Semester 1 Reading
As seniors getting ready for college, improving our love, stemina, and complexity of reading was vital for the intense load of reading in the coming years. Every day we would read for ten to fifteen minutes in class and set page goals. These page goals were caculated by estimating how much you would read in two and a half hours (in and out of class) depending on how much you read within the ten to fifteen minutes. Students could read any book of their choosing with a hope that over time the stemina and complexity of books would naturally improve...and for the most part it did! Below are the books I read and my reflection of them:
Reader Ladder S1 (Easiest to Most Difficult):
|
Why this order?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower was by far the easiest book I read this semester. The book consisted of a collection of letters from a boy struggling with depression and trying to find his way as a freshman in high school. It was one of those books where you didn’t really have to think while reading. It was like watching a tv series or movie. The font was really big and there wasn’t many hard words. I read it in just a few short days. The next books in my ordered list are Dan Brown’s books: The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Since they were by the same author they were very similar in difficulty. I raced through both of these and really enjoyed the plots and detailed facts Dan Brown includes. The Girl with All the Gifts comes next in reading difficulty. This book is not difficult in the ordinary sense but it is different than any book I have ever read. It’s one of those books where you feel confused about what you are reading most of the time because not all of the details of what is happening in the story are shared with you. This book is actually my favorite that I have read this semester because of the unique way the author writes. The second most difficult book on my list is Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. It is a book Will Haase recommended to me and talks a lot about. This book was very interesting and inspiring to me, but it felt very repetitive at times so it took me awhile to get through. The font was pretty big and there were pictures to supplement the writing so in theory it should have been an easier read, but in actuality most of the time it felt like I was reading a text book. Although The Fire Next Time is deceivingly small, it is last book on my list and the most difficult. This book took me a while to read because every line in it is something to think about. You really had to pay attention or else you would lose track of what you were reading. Although this book was the most difficult to read it was also very impactful because it had the most connections to our present society.
Did I challenge myself?
When I was a child I really loved reading...it was actually one of my favorite activities. That love of reading never died for me, but it definitely faded out. I went from being the kid who always had a book in their back pocket, reading in all my spare time, to the one who would devour the class assignments and maybe read a couple recommended books per year. It wasn’t as if I stopped reading one day because it wasn’t cool anymore. I was actually pretty sad that I didn’t have enough time to read more books. This class really put that spark of reading back into me. I now read every night before I go to bed and have re-realized how much fun and relaxing reading is. I often read now instead of playing on my phone. It is a great time waster. My weekly reading average is a little higher then my class reading average due to the fact that I would always read more than the two and a half hours required. My stamina hasn’t increased much but I think that will come the more books I read.
Goals for next semester:
My biggest goal for next semester is that I continue with the reading habits I have developed this semester even if it is not a class requirement. I don’t really care about what type of books or how many books I read next semester I just want to read whatever interests me. I want to read more so my goal for semester two will be 3.5 hours of reading per week. The next book I want to read is Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book was mentioned frequently in a recent book I read called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn’t know much about it when I was reading so I looked it up to get more context and it sounds very interesting. I also like how it was written by a teenager for teenagers.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower was by far the easiest book I read this semester. The book consisted of a collection of letters from a boy struggling with depression and trying to find his way as a freshman in high school. It was one of those books where you didn’t really have to think while reading. It was like watching a tv series or movie. The font was really big and there wasn’t many hard words. I read it in just a few short days. The next books in my ordered list are Dan Brown’s books: The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Since they were by the same author they were very similar in difficulty. I raced through both of these and really enjoyed the plots and detailed facts Dan Brown includes. The Girl with All the Gifts comes next in reading difficulty. This book is not difficult in the ordinary sense but it is different than any book I have ever read. It’s one of those books where you feel confused about what you are reading most of the time because not all of the details of what is happening in the story are shared with you. This book is actually my favorite that I have read this semester because of the unique way the author writes. The second most difficult book on my list is Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. It is a book Will Haase recommended to me and talks a lot about. This book was very interesting and inspiring to me, but it felt very repetitive at times so it took me awhile to get through. The font was pretty big and there were pictures to supplement the writing so in theory it should have been an easier read, but in actuality most of the time it felt like I was reading a text book. Although The Fire Next Time is deceivingly small, it is last book on my list and the most difficult. This book took me a while to read because every line in it is something to think about. You really had to pay attention or else you would lose track of what you were reading. Although this book was the most difficult to read it was also very impactful because it had the most connections to our present society.
Did I challenge myself?
When I was a child I really loved reading...it was actually one of my favorite activities. That love of reading never died for me, but it definitely faded out. I went from being the kid who always had a book in their back pocket, reading in all my spare time, to the one who would devour the class assignments and maybe read a couple recommended books per year. It wasn’t as if I stopped reading one day because it wasn’t cool anymore. I was actually pretty sad that I didn’t have enough time to read more books. This class really put that spark of reading back into me. I now read every night before I go to bed and have re-realized how much fun and relaxing reading is. I often read now instead of playing on my phone. It is a great time waster. My weekly reading average is a little higher then my class reading average due to the fact that I would always read more than the two and a half hours required. My stamina hasn’t increased much but I think that will come the more books I read.
Goals for next semester:
My biggest goal for next semester is that I continue with the reading habits I have developed this semester even if it is not a class requirement. I don’t really care about what type of books or how many books I read next semester I just want to read whatever interests me. I want to read more so my goal for semester two will be 3.5 hours of reading per week. The next book I want to read is Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book was mentioned frequently in a recent book I read called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn’t know much about it when I was reading so I looked it up to get more context and it sounds very interesting. I also like how it was written by a teenager for teenagers.