Prompt: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Reading.
It should be done 20 minutes a day.
Reading.
It helps you focus and you will improve academically on tests and quizzes.
Reading.
What nonsense! Just reading a whole bunch of words doesn’t make you wise! It’s just timepass. But, my ELA teacher, Mrs. Plant, showed a whole slideshow on reading.
Student A reads 20 minutes a day and is in the 90th percentile.
Student B reads 5 minutes a day and is in the 50th percentile.
Student C reads 1 minute a day and is in the 10th percentile.
I mainly don’t like reading because it bores me a lot. My parents encourage me to read books day and night, but I never listen. Frankly speaking, I judge a book by its cover. If the cover is all beautiful and fancy, I’ll take the book without even glancing at the summary to actually see what it’s about. Then, after bringing it home, I lose my memory of even having the book after reading 2 pages -- that too, taking like 10 looks at the cover. That’s me. A maniac.
It was a Friday, which meant library day. So, at 11:15, the time ELA starts, we gathered into a single file line to head to the library which was two hallways to the right. As we were walking through the closed doors of the classes, I wondered which book cover will excite me the most today.
When we entered the room which was in pin-drop silence, everybody scattered around the room to pick their title. When I went to the Mystery section to explore, I found this book titled, Masterminds. The cover looked fantastic, so I checked it out.
I began reading, and in it was only 11:45 -- 15 minutes since we came in -- and I had already passed Page 10. I couldn't believe my eyes. I took the book home, grabbed a snack from the kitchen, and went upstairs and started reading. The book seemed interesting to me, so I kept reading on.
It wasn’t long before I had completed 50 pages. Very unusual. And, within 10 days, I had completed the book. When I was logging my book in class the next day, I felt a sense of pride. I felt like I had achieved something in life.
So, on our next library day, I checked out two more books, and finished them over the course of 15 days!! Weird, huh? Suddenly, I had developed a knack, a hobby, reading books. The one thing I thought I’d never do. Now, I can at least spend 1hr 15 minutes reading. The next fall, seventh grade, when my teacher showed the presentation again, I wasn’t bored as much.
Even though now I can spend a fair amount of time reading, I have noticed one more thing about it. It’s not just that I read the story just because it is interesting, the style of the writing that the author uses really makes me feel that I am in the story, with the characters.
Whether it’s a mysterious plot or any other, the wanting nature to know what happens next keeps me engaged so much that I lose all track of time. The person I turn to the most is my mom. Her style of teaching and the way she explains things really hit me. She says that you can know more about the world just by reading books than doing anything else. And, you know what? She is totally correct. I learned more things such as some casual terms.
You would say, shouldn’t I already be knowing that? Well, I just moved to America, three years ago, and right now I am in eighth grade. So, in fifth grade, it was less than a year, and that’s why books helped me communicate and understand my peers and teachers well.
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