Literacy Narrative Essay: Superman And Me

Alexie's father was the reason he began to read which later became his passion. His father loved to read, and even though they did not have a ton of money, his father went out of his way to stock up on books. One-day Alexie decided to pick up one of his father's books and taught himself how to read. Before that, he had never read a book and could not even understand the words. A paragraph intrigued him; each house on the reservation was a paragraph, and each member of his family was a paragraph. The family members were separate people; however, there were still related making all of them together an essay. Then there was the Superman comic book he picked up one day. Although he could not read the panels of words the illustrations told the story. He would make up a story to go with the pictures and pretend to read the panels. Looking back at these times Alexie realized how lucky he was growing up with all these resources to teach

As Mary Bethune once said, “The whole world opened up to me when I learned to read.” Through the personal essay of “Superman and Me”, a widespread audience learns the importance of reading and the concept that one does not need to be wealthy to learn. In this personal essay by Sherman Alexie, he uses appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos and styles such as diction and syntax to achieve the purpose and reach the audience.

Sherman Alexie recalls his childhood memory of learning to read, and his teaching experience in “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”. He devotes his interest to reading. By this way, he breaks the stereotype that Indian boys are expected to be stupid and dumb, and later on he becomes a successful writer because of his endeavor to read. Alexie vividly narrates his younger life by using metaphor and repetition with a confident tone, in order to strengthen his description of his reading talent, his influence to the other Indian boys and how he struggles in poverty to change his life.

“The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This is how Dr. Seuss thought of reading, and I think of it in much the same way. Literacy is everywhere and influences us every day, therefore, it plays a major part in each of our lives. I believe that reading is an interactive activity in which learning happens, or as Clay (2001) defines it, “…a message-getting, problem-solving activity” (p. 1). Reading is the process through which one reads information and from doing so, constructs meaning about the material. The more exposure and practice one has with reading, the more knowledge one gains. In this paper, I will begin by discussing my own personal educational philosophy, then continue by stating and explaining four of my beliefs about the reading process and the research that is found to support each of them before sharing the remaining questions I have about literacy. I am an existentialist, and a strong supporter of a balanced literacy approach. My beliefs about literacy come from these foundations and perspectives that I embrace. For students to be successful in their literacy development, I believe that identity acceptance in the classroom is crucial, instruction for all students must be differentiated, direct and explicit instruction is at times necessary, and vocabulary is a significant component in the ‘Big Five’ of children’s literacy development.

In his essay, Rodriguez shows all four characteristics of expressive writing which are self-definition, emotional responses, the expression of values, and subjective language. Rodriguez defines himself as someone who struggles with the validity of reading and learning to read. He states books were “unquestioned”. Rodriguez asked, “What was the connection between reading and learning? (172)? “Did one learn something only by reading it .“(172) He was made to think he should value books as a friend when he found reading a “chore”. Still, he values the opinion of others and “basked in the praise” by reading for academic approval. His narration of learning to enjoy reading is an emotional roller coaster from the loneliness of reading to the pleasurable joy he learned through experience. Thus the title of the book makes sense,

What would you do if you could not read? What problems do you think you would come across? After reading Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s piece, “Superman and Me”, these are a few questions that a reader might ask themselves. Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X are both great writers. This was not always the case though. Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie taught themselves how to read. Alexie at a young age Malcolm X, as a young adult. After they learned to read and write they wrote for many reasons and about many topics. When reading these two essays, you can see that there are many things that are significantly the same as well as having some differences all throughout the text. These similarities and differences include the pathos in both essays, and the ethos that Alexie has that Malcolm does not have pertaining to the subject of their papers. In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” they are both trying to persuade the reader that something needs to be done and why.

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

Since a child going up, literacy was not my strong suit. Literacy throughout my life seem not to cope with me. Later as I grew up, literacy meant to me that it is one’s ability to read, write, and speak. More importantly there is a more meaning of literacy, meaning that not only writing, reading, and speaking, but able to understand, analyze, and communicate with other peoples’ ideas. Soon enough literacy has made an impact on my life, it has been and will be a lifelong process. Literacy will always be with me, starting from my past and ending in my future.

