I started learning to read and write around age three. My mother and grandmother were the two biggest influences in my early years of reading and writing. They always read to me and made me watch educational kid shows such as Barney. Even though sometimes I was not interested in reading, it helped tremendously. I’ve had many teachers motivate me to do better and help me with my weaknesses in literature. I still love to read, but only interesting stuff appeals to me. Many people in my life have helped me grow as a reader and writer, and I’ve learned a few things on my own too.
When I was younger my mother would drop me off at my grandmother’s house while she went to work. I always thought I would be able to just sleep and eat, but I was wrong. As soon as I walked through the door, she would get out a sheet of paper and a pencil out. I remember having to write basic words such as “cat”, “dog”, and “run”. Since I was young I didn’t see the use of writing; I honestly thought it was pointless. I changed my
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I honestly believe that helped me grow academically. Throughout school I would ask several questions about things that I did not know. If I saw a word with which I was not familiar, I would google the definition. I watch Netflix with subtitles, solely to learn new words I can use when speaking to someone. I haven’t been reading like I’m suppose to lately, mainly because I have a lot of stuff going on in my life right now. I just need to find another interesting book and then I’ll be back on track. Reading is a big part of my life, and it should be a big part of everyone else’s to be honest. If you are illiterate there isn’t much you can do in this world. Knowing how to read is equally important as writing, simply because they complement each other. If you can not read, then you can not write. Reading and writing is a necessity in life, and I’m extremely thankful for all of those who have taken time out of their lives to aid
My parents have always stressed the importance of reading. Throughout my whole life, they have motivated me to read and they have encouraged me to find books that I find interesting to read. Because of their encouragement, I am an avid reader today. When I was a child, just starting to enjoy reading I liked to read books that were fiction. Some of my favorite books to read as a child are series that I still love today and I think I still have every book in each series stored in my attic. They are The Boxcar Children, Junie B. Jones, and The Magic Tree House.
The more effort we use in studying the better results we will get. Certain people have a hard time comprehending school work from the first grade to throughout high school. For example, in the article “Saved,” the life of Malcolm X, the reader is told about Malcolm’s struggle with learning .One problem he had was he couldn’t write or read his own hand writing. The way he began to overcome his handicap was that he would copy and memorize words from the dictionary. When he entered prison he was illiterate. He could neither read nor write. Later on, to help his reading comprehension, he would spend time in the prison library. Spending an hour every day in the library helped to increase his comprehension.
Each year as I grow old, I tend to discover and learn new things about myself as a person as well as a reader, writer and a student as a whole. My educational journey so far has been pretty interesting and full of surprises. Back in Bangladesh where I studied until high school, my interest for learning, reading or writing was so very different compared to how it has become over the years. I could relate those learning days to Richard Rodriquez’s essay “The lonely Good Company of Books”. In the essay the author says, “Friends? Reading was, at best, only a chore.”(Rodriguez, page 294). During those days I sure did feel like reading was a chore for me and how I was unable to focus and I could never understand what all those jumbled up words ever meant. It was quite a struggle for me in class when the teachers used to assign us reading homework. I felt like reading a book was more difficult or painful than trying to move a mountain. Just like how moving a mountain is impossible, trying to find an interest in reading was
Under those circumstances, the school and my mom decided it was better to retain me in first grade. Fortunately, the retention made my grandma realize that I needed her guidance in academics at a young age. By the age of eight, my grandma gave me the best gift she could have ever given me. It was a huge red dictionary. On the inside cover she scribed, “….” I would follow her directions every night for a long time. Today, I wonder if it helped me or not. Many times, I would know the word and the definition, but not know how to use the word in a sentence. I was learning the words and definitions out of
My literacy journey began long before I had actually learned how to read or write. While recently going through baby pictures with my mother, we came across a photo of my father and I book shopping on the Logos boat, a boat that would come to my island every year that was filled with books for our purchasing. Upon looking at this picture, my mother was quite nostalgic and explained how they began my journey to literacy through experiences like this. My earliest memory of experiencing literature was as a small child. My parents would read bedtime stories to me each night before I went to bed. I vividly remember us sitting on the bed together with this big book of “365 bedtime stories for 365 days” and we read one story each day until we had
There were many people throughout my childhood that help me to read, and write. However, my teachers, mom, and dad were all responsible for teaching me “how” to read and write. For example, in pre-kindergarten, I learned my alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, and to follow instructions. Once I learned the above items, I returned home with homework. My mom and dad would help me with my homework, and structure activities around my learning. My mom and dad would encourage me to read because they believed it was very important. In addition, my mom would often read to me before I go to bed reinforce my learning. The readings before I go to be very instrumental in my learning.
