Example Of Literacy Narrative

Literacy Narrative

Do you know what it is like to have English as a second language, coming from a Palestinian-American family? Learning Arabic alone was a difficult task to achieve, but with the help of my parents and the Arabic classes my parents enrolled me into, I was able to master it in a reasonable period of time. My other task was to master English as I was enrolled in English- only schools. My parents pushed me through this process by putting me into multiple programs for foreign students, and they also pushed me into reading and writing at least one book and one essay a week, whether it was a paragraph, or more than one-page long. It required much patience and concentration, but it was a very attainable goal that required a satisfying amount of dedication.

The programs my parents put me in were strictly practice.

They gave me so much homework, leaving me no time for myself. These programs involved reading and writing multiple times a week; at first the teacher made me memorize the letters, but I had to write each letter twenty times while memorizing them. After memorizing the letters, they gave me assigned spelling words that I would have to have memorized within a matter of two weeks. Then we moved into basic vocabulary words and so forth and so on. My parents also supported me by providing me number of elementary school related books, such as Dr. Seuss and Midnight Stories. They would gradually push me to read each book they purchased me, until I would actually start enjoying them and read them on my own; which made me request them for more books to buy. After each story, they would command me to write a short summary about the book, i.e what I enjoyed about the book and what the actual book was

about.
As much as I enjoyed reading and writing as a child, I gradually grew out of that phase due to social media and other distractions that seized my attention. The last story I read was The Pearl, I cherished that book because of the action and suspense that was quite enthusiastic as it always had me wondering if it is true that “all good people have good endings” and also gave me the feeling of “living on the edge” about what was going to happen next.
Nowadays, I mostly read about different religions and history about the world, since I would like to determine more about what I believe in and explore how it became what it is now. History is very interesting, because honestly to me everything has a reason to it, knowing about how countries had wars, cars were made, and many more things like that is good to keep in mind, because you will have more knowledge about the world in which you live in. Without my dad being my literacy sponsor, I would’ve never been interested in reading about these things. My dad is very astute, he’s well educated when it comes to history and religions. We would sit together and he would tell me many stories and facts that would make me want to know more and more. Without these things I would’ve never been reading.
The element that frustrated me when being assigned reading assignments was that it was very time consuming, but it was very pleasing, especially when you finish a chapter and your parents inform you its bed time, but you want to read more to comprehend what will happen next, that’s the particular reason I kept on reading, because of suspense. It was satisfying when I would complete a book, about to take the test knowing I would make an A on it, so I can go home, show my parents and get some money in reward, then go buy more books to read.

My attitude towards reading now is not as strong is it used to be, I don’t have the time to sit and read anymore unless something is assigned to me. Work, friends, and soccer take up all my time, which exhausts me. In my opinion I get tired of things, I just don’t like to sit down and read anymore, making friends and walking around is more interesting to me now since I can actually see what the world has become and what people are like. The thing in the past that made me what I am today is that I grew up to be even more curious than ever. Living on this Earth you ask yourself, why are there stars, why is the Earth round and many more questions like that. The only way to figure this stuff out on your own is to read about these stuff. These things were what made me so interested into reading; you always learn something from what you read.
There are many institutions in my life that have been literacy sponsors to me, such as my private lessons school, when the teacher would tell us students not to give up and be better than other average English readers and writers. when a young child is taught well, he or she will have a good future especially when reading and writing a lot in the past. Another institution would be the private lessons my parents put me in my masque. I would make new friends everyday and learn how to read and write in Arabic. When I was young I wanted to master both languages, Arabic and English, so I can be a successful man when I grow up knowing two languages; rather than one.
My feelings of reading came from my dad, he would always force me to read and I wouldn’t want to, rather I would want to play video games in my room. I realized my father forcing me to read was because he wanted me to gain knowledge rather than knowing everything about video games and not the world we currently live in. I became the reader I am today to teach people and to look smarter than many others. Being credited is one thing I love, especially looking smarter than others helps me gain the attention I want. In the past my parents would buy about a dozen of used books for me to read, I would read the stories one by one, which made me want to know more and more everyday about different books and stories when I was a child.