My reading habits growing up weren’t that great. I never really sat down and read a book on my own time. Reading, to me has always been boring. Even when my parents read to me as a child I didn’t like it. My mother likes to read, but my dad does not like reading. Until I got older I realized I should’ve read books a lot more to understand sentence structures and other things. Also growing up, I was encouraged to read by family members, but I never listened to them. To me it seemed like they wanted to torture me with boredom, so I pretended to read. In reality I just stared at the pages aimlessly until I turned the page, every 5 minutes. I can honestly say that the first time I read an entire book was my freshmen year in high school. I liked reading and I wished I could sit and read but I didn’t have the patience. My life was always filled with too much entertainment to pay attention to a book. My younger sister is one of the few people in my family who loves to read, she is always reading a book when she has the free time. Unlike me she has read more books in her younger years than I read at that young age. Sometimes if I do read, I’ll start a book but I will not finish it. My sister is always talking about books that she has read and how good they are, or she’ll talk about her favorite one.

Reflection

The vocabulary words used in this class have helped my notice other words around me. I am now in the habit of looking for words that I am not familiar with as I read, and finding out what it means and how to use it in a sentence. After discovering a new word, I learn it and try to use it in everyday conversations. I have not yet found myself using any of these new words; I’m still learning and getting to understand when and how to use them. After a vocabulary test, these words stay in my head, I rarely forget a word that I have just recently learned. In this class, most of the words I have run into I have never herd. The strategies that we use to learn the words help a lot because we use them in practice sentences and other sources. Before I started attending read 56, I never had a lot of practice on vocabulary, not even in high school. Now that I am reading and looking for words that I don’t understand, I can notice them and point them out quickly. I’ll study one word over and over until I understand the proper meaning of that word before I go on to my next word. At the end of my studying I’ll go over all of them and try to use them in sentences. Sometimes I’ll also try to use them in sentences while talking to my family members. Sometimes they’re surprised at some of the words I use.

Capacity

capacity

noun

source sentence: "As he found within himself the capacity to rise above his humiliating circumstances, he became an observer as well as a participant in the experience." Connect, pg. 152

context clues: rise, found within himself

Definition: the maximum amount or number that can be received or contained

original sentence: The gasoline tank has a capacity of 20 gallons.

Strewn

The Word: Strewn


Part of Speech: verb


The source sentence and Page #: To my delight, I found that the lawn had been strewn with miniature Iranian flags.p. 112-113


Context Clues: Iranian flags, showed that there were many flags everywhere but I didn’t actually know what the words definition was, I couldn’t figure it out.


Definition:To be scattered or sprinkled over a surface


Original Sentence:Confetti was strewn all over the floor at the wedding
Hyperlink:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strewn

baklava

Baklava

Part of speech: Noun

Source sentence: (64) In berkely, and only in berkely, my name drew people like flies to baklava.

Context clues: drew flies to baklava- this is because it gives it the idea that it's probably a type of food.

Definition: a Near Eastern pastry made of many layers of paper-thin dough with a filling of ground nuts, baked and then drenched in a syrup of honey and sometimes rosewater.


original sentence: I went to dinner at a friends house where they ate food from a different culture, after dinner baklava was served.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/baklava

Encapsulate

Encapsulate

Part of Speech: Verb


Source sentence: (34) If someone had been able to encapsulate the kindness of these second graders in pill form, the pills would undoubtedly put war correspondents out of business.


Context clues: Pill form- It explains how it can be enclosed in a capsule.


Definition: To enclose in a capsule.


Original sentence: To catch a spider in my room, I had to use a cup to encapsulate it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/encapsulate




Monstrosity


Part of speech: Noun


The source sentence: (45) Despite my father’s reassurance, there existed no bag in our house big enough to hold this monstrosity.


Context clues: We could not make it any less bulky. It defied flattening.


Definition: huge shocking and big.

Original sentence: I just bought this small car for my big family to travel cross country and it will not fit the monstrosity family.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monstrosity


Atrocious

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: Very cruel, evil

Context Clue: Using my logic and surrounding examples in the sentences, the fact that people stare at his pink and maroon Nikes and the author compares them to a portable siren implies that the shoes are not so easy on the eyes.

Original Sentence: Her whole outfit was utterly atrocious, orange 3-inch platforms and green cargo pants will never be in style.

The items he has picked up on clearance tables range fron merely useless like his portable siren, to truly atrocious, like birds made of felt. (44)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atrocious

Vocabulary #1

Dubious

Part of speech: Adjective

Source sentence: (pg.10) "My brother Farshid, with his schedule full of soccer, wrestling, and karate, was too busy to be recruited for his dubious honor.

Context clue: The reason we chose busy as a context clue was because it described Farshid's crowded schedule.

Definition: Giving rise to uncertainty, of doubtful promise or outcome.

Your original sentence: Even with the students dubious schedule he was still able to complete all his homework assignments.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dubious