Discipline-Specific Reading

In my experiences I have not had much experience with texts in my discipline outside of instructional charts or textbooks in my grade school years. In physical education classes assessments were mostly skill based and there was little other texts other ten the charts that showed how to perform cues. In the schools I went to there was unfortunately not a great emphasis on health. It occurred for a couple weeks in elementary school and consisted f one semester in three years of middle school, and one more semester in 4 years of high school. There was no additional health courses offered. In all those health classes the only text used was the textbook. In the years since I have started college I have had the opportunity to encounter so many more texts for both contents. I sometimes feel cheated of a better experience and want to make sure my future students don't encounter the same feelings. In my free time I read many sports related children's books, and have always had a fascination with the motivational messages many of them carry. When I was in Little League baseball my team won the city championship one year, and as a gift to us our coaches and parents bought all of us personalized books that had us as a character in the story. Although looking back now it was a super cheesy story, at the time I thought it was such a cool thing. It was a motivational force in my continuing participation in physical education. In the secondary grade many students probably wouldn't be motivated by fictional children's stories, but another source of inspiration in my life may prove to be more useful in improving the education experience of my students. I was kind of a weird child and really enjoyed reading biographies of people. It consisted of historical figures in American history and sports stars mostly. I can recommend certain athletes stories to students that i feel could be inspirational for that student. I can also suggest reading materials on specific sports that a studentys has interest in to help enrich their knowledge of that area.

Affective Dimensions of Reading

I have always considered myself to be a good reader. I learned to read at a fairly young age, and have read at high levels through out my school experience. I have read a variety on texts through the years. I am a fan of many different genres of writing. As a young child my parents were very supportive in helping me learn to read and supplying books for me. My favorite period of reading in my life was from the ages of 4-6. I was given so much freedom in my reading. I could pick up nearly any book I saw in my parents house and try to read it. I remember a time when I had read all the children's books my parents had at the time and decided to try to read my fathers college textbooks. My father was a business and marketing major so many of the concepts were difficult or impossible to understand, and his computer technology text seemed like complete gibberish. The exception was a lone anatomy textbook my father had. I remember looking at the pictures of the skeletal and muscular systems and being fascinated. Although the actually words of the book were still beyond my reading level at that age, by using contextual information I was able to understand a significant part of it. That experience helped to shape me and sent me in the direction that has placed me where I am now. My least favorite memory of reading is from high school. In my sophomore year I had to take a class called contemporary american literature . The choices in books that we were required to read were of no interest to me at that time. I was very frustrated in the selections chosen. To this day I still dislike those books read in that class.

In my future classroom I want to develop a positive environment for reading. Although there is not a lot of written text in PE classes, I can still encourage reading. I can refer students to stories about a sport they enjoy or activity. In health I can suggest other texts related to the subjects covered that may present information in a more entertaining way than most textbooks do. I feel a real struggle for some students when it comes to reading is a fear of reading aloud and having students make fun of them. If I want students to read aloud maybe I can prepare those students be giving them their portion ahead of time so they can feel more confidence and ask me questions if they don't know a word. Reading is so important for enriching the mind and it is such a tragedy some students develop a hatred for reading due to the way it is presented to them.