Literacy+Autobiography

My Literacy Autobiography

The events that you experience throughout your school years, from preschool to high school help to shape the type of person you are. If your teacher encourages reading you are more likely to enjoy it than someone who had reading pushed on them. All of these experiences come together to give you your principles that you base your teaching on, things you want to change in your students. Some of my experiences are really beneficial to me that I will always remember, but some missed the mark and left negative connotation on areas of my childhood, and some are missing completely.

In first grade, I remember my teacher’s name was Mrs. Florence and she had a hump back. I also remember every morning we had a worksheet with a sentence on it and we had to trace the sentence and then rewrite it five times on the worksheet. If we finished that and then had more time we were allowed to color the picture above it that depicted the sentence. By the end of the year we were making our own sentences and rewriting them, then depicting them in picture form. I always looked forward to finishing early because I could not wait to color the picture; it was like my reward for doing my work. I never really understood why she was doing this until my education classes when the reasoning behind it was explained. She was exposing use to vocabulary, new words and the correct way to use them in sentences. The worksheets were also modeling the proper way to set up sentences in general. This type of work always slowly expected us to be responsible for more and more skills, and then execute those skills, so that by the end of the year we had mastered them.

In second grade, I did not really remember much about writing. The only parts that I remember that involved reading and writing is when we went next door to another teacher’s classroom and paired off with her students to do some exercises. One time we did a play as an exercise and put it on for our parents. One girl had trouble reading and remembering her lines so the teacher gave them to me. I was so excited and on the night of the play I could not wait until my parents saw me recite my lines. It was my first time that I got to read aloud in front of other people. We had practiced our lines everyday for at least two weeks. There was a pressure to not mess up our lines, which was a really big thing for me. I did not want to let my teacher down because when you did not live up to her standards she really let you know. She was older and very stern and it was easy to see when you let her down, and it came down hard on you if you cared enough. I did amazing! I did not miss a single word in any line. I was so proud; it was really a boost of confidence. My parents bought me flowers, and it is an experience I will never forget.

In third grade, I hit a really big milestone, my first book report. I was scared but could not wait to do it. I remember the directions so clearly; it had to be a book of thirty pages or more and could not be only a few words on each page. She was trying to get us to read something more substantial, but I guess still catering to children who were not at the same reading level. I had a blast and picked a hard book to do because I was actually enjoying the assignment. The only other type of literacy I remember in that class was my teacher also made us look up the definitions for at least ten words every week. We had to write them five times, I remember dreading that time of the week and always tried to find ways that were short cuts. I loved that class but I hated dictionaries after that year.

In fourth grade, I remember my teacher reading to the class the first Harry Potter book. She would read to us at the end of everyday for ten minutes. This was something that I looked forward to everyday and was like my stress reliever. We also would play the game Sparkle with our spelling words. I had never heard of that game until that year. I was always scared that I would get one wrong when it came to be my turn. It was embarrassing to get one wrong, and kids would always snicker. I was always bad on the spot and this just gave me anxiety. I dreaded the days that we played that game and the good spellers always wanted to play so the teacher would. I also remember two very fun book reports. One was on an autobiography of someone and I chose Michelle Kwan because she had the same name as me. The day we presented we had to dress up as our character and I used the skating outfit from my Halloween costume. I remember a lot about her because I was so excited to present and enjoyed the project a lot. It was something I was actually enjoying not a just an assignment. The other book report was a pop up book. We had to read a longer book and then retell it in a pop up book. I was so nervous about this project and it stressed me out. I just wanted to finish it. I was always scared that mine would look bad compared to the other kids in my classes. I specifically remember worrying about that until it was due. I even had my dad help me out because I was not the best artist.

In fifth grade, my teacher made us write down observations in a notebook for five weeks about the night sky with our parents. I would write what I saw then my mom would write what she saw. Usually my mom had better descriptive words than me. Throughout the observations we would write structured poems based on whatever type the teacher introduced to us that day. We did a lot of writing in this class. At the end of the year we created a portfolio of our work. I still have it today; it has at least 30 pieces of work in it. My teacher even asked to borrow it to show the kids the next year, which gave me such a self-confidence boost. Also we picked our favorite one and invited our parents to class one day and read them to the audience. It was a great experience!

I don’t remember anything that was literacy related from sixth to eighth grade. I feel like this was because I was more focused on surviving my teenage years than school at this point. I don’t even remember my teacher’s names, or anything spectacular that I did during those years. They obviously did not make a big impact on my life or my literacy skills that I still have today.

My freshman year of high school I had to write a literary analysis. My teacher said we would need to learn how to write one for college and she wanted us to get our feet wet. I was kind of happy with this assignment because it was preparing us for the future and the teacher walked us through all of the steps needed. She checked over our work as we went, so by the end of the project we had a well-written report that we were proud of. I believe I still have a copy of it to this day. She did not just throw us into the project and expect us to know what to do, nor did she just give us a list of things that needed to be included. She was sure that each step was carefully covered and explained. She spent countless amounts of time going over each of our drafts. It was great to see a teacher really looking at the quality of our work. In the same respect because she put so much time into the literary analysis, she held it to very high standards when grading.

My sophomore year my teacher really concentrated on comprehension. She was trying to prepare us for the SATs. She would give us words and make us think critically about everything that we read. I also remember that this was the year that I figured out I needed glasses which made reading the board so much easier for me. The next two years reading the board in class was so much easier and I started doing better in school because I was not spending so much time trying to figure out what the board was saying, but rather more time actually comprehending what it said.

My senior year my teacher took the class pretty easy. Everyone just wanted to graduate and we had already done everything we need for college already. So it was just a matter of getting through the semester. I think that this was bad for me because I lost the drive behind my writing and comprehension because I had a year off from it. I think it made me lose my touch and I wished that my teacher had not been so easy on us. The only things I really remember doing were poems and plays, that was paired with a lot of creative projects that we did in groups in class. I think this is because we no longer needed to build a repertoire for college, nor prepare for any college tests; the bulk of this was behind us. However, it was a serious setback for writing in the college world because it did not prepare us for what we were about to walk into. I felt a step behind everyone else.

These experiences helped me build to be a better student when it comes to literacy. Each of these experiences heavily weighs on the philosophy that I stand by when it comes to these areas of teaching. I strive to give the students the most positive atmosphere they can have. It is also very important to give numerous opportunities to enjoy reading not to be forced into it.