Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Your Class, Your Choice

I found that Reader's Choice really helped me get back into reading. I use to read all the time and enjoyed finding new books. After awhile however I lost some interest in it. especially in books that we were required to read for school. I often found myself turned off from many of the books we were required to read during school, mostly due to the deadlines and and questions that the we had to answer as we were reading, but also I found that I had no interest in the books we read in class (generally but not exclusively). Due to this, I was intrigued by the thought of a choice to choose the books that I had to read. Since I was given the choice, I found myself more interested in reading those books, finding novels that would tend to my interests specifically.

One of the reasons that I was never very interested in reading the books for school had a lot to do with the assignments that always came in it. Often times we had to answer questions that went along with each chapter or so. When I read I prefer to do just that, read. Not stop every other page to answer a question. I feel those types of assignments take away from the readings itself. I would find myself more focused on simply answering a question rather than understanding what I was reading. This is another reason I enjoyed the Reader's Choice class was because those types of assignments were not the types that we were given. Of course we were given plenty assignments in this class, not interupted what you were reading. They mostly enhanced what you had read.

This class was also a great way to get out of your reading comfort zone and discover new genre's and authors that you may not have thought that you would enjoy. This was mostly done by our class picks where the class had to agree on a novel that we would all read. Another way that this was done was by the individual book category Out of Your Comfort Zone, where you had to read a book that you wouldn't normally think to read. For this book I had chosen a memior written by Thomas Buergenthal, entitled A Lucky Child. It was about the authors life as a Holocaust surivor, discussing what he endured before, during, and after the war. Normally I would find myself reading young adult novels, but this book sparked and interest in me to search for other novels similar to this one.

For someone who loves to read or finds themselves in a reading rut, this class allows you to indulge in reading and pull you right back into it. Though I would not reccomend this class to anyone who has no interest in reading at all, I found it to be a great class for those who enjoy it.
                               

3 comments:

  1. I understand the feelings that youa re going through. I also hated the books that we have had to read in class excpet in this course. The books that we had to read were interesting and fun. I wish more English courses were like this.

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  2. I completely agree with this post! I love to read but on my own time. I even liked the books we read for school but i don't like that everything we read only counts if we do huge assignments and there are deadlines. It loses my interest. That probably isnt smart, to just not do it because it's school, but that's actually how a lot of students think nowadays. They love to read, but they won't read for school.But this class still helped gaining some of my interest into reading back. I find myself looking for random books to read for during the summer.

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  3. I agree with this post 100%. i blame the fact that i never liked to read on the books that we were forced to read in school. I have found now that if i choose the book and read on my own time i enjoy it so much more. i hated the fact that after every book we had to read there were the huge assignments that had to be completed or our grade would suffer alot. Now that i know i like to read i cant wait to find books to read this summer!

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