SLAS Times 2016/2017 Spring 2017 | Page 31

READING HABITS IN SLAS BY ASHIM SAPKOTA At Shanghai Livingston American School (SLAS), reading is a big part of the educational system. It is important to understand that reading is one of the most common things that people do to learn, and communicate. We must understand the importance of reading and also learn about different reading habits of different age groups at SLAS. Throughout this article readers will also learn a few examples from each literature category. “Currently I am reading a literature in Russian about the rise and fall of the third Reich,” said Anton Ponomorenko, a sophomore in SLAS. He then said, “Reading is a great way for us to learn about the past and the mistakes people made during their time so that we can prevent the same thing from happening.” Reading can be a habit and action that could be applied the most in our daily lives. The students in the SLAS community are always reading assigned literatures for classes. To understand their reading habits, we have to know the genres of literatures that they are reading during their free time. First of all, fictional novels are stories that are not true. Fictional novels such as fantasies and science fictions are not possible in real life. This allows the author to express his or her imagination and share it with the readers. It helps the readers imagine the same thing so that this world can have even more possibilities and outcomes. On the other hand, there is a genre of fiction called realistic fiction in which the situation is very likely to happen in the real world. This genre of literature presents a situation the reader can experience and understand the outcome. Another genre of literature is non fictional literatures which presents real and true information. Newspapers talks about what important events had occurred in the world. Biographies and auto- biographies talks about a certain person and their life. There is also educational literature that teaches people about a certain subjects or an event in the past. On the other hand, comics and graphic novels are a common form of entertainment. They provide a visual image of the storyline and the characters that are associated. These are very popular among kids and teenagers because they are mostly about fictional situations where action occurs. “I don’t usually read as a hobby but lately in our English class we’ve been reading “The Awakening”. It is a very interesting literature,” said Hong An Nan a 10th grader in SLAS. He then said, “since we started to read this literature I have been reading before I go to sleep. Reading is an important skill in life. It is one of the most educational things we do. There are different genres of literatures that everyone prefers. However there are also people who don’t like to read. There are also many benefits to reading we must understand. 31