Who Influenced my Reading:As I sit back and reflect on my reading experiences with literature as a child. I tried to decide who influenced my reading the most, I struggled to remember who really made that Impact on me. I will say that I was a very engaged reader as a child. I grew up with an older brother, who is eight years my senior. His reading ability made me want to be good reader just like him. He was always reading, and I had to depend on him to read to me was my motivation. I recall my older brother reading things to me such as Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel. We subscribed to the Highlights Magazines and he would read those stories to me also. He usually read books that he was interested in that I could not relate to. I do also recall him reading a few comics to me but I enjoyed making up my own stories from the pictures. I think that my brother would make up words to finish the story to get me out of his hair.
My mother worked twelve hour days so our story time together was limited until bed time. My mother usually read at bed time, this was our special time together. I recall my mother reading Mother Goose to me, Dr. Seuss such as The Cat in The Hat, Fox In Socks, One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. She also read the Golden Books to m, such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was a time that we could both relax and spend time together. As I got older and I could read I would read the story to her. This was a great way to practice on my reading skills.
My grandmother was also a major influence on my reading, being that she only had a fifth grade education she pressured me to excel further in my education . I recall my grandmother reading childhood books to me, but her favorite thing to read to me was the Bible. At first she started reading me the Bible stories that most children learn about at an early age. Apparently my grandmother and mother were on the same wave lengths. As I got older I also had to spend my time reading to her. On Saturdays I would have to read and look up things in the Bible for my grandmother’s Sunday school lesson. I will always thank my grandmother for giving me the opportunity to read the Bible to her because that worked on my pronunciation skills.
As I entered school I had very few teachers who really focused on reading skills. This was my favorite subject in elementary and that is because of great teachers, like Ms. Randolph my third grade teacher. She really focused on reading in her classroom Mrs. Wasuita my second grade teacher was also a great influence, because she loved to read aloud to us, and we always made a book to take home to read to our parents. Throughout my years of school I did not have another teacher who influenced my reading until I was a junior in High school. Ms. Harris was my advance prep English teacher. She always challenged our reading skills. I thought that she had the hardest books on her classroom reading list. We read things like Fahrenheit 911 and The Great Gatsby, she also required us to read anything from Shakespeare.
All these individuals played a major role in influencing my reading. If it was a book that they read to Me when I was a child, or challenging my skills by assigning me a challenging book to read. I really appreciate everything that they did in making me the reader that I am today.
