When I “stop and think” about the questions posed by Peter Barry in the introduction to his book, it really makes me think about how I got to where I am today in college. Coming into this college in the fall of 2004 my major was Biology with Medical School shortly after. As the year went on and so did the following year, my grades for my science courses were not, as we say, up to par. So I began thinking that as a freshman, it was required to take the Expository Writing and Oral Communications courses. I did really well in these classes and that made me think back to High School where I decided that I actually DID enjoy reading and writing. This is when I decided to change my major to English Education. The education part came easily because my mom works in a school and I think being a teacher is a noble job.
High school english consisted of Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, and a whole list of other authors. Shakespeare was very tortuous to read then and when we read The Tempest in my ENG112 class it was just as difficult to read and understand. Taking with me from high school was the book “Of Mice and Men”. This was actually the book I decided to do my first Unit Plan on for my education class.
Many of the same books read in the upper high school ckasses can be re-read in undergraduate classes but interpretted in a different way. This is what I have learned from my studies of literature. It is also not important what is written on the page but how you as a person can take what you read and put meaning and understanding to it.
