Why Literacy Is Important Essay

Reading will forever continue to play a role in my education, for many reasons. The most obvious one; how would we learn if we are not able to read? In the story “Literacy behind Bars” the author Malcom X tells his story of how he improved his education by reading and studying the dictionary while in prison. “No university would ask any student to devour literature as I did when this new world opened up to me, of being able to read and understand.” (Malcolm X 642). I find his story very important, because after all reading is key to succeeding in school and life.

Thanks to literacy i can form my own kind of art and can explain myself to my grandmother like no one else could, I don’t have to be the greatest writer just to show who i am as a person even though my grammar isn't the best. In literacy the greatest value is the to believe in yourself and just be you there is many other people who have the same problems and fears. Another of my personal experiences with literacy was in high school in one of my English class we had to write a journals, it didn't matter what it was about most people wrote about what they are going to do after school but I decided to just write about my life, it was a way to express myself and a note to look back at. It was during my freshman year and I remember writing a lot about my life and the language struggles I was going through at the time. It made me feel better just letting everything out on paper and not really telling it to someone, it was my own book that I could write just for me to look back at. It was mid September when the teacher told us to share a story if our choice from our journal and summarized it to a classmate. I was sharing my story with a girl who sat next to me it, our stories were similar and the way we had styled the type of writing in them made us connect with each other later that month we became really close and spend most of our free time together. Now after 4 years I'm still close with her and get to exchange our different ways of life everyday, it's incredible

The power of literacy enables one to become self-aware and opens up new opportunities, leading to a better life. Not only does literacy have the capability to impact significant lives like those of Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass but also a mere individual like myself. Learning how to read and write allowed me to gain knowledge and opened up the opportunity to be able to attend college where I was able to gain even more knowledge. With that knowledge, I became more aware of the opportunities I had and how an individual like myself could contribute to society. I was able to forge my own path that will lead to a successful

It can be said that literacy is hated by many and loved by few, and I would attest to the fact that it’s hated, if I was still the little kid back in elementary school, but even so, literacy is so much more, it opens doors, encourages change, and Inspires many. You see, like a majority of the kids I Knew growing up, I hated English class with a passion, I despised the very thought about writing a paper. But in fourth grade something changed, something in that particular 4th grade class lit a fire that has yet to be extinguished.

Reading and writing have been in our lives and around our lives ever since the beginning of time. It is something we are naturally born into. Almost every human being has performed some type of reading or writing, whether they live in the big city, or whether they live in the woods. They have all performed some form of reading or writing in their life. It is human nature. We are born into it. I have many memories of reading and writing, though I may not be very fond of it when it concerns schoolwork, it is something I have naturally adjusted to and it somehow has made me, and probably everyone else around me as well, who we are today.

I now know that I am capable of writing anything I set my mind to, before I used to struggle coming up with a topic to write about and now the topics are quick to come up with which is great because it means less time being wasted doing absolutely nothing when most classmates are already on their final draft. What I thought about reading before entering college and what I think now about reading is still the same, I still don’t enjoy reading as much as I should in order to succeed in college. Strategies that i’ve learned and improved in writing are many, as

How has literacy impacted my life? From learning to read sight words and write sentences to progressing all the way to thick chapter books and lengthy essays, literacy has been a long and incredibly significant journey in my life. Literacy has been a fantastic and influential adventure because of exciting personal experiences that first took root at age two, the inspiration of an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Peake, and memorable events including the Accelerated Reader program and discovering my favorite childhood book series.

My understanding of literacy has expanded over the course of my education. At the time, it came to my understanding that literacy was just an ability to learn how to read and write. Although this has been a part of my education, over time I have come to understand that literacy is a complex journey that involves learning how to take the written word and manifest on what it means to express yourself through writing. It also involves the ability to express your opinions and feelings through the written word. Clearly, this is not something that is mastered in elementary but, over time I got better. As a college student, I still feel like my literacy is evolving. The reason for this slow assimilation is greatly tied to my mistakes. As I will demonstrate through this autobiography of my literacy, experiences gained through the process of “growing up” really do inform a person’s literacy acquisition. In this

Literacy Throughout the Ages The literacy I have today is from the members of my family who have been influencing me since before childhood, the education that was provided to me, experiences I have been through, and where I have been brought up. Aside from my personal life, I have been impacted by media,and books. Social expectations and what is shown as regular influence many people, including myself to have good literacy. Growing up, the people who I was surrounded by most were often reading newspapers, magazines, or other forms of writing.

Literacy is important for young children. It’s so much a child has to know before entering kindergarten. The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction stressed the importance of teaching literacy. Early literacy is an emerging g set of relationships between reading and writing. Today a lot of terms have been referred to for literacy development for preschoolers the term that’s mostly used is early literacy. The term was chosen because the earliest forms of literacy development are forming reading and writing concepts. Linking early literacy to play is the most effective way to for young children to learn. There are many ways educators can teach literacy activities such as rich teacher talk, storybook reading, phonologic awareness activities, alphabet activities, support for emergent writing, shared book experience, integrated, and content-focused activities, Young children understand print by oral and written language. Asking students to help read a book and turn the page help them understand the basics of a book. There are at least three critical content categories in early literacy: oral language comprehension, phonological awareness, and print knowledge. Children need to learn phonological awareness, alphabet letter knowledge, the function of written language, a sense of meaning making texts, and vocabulary. Alphabetic writing is quite difficult once children understand the language of their community they learn which words stand for which concepts in that language.

When I was younger and I learned how to read, I did not realize that I was learning something that would change my life. I will never be able to recall ever learning this skill nor will I ever be able to pinpoint when it actually began to help me in my everyday life. What I do know is that without literacy living life would not be easy. When I go shopping and purchase a new shirt I do not think twice about what the shirt says. When I go out with my friends I do not hesitate before I type out a text to my mother telling her where I am

Is it important to be a literate person in today’s society? The ability to function well depends on whether or not a person is literate and can comprehend what is going on around them. If a person doesn’t have the basic ability to read, they will feel the stress and dependency on others because of their illiteracy. Illiteracy is a big problem because without the knowledge of reading, illiterate people can’t perform daily tasks and responsibilities in daily life. When all it would take is a mere two minutes out of your day, don’t you think illiteracy can be helped or even extinguished?

Genesis is a ten year old African American female and is in the fifth grade. She lives in a low income neighborhood with her Grandmother whom has sole custody. While Genesis’ Grandmother would like to play a more active role in her granddaughter’s education, she works a full time job and has health problems that prevent her being able to drive. Genesis was in my fourth grade Read 180 class and is with me again as a fifth grader. I selected this student because she is strong in phonemic awareness, yet her writing scores are weak and she needs the most individualized support in writing.

Reading and writing are both important; you can’t have one without the other. They are skills that are increased constantly due to little things that most times are not noticed. Whether it is from a book to a poem, there will always be a way that it helps out your school performance. Reading and writing in general only helps absorb information, and enhance leisure or school related writing tasks. It has also made life itself so much easier because reading and writing are so beneficial for school and for life. How much you read and write today, will somehow affect your future job, family, position, or even your salary.

Reading has at all times and in all ages been a source of knowledge, of happiness, of pleasure and even moral courage. In today's world with so much more to know and to learn and also the need for a conscious effort to conquer the divisive forces, the importance of reading has increased. In the olden days if reading was not cultivated or encouraged, there was a substitute for it in the religious sermon and in the oral tradition. The practice of telling stories at bed time compensated to some extent for the lack of reading. In the nineteenth century Victorian households used to get together for an hour or so in the evenings and listen to books being read aloud. But today we not only read, we also want to read more and more and catch up