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.