The earliest vivid memory I can recall in my lifetime of learning to read or write was in the first grade. At that point in time, I lived with my older sister and my father is a small blue duplex in Indianapolis and I attended an Academy where I was one of the few Caucasions in a school with almost all African-Americans. During the earlier stages of my life, I viewed reading as a chore, writing as a pain, and speaking as a difficulty and an embarrassment. Currently, I value reading, writing, and speaking higher than any other undertaking in school and in life. While I lived in Indianapolis, every night after dinner my father and I sat on the couch and he read to me Winnie-the-Pooh. As a curious little boy I would lean over to look at the pictures …show more content…
I had pronounced the word as “wope” and that is when my father and sister pointed out that it was not the first time I had difficulty pronouncing the letter ‘r’, especially when the letter started a word. My dad arranged for me a speech therapist. It wasn’t until I was in the fourth grade I could finally pronounce my r’s correctly and rid myself of the weekly therapy sessions with condescending speech therapists. It took many years for me to conquer my speech impediment. My aunt told me that it had to do with my tongue placement when I was born which I used as an excuse for when I would mispronounce a word. It took a conscious effort from my part to pronounce my r’s correctly even after my therapy ended. Today, it is extremely rare for me to misspeak and I no longer have to think about pronouncing my r’s. My view of speaking dramatically changed after my dad forced me to take speech class in high school. At first I was resistant and as most teenagers are, I did not like to do what I was told, but after the one-semester class was over I felt confident and enjoyed speaking publicly. My teacher was inspiring; his passion for the subject fueled my curiosity and allowed me to share his passion. My passion continues today as I am enrolled in the American Honors Fundamentals of Public Speaking (Comm)
Everyone remembers when they learned to read and write some more than others. Even well known people like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. They wrote narratives, “Learning to Read And Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, to show us when, where, and how they learned to read and write. Both authors go through struggles that we would never think could or would happen. Even though they go through struggles they still became eager to learn more to better themselves. It gave them power they never thought they could achieve. They have many similar and different trials that they went through so they could learn how to read and write.
Whether it’s what you write or what you read, it always brings forward emotions. Sherman Alexie felt desperate and determined to keep on reading after he learned to because he knew the importance of reading and he let those emotions drive him to continue. Amy Tan felt embarrassed by her mother 's literacy but later came to love it and think of it as their own private language. While Malcolm X 's life, mind, and emotions were altered by everything he read. Literacy will always have an influence on people 's
According to the New York City writing project at Lehman College ,“... Reading, writing and thinking are interrelated activities that contribute to the student’s success in school, college, the community and the workplace.” Reading and writing and thinking are associated with each other and can actually help people reach success through the power of reflection. Reflection is being able to think of our past and present experience and really analyze how we can become better. Reflection also allows one to better understand what is going on around us. Frederick Douglass and Amy Tan’s literacy and language allowed them to achieve success through reflection. Frederick Douglass was a slave that learned how to read and write even besides the
Through reading 50 Essays: “Learning to Read” and “learning to read and write”, has shown us many things in common. Two African-American mens, neither of them received official schooling- in fact they both at the end achieve literacy. The tone In those stories was that education is significant. Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, have went through many obstacles in their life. However, both had to acquire their reading and writing skills. Sometimes in education you have to go through the worst to get to the best.
Early literacy for me was challenging. I started to learn reading and writing at age six. I still remember students from school would make fun by not knowing how to read, but they never knew I was struggling with both English and Spanish reading and writing. My parents are both from Guatemala; they came to the U.S at a very young age. My father was the only one to go to school. My mother did not attend school because it was difficult by her immigration status. When I was little, Spanish was not my mother's first language, so when she wanted to help me with reading and to write in English, she had a difficult time. My mother taught me reading and writing in the Mayan language. My father only taught me reading and writing one hour per week. Whenever my father was through showing me an hour of writing and reading, I had to explain the same lesson to my younger
The ability to read and write is a basic condition for social and personal growth. In my
It was finally time to head to gym class in the afternoon where we were instructed to take part of a physical test. This test would determine how fit or unfit we are based on a system that was implemented by those with greater authority, on which concluded that it was on such a scale society should be based on. So it was that afternoon that I preformed the tasks that were instructed on to me and my peers. I was able to completed them to my utmost potential which can be consider to be something not so distinctive. It was on this day that I was mocked by one my peers of my lack of ability to preform the instructed physical tasks, that was a no brainer to such a fit individual like himself. It
All I could remember on my journey to literacy was my concern over my brother and sister’s ability to read and write including solving math problems. That did not really motivate not to become literate; I was extremely playful as a child. What I am able to remember is my first day of school, I cried like a baby when my mom dropped me off. I soon began to grow out of my baby stage and school became really interesting. Even though it was not as hard as it is now, the value that pushed me to be literate was how my teacher was able to discipline students if they didn’t give the best to their education.
