In “What Reading Slowly Taught Me About Writing” Jacqueline Woodson talks about reading as empowerment. She treasures her experiences of slow reading and re-reading, “respecting the narrative.” She says reading slowly taught her everything she needed to know about writing. She points out that her not-so-distant ancestors were forbidden to learn to read or write- it was against the law. The country tried to steal their bodies, their spirit and their stories, she says.
Explain how important you think reading is today, for you and for others. If it’s not very important, explain that. What do you think are the benefits of savoring the written word? What does it mean to respect the narrative? Why was it a crime to teach slaves how to read and write? What lessons can we learn from that? Do you have any other responses to or thoughts about her talk?
Reading is as important as it was years ago. Reading makes us very creative and open-minded. True in today’s society we have it easy because of technology but it doesn’t make reading less important. The more we read the more we are knowledgeable and understanding with the world. In today’s society, we can believe anything said on the internet without even reading the whole story. Instead of believing a short video on TikTok of a story, we should look it up ourselves before coming to a conclusion.
The benefit of savoring the written word is getting the central idea of the story by slowly reading and respecting the narrative. If we are able to feel, understand, and enjoy the writing then we will have the positive feeling and the message of the story. Respecting the narrative is having the time and courage to understand the story because those stories have come a long way to be heard. The slave’s stories were avoided from being written or heard because they were a narrative that would have made a change on them. It was a crime because slave owners didn’t want people to know the things they were doing to them. Their stories could have made people have empathy toward them and changed the way they lived. Overall, this video guides us to be grateful and respect reading. We should take reading very seriously because it benefits our knowledge of the world. Reading for everyone has come a long way and that makes us lucky people. listening to this made me realize sometimes we take things that we have easily for granted. Think about the past so you can be thankful for the presents.
Reading in the modern era is one of the most vital skills you could have because it is integral in conveying information. I feel that to savor the word is to immerse yourself in the emotion of the story. Respecting the narrative is to respect the story, the author, the history behind the story. It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because it would give freedom in a limited, freedom from ignorance. Reading and writing would allow them to navigate in the harsh world they found themselves in. One thing you can take from this is that to blind a person of knowledge is to take away their power.
Reading is as important as eating. While food nourishes the body, reading nourishes the brain. It opens the mind to so many different perspectives and ideas. I think being open-minded will make you the best version of yourself because not only are you putting in the effort to understand way others think and feel, you are also exploring the wonders of the world. I feel like the benefits of savoring the written word is being able to slow down and dive deep into the authors depiction of characters, settings, emotion, action, etc. It’s feeling the emotion emitting from a story. By doing so you’re respecting the narrative. Like Woodson said writers create stories for people to enjoy and have an escape from reality. The purpose of reading a story isn’t to finish it but to learn and connect with it as well as analyzing and processing the information.
It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because knowledge holds so much power and slave owners proffered them ignorant than to have the freedom of education. With that knowledge come the ability to share your story. It was a way of taking their voices. After listening to the Ted talk I more than ever treasure my books and respect the masterminds behind each story. We need to step into the past to understand the society we live in now.
I think reading is very important for people of all ages. At a young age it helps us with our cognitive development and language skills. Reading is how we learn. We read to understand for entertainment, to learn, to help flow creativity and to hear other people’s story. To respect the narrative means to read it in all its content & to appreciate it by savoring the text and listening to each story and understanding the perspective.It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because slave owners wanted to be in control of them. They didn’t want slaves to communicate with each other and escape. They also didn’t want slaves’ stories to be told and shared to others which would paint the slave owners as the villains like rightfully so. From this we can learn that knowledge is power and can be dangerous to those who want to remain in power. I think reading slow is important because it helps us understand and digest texts better. When you skim through readings you can miss keywords and miss the whole meaning. Reading slow and or more than once clarifies the text fully and improves our recall.
Reading is one of the most important skills we learn as humans, pieces of text can completely change our opinions or outlook on topics we thought we knew so much about. Our history has been told through thousands of books and generations of stories, some of which have been altered or changed but the effect these writings have never fade. The art of written word should always be savored as Jacqueline Woodson emphasizes on, savoring text can give way to exploring the world formed by the author, and learning pieces of information you could have possibly missed. For Jacqueline respecting the narrative goes deeper than understanding the writing, it is apart of history and appreciating the book for the times her descendants weren’t allowed to read. Respecting the narrative means reading the book how the author intended and showing each word the value it deserves. It was illegal to teach slaves how to read or write because people believed it would unveil the ugly history of the U.S. which it still did due to the underlying stories kept by ancestors. It teaches us that even through the skill of reading and writing history can still be kept, and now that this history can be written and shared for decades, the story will continue to live on.
