Personal Narrative: What I Learned To Avoid Reading

I started drawing when I was 16. I was cursing 10th grade, or how is called in my country, Dominican Republic “Segundo de Bachillerato”. It was recess. I was alone in my classroom that day, besides two or three people who were just killing time there, and I didn’t had much to do with my time. I was at the last book of a series of books which names I can’t remember and If I recall correctly the last book was very boring for some reason so I didn’t wanted to read it anymore. So, looking for something to do, I stood from my seat and walked boringly down the aisle of chairs and that was, not my first interaction with art, but the first time I remember i liked art or paid attention to it. Yerkis, a guy of my class: short, chubby and well mannered

From my experiences, I have learned that effort and dedication are the key factors needed to gain magnificent literacy skills. Even though, I had to start from the bottom all over again, I was able to succeed in a new language.That’s why, I feel that it is extremely important to keep expanding our knowledge in order to develop our understanding, imagination and language. Although, I feel that I have improved my literacy throughout my 19 years, I know there is much more to learn.

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.

As a young child, my memory of reading starts with a troubling period in my life. It started in first grade after I had moved to a new school. For me he year kicked off normally, but the further down the road, I found myself struggling to keep up in my reading class. In addition to falling behind in my classes, I was feeling isolated from the other students. My grades started to suffer and everything got worse. We didn’t have a school counselor, so my principal arranged a meeting with my parents to discuss what actions should be taken. My principal told my parents it isn’t uncommon for new students to fall behind in classes and that the move could be causing some of the issues. He recommended that I start attending special education for my reading course. My parents thought it over and explained to me that it was ok and not to be discouraged about this. However,

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.

Her father’s words echoed through her head as one might hear a reverberation throughout the Taj Mahal. Continuous. Chilling. Having no control to distill the wavelengths until they mellowed out on their own accord. She tried to anatomize the depth of his phrase, more than dutifully needed but Davina needed to know why. Why did she need to keep an open mind and more importantly, who the hell was about to come bursting through that door. But then again, did it really matter in the first place. When she thought about it, the brunette could have laughed at the idea. That an unattributed, faceless figure had her panties in a bunch. Surely Dominic wouldn’t think to waste her time with venial diversions,

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.

I must admit when I read the first paragraph of Too Dumb for Complex Texts I laughed. I smirked and laughed causing the people in the store to look at me, a person behind the counter in a strange way. Brushing it off I went back to reading. The results of the placement test were not all too surprising. The quote, “Chances they would fail … they didn’t have the knowledge and skills to tackle readings, tests, and papers at the next level”, did not surprise me in anyway what so ever. I am a senior and I know full well I am NOT READY FOR COLLEGE. I am horrible at grammar, I am unbelievably stupid in math, and in history I can only remember wars and how people died. About 1/4th of the kids I know are ready for college. It’s a nightmare to learn

In this class, I have learned many new skills to improve my writing, and I have also learned new grammar rules. In regards to my writing, I have learned the importance of freewriting when beginning to write a paper. Additionally, I now know to allow ample time for revising and editing because I can look at my work critically for mistakes and make necessary changes. Furthermore, I have learned about grammar rules such as pronoun-antecedent agreement. This rule is something that I know subconsciously, but being made aware of it has allowed me to find mistakes I make more often.

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.

Growing up in a family of six, there was never a shortage of people to read to me, the only shortage that existed was my ability to understand and appreciate the story in front of me. I was always on the move and the sedentary act of reading a book never appealed to my childish motives. Coupling my inability to hear well and my stagnant progress in school, I was quickly falling behind. With most of my childhood dedicated to the fantastical world I had created, I had no time to listen to someone else’s story. I would not continue on this way though, for my mom, noticing my lack of literacy skills, made it her effort to divulge in me the wonders of someone else’s world, each world becoming a part of my own.

My earliest memories of reading start when my mom sent me to Christians studying school at six years old and the mentor would read out a handbook on heroes

Throughout all of my years of schooling I have had difficulties with my learning. Ever since I was young I had trouble reading and sometimes was slow to learn. When I was in first grade, my teacher noticed that I was learning at a slower pace and was having trouble keeping up with the material. She mentioned something to my reading teacher and they made a decision that I should take a test to measure my academic learning level . Once my results came back they decided to put me on an IEP and in a class to help me better my reading skills. I took that class throughout elementary school, continued into middle school, and then on to high school. This experience helped me learn how to work hard to try to prove to both myself and others that this does not limit my intelligence.

My reading goal that I set for myself this quarter was to read fifteen minutes a day. This goal has challenged me, because it is really hard for me to have time in the day to read. Especially when I only have one study hall every other day at school, and I work three times during the week till ten at night. Even if it was a hard goal to achieve I successfully accomplished it. I have read a couple books within the weeks of this quarter. I have read my Sociology book and Spare Parts By: Joshua Davis.

There have been many people throughout my life that have helped me become the reader and the writer I am today. In the past few years, however, my perspective on reading and writing has changed a lot. This is through my highschool teachers, mostly. They have given me a different look on how I write about the things I read. How I analyze a story, and see the bigger picture within it. From being able to answer simple questions about stories, to more complicated ones, my teachers have shown me how to do these things