Literacy Narrative Essay: Growing Up In New York

and I was oblivious to what was going on. My mom is a nurse and worked overnight shifts at the hospital. So from time to time, she was not in the greatest mood when she got home due to lack of sleep. My mom worked a lot of overtime hours to support our family as my dad’s business did not always provide for us.

Amanda felt that she never tried to compose music because of the pressure to learn how to play an instrument: “we didn’t enjoy it: I think it was just forced on us that none of us ever picked it [composition] up...” Two other teachers remembered siblings’ composition attempts. Deirdre recalled: “My brother kinda maybe did a bit of song-writing, but he wouldn’t be […] very professional or anything.” It seems that siblings’ composing at home did not have a clear influence on these teachers’ confidence or attitudes to teach composition in the same way Apfelstadt (1989) described the influence of siblings singing at home. Jill was the only teacher who mentioned childhood composition pursuits: “I did write my own little songs, but I think I did them with the letters not the [notes]…”

They blamed the American culture. My grandmother was a bit dramatic, cursing the day she set foot in America. She never really felt at home here. While her children were learning to understand American culture, she was stuck in a small apartment alone, this time she didn 't even have her mother-in-law to keep her mind busy. She didn’t know the area or the language well enough so she couldn’t ask others for direction.

Today the books that always manage to get my attention are usually the books based on true events. My earliest memory of being read to isn’t necessarily being read to by my parents but being read to by teachers. Both my parents were always working, so they never had time to read to me. I didn’t have any older siblings to help me so when I started school, it was the first time I was exposed to reading.

Even though you are in a new country still it's better to know them well and get along with them. As for me I was a quiet person who never talked to any person because I was shy. And being shy can make you lose a lot of opportunities like when i was in a class when a teacher asked a question and had the answer I couldn't raise my hand and answer it. And all the presentation I did with my partner I couldn't present it because I was nervous. Later on I adopted the american way of living.

(125). Likewise could’t have strong friendships either because her step mother would not allow the step children to have and friends at their house and they also could not go over to other children 's houses either. Such as when Yen Mah’s good school friend, Wu Chun-mei, invited her over multiple times for her birthday. Yen Mah wanted to go over to her house to celebrate more than anything in the world, but she could not bring herself to break Niang’s rules at first. She explains this process by saying, “For a whole week I kept making all sorts of excuses, but she was persistent.

My sister described me as perky, cheerful and happy, my mother says beautiful, gentle, and self-conscious. These adjectives only somewhat describe me, yet they are only abstract versions of me. It is impossible for anyone to understand me completely because nobody has experienced the things I have. My sister has never cherished a raggedy doll named Chloe and my mother never spent hours upon hours earning money to get herself a puppy and taking care of it with her own money. My brother never snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to meet with friends and my sister has never walked hours in a store looking for our mother.

In the poem, she referenced these events pleading “Mother please stay with me. Don 't go, please stay close to me” (Stagg, par. 5). Thirdly, in Everything I Never Told You, the Lee kids, and particularly Lydia, were not as popular as the other kids, they were not invited to go out on the weekends, they never to birthday parties, and they were not the recipients of after school phone calls to chat about the drama that happened at school that day. During lunch, “Lydia sits silent while others chatter,” because they are not really her friends (Ng, 15). Hurt by the fact that no one will be friends with her due to the fact that she is a different race, Lydia “sits for hours on the window seat on the landing” pretending she is on the phone with friends when, in reality, she is “rattling off assignments” to herself with no one on the other end of the call (Ng, 15-16).

Actually, if I’m being honest, my family sucks at writing. I was never placed in any special writing classes, but only the standard classes for school. I joined Intermediate composition to excel in my writing for my future. From this class, I’ve broadened my vocabulary and found new ways to check my pieces that I have wrote. I could always use more work with grammar because I have always struggled with that concept.

Potter’s parents were always domineering; this is known because of Potter’s many journal entries, which were written in secret code that was to be broken years later, and finally published (West). Beatrix Potter was not allowed to have friends and most of the time, she was not permitted to leave her house for her parents fears of germs and corruption from other children. Potter was not allowed to make many, decisions during her youth (Lane). Because of Potter’s parental neglection, she grew very close to her brother, Bertram. Bertram became Beatrix Potter’s best, and only, friend.

It was not until we visited Toynbee Hall that is where we came up with the idea of Hull House. Hull House was first designed for designed for teaching art and literary classes for the immigrants. But soon, it included English classes, Sewing and Cooking classes, and also Daycare for families. Since Mothers and fathers had to work, nobody was available to watch the kids, so they were left in the house by themselves.

I struggled with reading and writing for several years due to being labeled with a learning disability. When I was in fourth grade a Special Education teacher would arrive in my mainstream classroom to take me with him into his miniature classroom. Throughout my previous years in elementary school several Special Education teachers had done the same, but it wasn’t until then I began to realize other students didn’t have to go. I went with the Special Education teacher several times a day, whether it was for assistance with the class work or testing modifications. It wasn’t until seventeen years later, when I applied for Hopkinsville Community College, that I was informed I had never been diagnosed by a Psychologist.

Like the classic saying has it “You can take the kid out of Brooklyn but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the kid.” Same goes for Chicago this is my story. I was born in the windy city, on the south side. I wasn’t there for that long I was there till my fifth birthday, and then I moved to Boston, Ma with my mother, sister and I. However, I believe that south side raised me because every winter and summer vacation I would visit my grandmother or as she liked to be called “Mo-Mo” While visiting her I’ve seen some pretty harsh situations.

“I don’t want to go there!” I yelled. “You should go! With me!” My dad said, “And no more rejection!”

For me, literacy has always been a problem to this day I am still learning how to speak, and write using proper literacy. Literacy is not just reading and writing, anyone can do that but the ability to understand such things, to comprehend them that is, true literacy. My development for literacy has always been a struggle as I have spoken about before. I had a speak impediment when I was younger which used me to go into different classes which took me away from formal English classes.