Literacy Narrative

Kendra Gillend
Carver Weakly
English 111
13 September 2013

Literacy Narrative People learn to read and write in many different ways. Everyone has a different story with the way they learned to read and write. I'm the youngest child of 3; I have an older brother and sister. As a kid my mom was a stay at home mom, she would read to me while my brother and sister were in school. She tried her hardest to teach me to read and write. I just never showed any interest in learning to read. Then one day, I was in my room just playing with a book. My mom
Walked by and said she heard me trying to say words in the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, And Blue Fish By Dr. Seuss. This book was my favorite from now on; I carried it everywhere we went. I tried to learn all the words in the entire book. I finally got to the point were I could read every single word in the book. I learned to read this book by my mom reading it to me over and over again. I struggled a lot with reading any other books; all I wanted to read was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish By Dr. Seuss. The only problem was that I wasn’t increasing my vocabulary, because this was the only book I was reading. My mom got really frustrated with hearing the same book over and over again. She tried to give me other books to read, I used to look but never actually read the story. My mom just desperately wanted me to read other books. I was 6 years old and my favorite book was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish By Dr. Seuss. All of the sudden I started reading the newspaper with my dad. I never understood actually what it was saying; I just chose words that seemed to be easy enough for me to say. I would read the comic section and thought it was the funniest thing ever. This helped increase my vocabulary a lot. Then I started reading all different types of books. The books my mom had bought me had helped with my vocabulary, and then she started to try and make me write sentences or at least words. I hated to write, I would rather read a book about something interesting. I
Started kindergarten at Seven Pines Elementary. I loved to read and writing was something I hated to do. When I started first grade, my mom had to get me a tutor because I knew how to write something’s just not as much as a first grader should. My tutors name was Mrs. Thompson, she was so nice. She made me write short paragraphs, and form simple sentences. I began to like to write, and I could form sentences. She then helped me valuate different types of books. She also explained that it was important to read and write everyday to increase the skills I have learned. Mrs. Thompson never let me say I can't do it and she never once let me quit. My mom and Mrs. Thompson inspired me to keep going. Also they showed me that quitting was never an option and I had to at least try to do something. I learned to compromise with my mom and Mrs. Thompson. I would always try and if I could not do time would stop and ask for help. In the 5th grade when I had to start writing book reports and essays, I started to hate English. I started to learn the importance of literacy, it was important for me to read and write! Literacy changed my perceptions on life, I knew that if I wanted to succeed in life I need to improve my reading and writing semiskilled I started the eighth grade I heard people saying all you did in English was read and write. I was so nervous because I knew it was important for me to write but I still did not like to do it. Literacy changed my life a lot, I volunteered with the English department. It was a group of eighth graders who would go into the sixth graders classrooms and would help and edit and peer review their essays. This showed me that it would have been so helpful if I would've had someone do that while I was in the sixth grade. It helped me with my writing as well; I saw the simple mistakes they were making so I would check my work twice so I did not make the same mistakes. I thrived to help the sixth graders succeed with their writing. The sixth graders wrote us thank you letters and said that their grades had improve a tremendous amount
With our help. Most people do not succeed with learning to write and read because their family does not support them and push them to do it. My family showed me tons of support throughout the years with teaching me to read and write. Some people just need the extra push to do something. With my family helping me succeed it has helped me in life now. It has affected me throughout high school and is now going to help me in my freshman year in college. It will help me remember to never quit and always keep trying with everything I do. Reading and writing are things that are necessary to get through day to day life.