Portfolio Reflection- Beach pg. 36
“Reflect back to your own adolescent years and recall
your own reading and media interests. What are some reasons for your engagement
with particular books, films, TV programs, music and/or video games? How did
those interests/preferences reflect your particular needs and traits as an
adolescent?“
As a teen, my reading and media interests
varied. I liked to watch and read about the unnecessarily provocative and
unrealistic sexual lives of fictional characters, If only my parents knew what
I was actually reading... I also enjoyed the typical young adult literatures of
fantasy, adolescent rebellion and puppy love. One of my favorite things to read
were self-help books, Chicken Soup for the Soul was my bible. Sometimes I
enjoyed a good murder-mystery and even children’s books; Henry & Mudge was
my favorite as a tween!
I feel like I read a lot of the teen dramas
out of curiosity and to fit in with my peers. I enjoyed fantasy and romance
because it was a fun escape from the real world. I went as far as to imagine myself in the
characters’ shoes and found it easy and enjoyable to pretend to live like them.
I liked the romance genre because it gave me an idea on, what at the time I
thought, love should be like, since it wasn’t exactly the emotion portrayed in
my home. This also made me quite in tune to my sexuality because at a young age I was able to accept being bisexual, but not having actual people in my life who supported that was devastating, so it was nice to be able to read other people's stories on that, so I knew I wasn't alone or unlovable. To this day I still read self-help books, I like feeling humble,
appreciative and self-less, and those aren't my everyday emotions that I usually
express, so it has always been a pleasant experience to learn to be grateful of the little
things and to become a better person. Although I have always been aware of my flaws, it still took me becoming an adult to actually be able to change those negative aspects that I
portrayed and picked up as a teen. Children’s books were also great; they brought
me back to a happy childhood, where I could feel carefree and innocent joy
opposed to what a teenage narcissist would believe to be, life ruining drama.
Unfortunately, reading these kinds of
literature and watching these trashy shows made me not necessarily naive, but
slightly careless. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of reality and what was wrong
with the world, I just sort of pushed it in the back of my mind. I also was
capable of becoming a bit too enveloped in these works of fiction and
ridiculous TV shows to where I had trouble accepting reality as it was, and
always longing for something else or to be older, instead of appreciating what I
had and living in the now. I also think
it made me know a bit too much for my age, which didn’t exactly help me in
life. Even now, I still have trouble accepting things as they are, and learning
to let things go, I’m always looking for the fairy tale life, but let’s face
it, I will never be that perfect main character and my life will never be a Disney
movie, but that’s ok. J
How cool that you responded to the book's prompt! I think you've got experience with types of literature that, though they may not qualify as "classic," might be a good resource (as long as they're not X-rated) for students who have trouble accessing the literature that we'll be teaching. What did you make of the teachers who have Sustained Silent Reading-- silent reading periods where students are allowed to read whatever they want?
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