Wide Awake
Growing up I counted myself as one of the lucky few in the world who was blessed with a mother who not only encouraged the idea of reading and writing; but she also showed me how much fun reading and writing could be no matter what I was reading or writing about, From her reading me stories at bedtime or from me telling myself stories in order to entertain myself when I was restless or bored. When I decided to build upon my love for reading and writing at the age of five years old that was also when I discovered that anybody who was famous they had great respect and reverence for the art of spoken and written word because I believed they knew that to make a real difference in this world they had to change their way of doing things and they also had to fully acknowledge and embrace the power that possessing the ability to read and write would give them in reaching their target audience. But they did not stop at just learning the required material they also applied their newfound gift and tried to make life better not only for themselves but also for the people around them and for future generations. I have always had this wish that I could one day rendezvous with at least some of these historical figures that I have always wanted to emulate and maybe I could ask them their experiences and how they survived in such a harsh and unforgiving world such as ours.
I really believe that reading and writing not only paved the way for the influential figures that we study, read, and write about in school but this right of passage that many of us take for granted today opened up their eyes to a whole new world and gave them the determination, and resilience to do more than what that new world was demanding of them in the face ...
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I believe that reading and writing should not only be done to receive a good grade or because a teacher tells you to but you should tackle it like most journeys, because it begins with a single step and they both need to be practiced daily and also both appreciated and respected and on as a trial students need to overcome or as a punishment but as a creative outlet for the mind. I know for me I hope that my love affair with the spoken and written word and my love of books only gets deeper and more involved as I get older and move up in the world because I understand that we need to have many skills in order to accomplish anything in the world that we live in today and the more goals that we achieve in our life whether they be professional or personal the better we will feel about ourselves and how we look at the world around us will also change for the better.
...ant issues facing our world today. At the end of the day, every one could learn much from a writer that was never afraid to share his opinion on any subject no matter what anyone else thought about it. This goes to show, no matter how much an opinion differs from the majority, or the popular opinion, everyone still has a right and responsibility to let it be known.
Writing is essential for passing on human history. Things you see today such as bibles, textbooks and hieroglyphics are key to understanding the people who lived before us. Without these written information, one would not know about the true hardship and bloodshed of the past. Frederick Douglass created his autobiography in order to show his conditions within slavery. This act was one of the many influential factors that motivated the abolishment of slavery. His ideas are still viewed today to show people the importance of reading and writing. Similarly, an the essay "Superman and Me" by the author Alexie Sherman explains his difficult life living on a poor Spokane Indian Reservation. Overtime, he develops the ability to read by picking up his father’s comic book and using the pictures to help him understand the content. By reading at an early age, he was more than capable of ...
Additionally, they are a way and means of people trying to express themselves in an artful manner. In the case of Rose, “Reading opened up the world.” (Rose 21); it opened the gates for Rose to build a creative mindset that most students do not have throughout their educational careers. As for myself, reading has allowed me to understand what aspects of writing are popular to this day. Additionally, narratives have allowed me to reevaluate my views on American society as a whole; at first, I believed that there was clearly something wrong with me when I was placed into remedial English at De Anza.
