By: Gracee Ableman
Reading is very important for students
How important is reading to you? Reading gives you crucial life skills like empathy, imagination and creativity. It also helps you academically, granting you better reading skills, improving your memory, and also developing language skills.
Some students think reading isn’t important. They also think that it is boring, so they don’t read often. Other students really enjoy reading and think it is very important, they spend a lot of their time reading. However, despite its tedious nature, reading benefits students in many ways that they don’t even realize.
What does it mean to be media literate?
Being media literate is knowing how to consume and evaluate information. This includes being able to engage in digital spaces safely and confidently and avoiding manipulation.
Many students have never even heard the term “media literacy”. Media has changed so much over the century. Understanding media literacy is very important for everyone, especially students. Being able to analyze messages in the media is crucial. It also offers opportunities to broaden your media experience.
Mr Hobbs, the Librarian at Fremont High School says, “Media has changed a lot very quickly, if you look at say 50 years ago, that was a very different time, we didn’t have all the different forms of media that we have today it was all print, you had to physically buy the magazine or buy the book, but now we have a lot of different kinds of media that we have to interact with. Some of those old printed ones that are now digitized, and some things that are digital, never go into print, and we need to be able to use all those things in a responsible, ethical and critically thoughtful manner, because it is so easy to create media now and not all of it is worth our time.”
This is why Mr. Hobbs, and most librarians in the district, are working to improve digital literacy and teach, or sometimes remind, students that it is important to be mindful when using digital or online tools. Having core reading skills is essential for improving media and digital literacy.
How to get interested in reading
Getting interested in reading comes easy to some students and others not so much. Asking your friends about books is a great way to bond and find new books to read. Finding a genre that interests you can also be a great way to find a book.
Mrs Holley, an English teacher at FHS said, “ A lot of students who say that they don’t like reading, they just haven’t found books that are of high interest to them. I think it’s important to find books that will interest them more.”
Reading is important and every student should take the time to find a good book to read. It can help with many things and will benefit you in many ways.
Another way to find a good book to read is a space on SchoolAI that Mr Hobbs has set up for us to use. To find a book that interests you, students can use this personal AI space (tinyurl.com/fhsbookrec). It is like Chat GTP, but it has been given certain instructions to help find specific book suggestions to anyone who is using it. Put your grade, interests, and books you have read in the past to find your next read. Happy reading!
Hadlee Larsen Looking for a Book taken by: Gracee Ableman
