For the first six years of my life, I was a boy who savored going to school and seeing all of my friends. Then one day in first grade, during English class, that all changed thanks to a time were we had to read out loud. This day scared me for a while, and caused a fear in me that I wouldn’t let go of for about another eight years. Let me tell you first off, I was not at all the same person in first grade as I am today. For one thing, I was totally inconsiderate to any understanding of the reading system. I am writing about this event for the sole reason that it has changed the way I have live my life up to these recent years. Now that all of that is out of the way, I will continue with a story about a boy who overcame a reading and writing disability and turned it into motivation. …show more content…
After that day in class about reading, I was scheduled a conference with my parents and my teacher… I was still somewhat young, so at the time I had no thought really on what I had did to cause a conference to be held.
As we arrived, my stomach started to turn inside out, and I wasn’t sure why, but I knew when that happens I turn into a nervous wreck. They sat me in the hallway as they chattered about me I was assuming. On our bumpy car ride home, my parents stopped through an ice cream shop, knowing that’s a way to cheer their little boy. They sat me down and told me about how the teacher is concerned with my low-level reading and writing skills. It bothered me very much, that the teacher had never said anything to me one on one. My parents told me that I might be held back, and to stay positive and don’t let this bring you down. This caused so much confusion and discouragement for a seven year old boy. I was still in discomfort after the day reading because of how the kids laughed when I read my
passage. My parents had thought about sticking me into an after school tutor program, which didn’t sound alarming to a young boy who loved playing with friends after school. I thought of an alternative, and asked if my grandmother could tutor me. My grandmother was a teacher and a professor for 50 years, and she helped kids who struggled in reading every day. She received many awards for helping kids with learning disabilities, and turning them into excellent readers and writers. She agreed on helping me, as long as I took it very serious, and actually wanted to be there to achieve success. At first, I was not so enthusiastic about tutoring every day during the school week; eventually it became routine and I started to appreciate the skills my lovely grandmother were teaching me.
“The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal” by Jonathan Mooney is the story of his journey around the U.S. in short bus nonetheless to meet with different children and their families who have faced challenges in school due to ADD, ADHD, Autism, and other learning disabilities. Jonathan Mooney himself faced the disability of Dyslexia and often had to deal with many challenges in school himself, but he appears to be one of the more fortunate ones, who was able to grow from his disability and ultimately get a degree in English. Needless to say, his book and journey lead the reader to question what really is “normal”, and how the views of this have caused the odds to be stacked against those who don’t fit the mold. Throughout, this story, for me personally however, this story gave several events that I found moving, and had the potential to influence my further work in education.
Our abilities are often what we use to define our worth. Whether we fail or succeed our future lifestyle is open to our discretion; however, we fail to realize outside influences have the ability to cripple us. One way in which this is true is through the education system. If we fail to meet the average or typical standards of others we often mark ourselves as useless. Children, and adults, facing adversity in literacy see this as a daily struggle no matter what their individual disability is. In “Dyslexia” by Eileen Simpson, and “The Library Card”, by Richard Wright, details are what define their disabilities to their audiences. Through the descriptions presented in “Dyslexia”, we have the ability to place ourselves into Simpson’s point of view; meanwhile, in “The Library Card” it is easy to draw a connection between this story and the struggle of those in slave narratives such as the one written by Frederick Douglass.
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
During my special education courses, I gained a love for reading. Admittedly, I developed this adoration for books because of my special education classes. It is my firm belief that without these classes my love of reading would not have happened because I would have grown frustrated that I was behind in my education. I avoid difficult subjects, like math, because I’m not good at it. Getting the help I need, made be excel with reading. I loved reading so much that I participated in a reading competition that I won three years in a row. Because of my love of reading, it led to a desire to
My family and I discovered I had dyslexia when I was in the second grade. Honestly, it was quite a traumatic event. What was an eight year old little girl to think about a doctor telling her “she was retarded” (that she had dyslexia.) I pondered long and hard about the diagnosis, but soon learned to accept it. I made it my goal to overcome my dyslexia. That’s the amazing thing about me and actually one of the few factors that drives me to work harder and not be a dyslexic statistics. I knew was an anomaly. I was called out to be different and took pride in the fact that I blossom with every challenge I encounter. My goal now was to always be different: someone who proved the expected failures of dyslexic wrong. I wasn’t “retarded” and I
During adolescence, I began reading and writing through a fundamental learning program called, "Hooked on Phonics." This program consisted of long hours spent reading short novels and writing elementary phrases which were commonly taught in the second and third grade. With the motto, "Improve your child's reading and writing skills in just four weeks!" I was bound to become the next Mark Twain. The method of this course specialized in the improvements of word acquisition rates as well as reading speed; however, it lacked in the area of teaching comprehension. At a young age, I was instilled with the dire need to be highly educated and although I was unable to experience a fun and adventurous childhood like many other children, I am grateful for being raised with a greater knowledge and wisdom than that ingrained in many.
