My Literacy Autobiography

My earliest memories of literacy development are of reading and writing in kindergarten. I remember being fascinated by the picture books that the teacher kept in a crate by her desk. During playtime, I would choose one and proceed to sit in a corner of the classroom reading and looking at the images all by myself. I figured that I could always play at home, but I could not read at home because sadly there weren't any books in my house. As for writing, I recall practicing our writing skills in our marble notebooks each and everyday.

English has always been my favorite subject and my biggest strength. However, I don’t remember learning to read at all and I only remember little of learning how to write but I always loved to do both and never truly struggled to do either.

Before I entered school, I never read and no one had ever read to me. However, once I entered kindergarten I read as many books as I could get my hands on. As far as learning how to write goes, I only remember learning how to write letters. I had a thin blue workbook with all of the letters in it and the teacher made us practice by copying each letter over and over again in the workbook.

At the age of six, I remember my Aunt drilling me on the week’s spelling words each and every week night, in the kitchen, while she cooked dinner and I sat at the head of the kitchen table. There were always ten words to study each week. She would keep drilling me until I spelled every word correctly or until dinner was ready, whichever came first.

In my early elementary school years, I remember many occasions where I would read an entire book and complete the book report to accompany it all by myself in one evening.

In my later elementary school years, I remember being behind in math and being placed in a resource room environment. I would work one on one with my resource room teacher, Mrs. Harfosh, on math word problems. It was so completely frustrating because I could never seem to get math, especially long division. I would get so frustrated that I would want to cry.

Throughout all of my elementary school years, I remember that each time I visited my grandmother she would sit on her steps with me and help me with my homework. These were some of the best times. She was very encouraging. These are fond memories to me.

In the first two years of middle school, I remember having continued difficulty in math and being assigned to work one on one and receive peer tutoring from my middle school crush, Steven Lee. He actually helped me improve my math skills believe it or not. I took a liking to math for a brief time in my life.

In the beginning of each summer in middle school, I remember going to the local library and struggling to find the most interesting books on the assigned summer reading list. I always looked for a book about the adventures of a young girl around my age. I suppose I felt that I would then be able to relate to the character better.

I remember that Go Ask Alice was the only book I read for pleasure in my entire three years of middle school. I read for pleasure a lot in elementary school, fell off the wagon in middle school, and then started up again in high school. To this day I still love reading.

Beginning around the age of twelve, I remember keeping a journal as a way to use writing in a therapeutic way to get through a really difficult and traumatic event that happened in my life. I believe it helped in a lot of ways.

In my sophomore year of high school, I remember voluntarily staying after school three days a week for a special SAT prep program that was offered at my school. I liked it and met many friends there.

Throughout high school I enjoyed reading magazines such as Seventeen and Cosmopolitan. I found these magazines very fascinating. I liked to read about both fashion and romantic relationships. I suppose I was a typical teenage girl in that sense.

I remember always writing and keeping marble notebooks full of poetry throughout elementary, middle school, and high school. Once I got into college, I could never seem to find the time to do so anymore.

In my early college years I created both Myspace and Facebook pages that I would use to keep in touch with friends and family. I enjoyed reading messages from others and creating message responses. I also liked to read comments posted by my friends and others. I believe that these sites are very valuable.

I remember the first time I encountered language that I found too difficult and too advanced for me in a literature course I took early in my undergraduate years. It was very frustrating. However, once I overcame the language and worked through it, I felt a lot of pride and satisfaction.

I remember going to Italy for four weeks in the summer of 2006 and not being able to understand or communicate with the people. This was also frustrating. I did not like it at all. I felt very out of my comfort zone and vulnerable.

The most recent literacy memory I have is from this past summer. I took an autobiographical writing course. This was some of the most difficult writing I have ever had to do in my life. I had to write about my life, myself, relationships, and past events. It was very challenging for me in many ways.