Trisha's E342 Monday Literacy Snapshot

For the past three days, I have tried my best to explore and document all of my interactions with literature in and out of school. What I discovered surprised me. I guess I had never taken into consideration the amount of reading I do in one day. I never really thought about reading being an activity outside of textbooks and novels. But now I see that I am reading something every thirty seconds or less.
My most unfortunate discovery with this project was that the majority of my reading came from an electronic source. The internet is such a huge part of my life, and I am somewhat ashamed. However, I can use the excuse (now that I know) that it was all time spent reading with the occasional Youtube video. The website I spent the most time on was Facebook, which I am sure is the same for many students my age. I found myself getting on about 6 times a day for about three minutes or so. Before, in between, and after classes I would log on and read about how and what my friends were doing. Another website that I spent a lot of time on was Perez Hilton. Everytime I finished browsing on Facebook, I swiftly moved over to Perez Hilton for the same amount of time. I was reading on all of the awful and hilarious antics of celebrities and non-celebrities. Severel other websites I checked maybe once or twice a day were CNN, the Cake Wrecks blog, Cracked.com, the Oh No They Didn't blog, and my sister-in-law's blog detailing the growth and developments of my three and a half month old nephew.
Almost equivalent with the amount of time I spent reading on the internet was the amount of time I spent reading class materials. As a junior in the Teaching All Learners program, I am bombarded daily with studies, journals, or textbooks about methods to use in the classroom. I would say that I have about two hundred pages or more worth of reading each week. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I read all of my assingned texts until it is completed. This equals about two hours or both days. I am somewhat of a slow reader. Another thing from class that I browse through constantly is syllabi. I maybe spend a minute reviewing assignments each morning and night. This goes along with my planner, which I read maybe four times a day to check on homework. Finally, I reread all my notes that I take before the corresponding class. This takes about two minutes and occurs anywhere between one to three times a day, depending on the day.
Once I have completed all of my responsibilites for class, I tried to read for pleasure. I have a novel right now that I have been stuck on for a month that I long to finish. If I have time, I will try to read it for at fifteen minutes everyday. I also love reading the newspaper. IDS and my hometown's publication are both very enjoyable. I read one of those every morning before class for at least twenty minutes. Every once in a while, I will pick up an "Entertainment Weekly" to browse. This happens maybe once every other week. I may read it for fifteen minutes or so.
The final thing that I read everyday is my cell phone. I am a texting fiend and am addicted to checking my phone. I love the satisfaction of receiving a new text message from a friend away at a different school. I probably spend thirty minutes to an hour writing and reading text messages. Yet another thing that I am not proud of.
This project was very fun and insightful to say the least. I thouroughly enjoyed it since the TAL program does not really afford many creative or fun projects like this. I am eager to see what other people discovered as well.