My Literacy Qualities

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

In the essay ‘What is literacy?’, James Paul Gee, presents to us a very detailed examination, of concepts that are rather deemed to be similar by most. He explores the definition and meaning of “literacy” by taking into account other related ideas such as “learning”, “discourse” and “acquisition”.

Literacy has different meanings other than reading and writing, which also includes the understanding of knowledge. I learned what literacy was when I first understood the sport of Basketball. However, before basketball was my favorite sport, it was soccer. But that ended earlier on when I became injured during a soccer game. After that, I was not really hoping for another sport to come my way. It all began when my big brother started playing basketball, he was quite good during his prime. When I was in jr. High and High School I never expected to be as talented as him. He taught me the proper skills to succeed in basketball when I was younger. When I was a teen it was my teammates and coaches who made me a better player. During my development I was able to encounter success with a good amount of practice and an equal amount of worst moments. At one point of my High School years, I was going to back down because I was not as talented as the others. Therefore, basketball has defined literacy by practice, lack of confidence, and learning style.

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

When thinking about ones literacy, what first comes to mind is reading and writing, but literacy can cover many other aspects of life. It is usually not until a student reaches his or her college years that they realize they are “literate” in anything they are passionate about. This could include sports, technology or music because literacy is defined as “fluency in any given topic” (Writing about Writing 798). I am literate in lacrosse, a sport with rules and vocabulary that most people don’t know about and frankly I would have no idea about those things either if it weren’t for the people that helped me become literate in the sport. Sponsors of literacy often turn up in people’s memories when asked about how he or she became fluent in their

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

Literacy embraces reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Integrating all of these into a literacy program is key. Teachers must provide endless and ongoing opportunities for their student to read, write, listen, and speak.

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.

What does it mean knowing how to read and write. I take literacy skill very seriosly that will help me in the future. I know such skills don't come easy, it requires hard work, sleepless night. The reason why I go to school is to make mistakes, correct them and not to repeat them again. I always improve my skills through curiosity to learn something new, not being able to read and write would keep me in a darkness without seeing beautiful things that surround me.

Our view of literacy upon commencing this course, was that it is the ability to read and write. Our understanding of it however was partially true because, reading and writing are essential of any person’s literacy, but reading and

One of my first literacies I learned started as a simple extracurricular activity my mother put me in to keep me out of the house and out of her hair. I started learning a literacy of dance through taking classes. At three years old I start ballet and tap combo class, from there I continued taking more classes in different styles and taking more advanced classes. By dancing for 15 years I learned and acquired extensive knowledge of the art. I started to learn and take class at Marta Jackson School of dance, I continued my training for fifteen years, until my senior year of high school. I danced on my high school dance team, at other studios, in different local productions and even in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The ACT was one of the many steps I have had to take in preparing myself for college. In October I will be taking the test again and I desire to receive a score of 29 or higher. My scores were as follows: English 28, Mathematics 24, Reading 27 and Science 24. I strongly believe my reasoning for receiving such low scores was due to my lack of studying. I did not properly prepare myself for such an important test. There are multiple resources I could have used yet I wasted my time and did not take it seriously. Before retaking the test I aspire to grow in my writing by building up my strengths and knocking down my weaknesses.

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.

I am a science major and I have always minimized English Language courses because I thought I was already very good at writing. I did not think I would ever really need to use what I would acquire from such a course. When I came to Montgomery College and I was going to take the course English 101, my expectations were that I would have no difficulty scoring good grades in the course and I would learn nothing really helpful from it. This is because in high school, I put very little effort into my English class, but I had impressive scores in writing. I began to understand that I am not as good as I thought I was at writing when I started taking english courses in college. During my previous English course, English 102, I was able to improve certain aspects of my writing which I am glad for. For instance I am confident that my essay structures are well built. But some things in writing remained a challenge for me. I am glad that I am taking an English course that would permit me to work on things I thought I was already good at like awareness in writing essays and proper use of grammar and punctuation

This course has expanded my knowledge and view of reading and writing vastly. Following each paper, reading, and class discussion I learned more about myself as a student, and the world as a whole. I have found the books Rules for Writers and Ways of Reading thoroughly helpful throughout the course. This class entails a variety of aspects of the problem-posing concept of education; it truly involves the students and teaches them to think, read, and write individualistically, analytically, and clearly.