Essay on A Literacy Event that Changed my Life

We had what was called ‘Renaissance Reading’ and we had to meet our A.R. goals every 6 weeks. If we met our A.R. goal, then we would be rewarded. I didn’t mind all the reading because I absolutely loved to read, and I still do. In 6th grade I had a 12th grade reading level. I was very proud of that. I met every one of my A.R. goals in junior high and every year I got to go to Lake Tomahawk. It was so rewarding and I loved to get the day off of school. At Lake Tomahawk they let us swim, go down slides, jump off the blob, play sports, ride kayaks, etc. Being able to have that experience really influenced my reading and made me want to achieve my goals. Now that I am in high school, we don’t have A.R. goals. We don’t get rewarded for our achievements. We are treated like adults sometimes. Since I got into high school, I have not read as much as I used to. I would read the required books for my classes, but I did not read on my free time. In addition to that, I do not have a lot of free time. I enjoy reading and writing and it is very influential to my

In my opinion, literacy is the foundation of education. To be a reader or writer can encompass a broad definition. It can range in meaning to describe a child who is just learning the sounds letters make when joined together to form a word, to a description of a poet, music producer, and so on. My experience with reading and writing began with the love of my mother, and grew from my continual interest and fascination for greater knowledge.

Learning to read and write as a child is an experience that all can relate to. The average child learns to read and write at the early ages of three and four. Developing literacy at an early age is crucial to academic development as well as to performance in life. Early development can be just what a child needs to stimulate their minds, which in turn is assisting in the evolution of their future. The early and latter stages of development in a child’s literacy journey are the makings for their reading and writing skills. It also plays part in their analysis of obstacles as well as their developed or problematic literacy future. A child

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

As a girl growing up around a group of bikers, boys and two parents who listened to eighties hair bands and metal, you wouldn’t think that I read or was read to frequently before starting school. I pursued in reading quite often, actually. When I finally started school, I had the tendency of keeping to myself and staying quiet. There never have been very many friends in the picture of my life. I learned at a young age that there often are going to be cliques, even when you’re an eight year old in girl scouts. I stood out in more ways than one, but for now I’m only going to elucidate why reading is so salient to me.

Reading and writing have been in our lives and around our lives ever since the beginning of time. It is something we are naturally born into. Almost every human being has performed some type of reading or writing, whether they live in the big city, or whether they live in the woods. They have all performed some form of reading or writing in their life. It is human nature. We are born into it. I have many memories of reading and writing, though I may not be very fond of it when it concerns schoolwork, it is something I have naturally adjusted to and it somehow has made me, and probably everyone else around me as well, who we are today.

Literacy plays a huge role in many people’s lives everyday, whether it is learning how to read and write for the first time or writing a five-page essay for the hundredth time. We experience literacy differently and have our very own unique stories on how it has impacted our lives and had made us who we are today. It is an essential aspect that I use in my everyday life, such as in relationships, daily interactions with others, and learning. It has become such a powerful aspect and human right in which it allows one to speak his/her mind and in some cases express their opinion to the world. My personal literacy history has shaped me into who I am today because without my experiences I would not have been able to gain the confidence and

In first grade, I had started reading, or that is what I recall as my first time. My stuttering problem was always there, but I was a “great reader” according to my teacher Ms. Brown. She was a kind elderly woman, who wanted to see everybody in her class succeed in reading a whole book. Then second grade came at the snap of a finger. There, I wrote my first paragraph full of “mumbo jumbo”. Even though I wrote my first paragraph in second grade, I did not learn about the writing process until high school. After I left high school, I learned that we had barely touched on the writing process due to a significant place in my life… College! In my first English class (Eng 180), my professor went over the ideas of rhetoric, the writing process, and discourse community. Since my old professor did not go in depth on these topics, meant that they were still fresh in my head with no place to stay. In English 280, we went into full detail on these topics and understood more about the meaning and purpose of them all. I know that the writing process includes brainstorming, researching, proofreading, revising, and etc.; however, I felt like I have been doing it all wrong for years. I have made many improvements to my writing due to English 280, but the skills that I improved in the most were researching and synthesizing.

