Negatives and positves of reading on my life

Developing appropriate reading skills in high school

Developing appropriate reading skills in high school is one of the most critical moves for students planning to attend college. What exactly is reading? And what’s the big deal with it? Reading is a dynamic mechanism that requires understanding, inspiration, word recognition, and fluency (Leizpig). Readers do incorporate such facets in order to derive value from the given prints. Sometimes a person may derive a sense from a print without actually identifying any of the words, particularly if the handwriting in the notes is scribbled, so recognizing it even if all of the scribbles could not be deciphered. In developing word recognition, sounds in words are usually broken apart and manipulated in a process called phonemic awareness; some letters are utilized to represent some sounds in alphabetical principle. Also, in decoding knowledge of letter-sound relationships is applied to make student’s sound out words, which are new to them like ssshooveeel to shovel. In comprehension, background knowledge of several topics, great print and oral vocabularies, understanding of several types of texts and how English works is applied. In fluency, developing a high level of accuracy in recognition of words and maintaining a rate of reading invigorating enough to facilitate understanding is required. Lastly, in developing a motivation to read, student’s have to appreciate reading pleasures, see reading as a greater chance to explore their interest and as a social act, which is needed to be shared with others. However, despite all the processes involved in reading, most first-year students upon joining colleges fail to perform well in reading due to the weak public education system that they underwent, which failed to nurture them. In this paper, I will discuss the negatives and positives of reading in my life that has led to me joining the college as a freshman with a 7th-grade reading level.

Positives of reading

Reading has helped me in cognitive stimulation thus slowing the progress of Dementia or Alzheimer’s, which might have affected me since keeping the brain busy makes it active. The brain requires frequent exercise just like any other muscle in the body to prevent it from losing the power that keeps it going (Herbert).

Even though I joined the college with still a 7th-grade reading level, I managed to gain knowledge from the bits of information I got while in high school, thus being able to handle any emerging challenge, which I might face in college and the future. I know one day maybe I might lose my job, wealth, and pride but what I know that I will never lose is the knowledge that I gained from reading.

Reading also helped me in reducing stress in my personal relationship with my step-brother whom we were not getting along. Through reading, one feels like he or she is transported to other realms thus distracted and kept in the present moment thus allowing tensions to drain away and feeling relaxed (Herbert).

Reading also assisted me in my vocabulary expansion from high school up to now in college since the more I read books; the more I gained exposure to more words thus making their way to my daily vocabulary. Learning of vocabulary usually boosts speech delivery skills in people’s career and increases their self-confidence (Herbert). Reading also assisted me in understanding and learning new languages like French even though I have never been to France or any French class thus improving my writing and speaking fluency.

Reading in high school also assisted me in improving my memory capabilities through remembering an assortment of history, backgrounds, nuances, and ambitions in a story. Each new memory created usually forge new synapses and also strengthens the current ones that aid in short-term memory recalls (Herbert).

Negatives of Reading

In high school, most of us viewed reading as something boring thus needed it for study purposes and did not relate it with enjoyment and relaxation. The environment that we underwent during our adolescent period was based on social conditioning thus contributing to my 7th-grade reading level in college. For instance, we learned to copy and paste notes on tests and memorize key facts out of textbooks only to forget them the following day. Education should not be based on helping students to get by but to inspire them to read deeply and follow their hearts and passion (London).

Personally, I viewed reading as a waste of time. While in public high schools, we were hardly inspired to seek out knowledge and skills on our own. The system dwelled on teaching dependency in the place of self-sufficiency. Thus, when it comes to working and learning in the real world, we are stuck in reading below the grade seven levels thus the urge to expand learning, reading, and vocabulary diminished. This also applies to the cognitive function used to assimilate new information also being lost in grade school. Nevertheless, despite the A-F grading scale trying to measure our progress, it still failed to inspire (London).

Conclusion

In summary, it is true that majority of first-year students in colleges in the United States of America possess the 7th-grade reading level, which is an education disaster. Personally, as a student, I understand what majority of my peers are going through in their studies. From my experience, I believe for the epidemic to be done with, students in high school level should be given more freedom to learn and more inspiration. Maybe it is about time for newer spectrum to be introduced in learning inside and outside the classrooms. What about the books that inspire them to grow their gardens? It is time to let students get practical and make their hands dirty, which might encourage the spirit of reading in them thus improving the standards of education systems in America; hence, first-year students with higher reading skills than 7th-grade level being produced.

Works Cited

Leipzig, Diane Henry. “What Is Reading?”. Reading Rockets, 2001, http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-reading.

Herbert, Lana Winter. “10 Benefits Of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day”. Lifehack, 2017, http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html.

London, John. “Advantages & Disadvantages Of Reading.” Our Pastimes, 2017, http://ourpastimes.com/advantages-disadvantages-reading-8389212.html.