Technology has caused a big shift in students’ abilities to read and write proficiently. Higher education institutions have separated reading and writing. The connection of reading and writing has helped many students learn and understand the concepts inscribed in the texts. My experience with reading and writing correlates with the ideas explained in the Ellen C. Carrillo piece.

        Colleges tend to put more effort in writing than reading. Students who write poorly tend to not comprehend the text. “… great frustration in the professors who often attribute students’ struggles in their courses to poor writing ability , when these problems are often related to students’ reading difficulties…” ( Carrillo 39).This contradicts my experience with reading and writing because I am able to read long texts and understand its ideas. I am able to write history papers more efficiently than English papers. History teachers help you analyze the different skills needed to write an exceptional essay. In preparation for the global history regents, my history teacher would have us write essays every Friday. While we wrote these essays, he would always say that it does not matter how long your essays is . Your essay needs to have all the important information and be very concise. I was able to do a very exceptional job on both my thematic and document based essays .In all likeliness, everyone has a preferred subject. 

           The public school system, doesn’t have enough courses that focus on reading and analyzing different texts.  Elementary schools teach students how to read and write simultaneously . In other words, children who may not have known how to write , can still have the ability to read. In my elementary school, I was an English as a second language student, therefore I would get additional help with writing and speech. We focus on learning how to read. Once your start learning how to read, writing sentences become simple. Schools should have more options on taking writing classes to further students writing abilities.  In high school, it felt like you were expected to know how to write an essay. I only had a writing class in the 9th grade , which actually helped me gain the proper knowledge on essay. In the class, the instructor was able to depict the different approaches we can take with writing a good paper. Moreover, we were introduced to the concept of annotation and BBS. BBS is an acronym meaning because ,but , so. Annotation helped me understand longer texts by finding the main ideas depicted throughout. The bbs method help students expand on ideas, therefore making their sentences longer. Students should be able to understand the meanings/context the readings. 

            Reading causes the reader to put their own personal experiences to relate to the writing. I love books that you are able to relate to. This helps understand the material you are reading. “Although someone else has already put the worlds and ideas together, the reader interacts with those and creates meaning…” Throughout my middle school, I preferred to read books that were about kids my age. I read a book called “Monster” by Walter Dean Myers, which was about a young teenager boy that was in the juvenile center. I was able to understand the point of view of the main character, since I knew how one decision can change your whole life. Educators should not assume that all students learn in similar methods. ”Instructors must deliberately teach students how to actively read words and images …” (Carillo ) It is significant for them to be able to identify ways that students learn.  

           Through my years of school, many teachers use the Vark Model to identify the different learning styles that students may have. The  main learning styles are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. When I learned that I was a kinesthetic learning, it helped me understand how I would be able to retain information rapidly. The more you read the more sophisticated your vocabulary will become. My AP English language teacher would make us define and create sentences for vocabulary that would be in each text that we read. Over time, it became easier for us to use those words in our everyday conversations. From a personal perspective , becoming a skillful writer takes time. For many years, I despised writing English essays because I found it to be fairly difficult, but overtime my writing started to improve. When I first started college, I had no experience with writing 3-6 page papers. Now, I am able to write better papers more efficiently.

          Being able to read and write continues to be important after college. This requires you to have literacy in both reading and writing. On the contrary,  people could have excellent communication, yet lack good writing skills. We must not take this too subjective because its to everyone’s own. While I used to struggle with writing, I still had great communication skills. Jobs look for people who have great communication skills.  Many jobs require you to talk to customers or clients. At my job , in order for the business to function, we have to communicate efficiently. Carrillo’s piece makes us question the system by which we are educated. Colleges must require more writing classes and resources for students who are struggling.  Educators must remember to incorporate these skills in the classroom.

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