Each year as I grow old, I tend to discover and learn new things about myself as a person as well as a reader, writer and a student as a whole. My educational journey so far has been pretty interesting and full of surprises. Back in Bangladesh where I studied until high school, my interest for learning, reading or writing was so very different compared to how it has become over the years. I could relate those learning days to Richard Rodriquez’s essay “The lonely Good Company of Books”. In the essay the author says, “Friends? Reading was, at best, only a chore.”(Rodriguez, page 294). During those days I sure did feel like reading was a chore for me and how I was unable to focus and I could never understand what all those jumbled up words ever meant. It was quite a struggle for me in class when the teachers used to assign us reading homework. I felt like reading a book was more difficult or painful than trying to move a mountain. Just like how moving a mountain is impossible, trying to find an interest in reading was
I began to read not out of entertainment but out of curiosity, for in each new book I discovered an element of real life. It is possible that I will learn more about society through literature than I ever will through personal experience. Having lived a safe, relatively sheltered life for only seventeen years, I don’t have much to offer in regards to worldly wisdom. Reading has opened doors to situations I will never encounter myself, giving me a better understanding of others and their situations. Through books, I’ve escaped from slavery, been tried for murder, and lived through the Cambodian genocide. I’ve been an immigrant, permanently disabled, and faced World War II death camps. Without books, I would be a significantly more close-minded person. My perception of the world has been more significantly impacted by the experiences I've gained through literature than those I've gained
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life (Malcolm X 281). This quote made me think of the story called “ the Joy of Reading and Writing”. The Indian boy was motivated by his father and he started reading at a young age. He’s young and he got plenty of time,he could have just play with his friends, because teens want to hang out with friends, do whatever they like, yet he took his father's book and started reading. Why did he do that? Because he found joy from reading and reading made him feel free. What I mean by free is that reading opened up to him, he enjoyed reading, that changed his life in a good way. I totally agree with the narrator’s point. In today’s generation there is not that many people that continues to take the road that the narrator took because not all of us can discover freedom from
To conclude, reading and writing can end up being positive. Both Freedom Writers and The Liars’ Club showed how even if a person goes through pain, his or her life does not have to end up being awful and that writing is still valuable today. It just takes the right way of teaching the curriculum of reading and writing to make it actually be useful. Though all stories may not have a happy ending, writers have the potential to make it critically optimistic. The literary arts are relevant today and “can be made to generate a sense of possibility, a sense that a better, brighter future is out there to be secured” (Miller 437).
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
Literature has been shaping and impacting society since time began. I believe that writing is one of the most significant forms of communication that we have seen all throughout history as well as today. Literature has a way of being able to transport individuals through time, countries, religions, and cultures. I, myself, am not a fan of reading due to I’m lazy, so when I do read it is usually because it is required or because it speaks to me. Luckily, I have been required to read some books that have really spoke to me and impacted the way I view the world around me.
Having the knowledge to read and write may take someone into a completely different universe, it allows to see reality or escape from reality. It gives a better understanding of what goes on in the world, that being good or bad depending on how he wants to see it. Malcolm X wrote a short story " A Homemade Education," about how, his experience in prison allowed him to gain knowledge and to grow as an individual. Learning to read and write showed him, how to be mentally alive in a way that changed his life forever. He took it as an ability to grow, to make a change for himself and possibly make a difference in the world. Malcolm X explained how it 's never too late to get an education, there is always time for one to change in life. It is
When I was younger I used to like reading a lot, but since middle school, we have been told what to read and how quickly to read it. This year, we were allowed to read whatever we wanted as long as we did read, allowing me to read 3 books I never would have read alone. Since this school year started, I personally have looked forward to the beginning of class every day when we get time to read our book. It helps to transition into a reading/writing state of mind and to make class more enjoyable. This school year made me believe two things about implemented reading in the classroom; this system helps make kids more understanding and patient, encourage them to read by choice, and it also helps students become more self-reliant.
I also believe that I will learn more in Language Arts in the future. Right now as a reader, I can fix what I am doing now and make it better in the future,I have observed that I only have been reading the required 20 minutes every day,soon though I hope to read at least half an hour to an hour of reading every day. I have also noticed that I have only started to read after dinner so I hope in the future I will read right after I finish all my other homework instead of only reading when I am done eating dinner.
There are many different types of events that shape who we are as writers and how we view literacy. Reading and writing is viewed as a chore among a number of people because of bad experiences they had when they were first starting to read and write. In my experience reading and writing has always been something to rejoice, not renounce, and that is because I have had positive memories about them.
It is important, especially from an early age to be able to read and write because it can truly make a difference in the world. Starting at a young age one has the ability to understand concepts at a different level than other people who didn’t have the opportunity to read and write. This can help people to be involved their community and in the same it will help be involved in my community in return. By educating people with my writing, I will have the privilege to be around people teaching them the importance of writing and reading comprehension. Through education one will understand the importance of having good grades as I understood the importance of good grades. The fact that we are in this world teaching people how to read and write we should also teach the world about the importance of reading and writing
Literature has had a major impact on society, and, also our history. Literature has reformed and shaped civilizations, changed political systems, and has exposed injustices (3). Our literature has changed and developed as we have, keeping up with our society. “...literature is crucial for the advancement of society (3).” With literary works, we can convince others to view things a certain way, share our opinions, and more. Literature is greatly intertwined with our society and everyday lives, and they would not be the same without it. Literature plays an irreplaceable role in our