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Reading History

(Student Writing Sample)

Research suggests that students who read for pleasure do better in school.  Other research suggests that students who were read to as young children are more apt to develop better reading and writing skills and are more likely to develop a  lifelong love for reading.  Discuss your opinion about the validity of these statements in an essay about your own reading background.

Describe your own reading history.  Think about how you felt about reading when you were a child, how those feelings changed or remained the same throughout your education, and describe your current feelings about reading now at this point in your life.  Explain why you feel the way you do about reading and use specific examples from your life to make your point.  In your essay, you may want to answer the following questions:

·        Do you like to read for fun?  If so, what do you read?  If not, why? 

·        Have you ever had a bad reading experience?

·        Did you ever feel frustrated or embarrassed when a teacher asked you to read aloud in front of the class? 

·        Do you feel like you often daydream or drift away when you flip through pages in a book? 

·        Do you feel like your reading can be improved in anyway? 

Introduction: Catchy opener, background information about you and how you feel or felt about reading throughout your life, Thesis: My reading background has made me into the student/person/reader that I am today.

Body 1: Childhood reading memories

Body 2: Reading experience in Elementary and Middle school

Body 3: How you feel about reading now and why you feel that way

Conclusion: Re-emphasizes your thesis and sum up why you are the person/student/reader that you have become today.