Nissi Lauren
Professor Danielle Carr
English 11000
February 12, 2019
Why I Hated Literacy
As most children, reading and writing would be a hassle. My 2nd grade teacher would make us read a book for at least half an hour with a reading response to do every night. Being the kid that I am, I would despise this, I would rather watch tv and not worry about any homework I had to do. It got to the point where I would dread coming home from school because even after I was able to get through school, I had to go home knowing I had more work to do. At the time I loathereading because I would just read the book but not fully interpret and understand it. I would get distracted too easily no matter how hard I tried. It got to the point where my mother would scold me for taking too long to do my homework and I would emotionally be tired of it.
During school, every student had to individually read to the teacher and answer a few questions. This determines if you would stay in the current reading level you were in or go up one. I wasn’t good at this exercise, every time we would have to do this, I would be anxious. I was a shy student who didn’t like participating and speaking up. Sometimes I would stay in the same reading level but if I tried hard enough, I would bump up one. I could even tell that my teacher knew how much I was struggling. She knew I had no interest in any of this so she would let me read extra minutes during class so I would get a gist of what I was reading.
It wasn’t until the fourth grade where I started to take interest in reading and writing and it was all because of my teacher, Mr. Woodworth. Mr. Woodworth was my favorite teacher ever. I was in his class for two years in the fourth and fifth grade. Everyone could tell he was genuine, he truly cared about his student and wanted them to learn and be the best person that they could be. This was a turning point in my relationship with reading and writing. Mr. Woodworth would make work challenging but fun and understanding. I honestly admired the way he taught, he made sure we understood the information or assignment. During the fourth and fifth grade, we were assigned to read for an hour and write a one page reading response every night. At this time, I still didn’t love doing it, but work was work. I had to get it done. My reading responses were typical, it was like any other reading response. Mr. Woodworth told me I had so much potential in writing. He would critique everyone’s work one on one. He gave me tips on how I could improve my writing. For instance, he would tell me to make sure I stick to the main idea, keep my sentences concise so that the reader would be able to infer, use voice, reread my work and many more. We would learn ten new vocabulary words every week where we had to understand and use the words in our writing. This extended my vocabulary drastically which benefitted my writing as well.
Practicing the tips and critiques my teacher gave me, I soon became one of the best writers in my class. I was able to take his advice and help my writing to have a purpose. The main reason on improving my work was because of my teacher. He made me realize reading and writing was essential in education. Mr. Woodworth made me eager to hand in my best work. I wanted to continue impressing my class on how my writing was great. I was proud of myself for wanting to actually do the homework without dreading it. I would come home and go straight to doing my reading and responding. I started to enjoy it so much that I wrote double than what I was assigned to do. With a little help and motivation, I was able to do something I dreaded to something I looked forward to once I got home.
Every day, we would share our reading response out loud to everyone in the class. At this point I was proud of my work and for someone who would never participate, I was excited to share my work. Not only did my work improve, but my confidence grew as well. I would always be the quiet kid in class who would never participate and try to hide away from the teacher so that I wouldn’t get called on. My writing was at its peak where my teacher would read it over and there would be almost nothing to critique. I learned that no matter how good a writing piece may be, there is no perfection. With different audiences, there would be different point of views therefore different criticism. In the end of my two years in Mr. Woodworth’s class, He asked me if he could keep my reading response notebook. That’s when I realized I accomplished a part of writing that I would dread but ended up loving.
Today, I have learned numerous tips and skills for me to be the writer that I am today. All throughout middle school and high school I was considered a great reader and writer. Although I would still get distracted when reading, when I actually try to consider an assignment, I would be great at it. I rather have an essay assigned than science, social studies or math homework. I realized that without reading, we would have no type of knowledge. Without this knowledge, we wouldn’t be able to write and express our thoughts, stance or create things and have a voice. Writing has impacted my life in various ways, I learned to love and enjoy the art of writing.
Reflection
The text of “Why I Hated Literacy” is an autobiography. I talk about my experience with literacy from an early time of my life to the present. The exigence of my writing is why I disliked literacy from a young age. With this, I explain factor that helped me improve my literacy and I start to appreciate it. I hoped to accomplish the importance and significance in literature. Why literature is so imperative in life and how it affects your life choices, the people you are with, etc. Without literature, many people wouldn’t have been able to create and accomplish various difficult tasks. The potential and intended audience is for students who may dislike literature to see why I started liking it hoping it could change their mindset on literature. Teachers can also read this to see how literature have changed students’ lives and the impact it has. It can also be for students in general that may agree or connect to my experience. It shows how no matter what your mindset may be at the moment, there is always room for growth and altercation. Overall, the audience can also be for parents to get a gist of their child’s mind as well. They may ask their children how’s school, see if they need any extra help and be there for them. The media is conveyed through the audience electronically and by print. My attitude toward this topic used to be me disliking literature. However, the people I was surrounded with and the advice they gave me caused me to admire literacy. The literacy narrative includes chronological parts so that the reader can see my initial stance on literacy. Furthermore, my initial stance with literacy changes as time goes on. This assessment benefited me in achieving the Course Learning Outcome by using rhetorical situations when writing.
This literacy paper was better compared to the other assignments i wrote. Personally, I liked sharing my experience with literature and how it taught me you can always grow as a person and change your initial perspective and view on a subject. I had a few grammar mistakes that I fixed and also rewrote the reflection part of the paper. I answered questions the professor asked me to further explain.
