Literacy Narrative
Growing up in working class family, my mom worked all the time for the living of a big family with five kids, and my dad was in re-education camp because of his association with U.S. government before 1975. My grandma was my primary guardian. “Go to study, go to read your books, read anything you like to read if you want to have a better life,” my grandma kept bouncing that phrase in my childhood. It becomes the sole rule for me to have better future. I become curious and wonder what the inside of reading and write can make my life difference. In my old days, there was no computer, no laptop, no phone…etc, to play or to spend time with, other than books. I had no other choice than read, and read and tended to dig deep in science books, math books, and chemistry books. I tended to interest in how the problem was solved. I even used my saving money to buy my own math books to read more problems and how to solve the problem. I remembered that I ended up reading the same math book as my seventh grade teacher. She used to throw the challenge questions on every quiz to pick out the brighter student. There was few students know how to solve those challenge questions. I was the one who fortunately nailed it every single time. My passion and my logic for reading and writing came to me through that experience, and also through my grandma and my mom who plant the seed in me, who want their kids to have happy and better life than they were. In my own dictionary, literacy is not just the ability to read and write, it is a strong foundation to build up the knowledge to have better life, to become who I am today.
I came to United State on November 01, 1991 as an immigrant. With the help of the sponsor, I had...
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...age by Melanie Luken” is influence me in many ways. Author had organized her thoughts logically. Each paragraph has author’s experience and happens in the right time plot; it tights back to thesis of the story. In fact, I am learning to incorporate this type of narrative into my writing as well.
“Having better future” is very simple to many people hearing this, but with me, struggling in my small place, not seeing my mom, my dad, not having any fancy toys to play, not having delicious meal, not going to restaurant, not having nice set of clothes as my friends are something I will not let it repeat again in my life. With the tremendous desires to have better life, I continue to learn, to read, to write, and share with my kids every day. I wish I can share these feelings with my grandma. She maybe in heaven right now, looked down, smiled and said “I told you so.”
In “In Defense of Literacy,” Wendell Berry explains literacy is a requirement, not an embellishment. Literacy is more than the ability to just read and write; it's also the ability to understand what a person is reading and make sense in what a person is writing. While some people may think that achieving literacy requires hard work and gets little outcome, I think that literacy makes people more ambitious, confident, more attentive, and more prosperous in life than those who are not literate. Joining in on conversations and voicing ones philosophies is easier if people are literate and educated, and people feel worthy of themselves when they have the ability to do so. People are more determined in life, whether it is with their professions
For me, reading as well as rereading, books such as Junie B Jones, Berenstain Bears, or the Harry Potter series, impacted my life immensely by increasing my vocabulary, developing my vital language skills and many more developmental skills. In the past, being literate meant beating kids in how many books I could read and being able to comprehend difficult vocabulary, but now being literate in the adult world means developing new and creative ideas or being able to prosper an opinion based on facts and previous knowledge.
Growing up in a bilingual household, I have struggled with many things especially reading and writing. Reading and writing have never been my strongest points. The first struggle that I can recall, is when I was about six or seven years old. I was beginning my education at Edu-Prize Charter School. I was a cute little kid, in the first grade, just like everybody else. But in the middle of the school year, my mom told me that my great, great aunt, who lived in China, was getting really sick and old. So if I wanted to meet her, it had to be now. Being a little kid, I didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t just go see the doctor, take some medication, or let time heal her. Unfortunately, now I know it was my mom’s way of saying that she was dying. My parents made the decision that it was probably the best way for me to understand my Chinese culture, along with meeting my relatives on my mother’s side of the family. So for a month, I had to leave my dad, my brother, my school, and all my
Developing as a writer is an important skill you need for the rest of your life. My papers have not been the greatest but they do reflect me as a writer. I chose to revise the works that I thought I worked hard on and did my best to get my point across in a neat and consistent manner. The papers I chose were the literacy narrative, the synthesis essay, and the argument essay. I thought these papers really reflected how I have grown as a writer and developed better writing skills.
