I have always considered myself to be a fairly good reader, though not the best. Strangely enough I would probably consider my younger, early teen self, to be a better reader than I am now---but probably just because I did it more then. I used to read books upon books upon books. Admittedly, my favorite genre when I was young was the sappy, mindlessly predictable romance novels, made dramatic by someone dying, or being kidnapped in the beginning, and then two people getting thrown together, in the midst of the conflict, two people who always seem to start of loathing each other…and then those two fall in love. Now I’d probably say that my favorites are fantasy, historical fiction, and any other book that my little sister (who is a more avid reader than anyone I have ever met!) recommends to me.

                As long as I have had something good to read, I have always loved to do so. In school, I always loved the silent reading time, especially when I had a Nancy Drew mystery novel to fill that time. When I was in middle school, in fact, when reading began to finally really click with me, I used to get so caught up in my reading that I would not notice the rest of the class moving on to other things. My little sister and I shared a room when we were young, and every night our mother would come to check on us and “tuck us in.” As soon as she left, my sister and I would turn on our bedside lamps and read for hours. We missed out on a lot of sleep because of this, but it was so fun and sneaky! The only time that I would say I have disliked reading is when I have been required to read boring things.

                I was definitely encouraged in reading by my family, friends, and church. A couple of my best friends are, in particular, incredibly avid readers. This was awesome for me because it was like having my own library---they had all kinds of books and would recommend ones to me that they thought I would particularly enjoy reading. Then we would all have fun quoting funny lines from these books later. My family, as I have discussed in my previous blog post, have also been a huge encouragement for me with reading. We didn’t watch that much television, but instead loved to move the couches by the fireplace, make hot chocolate, and have a “Happy Reading Party.” I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the leaders of this church have always encouraged the members to read daily from the scriptures, which advice I do my best to heed, both personally and with my family, when I am home.

                I don’t really think I had any social discouragements from reading. The biggest thing that made me read less was just when school got harder and demanded more time. When this happened, there was less time that I could spend reading things that I enjoyed.

Based upon what I have said thus far, I would say that the best way I can think of to encourage my students to read texts about math subjects, would be to occasionally have a bit of silent reading time, or maybe to sit down with them and read to them from an engaging book about math or the history of it. I loved it when my teachers would read to me. This may be a great way to help them to realize that there are actually many very interesting books written about math. (Probably most students will not believe that until they hear it or read it for themselves.) To help the students build their self-perceptions of themselves as readers, I think it would be a good idea to have books available for them to read that are on a variety of skill levels. My self-perception of myself as a reader probably grew the most when I was able to be engaged in reading, not necessarily when the reading was anything brilliant, but when I could understand it and had something to think about. Having texts available to them on a variety of skill levels will give all of my students the opportunity to become engaged in the reading and build up their view of how they see themselves as readers.