My Journey to Literacy
Have you ever reflected on how you became the literary genius that you are? This is my story or should I say journey to literacy. My trek starts with my Mom reading to me as soon as I came out of the womb. She read to me from childhood well into my grade school years. Writing started with breakfast everyday as I copied words from cereal boxes. In both reading and writing my path to literacy began early.
Reading was an essential part of my early life. As a homeschooled young boy in kindergarten my Mom started me on a program called “Hooked On Phonics”. Through this program I started to grasp the concept of words, and those words forming sentences, and those sentences forming ideas. I started reading my first few books,
This assignment was one of the hardest paper we had to do in our quarter because, we had complete freedom on how we wanted to develop our topic. During the peer review I found out that I had done the assignment wrong and didn 't have a clear idea of what I wanted to project in my paper. I took a moment to decide what I wanted to say and started to change and remove sentences that weren 't necessary. On my first draft of my Literacy Narrative I made negative statements about my writing, which wasn 't the purpose of the assignment. After some time, I finally decided to write about my growth in writing and how I found another outlet for my creativity and where I consider myself to be good at.
I didn’t learn to read or write until I was 7 years old. I was in my second grade class and my peers and I were sitting in a circle when the teacher called on me to read. I sputtered some gibberish with a tomato red face. The only words I recognized were “it’s” “it,” and “a”- which is really just a letter.
On most essay topics there are specific requirements that must be followed which can then limit the student’s ability to expressively write and cause them to feel less confident since their writing is restricted. Literacy narratives, however, allows the student to write freely and express themselves more due to the fact there is incorrect answer because afterall it is the writer’s own personal experience. In my particular literacy narrative I spoke how disappointed I was to spell “hoax” as “hoaks” in my elementary school’s annual spelling bee even though I still placed fourth overall. Although that tiny detail is not greatly needed, I put that in my essay anyway because I felt like that was something important to share. When it comes to stricter
Early in my life, I used books as an escape from the harsh reality in front of me. When I was around five years old, I was trapped in an abusive and sheltered household. When the yelling started, I used to hide under my bed and stay very quiet. I would read any book that I could find to keep my mind off what was happening around me. I made myself a safe space under my bed with a light and pillows.
My Writing Progression “It’s what we think we know that keeps us from learning” This quote from Claude Bernard describes my writing development this year. At the beginning of this schoolyear, I thought that I was going to go into this year and be able to breeze through this class because I could write a good essay last year and analyze stories, but I was wrong. Lit Comp Honors has been a brand-new experience for me.
In my literacy Narrative I will be tackling two problems. The first being my illiteracy in fanti, and the second being my struggle with speaking and pronunciation when I was little. I will be covering a small moment from preschool when I first started to struggle with pronunciation, and discuss how I fixed my english, but at the same time lost any linguistic connection I had to fanti. The second problem will more primarily be focused on in the introduction and conclusion, while the first will be the subject of my small moment. The defining moment any particular will be when my teacher talks to my parents, about me having a literacy problem with speaking english properly.
I don 't exactly remember the day learned to read, I guess learning to read came hand in hand with learning to write, slowly. I remember having to copy words off of a blackboard onto paper, then re-write those words over and over again until I not only memorized how to write them but also how to pronounce them. I remember every Friday was library day in elementary school and my friends and I would always fight to be first in line to get to the sports section because we never wanted to have to read anything "boring". I enjoy reading for pleasure but I dislike reading for information, most likely because I have a difficult time learning something just by reading it, I am more of a hands on learner.
Throughout my academic career, I have read many books of all genres to get a feel of the literary world and to enhance my reading skills. Ever since I was a young girl, I recall always loving to read any book that I came across and spending my free time doing so. As I got older, my interest slightly decreased but I still enjoy reading fine pieces of literature. I have always preferred to read over write because there’s so much more to learn from other people’s experiences and getting to relate to it as I get deeper into a book. The main challenges I have faced in my literacy journey is being able to express my full thoughts when I write.
Literacy Autobiography Even though it isn’t my content area, I am a strong believer in the power of literature. This appreciation goes way back, in fact some of my earliest memories are those of my mom reading to my older sister and me every night before bed. We made our way through nearly all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books by the time I started kindergarten.
For as long as I can remember I have loved reading. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, it doesn’t really matter to me. I remember my mom trying to teach me how to read when I was three. I started off reading small Dr. Suess books and then it was on to newspapers and chapter books. One of my all-time favorite books when I was a kid was Junie B. Jones.
Personal Literacy Narrative Reading and writing is a tool everybody needs in their lifetime the basic reading and writing skills are used on a daily base no matter what field you plan to study. Reading and writing are taught at a young age. I personally was taught by preschool I noticed on how I grew with my writing and how I became a better reader and writer throughout my life I personal love reading and writing it’s a way for everyone to express themselves through their choice of words. Everybody learns how to read and write differently some students tend to be stronger than others, personally speaking I feel I tend to be higher in reading then writing.
My relationship with literacy has been a journey all on its own. From learning how to sound out letters and words, to reading my first sentence , I have developed quite a valuable foundation and platform, that will eventually guide me to success. I have had the pleasure of experiencing a love that just continues to blossom. A love that will never fail, nor will I fail it. This love that I speak of is my passion for reading, writing and literacy as a whole.
As a college student, I still feel like my literacy is evolving with every essay I write. But, through my literacy autobiography and literacy experiences. I have gained through the process of “growing up” as an educator. I 'd like to capture the hearts and minds of readers through my journey and experiences with literacy. As I take you back into the past of how literacy has grown inside me.
The history of my literacy has been a long road of a frustration and learned lessons. As a child, I was a bit of a loner so reading and writing were the closest thing to a social life for me. The things that I bottled up inside came out through my writing and it became somewhat of a pass time for me. As long I could remember literacy as has been an important value for me in my life because from very young age I got express my true self without being judged by the outside. Even though in my later years I would deal with some heartaches and set back that lead me to give up on my love for reading.
Since then as an adult, I have made a point to increase my reading and writing abilities. I do not exactly remember when during my childhood that reading started to become a struggle for me. However, I do remember as early as third grade having to leave my classroom to go to another building for tutoring in reading. As I progressed through the years, the school eventually separated the students into full classrooms of students depending on their level of reading. During these times, I was unfortunately in the lowest level.