My Literacy Skills

Coming from a new country I had to face many challenges. All these challenges made who I am today. When I came to the United States in 7th grade, I barely knew how to speak English. The language barrier posed a serious problem for me. I found it difficult to interact with people. Adjusting to a new country was no easy task. When my family and I came to this country, we knew only one other family. It was even more difficult for my parents who knew virtually no English. They had to learn how to work and provide for me and my siblings in this entirely new country with a completely different culture. Despite having a better background in English, it still took me over two years to become fluent in English. Although coming to America and having

We left behind my mom, little sister, two younger brothers, and other close siblings. Moving to a new country was more difficult than it seemed.We ended up finding ourselves living in a mice and roach infested apartment throughout my elementary, middle, and high school years. Throughout my life, I struggle with English classes because English wasn’t my foreign language but, it never stopped me from excelling in the classroom.

As the last words escaped my lips, a burst of applause echoed through the room. The bright smiles of my audience, be it family, friends, teachers, or colleagues, never failed to keep me writing. Being able to pique someone's interest enough to show them even just a small piece of the world of imagination inside my head was the very concept that drew me to writing. Creative writing was one of the key factors in developing my literacy skills because I learned to communicate ideas to my audience efficiently and effectively, expand my vocabulary, and broaden my scope of interpretation to discern themes.

My entire family was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After three and a half years of living there my family decided to seek a better future in The United States. My father would go to the United States back and forth to work and earn money to send to us in Mexico. Eventually my mother was able to get a visa and my brother along with my little sister had an alternate way into the United States. We lived in Dallas Texas and Atlanta Georgia before settling in Howard county Maryland in a very small apartment. Luckily we were doing pretty well with my dad being the only one knowing English at the time. My father was working two jobs and I was getting ready to start kindergarten. I was very excited because the education we would have received in Mexico was nothing compared to the education in Howard County. I was excited for what was to come, but there were disadvantages of knowing only Spanish. Being bullied because of my poor English had an impact on me. I was in completely separate classes learning things that were simple compared to the regular course. I was excluded from certain activities, field trips and assemblies. I was clueless at first though as I slowly learned the language I understood things a lot more.

As I began elementary school I was in ESL and in regular classes. My first language was Spanish but I also spoke the minimum of English. However, my speaking and understanding of English weren't sufficient enough to comprehend in class. Elementary school was hard for me because I was still not comprehending a lot even though my English improved. My parents tried their best to help me with schoolwork. It was until middle school my mother started to work. Without both my parents being there to help me I didn't know what to do. I knew that they would not always be able to help me. In order to take care of my

My literacy journey began from my pre-primary school in Nepal. I started first my school when I was 4/5 years. At that time, as I remember I learned to identify letters (A, B, C, D…). Pre-primary school was always difficult and frustrating for me as a child because that was the time of play and I was unknown about the importance of education. I think after one years at the time of grade one I started to write letters (A, B, C….) and numbers (1, 2, 3…). Later on, when I was introduced with forming

Innumerable amounts of people consider a literacy to just be reading a book, magazine, or newspaper and writing an essay. Indeed those are common literacy’s but there is more to reading and writing than just a book and an essay. My literate practice happens to be dance. It is important to me that everyone recognizes how reading and writing plays a tremendous role in the world of dance. It is also important that others realize anyone can dance, but not everyone can be considered a ‘dancer’. It is necessary for a dancer to have passion, persistence, skill, devotion, strength and power. I possess all these qualities, which is why I believe I am an expert in my literacy. Dance seems just to be a hobby for many and a form of entertainment, but

My literacy skills began to truly develop while sitting on an orange and blue tapestry that displayed all the continents and listening to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Green, read an African folktale, this is when I began understanding literacy. She read slowly and pointed to every word, and used lots of enthusiasm when she showed us the pictures. She finished reading, and now we are at our desks, and singing the alphabet song.

My literacy cannot be traced back to one specific moment but is rather a journey that included several key figures and many experiences. By the time I was born and began my schooling it was typical for everyone to learn to read and write. I was no exception. The main portion of my journey to literacy took place over the course of about three years, the time between starting kindergarten and finishing second grade. The exposers I would have during those few short years would lay the foundation for which I am able to write to you today. My greatest influences were teachers, experiences, and eventually books, but I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that.

The most useful event for my learning was the literacy activity, where students learned how to create an alliteration poem. When I assisted with the activity, I provided a definition for the students to grasp a further understanding of the concept. An alliteration is a sentence or line of a poem that has at least two or more words starting with the same sound or letter. For example: Marlon makes a marmalade with mangoes.

Learning a new language at my age was a thug, people make fun of you in school if you don’t understand or don’t know how to say something. Only a few people help you. When I lived in Mexico I was always one of the best students and most of the times I was on the honor roll. Without knowing English in this country, I couldn’t the same. I start school here in Houston the 9th grade and my grades were very low, I couldn’t believe that my grades went from 100 to less than 50. Also, I couldn’t do my work, homework and tests because I didn’t understand or I didn't know how to ask. All this situation made me feel so incapable and frustrated. I started to use that frustration and courage to lose my fear and sorrow to ask my teachers and classmates for help. I decided to talk more English than Spanish with people in the stores, malls, and school. During the weekend with my cousins I remember that I used to talk to them in Spanish and they talked to me English so I could learn more vocabulary and how to pronounce the words. Listen to music in English helped me a lot familiarizing my ear to the language too, and using my free time to translate words from Spanish to English to learn more, so I could do better in

I was born in Kerala, India and was raised in Chicago, IL. I came to America at the age of three hoping for a better future. My father came to America first, and he lived with my Aunt who had three sons. After two years my father saved enough money to bring my mom, sister, and I to the US. During this time he would work as a dishwasher at a nursing home to support my family. After a month of living with my Aunty and her kids my dad found an apartment to rent. Eventually, we moved into a tiny one-bedroom apartment with my family. That was the hardest time period for me due to language barriers. My sister and I started to learn English. However, my parents were struggling to learn a new language so we would have to go everywhere with them to translate. Another, difficulty that we faced was financial issues. At that time we were making ends-meet and we were scraping every penny that we got. Afterwards, my mom got her CNA license she started working two jobs when I was only four years old. Even till this day she is still working two jobs to support the

All writers have to develop a love for the written word at some point in their lives. For some the point is an exact point that they can pinpoint and for others they have loved literature for their entire lives. Eudora Welty was a semi-successful writer but her memoir is considered one of her better books. In an exert of her memoir, titled “One Writer’s Humble Beginnings”, she writes of how she loved books for as long as she can remember and her mother’s influence on that infatuation. In her memoir Eudora Welty writes of the impact of adult and especially parental figures on a child and uses rhetorical language in isolated scenes to convey that message.

Mrs. Song changed the way I view the world, and encouraged the transition from childhood to adulthood within my culture. She was my tenth grade English tutor, and though her main job was to instruct us through literature, she used movies, hands-on experiences, and personal stories to teach us just how relevant the books’ topics were to everyday life. Mrs. Song introduced me to a new way of viewing society, and taught me I can make a change in the world, even with limited resources. Because of her mentoring, I am changed, and I will continue to change. I have not only come to adore multiple varieties of literature, but I also have come to understand the value of communication, perseverance, and redemption.

To begin with, until this day I can still feel what it felt like to come in as the new foreign kid. I felt my heart racing and the my cheeks turning red because I sat in a classroom and I knew the only language I knew was spanish. I felt like such an outcast because I knew I was different, and I knew I would have to work twice as hard as the other kids. I had to prove to my parents, my peers, and my teachers that I could pull through it