Personal Narrative: My Significant Influence

All throughout middle school when we were assigned to read a novel I would dread it. My perspective of reading for enjoyment soon changed when I was in eighth grade. Mrs. Benavides, my eighth grade language arts teacher, assigned our class to read The Outsiders, and I coursed I was complained in my head, I don’t want to read (actually pretend to read and then use Sparknotes) another lame book. The first day we got the book we were all told to read chapters 1 through 3, and this time all of the kids in my class complained and I wasn’t the only one. So, there I was at home in front of my computer typing in “the outsiders by S.E Hinton”, into Google, and the top search that popped up was a link to the movie on Youtube.

I had a big challenge growing up and had trouble with reading in my elementary years. Growing up listening to Spanish music and talking mostly Spanish was hard for me to start school and learn English, at 4 years old. The challenge was that for some reason I mixed my B's and D's, are and our, and would read slowly. Every time I read I saw the words but couldn’t pronounce them well and took time to see if I am reading it correctly, which most of the time I was not. No one knew I had trouble reading because I never showed it.

She told him how she wants to learn how to read to know if the grave diggers buried her brother even though Hans only went to school until 4th grade. “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” leads to her learning how to read and write. After the bedwetting incident and Hans finding the book, Hans helps Liesel with writing by writing the ABCs and giving an example, for example “S” for sausmench. Every night Hans would read the book to her and this would help Liesel and Hans with their reading skills. When she went to school, she felt embarrassed because she was in a lower class for her age.

Everyone could go home after school while I would be stuck at an after-school program to help me with my reading. My sixth grade year I would not do my homework. I was self-conscious of getting answers wrong while others would get perfect scores. Also, during this time I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism which affected my concentration and learning. In junior high, I found a way of studying that works well for me like, watching videos about the subject and making flash cards.

Sitting in a huge class with white walls and many strangers while hearing the summer bridge director give the instructions of a reading assignment made me feel frightened. Ever since I was small, I had always had a difficult time with my English writing and reading. Having challenges with my English made me have no interest in reading, until the summer bridge assignment changed my perspective of seeing books. During my experience in CSUMB Summer Bridge I was able to read a book who inspired me and changed my life completely. Our reading assignment was a book titled “The Pact” by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt, and Lisa Frazier.

life was tough the first year, I didn’t know anything or anyone, I didn’t even know a hint of English. I was suppose to be in 3rd grade but they placed me in 4th grade which meant that they expected me to know more. In fourth grade, I didn’t learn much but in 5th grade I had this teacher named Mrs.Gomez and she pushed me so much into doing a better job. She helped me out a lot and supported me because she had a similar story as mine. She would always say “ Roma, talk to your friends in English not Nepali,” and that actually helped because I got the hang of just communicating in

I did most of my observation in a sixth through eighth grade classroom, however I did get some experience in a third grade classroom and a second grade classroom. I think that one of the concepts that I observed the most was that there are many different ways and curriculums to teach literacy. I saw an example of a basal school, an example of daily five, but I did not actually get to see any reader’s workshop, which was disappointing because that was the majority of what we spent time working on in class (and my personal favorite thus far). I did get to see a little bit of a writer’s workshop, it was very brief but was about narratives in a comic strip form. It was interesting to see a genre applied to the writing, similar to what we practiced in class.

Surely getting international level education which provides you with a foreign certificate has an extortionate price, but my family enrolled me in an international school starting first grade. I cannot recall how exactly I learned to read in my early stages of education, but I remember that I hated it. I’ve always disliked reading, I thought it was very boring. My school mainly focused on teaching students to be proficient in English and barely met the government requirements of our first language, Arabic. One of the things I remember in my first few years of school is going to the library at the end of each week to pick up a book to be read by the help of our parents during the weekend.

Time passed and I tried to lean English. I really had a hard time to learn English but I didn’t gave up. I had a hard time to study English because nobody were able to speak, write, and read English in my family. I finished four years high school. Then my family wanted to move to PA so, my family and I moved to PA.

Chua, like many other Asian mothers, forced her child to play the piano for weeks. She was made to study the music sheet like other children are forced to study for tests. She decided to tutor Lulu and make her practice more until she was able to play it. Many other Asian parents also start tutoring their child if they do not improve in their classes. Westerners do not force their teenagers to play piano or any other activities.