Reading Adventures with Ms. Dobson

There we were sitting on the beach chairs, hand-in-hand, staring out onto the crystal blue water that waves back at us. We are surrounded by the warm sea breeze and my hair is going every which way with ease. My skin is baking a nice golden color as I sit and wonder. I ponder. I sat and waited a while longer. Suddenly, as I look off in the distance, I have yet to realize I am about to go from a “Miss” to “Mrs.'s”. There he is on bended knee and the question comes with a smile and a diamond ring. Both of them grinned and shined back at me. I nod my head while saying, “Yes!” After all, we are truly blessed. How could something I had never dreamed of: make my own heart-beat out of my chest? Almost as if we just passed the hardest test. For we are more than overcomers on this rollercoaster of life. I feel the safest with you knowing you are right by my side. A love that can heal all pain with an embrace. I am glad we both serve a God that gives us enough grace- and endurance to run thi...

In our most recent book club that our group chose titled: “Fighting Words” there were a lot of connections that were made with the BHH strategy. The story takes place with two sisters with a difficult upbringing and with one suffering from child sexual abuse. The story is told from the point of view of the youngest sister, Della. The author really puts the spotlight on sexual abuse that sadly some young children are faced with and hopefully helps to give them a voice to speak out against their abusers. It truly surprised me to know that these tragedies take place all throughout the world and this story opened up a door to make room in order to have those difficult discussions and conversations.  As a future educator, I would like to be an advocate for anyone who has to face and maneuver through those tough times. I would most likely use a text like this for students who are most likely the same ages that the girls in the story were and would like to be able to discuss with my stude...

     When it comes to the first question that is asked in “Reading as Thinking”, I would have to say that oftentimes I usually see and notice the print first and foremost. I look at the text, font, size, and other characteristics that may be found in the particular reading material in which I am reading. This gels well with the following question and I feel that certain words that are able to help assist in making more vivid and richer pictures in my mind such as very descriptive adjectives. Sometimes parts of the text are more relatable to a movie scene, but other times I paint a visual of the situation in which my mind perceives the text that was written. I am most likely able to “hear” certain parts of a text whenever I am able to make connections through either visualizations or personal relatable experiences. When it comes to picturing the characters, I try to imagine their characteristics and traits that are presented in the book. Most of the time there is either a ...

I found that these first four questions that were located in “Some Questions to Explore Reading Lives” were well put together and thought-provoking. It definitely is not the first thing that would come to mind when casually thinking about your own personal reading life. When it came to the first question, I found it interesting that the author was focusing on where the individual usually stores the book that they are currently reading. I believe that that author was trying to get the reader to find an appropriate place where the book could be easily accessible when needed. The second question was more of a way to help the reader reflect on their days and to see if they incorporate the necessary time it would take to read. This would make the reader search or make room for reading at some point during their daily schedule. The third question went into multiple questions in regards to the various places where a reader could possibly read. It makes the reader realize where they feel their...

As I read the blog post and learned about the “Slice of Life” challenge, I am reminded just how important writing is. For my “Slice of Life” blog post, I would like to go back into time when I was a little girl who used to keep a daily diary. I believe I would put the date of each day on the top of my diary, in order to keep track of the days whenever certain events would occur. I used this diary to find an escape through writing and also as a way to document the various activities that may have been going on in my life at the time. At first, looking back on the diary seemed a bit childlike, but as I have grown older I began to realize just how important it was for me to write. Writing in my diary after a long day and recalling all the things that happened throughout the day and expressing my emotions through words was an escape somehow from the real world. Having to write about even the simplest things still made writing a habit and a good practice. I feel that even at a young age, I ...

I would not say that my literacy experiences during my secondary school years were negative by any means. I remember being able to read books/poems such as: “The Outsiders”, “Of Mice and Men”, “The Odyssey”, “Lord of the Flies”, “1984”, “Night”, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “Number the Stars”, “The Great Gatsby”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Hamlet” and, “Macbeth”. These are the most rememberable pieces of literacy that I was able to recall, mostly because they left some sort of impact on me whether it may have been a story that I had never heard of or imagined, or perhaps the content that was inside the story, or even the uniqueness that the story processed.  I also would have to say that the English teachers that I had throughout my secondary school years did a really good job about how they would present the books to us. They would do a really great job of hooking us with something catchy in order to capture our attention where we would be very intrigued with what we were going to be...