E342Monday4:30-7:00pm

Developing a literacy snapshot, made me realize how important and influential reading is in my everyday life. Daily responsibilities would be a problem to participate in without being able to read. I noticed that being literate opens many opportunities for me. There are certain tasks, which only literate people are able to participate. These tasks include reading street signs, signing up to use a machine at the gym, reading for pleasure, and textbook readings.
Originally, I thought that with the amount of homework assigned to me, the majority of my literacy list would include the readings from my course textbooks. I recognize now that I took numerous things for granted when it came to literacy, such as reading the newspaper, bus schedule or ingredients on a food package. For the most part, I spent most of my time reading things for my seven classes. This includes reading a syllabus, reading assignments, reading prompts, or the textbooks. I realized that it took me longer than an hour and a half to read twenty five pages of a textbook. Primarily, I found that I spend most of my time reading in quiet areas, such as the library, on the couch, and sometimes in my room at my desk. I prefer to study and read in quiet areas because I do not pay as close attention to what I am reading when I am distracted.
Besides reading for my seven classes, I am aware I spend a lot of time reading when I go to the gym. A couple examples of reading at the gym include what machine I am signing up for, the title and artist of the song playing on my iPod, and the book that I read when I am on a bicycle. The average time I spend at the gym is an hour and a half and because I do it every day, it is a big part of my life. In addition to time spent at the gym, I read emails, the menu for the day at my sorority house, ingredients in snack foods, Facebook comments and wall postings, information written in the stalls at my house, and the Indiana Daily Student (IDS).
All in all, I learned that in order for a person to survive in today’s society, it is imperative to be literate. Literacy should be the primary focus when working with children. It is important to start students at a young age and build on the key literary concepts. I want children to experience the success and the joy in reading. Furthermore, by developing a literacy snapshot, it is essential to expand my vocabulary in order to continue to grow my knowledge and succeed in life.