I believe that my literacy past has affected the reader and writer I am today. There is a lot I can talk about that has has an effect on me being the reader and writer I am today. One being the country and environment I lived in as a kid. In Gambia teachers don’t take reading seriously as they should. We as nursery students, focused more on learning how to spell and doing the math and also writing. We weren’t giving much books to read, maybe one or two books the whole semester. And because of that, I wasn’t a fond reader. Regardless of us not given books to read, we were giving many writing exercises so that really helped. My family however thought that reading is very important and because of that, they bought my siblings and I lots of book

There are many events that stand out in my life that were significant and helped me grow stronger. One of these events stands out in particular to me and had the greatest impact in my life. When I attended high school my focus was never on the academics but only on sports and having fun with my friends. I never payed attention for more than five seconds and failed to complete any type of work given to me. My lack of care for high school affected me on going to a four year college, playing a sport in college, and taking remedial classes.

I mean my work may not have got the best grade or it wasn't all complete but I got it done. McGee has a no fail policy which he allows you to do very little work for a passing grade. A passing grade is only a 60, so it is not very good when it comes to your grade but it is better than a zero. I would always do the no fail policy because I am lazy and I cared about other things. I have been like this my whole life when it comes to school. I always care about other things like sports and video game or hanging out with friends. When I got into high school I did as little homework as I could do. All my work that I needed to get done will all be done in school, so I could do the things that were fun at night. When I get into college I hope that I can change my ways because I really need to get rid of this habit. I mean it doesn't mean that I won't have fun but it means that I won't have a lot of time doing the things I truly like. When it comes to my friends they are split half and half of doing their work or doing the no fail policy. Half of my friends will do all the work, so they could get the best grade as possible. Those are the friends that had a 4.0 their whole high school career and couldn't risk getting a no fail grade. Then the no fail friends were just like me, they cared about other things, so when it came to work they just tried to get as much done to get a passing grade. We all needed a passing grade because we all play sports and we couldn't fail because if we were failing we couldn't play. At the beginning of the year I was doing really well of getting my work done. I would always get my work done and it would be all done. Then when it came to the exams I would fail those and I would end up get a 60 for a score in the book. While getting my work done and failing on my test my grade would average up to a B. It's not a bad grade but at not the A I wanted. That's when basketball hit and I

Life changing events can sometimes be difficult. In the stories “I Never Had it Made,” By Jackie Robinson Warriors Don’t Cry By Melba Patillo Beals and “The Father of Chinese Aviation.” By Rebecca Maskel. Melba Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all experienced life changing events that impacted their lives. If you did not know these people went through danger to break segregation. Melba Beals and Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by playing on a white ball team and going to a white school as blacks.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Mahatma Gandhi). Learning is essential to grow as an individual and expand your knowledge. Literacy is key for broadening our mentality and a person will only benefit from it. For me, especially, literacy has been essential for my growth and the challenges I have taken on. Everything in my life has depended on my knowledge and skills that I have acquired, and I am continuously developing new techniques.

There have been very few events throughout my lifetime that I feel have impacted or inspired me with such noteworthiness and that I know will change my outlook on the world and affect me forever. One of those events occurred when I traveled to Portugal, my parent’s homeland. From this excursion in 2007, I learned the importance of family, most importantly the distant kind. It provided me with a totally different perspective on the world and how large and extended one’s family can really be; even across cultures and continents. I felt so fortunate learning this lesson at a young age and growing to appreciate the ideals I was brought up with as a child. The family I have in Portugal has always been there; however, their faces have aged and

The end of school came eventually, and I abandoned dreams of the sixth grade. Luckily, I was transferring to another elementary school, but this offered me little consolation. Only dummies have to repeat a grade.