Having A Passion For Reading Doesn't Mean You Always Remember What You Read

Two of my most valued passions are reading and writing. Ever since third grade, reading has been my escape and my safe place when times were getting hard or I just needed a time to relax and immerse myself in the fictional world. Writing entered my life in seventh grade because of my Language Arts teacher, and her assignments made me realize that I adored writing poetry and fiction.

From these passions, I came to enjoy the subject Literature and Composition, which I have taken last year and this year. Last year, I took the Honors class, and I am taking Honors this year as well. Ninth grade Literature was easy because it was almost stress-free with easy to contemplate novels, and essays that were given to us with step-by-step instructions. This year, I can't really say the same.

We are only in October and have already finished one book while currently being in the middle of reading two at once. With my passions of reading and writing, this class would be easy for me, and after reading all the time, you would think that I remember everything that I read, right? Actually, no. You would expect that someone who reads all the time would have great reading comprehension, right? No, again. The other week we were assigned 100 pages of "Columbine" by Dave Cullen and 6 cantos of "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi. Both works were really interesting to read.

We had a quiz after being assigned this reading. I read it all and managed my time well by dividing up all of the pages over a week period. I even read almost all 6 cantos twice! I thought I was ready for the quiz that was composed of 10 short answer questions, but unfortunately, I wasn't.

There is one thing that I remember a lot of my Language Arts teachers told me in elementary school and middle school: reading every day will help you remember what you read and will improve your reading comprehension. It makes sense that that would happen, but during this one specific quiz, constantly reading did not work out in my favor.

When the paper reached my desk and I got a good look at the questions, my heart stopped. I didn't remember anything. I left four questions blank, and I missed at least one question and one part of two other questions, leaving it only possible for me to get a total of three or four questions completely correct. This is when I finally came to terms with it. I have bad reading comprehension, despite the fact that I thought reading everyday would improve it.

I automatically thought that because of my passion for reading and the constant reading I did, those would make remembering what I read and reading comprehension easy for me. I can't assume that these will make a class easy, especially when neither of those things seemed to help me this time. Although this may not be the same for everyone who reads, this was my experience, so next time, I will try harder and do anything I can to remember what I read.

Maybe I need to reread things more than two times to really get myself to remember it. Or after I read works the first time, making practice questions for myself to answer a day or two after the initial may help. And that's OK. Being an voracious reader does not equate great comprehension. And that's OK. It's a new skill I'll have to learn, and maybe casual reading will be even more fun than it is now.