“Superman and Me” involves the author, Sherman Alexie as an adolescent boy. Alexie lived in Washington on a Spokane Indian Reservation where he grew up with parents who were poor most of the time. Although, his parents “usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another” (Alexie). The father of Alexie went to a Catholic school where he read whatever he came into sight with. Alexie looked up to his father; therefore, he wanted to be an avid reader just like his dad. Before he could even read, Alexie picked up many books. Although words look foreign to Alexie, he understood the purpose of a paragraph, and “realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words” (Alexie). Everything he looked at, he referred to it as a paragraph. Living a life inside of a paragraph, Alexie one day picked up a Superman comic book. This day became the day he learned how to read American literature. Looking at pictures in the comic book, Alexie assumes what he sees. This method eventually taught him the way of reading English. In the essay, Alexie states, “I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open…” Not the typical student, Alexie would be told to be quiet in the classroom. Never did he expect being smarter would come with consequences. Is this the kind of American Dream Alexie wanted? Despite all the learning and being an outcast, the author became a writer, as well as

Literacy plays a huge role in my daily life. Every single day I read and write. Whether it’s writing an email or reading a text message, class assignment, discussion board, etc. My literacy journey is unique because I have had different experiences. As a result, this is how my literacy journey has let me to be the reader that I am.

Sherman Alexie the author of the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" was born and raised on a Spokane Indian Reservation. Growing up his family did not have a lot of money, yet today Alexie is known as one of the most prominent Native American writers. Alexie reminisces on his childhood when he first taught himself how to read. In the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" Sherman Alexie suggests, that for Native Americans reading is the key to education and education is the key to prosperity in life.

A time that was big to me, and probably was also big to her would be when my friend was really scared to go on a roller coaster and so was I, so we went on together on "Superman" at Six Flags New England during a Jubilation competition. When we were on the bus, we were both really not looking forward to going to Six Flags because there wasn't much for us to do if we didn't want to ride roller coasters. Eventually, I told her that if she goes on the roller coaster, I'll go on it with her. When we got to Six Flags, almost everyone from Jubi decides to go on the roller coaster "Superman" and we just go along with it. In the end, she had a lot of fun on the ride and now is not afraid to go on a roller coaster. I feel that it was so significant

In Waiting for “Superman” a film produced by a man named David Guggenheim addresses the issues that arise in the public school system, and how hard it is for kids to get a good education in the U.S. As Guggenheim quotes “no matter who we are, our what neighborhood we grew up in wanting to believe in our schools, we take a leap of faith.” Waiting for “Superman” effectively identifies failing schools, incompetent teachers, and administrative constraints as the main issues under mining education in the U.S. today. First, Guggenheim reached his audience through its focus on the stories of five children and their families as they apply to their neighborhoods local charter schools. Each child’s parent places them in the charter schools lottery drawing to earn a place in the school.

The short story “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is a recurrence of how Alexie learned to read, despite the setback of growing up on an Indian reservation where children were stereotypically dull. This was because they were told from the beginning of their lives by everyone outside of the reservation that they were dumb and they were expected to be this way for the rest of their lives. However, at an early age, Alexie picked up one of his father’s many books; a superman comic, and he begins to learn to read, which he says saved his life. Alexie begins his short story by telling the reader how he first learned to read. His father collected many books, so there were always plenty of books around the house.

The main character of the superman reader was poor wasn't settled with everything, his father worked a-minimum-wage-job ,every time his father had extra money he went and bought books, as the main character house began to be filled with all kinds of books he seen his father loved books and so he ,the boy began to pick up a book and try to read as much as possible and he started to like books as well,The boy wasn't sure of the foreign words in his father books he began to look at his family as a paragraph, because he can see that paragraphs were a fence that held words together.