Throughout my childhood, the idea of having a college education was greatly stressed. As a result, it was my duty as the next generational child, to excel in my studies and achieve a life of prosperity and success. Learning became the basic foundation of my growth. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours spent reading and writing what was known to be correct "Standard" English. I first found this to be a great shortcoming, but as I grew older, I began to realize the many rewards acquired by having the ability to be literate.
Growing up in working class family, my mom worked all the time for the living of a big family with five kids, and my dad was in re-education camp because of his association with U.S. government before 1975. My grandma was my primary guardian. “Go to study, go to read your books, read anything you like to read if you want to have a better life,” my grandma kept bouncing that phrase in my childhood. It becomes the sole rule for me to have better future. I become curious and wonder what the inside of reading and write can make my life difference. In my old days, there was no computer, no laptop, no phone…etc, to play or to spend time with, other than books. I had no other choice than read, and read and tended to dig deep in science books, math books, and chemistry books. I tended to interest in how the problem was solved. I even used my saving money to buy my own math books to read more problems and how to solve the problem. I remembered that I ended up reading the same math book as my seventh grade teacher. She used to throw the challenge questions on every quiz to pick out the brighter student. There was few students know how to solve those challenge questions. I was the one who fortunately nailed it every single time. My passion and my logic for reading and writing came to me through that experience, and also through my grandma and my mom who plant the seed in me, who want their kids to have happy and better life than they were. In my own dictionary, literacy is not just the ability to read and write, it is a strong foundation to build up the knowledge to have better life, to become who I am today.
My literacy skills began to develop much like Deborah Brandt suggests in her article of “Sponsors of literacy” My first memories of learning to write are still quite vivid. I remember holding a big fat crayon in my hand as my mother showed me how to write my name. She would draw a large line on the page and I would copy her movements. We started with capital letters and moved on to lower case letters. My memories of learning to read are similar. I remember my mother reading me picture books with large print that somehow turned in to reading sentences. Most of my early memories of learning to read and write include sitting with my mother, older sister and brothers. I had never really thought about the influence your family has on your reading
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.
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
Throughout my life, reading and writing were a positive thing because of the support from the people around. I was never really the confident or extroverted type of person back in the day. This then caused me to be anxious when I read or be doubtful of what I wrote. I can still remember breaking balls of sweats and tensing up whenever I had to read something aloud in elementary. It was a pretty big social problem for me but I can also recall many times where I was laughing and having fun while doing something with reading or writing with my mother. Although there have been many things that affected me so far in my literary journey, my mother has been the most supportive and impactful person to me by reading short stories, going to the library, and giving me writing prompts. One of the activities I liked to do before I fell asleep was to read.
Reading was never something I fussed about growing up. As a child, I loved genres of realistic fiction. I was hooked on The New Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley, Goosebumps, The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes, Judy Moody, and especially, Zoobooks and Highlights magazines. My mother was always ready to help build my reading and writing skills. She took me to the library constantly to feed my passion for books and knowledge. I loved exploring the shelfs, organizing the books, and filling up my library cart. I tried keeping a diary in elementary school to keep track of my outings with my parents and grandparents to museums, zoos, movies, and libraries. This flash of writing enthusiasm was spun from books I read in the 4th and 5th grade that were
I remember that, when being taught to read I already knew more words than I had realized. Watching my dad’s finger skim under the words as he read them had helped me subconsciously learn those words. I learned to read and write at a much more accelerated pace than my peers. I felt impatient with those who lagged behind, not realizing that not everyone had been given the same advantages as me. The moment I started to read on my own, my great aunt, a retired kindergarten teacher, would send me a box of books she had used in her classroom every year for my birthday. Throughout elementary school, when I received the box, I would bring it up to my room and practice reading all the books on my own. Being able to read on my own opened the door to a world I hadn’t been able to reach without help
When speaking of the topic of who a person is and their past, a massive part of this includes their educational background. Isn’t this what forms people, their education? Of course, this doesn’t always have to refer to their organized education. Everything that a person learns is something that educates them; these words being synonymous. Even something like first learning to tie your shoes is a part of your education. Which method works better for you: loop, swoop, and pull, or bunny ears? I of course, like any other well educated person, use loop, swoop, and pull; it’s just the best way, no bias has ever developed there.