Reading brings in so many benefits and even can make you powerful in any other way. Reading is a skill, but a really valuable skill that, helps the reader be exposed to information, that helps develop ideas and questions. Reading helps the reader to develop creative thoughts and even helps them be more knowledgeable, because of the information they are exposed to. Reading is another way of learning, it teaches readers to be more active when they are exposed to information. Knowing information gives the reader the advantage of facing certain situations that may occur in their life.
So Jacqueline Woodson points out why it is so important to read slowly in order to respect the narrator. Her point of respecting the narrator is to help understand the work of the narrator and take advantage of the information that is being given. Also, it gives the reader time to create images and ideas that may occur in their mind as they give their time to understand the narrator’s point of view.
So far reading is a key tool that allows the reader to explore and think, and even helps them develop certain skills. Reading slowly is the best way to catch all that valuable information because it gives the reader the ability to better understand the narrator’s perspective.
The importance of reading is that it makes you more educated.When we read books that are about others cultures and other people’s tradition it adds to our knowledge.We read books about history,so we can understand the past and how the past impacts the present.For some people reading is a form of entertainment but for others its a way to gather more knowledge to be more successful and intelligent.In today’s world reading is very beneficial,Being knowledgeable and understanding everything is what makes a human special.I think the benefits of savoring the written words are to connect and read from the authors point of view.When we just skim over words they mean absolutely nothing, But when we read each line carefully and savor it we can think more critically. To respect the narrative means to pay close attention to the message the narrator is trying to convey. Even if you disagree with someone’s narrative, you can’t just bash them but instead respectfully disagree with them. It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because knowledge was very powerful and white people feared that if slaves knew how to read and write they would be able to read newspapers and the laws against them. Knowledge opens the world up to you. When slaves would read, they would learn about about how reading carefully can make us more educated.The importance of reading is that how to protest and oppose what the white people were saying. The TED talk teaches us it makes you more educated.When we read books that are about others cultures and other people’s tradition it adds to our knowledge.We read books about history,so we can understand the past and how the past impacts the present.For some people reading is a form of entertainment but for others its a way to gather more knowledge to be more successful and intelligent.In todays world reading is very beneficial,Being knowledgeable and understanding everything is what makes a human special.I think the benefits of savoring the written words are to connect and read from the authors point of view.When we just skim over words they mean absolutely nothing,But when we read each line carefully and savor it we can think more critically.To respect the narrative means to pay close attention to the message the narrator is trying to convey.Even if you disagree with someone’s narrative,you can’t just bash them instead respectfully disagree with them.It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because knowledge is very powerful and white people feared that if slaves knew how to read and write they would be able to read newspapers and the laws against them.Knowledge opens the world up to you.When slaves would read,they would learn about how to protest and oppose to what the white people were saying.The ted talk really teaches us about how reading carefully can make us more educated.
In today’s world, reading is not as crucial for many people; based on how advanced technology is, people can make an ordinary book into an audiobook and listen to it on the way to school, to work, or whenever they feel like it. Most schools teach using audiobooks and recommend the use of them. Not only do we have audiobooks, but we also have the internet, where we can find anything we can think of, making it very simple to learn from the past. Making the new generation use fewer books than my mom or grandma used back in their day.
Savoring the written words is a way of saying that we take what is written and acknowledge what the author is trying to tell us. Ensures we comprehend the text to pass that information to others, respecting the narrative. This ensures that the book, story, or narrative is remembered.
It was a crime to teach enslaved people how to read and write because they could write messages that could help them escape and because enslavers did not want their slaves writing stories about how they were being treated and what they had to do to stay alive. Enslavers did not want these stories to be heard because they did not want abolitionist content to be heard. With this, we can learn and clearly understand how important it is to read and write and how to use these skills to make a difference in the world.