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
All I could remember on my journey to literacy was my concern over my brother and sister’s ability to read and write including solving math problems. That did not really motivate not to become literate; I was extremely playful as a child. What I am able to remember is my first day of school, I cried like a baby when my mom dropped me off. I soon began to grow out of my baby stage and school became really interesting. Even though it was not as hard as it is now, the value that pushed me to be literate was how my teacher was able to discipline students if they didn’t give the best to their education.
It has been around 14 hours since I have gotten back from the Freshmen Retreat, and I happy to be able to write about the success of the trip in all parts, regarding my personal goal, what I learned about my fellow advisory peers, and realizing a bit more about myself.
In the children's book Thank you, Mr.Falker by Patricia Polacco, the character Trisha loves books and wanted to learn how to read. In the first grade she learned that she could not read she had a disability and it was hard for her to read. She started to feel dumb and kids in her class started to bully her to the point where she did not want to go to school. In the end Mr.Falker gave extra help and taught her how to read.
The most common learning disability in children does not affect only one aspect of their lives, but alters nearly every measure. Dyslexia inhibits one 's ability to read, write, and spell. About 5 to 20 percent of children attending school have some sort of a disability involved with reading. When thinking of a condition that contains no cure, such as dyslexia, you may imagine a lifetime of complications and difficulties; although, dyslexia does not damage a person’s ability to learn, it merely forces them to grasp ideas and think in their own original way. Multiple obstacles can potentially arise, but successfulness and intelligence tends to prevail, and has in multiple situations. Numerous well known people have personally suffered through
There are many different types of events that shape who we are as writers and how we view literacy. Reading and writing is viewed as a chore among a number of people because of bad experiences they had when they were first starting to read and write. In my experience reading and writing has always been something to rejoice, not renounce, and that is because I have had positive memories about them.
We all have those days where we feel so hopeless or unable to do anything right. We have all felt that we couldn’t finish school or other life challenges. We question everything about life, that’s what happened with me. I had never had a normal life and now it takes a turn for the worse. I grew up under the circumstances that forced me to become more responsible and mature, which has enabled me to succeed later in life.
When I was younger, I had friends, but I was the person who did not want to dance at birthday parties. I was someone who enjoyed talking to the lunch moms instead of playing on the playground. I was shy and my mom handled everything for me. Until now, I did not know how much work went into raising me. I never knew that there were deadlines to paying bills or that appointments had to be made in advance, but everything changed one morning when I woke up to the blaring sound of my mom’s alarm. I was confused because she was a light sleeper, and I became anxious. I ran into her room, and immediately I knew something was wrong. The death of my mother during the first month of my eighth grade year, as a single event, did not instantly mark my transition to adulthood, but it did change my life forever. My mother died before she was able to watch me graduate middle school, before she was able to teach me how to drive, and before she was able to share all of her wisdom. Her death was the most painful experience I have ever encountered, but I was lucky enough
Consequently, when I started school in kindergarten, I had a grasp on the alphabet, spelling, phonics, and reading that a good deal of other kids didn’t. At first I was ecstatic that something I enjoyed and had an aptitude for was a subject at school. Eventually, though, I started to become bored with learning so little in class and turned back to reading to stimulate my brain. By the time first grade started, this was already coming to a head. I went to a charter school where it often seemed discipline was emphasized over learning, and my habit of reading frequently put me at odds with that philosophy.