Personal Narrative: The Growth Of Reading And Writing

As a child, my mother always read exciting books to me for an hour before bedtime. Once a week I would

"I am thrown off my reading game when i am forced to go fast."-Thomas Newkirk For me, reading has always been a obstacle because its hard for me to stay invested in a book.Throughout my years of reading it has become one of my not so favorite things to do unless if i'm interested in it.

I had asked my sister Buggy, if she would read it to me. She read the book and then reading with her became a daily routine for us every day after school. I was excited having someone to read to me and that I finally could learn how to pronounce some letters and put them together to read a word. About three months went by and my sister had moved out. The whole bedtime story and trying to learn how to read had come to a complete stop.

My experiences as a writer have been both very engrossing and strenuous. I have learned a great quantity on both reading and writing, though, I continue to struggle on things that I have learned by this time, making the same mistakes that I do not even realize. Sometimes things are not so easy to understand when reading information, especially if the wording of an article is difficult for example. I love the idea of learning new things everyday. These past years as a writer have been very interesting, and I have learned and grasped many concepts I have been taught along the way.

My literacy journey had begun earlier than most kids, according to my mother. I started reading in kindergarten, with help with the BOB books and the PBS show Between the Lions. I don’t know when I had started writing exactly, but I remember clearly writing short stories about my cat Stormy in 3rd grade. At that time we had to write weekly short stories, and I only ever wrote about my cat. In 4th grade, I had started exploring writing more; I would write plays for me and my friends to practice during recess. Most of them, I’m happy to say, were actually educational, so my teacher had even let my friends and I perform one about early-American settlers in front of our whole class.

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

Having to write about my own literacy is hard to do, first of all it’s hard to recall things that happened when you were a child let alone when I started to read and write, I remember going to school playing, the teacher reading to us, making vowel sounds and learning to write my name; I recall the teacher giving out the spelling list and taking it home to practice before Friday’s test, I would go to school hoping and praying that I would not misspell any words; as usual I missed a couple of words and I knew what that meant.

What started your desire to read? I bet that it was not some government issued reading program. How bad, did those programs bore you in school? It was different for me. Have you ever heard of the accelerated reading program? Well, the accelerated reading program began my love with reading.

In my earliest years, I can recall one of our projects with my 1st grade teacher. It was very memorable for me, because we went all out for it. The project like most of us in that class remember was to write a story. The story was Flat Stanley. I was mostly ahead of my game in my early years. Then, there came my 5th grade year, The teacher i had in that class always got on me, for not paying attention. I almost got held back that year because i couldn’t focus. That year onward, was a struggle for me.

Diving into past memories is something I am never found of. There is a lot of pain hidden behind some of my past experiences, but also a lot of triumph. It is always interesting to force yourself to retrieve some of those hidden memories. Sometimes the things you remember can be very surprising. Things that seemed long forgotten, can abruptly come back in a flash. The farthest memory I can recall about my own literacy experience is when I began first grade. At this stage, I remember feeling very confused about the whole purpose of going to school. I felt as if I was the only one not being able to keep up with the other children. I didn’t know what was cool, how to make friends, or even know how to play board games like “Candyland.” I was just not exposed to certain things that the other children in my class were aware of prior to beginning first grade. Most of all, I did not like learning. I liked doing things

In all honesty, I don't remember a lot about becoming literate. I didn't have a special moment or time when I knew that reading or writing going to take me somewhere. According to my mom she started to read to me when I was one, so there wasn't anything that could've excelled me much farther before going into kindergarten. One of the requirements in elementary school was to read every night which I believe was an important factor of me improving my literacy. Reading and writing used to me excite me because I would immerse myself into a book or write a whole new universe on a page. I made reading and writing something personal to me. I now realize that every book and every piece of writing can be worthwhile in one way or another.

My hardest struggle hit me like a rock, but I was not aware I had this learning disability until eighth grade. From the beginning of third grade to the end of fifth grade I would meet with my tutor, at her home, every Sunday from 2-4pm. My tutor’s name was Mrs. Thomas and if I had never met with her, and been willing to work, I would not be at the level I am today. Mrs. Thomas helped me with every English strategy known to man. She made learning fun and interesting for me. It was a sad Sunday afternoon when Mrs. Thomas told me that she was moving to Kentucky and could no longer tutor me. I was very happy that I was given that opportunity to learn in such an extraordinary manner with a such great

When I turned seventeen years old I started my own blog website. Due to this website I'm free to express myself to a audience around the world. I've always had a strong passion for literacy even from a young age. When I was younger I would write short stories to entertain myself . Having that outlet in my life gave me a chance to explore my imagination into a new depth.

When I was a small child my mother had a book about letters and tried to teach me about letters before I was even in school. I can barely remember the book but it had letters you could trace and sound out. It was all fine and dandy till my mother took the teaching to extreme levels. I didn’t really like learning from my mom because every time I was trying to pronounce “ou” and “ow” she would pinch me. Eventually I grew tired and decided I needed to take action. Because of her brutal teaching ways, I finally decided I did not want to read and write so I hid the book my mom used for teaching. The problem was solved for a little while though after a long time I felt like I was missing out on everything so I decided

My earliest experience with reading and writing were traumatizing especially when I was in the first grade. I still recall the experience I went through to this day. It made me really hate myself because the other kids were making fun of me.