OMG! Chrissy Reads

Since September 8th, the first day of school there has been non-stop reading for me (or for anyone) till this very day. When I first started reading this year, was the day that I walked through Mr. Locker's classroom. However, my "skills" of reading didn't escalate as soon as I was blessed with the opportunity of Locker's class. I soon found out that while I was reading, I never paid attention to the wonderful story the books were telling me. I felt like I was just reading books for sport,and that I was breezing through them like football players running fast to an end zone. I started to try and come up with a solution to my struggle. SO... what I came up with was to see how others analyzed a book. I used the opportunity of our class reading of "The Outsiders" to my advantage. While I listened to my fellow classmates,and Locker read, I payed the most attention then I ever did for anything. The more I listened, the more I learned. When I read out loud, I started to exaggerate what came out of the book, through my eyes, and into my slimy brain. I st arted to drag words if the font was in Italic. As I made my way up the mountain of reading success, I started to feel strong inside as a reader. Not only did I start understanding books, this strategy helped me understand different text, and helped my vocabulary grow. When I finally felt this good confidence inside me, I broke out of my shell and made my way from small books to medium sized to large. Now that I've gone through this struggle and after a long year of reading, I continue to challenge myself with confusing and difficult books. The main struggle for me now is reading different genres. I now have to break through this wall of Realistic Fiction to get to the world of a variety of genres. I plan on working my way out of this jam in my next year of school.