My First Memory Of My Literacy Essay

A majority of adults can say that their first memory of literacy is when their parents, older siblings, or grandparents read them bedtime stories, that is not the case for me. Coming all the way from Europe at age two with two foreigner parents that did not know a word of English and only twenty dollars in their pockets the least of their worries was my literacy. We had family that had already migrated here so many of my older cousins had already known the language and started their education here in America. I was so young I was just impressed with the landscape in this new country that was now officially my home. My parents left everything they had and all of their people for me, for my education so of course when I said that my literacy was the last of their worries I over-exaggerated there a little bit. What I meant was they now had to worry about putting a roof over our heads and providing food for us, also they could not

help me with my education because they did not know the language themselves.
My first day of Kindergarten the only word I knew to say in English was “Hi, name is Almasa”, I didn’t even know that I was suppose to actually say, “Hi my name is Almasa.” I was a scared and very shy in school that did not know how to speak English, but eventually I blossomed to a very chatty little girl that had a little bit of a lisp. Immediately I was placed in the English-language learners(ELL) class with many other students that spoke only Bosnian just like me. I was ecstatic! We were all so relived when we heard each other speak, it was the face a baby makes when he finally receives that toy he has been crying an hour for. Little did we know that we were only allowed to speak English, the language we did not know; our facial expressions completed shifted when the school’s Bosnian translator walked in shouting at us to stop talking. From that day on, I grew up with almost every single one of those other kids that were in ELL with me; I am friends with them to this day. We started the journey together of learning and understand a new language, mainly of us accelerated through the program while other struggled a few years. After five years of passing all of the required courses in the program while still managing to do my regular classwork, I officially graduated Elementary school and did not have to continue the ELL program in middle school.
Ell is where my journey began with Literacy, I was a quiet student when it came down to reading out- loud in class but I could talk for days to my best friend or teacher about other topics very easily. Listening was my strategy, I loved when we would go to the school library and the librarian would read us a book. I even loved reading, but only to myself; I would never like to read out-loud to the class. Reading out-loud in front of everyone made me very nervous, especially the first few years when I still was uncertain that everything that came out of my mouth was in the correct tense. Past, future, and present tense was very confusing for me, but when I was reading a book and someone was reading it to me everything just made sense. I was very comfortable with my ELL teacher and the few students in my class so reading to them was something I was not nervous about, I did not studer or mispronounce one word. I do not remember many of them books that I read but I do remember I use to read to my little brother and sister all the time at home before bed. I cared for them so much and for their education, they were born here in America but at home my parents and other family members only spoke Bosnian to us so they still were not hearing the English language unless we watched television. So when I felt comfortable enough to read a certain book I would read it to them, eventually I did not have to pre read the book because the words just started to come to my head I did not have to think about it anymore. I was so happy and I think even though my siblings were young they understood what just happened because they were very thrilled to hear a different story every night. Before I would just reread the same book to them until I had enough practice with a new one, which I pre-read mainly at school during recess.
My ELL teacher seemed to have favored me a little more than other because I was so willing to learn, my inspiration was to have more knowledge so I could help my siblings at home.

I did not want them to have to struggle through life the way I did, my parents were so good to me and helped me with everything they possibly could just like every parents do for their child but helping in school was something they could not do. A lot of what I learned was to problem solve on my own, I had help at school of course but at home I did not have that help I needed or the technology back then like kids have these days. My love for reading books came from the struggle I went through trying to learn the language of the country that became my home. I read books so I could know how to complete my sentences when talking, and I would try to understand everything that is going on in each book by looking at the pictures. When I moved up to books with no pictures, and just paragraphs of words I was proud that I could read and understand without those

pictures.
My journey is similar to a lot of refugees just in Saint Louis, let alone in other parts of the country. Many of my foreigner friends went through the same thing but I was the one that had little siblings and has to teach them as well. My inspiration to literacy was to teach my siblings, to make their lives easier and I would not change that for the world. They have pushed me to be hardworking and the most caring person you will every meet in your life, I do not know if I would have had that much motivation at such a young age without them.