Have you ever imagine if you can able to read and write a difference language that does not your first language? I am a Vietnamese immigrant student and I am studying in the college in U.S. When I first attended college in U.S, I had had a hard time of reading and writing English. I spent most my time during the first three years to learning English. From learning at the church, to going to every classes or courses at the college I could find out about, reading and writing were what I was doing. I have been doing many things such as work and school together since I arrived here, but studying English was the number one important things that I have to be good at and I still enjoy doing it at every opportunity I get.
Having the knowledge to read and write may take someone into a completely different universe, it allows to see reality or escape from reality. It gives a better understanding of what goes on in the world, that being good or bad depending on how he wants to see it. Malcolm X wrote a short story " A Homemade Education," about how, his experience in prison allowed him to gain knowledge and to grow as an individual. Learning to read and write showed him, how to be mentally alive in a way that changed his life forever. He took it as an ability to grow, to make a change for himself and possibly make a difference in the world. Malcolm X explained how it 's never too late to get an education, there is always time for one to change in life. It is
Throughout my childhood, the idea of having a college education was greatly stressed. As a result, it was my duty as the next generational child, to excel in my studies and achieve a life of prosperity and success. Learning became the basic foundation of my growth. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours spent reading and writing what was known to be correct "Standard" English. I first found this to be a great shortcoming, but as I grew older, I began to realize the many rewards acquired by having the ability to be literate.
Life is like a tree, it grows and develops branches and leaves that come and go as we progress. The environments we live in determine which branches wither and fade and which prosper. Every branch holds some form of learned literacy from the end of the roots to the trunk and highest branch. Literacy encompasses many aspects of life.
Being literate does not only mean that you understand to read and write. I believe that it’s a way you take advantage of what is given to you. Having the power to understand and acknowledge what is being said and read gives and great advantage of literacy. Graduating with honors from my senior class has given me greater self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment .Now being literate has given me great opportunities such as coming to college and given hope that we can do anything in this world
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
I was born in Mexico and came to California at age 4. I lived in many places such as San Jose and Madera but ended up living in Huron. I started at age 6 in kindergarten. Everything went well until second grade. The reading got harder and so did the spelling. The teacher wouldn't really help me, she would just continue class as usual. I started to not do my homework and not work in class. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it, I did want to but the problem was that I didn't know how to do it. I had no one at home that could help me due to everyone being Mexican and didn't know any English at all. At the end they sent me to a DSPS program.
The first thing a child learns how to do in school is to read and write. I, unlike most of my classmates, didn’t actually know how to read fluently until the first grade. I remember my Kindergarten class had to read The Polar Express on our own and I was only able to guess what the book was saying. My friend’s dad had to read to me while she read on her own. Reading wasn’t practiced much at home. In fact, my mother doesn’t even remember reading to me, “I don’t remember, but I know I read to you at some point.” The only book I ever found and looked through in my house was my father’s algebra book. That algebra book became my favorite book since I didn’t really have anything else to read. However, after getting the hang
In today’s society, a vast number of people are well educated. They have the equal opportunity to choose their own path in life by getting an education. A primary educational aspect of every human being is to learn to read. Being able to read is a primary goal of people in human society, as well as important in itself to society; it takes people far beyond their wildest dreams. A person who is literate has few limitations on what they can do; the world is an open playing field, because a person that is literate has the ability to become very successful in life.
My relationship with literacy began when I started elementary school and that was the first starting point of my positive relationship with literacy. I really started to grow as a reader and writer throughout my middle school and high school years. Throughout my years of going to school I had many positive experiences that shaped my view of literacy today. My literacy skills have also enhanced throughout my educational years.
My literacy journey began from high school. Although English is not my first language, I worked very hard throughout my school life to read, write, and understand English. Mostly people believe that English is the way to succeed. People spend a lot of time and money to learn English. From reading people develop the skill of understanding sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. These are all aspects which I struggle with today due to my lack of passion for reading. Even today I had a hard time with the structure of the sentences.