how far I’ve come in my reading habits this semester. As stated before, I read more books in this single semester than I think I’ve read my entire time at dowling combined. I’ve grown as a reader through finding out what books I really enjoy and which ones I don’t, making it easier for me to pick my next book. I love that I can properly analyze and critique books once I’ve read them, and also that I can feel confident in my reading. I have explored different perspectives and genres, and I’ve become that person who recommends books to any and everyone. My participation in this class only helped strengthen me as a reader more, and every activity helped me learn more and more about this world of reading that I hadn’t been involved with since middle school. I put forth my best effort, and I think that’s the biggest reason I was able to grow so much in the span of this short semester.

 
 
 

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