Knowledge is literacy, and literacy is the ability to enhance your vocabulary, read and hear of others literacy stories, and continue to live your own. I would like to begin explaining my literacy story by saying that my first word was “mama”. Although I don’t remember this, my first word was very exciting to my parents because I mainly communicated through my older brother, David until I was almost three years old. Although David is my only sibling and is three years older than I am, we have always been close. He used to tell my parents whatever I wanted when I didn’t know how to talk yet. Although it took me a while to learn to speak, my parents always read me stories and encouraged me to speak before and as soon as I began to learn. Growing up, my parents used to read me a story almost every night. I remember a large book that was filled with classic fairytale stories like Hansel and Gretel, and The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe. My favorite series of stories was the Little Critters stories. Each story had something that I could relate to like bath time and shopping with mom. However, my favorite story was a simple story called “All About Cats”. I liked this story because my favorite pet has always been cats, and this story was simple enough that I could memorize all of the words. As my brother started attending school, I always grew intrigued by the homework he was having sent home. His teachers would send him simple things like letter charts to trace with a dry-erase marker, or short books with chunks of words to sound out. By seeing David’s homework and having a growing interest to go to school myself, I often couldn’t wait for David to get home so that we could play school out on our porch. David would bring a grey ... ... middle of paper ... ...ollege, because I am excited to learn new subjects, just as I am given the opportunity to sign up to attend classes that contain information that I am interested in. As I began this paper, I explained the process that I went through as I learned to talk. Literacy isn’t only the experiences one has with reading and writing, it is so much more than that. My literacy story has been enhanced through my interests, experiences and life. During my high school years, I always found myself taking care of children, whether in a school setting or babysitting. I found that I work well with younger children and that it’s amazing to see how they learn. This has also always interested me as I have reflected on my own life. Therefore, my literacy story continues as my interests have developed from not only adventure and animals, but also to children and my future teaching career.
I have very few recollections of my early years and the exact age I was able to read and write. Some of my earliest memories are vague on the topic of my literacy. However, I do remember small memories, such as, learning how to write my name in cursive, winning prizes for reading, and crying over every assigned high school essay. Over the last twelve years my literacy grew rapidly with the help of teachers, large school libraries, my family, and so on. There is always room for my literacy skills to grow, but my family’s help and positive attitude towards my education, the school systems I have been a part of, and the horrible required essays from high school helped obtain the level, skills, habits, and processes that I use as part of my literacy
Visualize sitting in a classroom of seven year old children, addressed individually to read a passage aloud from within their reading book. When called upon, a child realizing the words are not right and make no sense, the racing heart, the twitching nerves, a flooding of thoughts wondering how to respond, what to do? Alas, act up and be a clown is an outlet for the embarrassment, illustrated by the warm, flushed face. The consequence of being sent to the office appears a better resolve, when compared to anyone realizing the words cannot be read. A secret kept to oneself. What a horrible feeling for a child to unknowingly bear and not understand how to convey. Does one merely give up, or does one rise up and overcome? Martin Luther King, Jr. once articulated, “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change”
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man,
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.
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
A mere generation ago, literacy was generally focused around solely reading physical materials. Susan Metros emphasizes that most of the teachers employed in schools are from a generation that was largely based around the written word (106). Literacy was a rather simple concept. As Reardon states, “At its simplest, [literacy] is a combination of word reading skills and knowledge-based literacy competencies” (18). To put it simply, if a person could read and understand what he or she was reading, he or she could be considered literate. A wide expanse of knowledge was not required for literacy. The amount and variety of books that a person had read did not dictate that person’s level of literacy. The requirement for literacy was solely that an individual be able to read written texts. At one time, being able to interpret the words on a page was enough. Catlin Tucker asserts that, "Growing up...I knew that people who were literate could read and write, and people who were illiterate could not...Now, as an educator and parent I find myself revisiting this question of what it means to be literate. The definition of literacy is changing. Literacy means something different today than it did 10, 20, or 30 years ago"
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
One doesn’t only have to be able to read and listen, but they must be able to understand the meaning or context of what they are receiving, otherwise it is useless jumbles of words and letters. I am very great full that I was able to become literate at such a young age, which allowed me to be able to inform others of what I wanted to in a much simpler way and much easier. I was also able to understand what others were saying or writing, allowing me to become even more literate by learning from those things I would hear or read. Being able to communicate with others is what allows our world to be successful and it allows us to live normal lives. Communication is what brought our world out of the dark and allowed us to become what we are today. Businesses would not be able to run without forms of communication. Religions would not be able to translate their scripture to other people, or they would not be able to expand the knowledge of their information. Only simple forms of entertainment would be able to exist, we wouldn’t have books, television shows and movies, or plays and concerts. Literacy is being able to communicate, read, and having knowledge while doing
Literacy is most commonly understood as reading and writing. But before children can read and write, they need to learn about sound, words, language, books and stories (Raising Children, 2015). Children begin to develop and gain knowledge quite differently and with support and developmentally appropriate learning skills children will also come to understand the connection between letters and sounds. Literacy development or early literacy is the most essential in the first three years of life as it the earliest experience children have with language, sound and the positive interactions between child and adult. Vygotsky (1978) believed in how children developed, and the important role of adults in leading child’s early development. The interactions
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.
One of the most often over looked yet essential part of literacy development is developing a child’s speaking and listening skills. If a child has a very limited vocabulary it will be harder for him or her to express what happened in a story. Being able to hear the play on words in rhyming a book, or noticing the subtle differences in word choice can change how a book is enjoyed.
Literacy learning that occurs in the early years before age eight, helps prepare the child for school and life success and produces long term developments. The amount of language a child hears in their first years of life contributes to their cognitive development and human interactions that include language form the foundation for their ability of reading comprehension later in life. “Vocabulary development at age three has been found to predict reading achievement by third grade” (Lesaux, 2013). Later in the literacy learning process, when the child begins to read, they begin to learn new words beyond the familiar words they hear their family use in their daily life. They begin by being read to out loud from their parents.
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.
Throughout my life, reading and writing were a positive thing because of the support from the people around. I was never really the confident or extroverted type of person back in the day. This then caused me to be anxious when I read or be doubtful of what I wrote. I can still remember breaking balls of sweats and tensing up whenever I had to read something aloud in elementary. It was a pretty big social problem for me but I can also recall many times where I was laughing and having fun while doing something with reading or writing with my mother. Although there have been many things that affected me so far in my literary journey, my mother has been the most supportive and impactful person to me by reading short stories, going to the library, and giving me writing prompts. One of the activities I liked to do before I fell asleep was to read.
My generation, the iGens, isn’t ever away from technology, consequently, we aren’t as excelled as past generations. In my essay I will talk about mastering literacy skills. First, I will say what mastered literacy skills should look like. Then I will say three reasons why advancing my literacy skills is important to me. Lastly, I will talk about how if I do master my literacy skills, how would it impact my life?