First Stab at Essential Questions

1. What are my current reading skills?

I think that my current reading skills are a bit more proficient than the average student. I think this because I can comfortably read a large range of different reading levals. Also for the past year, my star reading test that was taken twice to determin my reading leval has been quite high. When reading books and other texts, I can usually see connections, make my own connections as well as world connections, and understand the context of the book. I have read many books through my childhood and my schoolyears, and comfortably understand these books. With these skills I believe that my reading skills are a bit above average.

2. How can I improve and grow as a reader?

I think that I can improve and grow as a reader by reading more books that are appropiate to my leval and trying to understand the book and make connections with it. If you are reading a book about a certain scene and the context describes simply that the character was running and fell awkwardly on their ankle and the character is hurt, you can make your own connection by thinking, "Oh, I've run and fell and hurt my ankles before too. That really hurt and I sprained my ankle, and that limited me in my daily activities. Now I understand what the character is going through". I think if readers, me included, try to read like that then we will understand the book better, therefore growing and improving as a reader.

3. What purpose can literature serve in my life?

I think that literature can help me understand the world better. Like making connections from yourself to a book, you can make connections from a book to yourself or others. If you have read a book about a teenager who's parents got divorced. The central focus of the book is how the teenager handles the divorce, the conflicts and struggles that keep pileing until the climax of the story and then the resolution. If somebody read such a book and then suddenly one of his/her friends experience their parents getting divorced then the friend can make a connection and understand what their friend might be feeling. Literature offers another purpose in your life: wisdom, and knowledge. Reading literature with things such as historical facts and events can give you knowledge. I believe that the bible contains a vast amount of wisdom in it on how to live your life wisely, happily, peacefully, and to fulfull the purpose of life. This shows that literature can reflect your knowledge and how you use that knowledge from literature.

4. What resources can I find in the library that will help me in this course and other courses?

The TCIS library contains many books, of all school reading levals. From the library you can select a book that is suitable for your reading leval, select a book suitable for you class study, select a book that may challenge you to understand and make connections, etc. The resources of the library can be books, textbooks, encyclopidia's, webpath express, and dozens of other links that would lead to information that could help you in you class study. I would say that the library is the number one place to go for resource information in your study's therefore proving that it can help you in this course and other courses.