Reading is an extremely important skill in today’s age. Reading has always been important regardless of how much technology has improved our lives. There are many benefits to reading such as increasing our knowledge, increasing our creativity, expanding our vocabulary, improving our mental health, etc. Reading is extremely important today because of how much the world has changed. Almost everything we do involves reading. Messaging, reading street signs, navigation, newspaper, etc. Reading can also be our form of entertainment whether it’s scrolling through social media, reading for fun, or just a way to gain knowledge. Reading is not only a necessity but is also beneficial to the brain. Reading can improve your comprehension skills, general knowledge, and focus and help reduce stress. Reading is not only important in education but it’s one of the most important skills to have in your life whether it’s for school, entertainment or living life. Just imagine if you never learned how to read, You would struggle with communicating , have a lack of knowledge, and have a hard time getting around in this life. Savoring the written word is an extremely beneficial skill to use while reading. Similar to how Jacqueline Woods talks about the importance of reading slowly in her Ted Talk, reading slowly even if it means finger to word is very helpful in understanding the text and why the author said certain things. Just like how if you’re going out to eat at a fancy restaurant, you would most likely eat the food slowly and savor the taste because of how good it is. To put this in the perspective of reading, it is important to take your time and read carefully to understand what the author is saying. As stated by Jacqueline Woods in her Ted Talk, readers should read slowly like how the author took his time to write and make choices. There are a lot of benefits of savoring the written words such as having a better understanding of the text, enjoying what you read (savoring), and making connections with the text. Savoring the written word puts you in the author’s shoes and understands him from his perspective. This does not only help you understand the reading more but you respect the narrative at the same time. To be more specific, if you read slowly and analyze the author’s words you’re giving respect to the author by giving your time and concentration to understand the author’s work, you’re showing your appreciation and reading the way people should be reading. It was a crime to teach slaves how to read and write because of how much power the stories/narratives the slaves had that could have a huge negative impact on slave owners. As said by Woods in her Ted Talk, Illiterate people knowing how to read and write with knowledge holds a great danger. The power that slaves could have had from being able to read and write would have changed a lot in history. Even though I always knew being able to read and write is important, I never thought about it from the ideas explained in Jacqueline Woods’s Ted Talk. Reading and writing hold so much power
Personally, I believe that reading is not as important due to the many distractions in the outside world right now. Technology has people’s full attention. As for savoring every word when you’re reading, I believe it important because it tells you what the authors message that they want for you to understand. Respecting other narratives mean to respects one’s voice. Every person has a side of the story depending on how they have been affected by that event. It was a crime for slaves to learn and right due to their if they learnt that they would be able to speak up and would rise up in society. Yet also silencing their voices as well as their stories and narratives with it. Lessens that we learn from it is that in order to grasp a full understanding of our past and present everyone’s narrative needs to be heard.
Correctly the top, I think reading is important but in current society as long as you understand you read you don’t need to exceed those reading skills due to the advance technology doing everything for us now a days.
I think reading is very important because a lot of people go based off what someone else has said and it may or may not be true but by reading a book or anything els you’ll be able to understand a concept well and if what you’re reading is credible then you’ll have correct and factual information to go by. In this world there’s is a lot of mis information being spread on social media or people talking in general but if you grab a book which in my opinion is the most credible source, you’ll have the truth. Reading also expands your vocabulary, improves your attention span, improves your happiness (in my opinion) and just makes you a more knowledgeable person in general. Im not saying that all books are factual but I think even then just reading something allows you to understand more and improves you’re analyzation skills. The benefits of savoring the written word is really letting the words sink in, You’re not just skimming through the lines to get the book over with but you’re taking everything in and allowing yourself to really understand what is being said. Then you’ll be able to make your own analyzations and ask your own questions which leads to creative thinking when the ideas start to flow and you’ll really start to get into the book. It was a crime to teach slaves how to read or write because knowledge is power and white people knew that if slaves could write to each other in secret, they could plan an escape. White people also knew that if slaves knew how to write they could write about their horrible experiences and that would ruin the whole “God wanted Black people to be slaves” concept (they knew deep down that they were just lazy and just wanted someone else to do the work for them). What this taught me is that the truth will always come out one way or another and although a lot of slaves couldn’t read or write, they still found a way to keep this horrible part of history alive (rightfully so) by sharing stories of their experiences so that their struggles and sacrifices would not be forgotten.
I believe reading today is extremely important for similar reasons as Woodson. With half my family hailing from the Deep South we were heavily impacted by the effects of slavery and discrimination with generations up until my great grandmother not knowing how to read or write. That was when my family uprooted from South Carolina to New York where they realized the value of education and no longer had the fear, struggle, or doubt in themselves to pursue one. I believe the benefits of savoring your texts is you get to the deeper meaning of them and understand the authors true purpose behind writing the text, instead of the broad surface that they present to shallower readers. by understanding the deeper meaning and what the author was trying to convey with the text you are thus respecting the narrative. It was a crime to teach slaves to read and write because slave masters knew with knowledge comes power, they manipulated written texts like the Bible to keep slaves in their position by posing it as Gods will. This ended up backfiring on them as the Bible is how a lot of slaves ended up learning how to read. From this we learn not to take education for granted as our educating of ourselves will elevate us in society.
I think reading is still as important if not more as it was before there were any significant information technology innovations. This is because it is so easy to access information now that it becomes too much sometimes. It feels like a lot of the time you won’t actually be able to have continuous thoughts or narrative about anything as you are pushed from one piece of media to the next. Taking time to focus on one piece and understand its many nuances and aspects is, I feel, much more helpful critical thinking development and in relation to real world problems and stories. Respecting the narrative means acknowledging that most likely the writer has put in a lot of time into deciding every word/sentence that went into a piece and that it all has a purpose. It was a crime to teach slaves to read/write because it would have been very empowering. So much so that the slave owners would be scared that the narrative of the slave’s struggles would culminate between them as well as beyond them and start more resistance. We can learn from this that reading/writing is such a powerful tool for thought and information exchange. If you see it being restricted you can almost always bet it has to do with some sort of oppression.