Ali Cepon Molyneaux English-B April 2015 Reading Article Reflection the article "Performative Literacy"

Ali Cepon
Mrs.Molyneaux
H. English, Per.B
4/16/15

                                                                Blog Reflection

      In the article "Performative Literacy" from the journal Voices from the Middle many different skills and important knowledge is shared to make one a better reader. My style of reading depends on what kind of book I am reading and why I am reading it. If I am reading a book for my own pleasure then I will just sit down and read it, but if I am reading a book for school I will annotate what I believe is important or something that I know I will have to come back to. I am a pretty good reader because I have a good capacity for sustained focused attention, I have a willingness to suspend closure, a willingness to take risks, a tolerance for failure, and an intellectual generosity and fallibility. I know I have a good capacity for sustained focused attention because whenever I read I like to be in a quiet area with no electronics so I won't get distracted. When I'm reading and I get confused or lost I don't keep reading. Instead I re-read what lost me so I can continue reading without confusion, this shows I have a good willingness to suspend closure, take risks, and I have a tolerance for failure. In school when we are reading a book I like to discuss it with my peers. I will stand up for what I believe, but also listen to other opinions and maybe even change mine. This shows that I have intellectual generosity and fallibility. To become a better reader I need to develop more patience, monitor my progress of understanding the text, and look for answers to my questions about the book. This year I have learned many new ways to annotate books. I learned that if I see something occurring more than once in the book it could be important I should make note of it and compare the different situations. I learned to not only highlight but to write out important words and characteristics, and also make predictions about what is to come in the novel. I think that my new skills from this year have really improved my reading. I'm much better at analyzing and comprehending text. All of the performative literacy in action steps are true, and if I improve the steps I'm weak in my reading will really improve.