Personal Narrative: My Honors English 1 Class

During my sophomore year, I took my first AP class: AP World History. As a freshman, I would see the older students stressing out about that class. I remember the anxiety I felt as I walked up to the classroom on the first day. The teacher stood at the door, with the seating chart in his hand. “Find your name and take your seat,” he instructed as students arrived. My class period was packed, and I had trouble finding my name. After staring at the seating chart for about a minute, the teacher sighed. “Failing already,” he muttered in a dry tone just as I found my seat. In my mind, I made it my mission to prove him wrong. I was determined to earn and maintain straight A’s in his class. Countless times throughout the year, I struggled to balance all the chapters and study guides he assigned with work from my other classes, but I never surrendered. In the end, I had reached my goal. Thanks to my teacher’s remark, I learned to be diligent and versatile. The words “failing already” was the spark that motivated me to continue challenging myself and pushing my

I sat quietly in my AP Lang class as my teacher, Mrs. Fisher, announced that the reading competition between the language arts classes called for the book count for September. She stood at the board, marker in hand, staring out expectantly at her large class. Hands shot up across the classroom, and my own nervous hand rose up to join them. Mrs. Fisher happily chalked up the small fortune of books that our class had read. Practically everyone read one or two books, and then there was the occasional student who 'd managed to thumb through five or six. I was one of the last to be called on.

For as long as I can remember I have loved reading. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, it doesn’t really matter to me. I remember my mom trying to teach me how to read when I was three. I started off reading small Dr. Suess books and then it was on to newspapers and chapter books. One of my all-time favorite books when I was a kid was Junie B. Jones. I read all of the books with her name at the beginning of the title. Reading was a way for me to escape from reality. It’s like I would get lost in the books. I’d spend hours reading. At times I felt like I was the characters in the book. Reading exposed me to many different situations and outcomes, and it broadened my vocabulary. In a way reading helped me prepare for the real world. People usually

When my father was a child, my grandmother bought him Dr. Seuss books. Every night my grandma would read to my father. Once my father knew how to read, he would read stories to my grandma. He traded the Dr. Seuss books in for a series of books that held various fairytales. When my father went to college he kept the Dr. Seuss and fairytale books. My grandmother started a family tradition that my father would soon pass down.

I was never truly an avid reader when I was younger. I was the oldest of five siblings and left in charge of taking care of my younger brothers and sister. I was more prone to spending time outside than reading a book. Of course, I did find myself enjoying a good mystery novel, but playing ball would always trump even a good book. All through school, I would find myself actively participating in one sport to another. I loved being active and thinking only of what I wanted to do. Life has a way of becoming a reality. The choices I made during my younger years have followed me to my current years. The busyness of work, family, and children have restricted my own freedom of time. Reading has become my favorite way of personal freedom without having to leave home. My favorite author at this present time is Beth Moore. She meticulously portrays God’s word and opened my eyes to the strength and power of God’s word for me today. God created me and has a specific purpose for me to fulfill. In order to begin this process, I need to accept and believe in

My mother read to me as a child for fun and school. She read us books such as, Go Dog Go, You Read to Me, I’ll Read to you, and To Kill a Mockingbird. My father read books to my sister and I, such as Fairy Realm, Little House, and Percy Jackson, before bedtime. I now find reading very enjoyable, even though my dyslexia has made reading more difficult.

When I started high school, the club that excited me the most, was National Honors Society. So, at the first chance I got, in my sophomore year. After being a member for a year, I quickly realized that I wanted to take on a leadership opportunity in the club. So, I took a shot for the stars, and campaigned for being president of Honors Society. Though I had some competition, I put my all into composing a speech, and I won the presidency, and I have been president since. Through Honors Society, I have gotten to take on many leadership roles, including preparing and leading meetings, and developing our monthly schoolwide outreach to the school.

The book I chose to read was “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls. “The Glass Castle” was memorable because it gave me an idea about the diversity of each person. The story was told through the perspective of a young girl who does not understand right from wrong because she believes what her father tells her. I think this book is popular because it expressed ideas that are typically thought of as wrong or ideas that many turn away from. The author included outstanding imagery that puts the reader into the shoes of the main character. Each event in the story was felt emotionally and gave me insight into the mind of Jeanette (The Main Character). Another reason I think this book is popular is because the story is based off of the authors childhood

On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at approximately 1900 hours, I received a telephone call from Sgt. John Sanzone, who told me there was a drive by shooting that had just occurred. Sgt. Sanzone assigned me as the CSI lead on this case.

At the moment now, I would say that my current literacy environment is sub par. This is because I am so busy all the time that it is hard to find time to sit down and read. I have school all day, then I go to basketball practice, and then I am too exhausted to read. I read Men’s Health every once in awhile. I try novels out and have read the entire Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit in the past year. Also, in high school we are constantly assigned a book to read, and I would say I have only enjoyed reading two of the books I have read for my classes. The classes have really made me hate reading and writing because the books bore me and the papers are so long and critically graded. I really did used to love to read and be creative with

When I was eight-year-olds, I was always told to read a book by my teachers and peers and I absolutely loathed it. One day I was handed an assignment, we were set off to check out a book from the library to read during reading time, which during this time I dreaded. After what seemed like hours, I decided on a Junie B. Jones book that caught my eye. After a brief reading session of one hour, when I finished the small chapter book, at once I decided to check out another one of the books in the series which lead to another one and so on. On average I devote about twenty hours of my time a week reading books. Reading is important to me because it is a way to escape into the pages of the book and start a new adventure with these characters. While reading you also learn to look past the surface and empathize with others.

My literacy journey starts before I could read. When I was in preschool I have memories of my mom and two older brothers reading to me. I remember reading during that time were The Emperor's New Clothes specifically by my brothers, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and Where the Wild Things are by my mom that was one of her favorites as a child. My parents were not avid readers but encouraged relatives to give us books instead of toys. When I got to elementary school I loved reading some of my favorites from Kindergarten were Chrysanthemum, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and 101 Dalmatians. These were books read to me or books that I didn’t know how to read yet and just flipped through the pages. I enjoyed these stories though because

It's about reading. People read all the time. They read for information, for escape, for entertainment, for instruction, for guidance. They read recipes and tweets and texts. They read newspapers, blogs, and Facebook replies. In a recent survey by the google. The number of teens who actually read a book in the past year was 52% or more. I am one of those. As I consider my reading experiences, I realize they represent the journey I have to traveled, leading me to my current academic path.

During my elementary years, I don’t recall being interested in reading, but I do remember the first time I fell in love with it. I was in my 7th-grade reading class. I just completed a quiz when my teacher realized that I had nothing to do after. She offered me a book that I will remember for the rest of my life because it is the book that basically started my reading journey. It was called Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper, I loved the book so much that I read the whole entire series. When I first met someone who didn’t like the book I was beyond shocked. Right at that moment, I realized that reading has its own effects on me. Reading has changed my writing skills, it has improved my knowledge and lastly, it has helped me manage my stress while going through hard times. Without reading I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

Rick Moody is the author of “The Joy and Enthusiasm of Reading”, an article that gives examples of factors that influenced his way of thought about reading. He elaborates on open text and how he was taught tools from his prior teachers to better understand the text. Despite what critics have said, Moody insists that there will never be a right or wrong way to read a book. Moody illustrates reading through open text which focuses on individuality where every person has a different outlook and perception of life in this generation.