One of the hardest things for most of my piano students to master, is how to "read" sheet music. As y'all know, I absolutely love playing the piano. My favorite thing to read is piano sheet music, and it has been my favorite ever since I can remember. When it comes to piano, I think of myself as one stellar reader! I'm sure that many of you have heard of the term "sight reading." I used to be very horrible at it. Sight reading is where you attempt to play a song for the very first time without ever seeing the sheet music before. It can be a struggle for a lot of people. However, throughout the years, I have become better and better at sight reading. Some other things I really enjoy reading are comics, newspapers, my cousin's blog (which is super hilarious! Check it out! It Just Gets Stranger), The Book of Mormon (My favorite book ever!!!), and fiction novels.

I haven't always enjoyed reading. I remember one instance when I was in Elementary School. I was cramming to get a book report done, and I really wanted to finish reading my 500 page book in one night to do it. Now, my mother, being the smart woman she is, found me a book that was 100 pages and had lots of pictures! It worked perfect for the time constraint that I had, but I didn't enjoy the read one bit. I felt completely and 100% forced to read it. Their was no voluntary action in the matter, and it was all homework based. I don't even remember what book I read, or what I learned from it. I also remember many times in classes where we would be assigned a lot of reading, and I would spend forever on it because I have to read every thing super slow to be able to comprehend it. I remember communicating with my classmates and being frustrated and jealous when they told me the reading only took them about 20 minutes or so. Throughout my middle school years, I built up a dislike of reading whenever it had to do with classwork, homework, or a grade. I didn't like the idea of not being able to read what I wanted to read, on my own, and at my own pace. Since then, I've had to come to terms with accepting that it takes me longer than most students to make it through assigned readings.

I can't say that there was anyone that ever really discouraged me from reading. I've always seen my mom with a new book each month growing up. I think she's actually the one that really helped me begin to have the desire to read. I also had a friend that would give me a new book each year for Christmas, and I was always excited to read it! I have always loved reading my scriptures! They are one thing that I've never disliked reading! I read from them every single day and never get sick of it.

As I think more and more about my future students, I want to be able to help them open up a new world through reading. One thing that I really liked from a previous teacher was that she had a wide variety of reading texts that addressed the same topic area. As students, we were able to choose which reading we wanted to do, and reflect on it. It was perfect for me! I didn't feel like I was being completely forced to read something. I had some say in the matter. Also, I was able to choose something that wasn't too long or strenuous for me. There was also such a wide variety, that practically all of the students' interest was sparked! We all were excited about the reading!

It takes time to become a reader (just as it took time for me to develop good sight reading skills). As we allow our students multiple times to "read" texts within our content areas, their confidence will increase as they understand more and more. I also think it's important to help students realize that reading isn't just about reading words from books or articles. For example, in mathematics, students read 3D objects, graphs, charts, etc. There are so many dimensions to reading that we can open up to our students. We can learn how to read nature, other people, different situations, etc. Reading is comprehending, analyzing, comparing, contrasting, etc. It's not just opening up a book and reading page after page after page after page. It's about discovery! I hope that when I am a teacher, I can help my students experience the excitement that "reading" can bring.