Personal Narrative: My Classroom Reading Experience

“Come to the edge,” he said
They said, “We are afraid.”
“Come to the edge,” he said
They came.
He pushed them.
And they flew…
-Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet
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My classroom reading experiences had developed tremendously throughout my high school years. The extensive exposure of English literary texts in class without a doubt has allowed me to appreciate the worthwhile and enjoyable experiences that I have gathered and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my English teacher, Miss Che Mah for that. Quoted by C.S Lewis, he mentioned that “literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become…”.

Besides, amongst the strategies taught and practiced that I recalled were mentioned from one of the lectures that I have attended. First things first which is previewing the text. Read the book’s or text’s title, see the pictures or diagrams, skim through the questions and closely examine it as this is where we will get the gist of what the text is all about. It was still vivid in my mind when she asked us to look at the title of the short story entitled The Fruitcake Special. I remember going through the pictures while trying to figure out what the whole story was all about. At this point, familiarize the words in the particular text based on our prior knowledge. This strategy was like looking at a map ahead of time in contriving our reading journey. My teacher mentioned that our brain, being the most complex thing in the universe, likes seeing the big picture in advance thus clearly highlights the importance of pre-reading strategies. Despite the fact that this strategy may look petty to some, but it could increase one’s comprehension dramatically if one decides to have proper planning prior to reading. Now we move on to the