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How does literacy improve our lives essay
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A little girl who appears to be around the age of 5 sits in the dimly lit corner of the old library with her nose in a book. There are thousands and thousands of words printed onto the pages that are sitting on the shelves all around her just waiting to be read. At a young age I enjoyed flipping through the crisp pages of books with my mom and gaining as much knowledge as possible. However as I grew older my view of literacy completely transformed because of various occurrences in school. I have endured a number of literacy experiences throughout my life thus far that have transformed and changed my outlook on reading and writing. I can remember my mom taking my twin brother Brett and I to the local library in my little hometown of Rimersburg, …show more content…
As I went through high school there were a number of individuals who often made remarks about how my brother is a better reader and writer than I am. There is no denying that my brother is in fact a good reader and writer. As a result my sophomore year of high school was the turning point for me in writing. I really enjoyed my English class and I really like my English teacher. Because of all of the remarks about how my brother was better than me I looked at it as motivation to do better and improve my skills and I developed the desire to achieve success in the class. I began to work exceedingly hard by spending countless hours studying and reading carefully over the assignments. My outpouring desire to do well continued up through my senior year of high school I discovered enjoyment in reading and writing again in my English classes and the teachers taught the classes in a way that I found very gratifying. For example senior year my teacher connected the Star Wars series with various literary concepts. By the conclusion of my senior year I was awarded by my English teachers the outstanding senior award in English. Although I still do not often read for enjoyment I do not look at reading and writing as such of a burden anymore. My attitude towards reading and writing has drastically changed a number of times throughout my
My grandmother introduced me to reading before I’d even entered school. She babysat me while my parents were at work, and spent hours reading to me from picture books as my wide eyes drank in the colorful illustrations. As a result, I entered my first year of school with an early passion for reading. Throughout elementary and middle school, I was captivated by tales of fire-breathing dragons, mystical wizards, and spirited foreign gods. A book accompanied me nearly everywhere I went, smuggled into my backpack or tucked safely under my arm. I was often the child who sat alone at lunch, not because she didn’t have friends, but because she was more interested in a wizards’ duel than the petty dramas of middle school girls. I was the child who passed every history test because she was the only kid who didn’t mind reading the textbook in her spare time, and the child who the school librarian knew by name. Reading provided a
In my English class, I wanted to do well and ultimately became competitive to be the top student. I would read several passages, plays, and books through the year and at all times write as much as I could for the essays. My overall goal was to prepare for the ACT during junior year and earn “Advanced” score on my EOC/Benchmark scores. Hence, any writing techniques I could learn from my teachers, I would. I learned a majority of my writing skills and techniques in my sophomore and junior honors English classes. During my sophomore year, it was the first time I was in an honors course and it challenged me with writing even more. The summer assignment for the class was reading the book “A Separate Piece” by John Knowles and to complete and A, B, C of literacy techniques and elements, which was simple enough. While beginning the assignment, there was what appeared like a heap of unknown and new words, which left to question if the class was for me. By the end of that one assignment, I learned several new literacy elements and techniques that I would go on to enhance my writing as well as add new vocabulary to my everyday conversations and papers. My sophomore year also required a good amount of writing for state standardized tests. In my Honors English II course, for a certain score on the standardized tests, the student would receive extra credit points for class. Parallel to when I was in
My relationship with writing has been much like roller coaster.Some experiences I had no control over. Other experiences were more influential. Ultimately it wasn’t until I started reading not because I had to read but because I wanted to, that's when my relationship reached change. I would have probably never cared about writing as I do today if it weren't for the critics in my family. When I was a child, my aunts and uncles always been in competition with who's child is better in school. I have always hated reading and writing because of the pressure to prove my family wrong was overwhelming for me. I had to prove them wrong and show them that I was capable of being "smart" which according to them was getting straight A's in all your classes.
All my life I have been a lazy person, doing just enough to get by. Most of the time, in high school, I was content with just a “C”. The only time I wasn’t, was if it was a class I liked, and I paid attention to. If this was the case, I could have received a 99% on a test and been dissatisfied. But, for the rest of my classes, which were most of my classes, that I didn’t like, I never paid attention to or did homework, and I still managed to do well on tests. So basically I didn’t do anything except take tests and I still got satisfactory grades. In school I was so lazy that there could have been a project due worth about 20% of the final grade and I still wouldn’t do it.
It was finally time to head to gym class in the afternoon where we were instructed to take part of a physical test. This test would determine how fit or unfit we are based on a system that was implemented by those with greater authority, on which concluded that it was on such a scale society should be based on. So it was that afternoon that I preformed the tasks that were instructed on to me and my peers. I was able to completed them to my utmost potential which can be consider to be something not so distinctive. It was on this day that I was mocked by one my peers of my lack of ability to preform the instructed physical tasks, that was a no brainer to such a fit individual like himself. It
The story of my history as a writer is a very long one. My writing has come full circle. I have changed very much throughout the years, both as I grew older and as I discovered more aspects of my own personality. The growth that I see when I look back is incredible, and it all seems to revolve around my emotions. I have always been a very emotional girl who feels things keenly. All of my truly memorable writing, looking back, has come from experiences that struck a chord with my developing self. This assignment has opened my eyes, despite my initial difficulty in writing it. When I was asked to write down my earliest memory of writing, at first I drew a blank. All of a sudden, it became very clear to me, probably because it had some childhood trauma associated with it.
My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course
Throughout my childhood I was never very good at reading. It was something I always struggled with and I grew to not like reading because of this. As a child my mom and dad would read books to me before I went to bed and I always enjoyed looking at the pictures and listening. Then, as I got older my mom would have me begin to read with her out loud. I did not like this because I was not a good reader and I would get so frustrated. During this time I would struggle greatly with reading the pages fluently, I also would mix up some of the letters at times. I also struggled with comprehension, as I got older. My mom would make me read the Junie B. Jones books by myself and then I would have to tell her what happened. Most
Ever since I was a young child, I have loved to read. Whether it was Chet Gecko, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, A Series of Unfortunate Events or Animorphs, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid, they all provided me with hours of entertainment and an escape from everyday life. Throughout elementary and middle school, I read constantly and frequently visited the library to find new volumes to digest. Each novel was it’s own world, a new adventure with new friends along the way and an opportunity to travel the world, through time and dimensions, with only the time that you spent reading, in exchange. One year in
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literature (4th ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
There are some theoreticians who view literacy in a form of social practice. In their view, social issues are also important components, as well as linguistic competence and understanding cognitive processes in language studies. Freire (1974) views literacy not only as a process of knowledge transformation, but also as a relationship of learners to the world. Vygotsky (1978) suggests two stages of development at social and individual level. In his view, literacy is a phenomenon that is created, shared, and changed by the members of a society. Gee (1996) similarly argues that becoming literate means apprenticeship with texts and apprenticeships in particular ways of being. In summary, literacy practices are not just about language, but about their interrelation with social practices.
When I was younger, I didn’t like reading much at all. I always questioned my teachers what was the purpose of reading; I never got an answer from either teacher until I was in the seventh grade. Starting junior high school was different from elementary. In seventh grade, we were in our reading class for two hours a day. I asked the teachers why didn’t we have the privilege to stay in our other classes for two hours; I never received an answer from my teachers.