Develop a Reading Autobiography

By Doug Buehl,
Madison East High School teacher
Member, Wisconsin State Reading Association

March 2001

No books in the barn! My father was adamant about this rule. My job was to carry milk, to lug brimming pails full of warm frothy milk down the barn driveway to the milkhouse, slosh the contents into the cooler, and then return to be on call until the next milking machine was ready to be emptied. But it was these constant waits I could barely stand, and it was too tempting to sequester a comfortable spot on the ground-feed bags to catch a couple of quick pages in "Kidnapped" or "The Three Musketeers" before resuming the evening's routine.

Of course, a person can easily lose oneself within a few pages, only to be yanked back to the pungent smells and wintry warmth of Wisconsin by the insistent hollering of my father: "Where are you? There's milk to carry!"

. . .

How would you write your story as a reader? What do you remember about your first experiences with print? A favorite book? A special place where you could get away to read? Who were important influences for you as a developing reader? An older sister? A 2nd grade teacher? A middle school chum? What do you remember yourself reading? Marvel comics? The daily sports pages? Mad Magazine? The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew? What are the events of your life that have led to your self-concept as a reader?

The Strategy
An integral component of our abilities as readers flows from our self-awareness of our strengths and weaknesses, our preferences and attitudes, and our positive and negative experiences with the world of print. For some of us, this self-knowledge is invigorating and a source of confidence and competence when we encounter new reading challenges. For others, especially struggling readers, this self-image as a reader may be an impediment, and lead to reading avoidance or feelings of defeatism.

Burke (2000) suggests a reading autobiography strategy for helping students define who they are as readers and providing them with an opportunity to reflect on how they have developed their reading self-image.

Step 1: Start by asking students to respond to a survey that prompts them to inventory themselves as readers. Include checklists as well as open-ended items that elicit information about what, why, how, and when they read:

• What types of material do you regularly read? (In addition to books, magazines, and newspapers, include other possibilities, such as song lyrics, work manuals, reference books, and electronic texts like Web pages and e-mail.)
• How often do you choose reading as an activity, and for what reason? (Reasons may include: to relax, to imagine experiences, to find out about things, to play games, to follow interests, and so forth.)
• What is one book that you've read that you really enjoyed? Why?
• How would you describe yourself as a reader?
• How do you feel about your ability to handle the kinds of reading you are asked to do in school?
• What interferes with your ability to read as well as you would like?
• What strategies do you use when you encounter problems during reading?

Step 2: Next share stories that others have offered about themselves as readers, including yourself. An excellent source for very readable reflections on the role of reading in a variety of people's lives is "I Hear America Reading," by Jim Burke (1999). As students have an opportunity to "listen in" on why reading mattered to these diverse individuals, encourage discussion about how people's identities are influenced by their experiences as readers.

For example, I have vivid memories of waiting with my brother on the back steps of our farmhouse for the rural mail carrier's arrival with the daily Wisconsin State Journal. We would rush to his car, collect the clump of mail, and immediately dissect the newspaper to extract the sports section. Our eagerness to reconstruct yesterday's baseball contests was fueled by the possibility of another Hank Aaron home run, and we would read and re-read the games' renderings and scan the box scores for salient details, all the while engaging in a running commentary, with each of us imagining ourselves in witness of these heroic feats.

Step 3: Ask students to create their own reader autobiographies. As they brainstorm possible experiences to include, provide them with some cues to help them examine their personal "memory banks":

What do you remember about people reading in your home as you grew up? Can you recall a favorite book or type of story that you really liked when you were a small child? Whom do you associate with your personal reading? What do you remember about reading in preschool? In school? Do your memories include visits to the library? How would you describe your emotions toward being a reader? What experiences do you remember as contributing to these emotions? What kinds of reading have interested you the most? The least? What do you see as your reading strengths? Weaknesses? What goals do you have as a reader today?

Students can also use the surveys they completed in Step 1 as cues for things that might fit into their autobiographies. Emphasize the storytelling nature of this activity, and encourage students to share some of their reminiscences about themselves as readers, both positive and perhaps negative, with their classmates. Adantages Asking students to take some time out, and consider who they are as readers can help underscore that reading is ultimately a very personal act, which can often be obscured by the steady stream of requirement reading in school. In addition:

Students are encouraged to examine their attitudes toward different types of reading and explore how these emotional responses have developed for them.

Students are prompted to think about their reading abilities, those situations when they are comfortable with reading, and those that cause them to experience frustrations. These reflections can help students set goals for enhancing the reading they see as important to them.

Further Resources:
Burke, J. (1999) I Hear America Reading: Why We Read What We Read. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Burke, J. (2000) Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton / Cook Heinemann.

Posted April 19, 2001