My Childhood Memories Of Learning To Read

Ever since I was younger I have always tried staying away from reading. The only person in my family that likes to read is my mom; however, she does not read often. Once she picks up a book, she cannot put it down. My dad on the other hand, never picks up a book. He and I are one in the same; we do not like reading because we have a hard time comprehending what we read. My brother also does not like to read. He does not like reading because he has a learning disability. My mom always had an extremely tough time getting him to read. Overall, my literacy experiences at home are few and far between.

Literacy memories and events began at a young age for me, and while teachers and family members all impacted my opinions and preferences for reading, every book I read and writing assignment given to me helped me form my literacy story and come to enjoy reading. Many literacy moments came from when I was young, like my mom or dad reading to me before bed or teachers reading to me at school their favorite books. All of these memories were accompanied by everyone saying how great reading was, and for a while I didn’t believe them. I had so many forced experiences with reading that it was almost painful for me to pick up a book. But as time went on and the reading I was still forced to do intensified, a better relationship with reading and writing

In order to truly and fully understand my history with reading, we must go back to the beginning of my narrative. The earliest memory of reading that I can recall is my mom reading me stories like The 10 Little Ladybugs. I absolutely loved when my mom or dad would read to me, and I wanted it to stay that way. I had no intention whatsoever to explore into my own individual reading endeavors. It seemed that my prayers would be answered, at least for a few years. It wasn't until I was in first grade that reading came back into the forefront of my very short attention span. We had started learning how to read, and I wanted nothing to do with it. My teacher, my parents, and even a few of my friends would try and get me to open a book but to no avail. This utter refusal to read

First, in kindergarten, I began to learn the alphabet. Once I understood how to pronounce each letter of the alphabet, a first grader would come to my classroom and read to me. They would help me pronounce a word and explain what each word meant in the book we were reading that day. This was very helpful because it allowed me to learn faster than if I was reading on my own. The day I started first grade, I went to the library and picked out two books. The books I mostly read were Clifford or Dr. Seuss. My teacher would have me read them over and over again until I understood each word. Once I accomplished reading each book, I was sent to the kindergarten classrooms to read to them like it was once done for me in the past. I was a little nervous to read in front of them, but I was also excited

    As a child I was a very eager learner, I always wanted to learn new things to feed my brain. My desire to learn how to read started when I was introduced to the book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Since I didn't have the ability to read at that age, I would ask my mom to

Sitting on a colorful blanket and listening to my mom read books from Disney was my first memory of learning how to read. She could read word by word, making those face expressions that used to make me feel excited and of course she would show off the pictures. She finished reading and then she gave me a little purple notebook, where I used to practice how to spell my name and practicing the alphabet. Those are the first memories I have about learning how to read and write.

I believe this is the best thing that could have happened to me. By the spring, I was already reading at a fifth grade level. Mrs. Littlefield was the teacher who really encouraged me to keep reading. In our first grade classroom, we had a baseball diamond. Each of the bases were set up for some type of activity to reinforce the phonics sounds we were learning. When we got to home plate, we had a reading group time with the teacher. I didn’t really care for this, because I felt I was held back waiting on others to read. I know it was beneficial to the learning process, but at the time, I would have rather read by myself. At night, I remember reading to myself out loud. My brothers would often complain because they couldn’t concentrate to read their books with me reading aloud. Fortunately my mother always came to my

For some people reading can be a difficult experience. For me it became difficult at the age of five years old. I really wasn’t an educational kid I was more of a kid that like to play with my toys and four brothers, whenever they came home from school. As I grew up reading became a little more difficult for me to master, at times in my middle school my teacher Mr.G would test us on how well and skilled we were at reading. Every day when it was time for him to test me I would get nervous and started to stubble on words and fail my test. By the time I was in high school I learned how to take my time and read, which has help me to progress my reading skills over the years.

