Skip to content
- What is your earliest memory of reading and writing?
- My earliest memory of reading and writing is when I was in elementary school, the principal gave every student in the school and book and it was a school wide assignment for all us to go home and read the book to our families, and some days he would go on the intercom and read a page or two to the school. I don’t remember most of my writing moments, because I hate writing and choose not to remember it.
- How did you come to identify certain values with reading and writing?
- I identified values based on what my teachers put a lot of emphasis on, or really wanted us to make sure we know. For example; I identified a 5-paragraph essay as valuable because all of my teachers wanted us to write essays that way and would take points of if we didn’t.
- What kinds of reading have you done in your past and what kinds of reading do you do now?
- Growing up, I strongly preferred fictional stories, and books that had a mystery to them. But I was a really picky reader so if the book didn’t catch my eye I didn’t read it. As of today, I’m more into non-fiction books, something that was based off of an event that tells someone’s story. For example; one of my current favorite books is Stronger, it’s about someone who was right next to one of the bombs that went off during the Boston Marathon.
- Which teachers do you remember from your past who had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
- None, none of them really taught me anything new that another teacher hadn’t already taught me and they all went about it the same way.
- What is your current attitude towards reading and writing?
- I hate them both, if I’m being completely honest. Mainly because I can never get into whatever the topic is and as much as I try to, it makes me want to do it less.
- Were there any aspects of reading or writing that frustrated you as you grew up?
- Doing them when I didn’t want to do them, but by that I mainly mean the unreasonable timelines teachers would give for us to read an entire book and write a paper and say this will prepare you for college but it’s not even close to what college is actually like.
- How much have you enjoyed particular kinds of reading and writing that you did in your past? Why?
- I fully enjoy free writing, and reading books of my choice. It allows me to read and write what I like, rather than feel forced to write something I don’t want to write or read something I have literally zero interest in.
- Has there ever been a sense of reward or punishment associated with reading or writing from your past?
- Always punishment, you always get in trouble if you forgot to read one time, but never got a pat on the back for consistently doing you reading and writing.
- What from your past has made you the kind of reader and writer you are today?
- Always reading books that I didn’t want to read made me not read so I’m a particularly slow reader because I didn’t do it as much as all the other kids I went to school with.
- What moments from your past do you remember as particularly empowering or dis-empowering?
- My teachers would always have discussions about the reading that was do, and the most dis-empowering thing they can do is shoot down your response because it’s “wrong” even though the question was opinion based not factual based.
- How is reading and writing portrayed in films and stories about young people?
- Films either show kids who love to read and write or they show kids that absolutely hate it, like me. But the problem is that when they show the kids that love to read, they show a stereotypical view that they’re “nerds” or they’re isolated and don’t have many friends. As for the kids who hate reading, they show them as delinquents who slack off in school. There’s no in between and are stereotypical about what doesn’t even always happen.