The story of my history as a writer is a very long one. My writing has come full circle. I have changed very much throughout the years, both as I grew older and as I discovered more aspects of my own personality. The growth that I see when I look back is incredible, and it all seems to revolve around my emotions. I have always been a very emotional girl who feels things keenly. All of my truly memorable writing, looking back, has come from experiences that struck a chord with my developing self. This assignment has opened my eyes, despite my initial difficulty in writing it. When I was asked to write down my earliest memory of writing, at first I drew a blank. All of a sudden, it became very clear to me, probably because it had some childhood trauma associated with it.
My first experience to literacy came as a young adult. I have always been reluctant with my education, because of the family problems I experienced growing up. The harsh treatment our family received growing up made it very difficult to study in school, my body was physically in class but my mind was not. The trials and tribulations I went through growing up as a kid continued throughout my teenage years. Dropping out of high school I believe brought upon literacy difficulty. At the age of twenty-three, I finally had enough of feeling undereducated. Living in my mother’s basement with no job and an 8th grade education, the walls started to close in on me as my frustration became greater by the minute.
Knowledge is literacy, and literacy is the ability to enhance your vocabulary, read and hear of others literacy stories, and continue to live your own. I would like to begin explaining my literacy story by saying that my first word was “mama”. Although I don’t remember this, my first word was very exciting to my parents because I mainly communicated through my older brother, David until I was almost three years old. Although David is my only sibling and is three years older than I am, we have always been close. He used to tell my parents whatever I wanted when I didn’t know how to talk yet. Although it took me a while to learn to speak, my parents always read me stories and encouraged me to speak before and as soon as I began to learn.
When I grew older, I loved reading The Babysitter's Club series. Each time I bought a Babysitter’s Club book, it had a section in the back where a girl could sign up to be part of what was known as The Babysitter’s Club. All a girl had to do was fill out the back portion of the book and send it in to a mailing address. It took about three weeks for a package to arrive at my house. It was fun being part of the club because I received three different books, bumper stickers, buttons, pencils, mirrors, and other things I thought were cool every month. They were the only books that existed in my life. I loved reading the series and wondering what the next story would be about.
If one were to look at my varied reading habits, they would be struck by the diversity and over all unusualness of my mind’s library. I hardly remember the plot of the first book I read, but it was called Lonesome Dove. It wasn’t the actual first book I read, but I don’t really count the McGregor Readers from kindergarten. I read it in first grade because of my Grandmother’s fascination in the T.V. mini-series that was playing during the time. I wanted to be able to talk to her about it so I went to the public library that weekend and picked up a copy. Well, I actually didn’t pick it up, it was too heavy. It took me over two and a half months to read, but with the help of a dictionary and my grandma, I finally read it from cover to cover. I can’t really say that I understood it, because I don’t recall what it was about. But I do remember that it was quite an ordeal. Since then I have read many books. I enjoy fiction the best, especially those that are based on society, but have a small twist that leads to an interesting story. Some of the stories that I remember best from that early time in my life are Tales from Wayside Elementary School, Hatchet, The Godfather, and The Giver. I think that Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is the only book that I’ve read more than once. I liked the situation that Brian was put into, lost in the wilderness, with nothing more to fend for himself with than his mind and a trusty hatchet. The adversity he faces and his undying drive are what fascinated me most. Since that time my reading habits have grown into a different style. I have usually only read what was assigned to me during the school year because that was all I had time to do, but I have always strived to put forth extra effort. For example: last year for English 3 AP we had to read an excerpt from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. Although that we only had to read a small bit, I checked the entire book from the college library and read it all. Although the way that Franklin rambled on and on about his “Franklin Planner” was somewhat boring, the way he describe his life was pure poetry.
My relationship with books and reading has not been the greatest adventure for me thus far. I will not say that all my experience has been terrible but for the most part not that great. I know for me it started when I was little and unfortunately it has carried to my adulthood.
There have not been many obstacles that have gotten in my way for me to be a successful reader. I am able to confidently read "Hope in the Unseen" because it keeps my interest. I like the story. I feel for Cedric. I imagine and picture the story in my mind. When a large amount of reading is assigned, sometimes my brain gets exhausted and I have to take a break. Literally my brain gets tired. The reason why I have trouble getting all of my assignments in for "Writing and Being" is because the book does not hold my interest. I find it boring at times. I really like "Higher Learning" because the stories are like short stories, and they are adventurous in a weird way.