Before I began elementary school, I enjoyed reading picture books, the touch and feel books and pop-up books. I loved the author Dr. Suess, because he was funny and because I loved the rhyming he did in his writing. I can remember before bed, my mom or dad would read to me until I got old enough to read myself. My mom has always enjoyed reading, if she is not reading a book, then she is reading a recipe or a magazine. My dad on the other hand, I have only seen him read one book, besides reading manuals for his tools. Reading was not a big deal in my house, all of us kids were told that we needed to read, but they did not force us to read. This brings me to Richard Rodriguez’s essay, in his household reading was not as important, but once he got to school, he realized that reading is one of the main activities. I can relate to Rodriguez because in either one of our households we weren’t told that we had to read before we did something else. Once I got to elementary school is when I realized that reading was not for me. Before school, I enjoyed reading, then once I began elementary school, I was forced to read, take tests over books, and read out loud in front of the class which made reading a chore.

When I was little, I loved to have my parents read to me all the time. At first, I didn’t learn to read because I didn’t want to read the “Learn to Read” books and preferred for my parents to read to me. I remember sitting with my Dad and following along while he read Harry Potter aloud to me and traced the words with his finger. Then we started to take turns reading aloud. I started to read more and more by myself after I was able to read the first chapter of Harry Potter (with a little bit of help). Then I worked my way through the rest of the book. I loved how reading let you explore new worlds and different points of view.

As I reflect on my childhood, the first memory of literacy I recall is when I was in kindergarten. I was approaching the end of the school year when my mother revealed to me my teacher was considering keeping me in kindergarten for another year. I was extremely upset and felt as if I had failed my first year of school. I felt that I was fresh out of the gate and already defective. My perception as a child was that the adults were already giving up on me. The teacher stated if I could learn the alphabet by the end of the school year I could continue ahead to the 1st grade. The conclusion of Kindergarten was vastly approaching. My mother constructed flash cards to help with my letter recognition. In doing so, she realized I could not see the letters. My mother promptly made an appointment for me to visit an Optometrist to evaluate me. Before I knew it, I was fitted with a big plastic pair of glasses. My world became much clearer after that. My mother was upset that my teacher did not recognize the problem, and that I never spoke up. Fortunately, I passed kindergarten with a lot of hard work from my parents, teacher, and I.

The only time I did read was when I had to, but then the idea of reading changed. The accelerated reading program made reading fun and also a challenge, and not in the terms of difficulty, but for the chance to be competitive. With this program you received points by the grade you scored on the exams and the difficulty of the books you chose to read, and as a little elementary peer I wanted the highest score you could possibly get and the most points. This brought a whole new aspect to reading for me that I had never experienced before. Reading became fun and I loved it. I strived to read more books that were of greater difficulty and this challenged my mind to comprehend them. I believe that I truly gained my love for reading at this point in my childhood, by diving into reading material out of my comfort

Some of my favorite books, mostly Dr. Seuss, mostly got me going on my reading skills. It was easy. Word were easy to pronounce and they also had pic to help me with words I couldn’t even say. I felt important reading his books. Then, as I got older and my reading skills improved, chapter books came into play. Through my childhood I did not have it so easy. My brother passed and he mostly taught me how to correctly read. So when he left, I was stuck. I had other people in my family to help but once you get use to that favorite person helping you, you get attached. When it came to one of my other brother, it sucked. I usually get talked about constantly by him because he was older and always run his mouth when I came across a word that I didn’t know. Reading books became an easy escape at that age. It was something to do, and kept me occupied without having to talk to myself. It was also a way to read about other people and about their lives, which I think is a reason for my taste in books now. My parents and my favorite math teacher always told me that I'm a very bright individual and my accomplishments in other subjects prove that. I approached and passed science and surprisingly math. They both dealt with reading and understanding things that I needed to know. To me, writing equals to nothing more than stress and frustration. I thought was too stupid to waste effort

I didn't learn how to read until the third grade. One day i picked up a book with beautiful pictures and i so badly wanted to understand what it said. And so I did. It just clicked in my head all of a sudden and I was able to understand. Before too long I was reading everything in the school library. I would get lost in the different worlds and I learned the meaning of words I didn't know by reading the sentence/ paragraph it was in. Finally i felt like I had something that I was good at. I could outread my peers before too long and by the time I was 9 years old I was reading college level books with ease. I would be spending at least 4 hours a day just reading, finishing 400 page book in a matter of days. In reading I was able to gain confidence in myself at school, and when things got hard I could just slip into another story and forget about my

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales