Literacy Timeline

1^st grade – Loved picture books. Had a hard time figuring out words. Terrible speller. Read signs and billboards in long car rides going on vacation trying to link pictures and symbols to words.

2^nd grade – Was in reading support all though second grade. Worked on spelling and reading. Helped me a lot.

3^rd grade – I didn’t mind reading, but it was torcher to do SSR and reading logs. I wanted to read at my own pace, I did not want to make it a chore.

4^th grade – Read Michigan chiller books, they’re my all time favorite chapter books. Still a terrible speller.

5^th grade – Spelling finally clicked. I think it was from reading and paying attention on how words came together.

All throughout elementary school my friend Jessie and I would practice our spelling together and make up our own spelling test. I like to be competitive so it helped me become a better speller because I wanted to win the spelling contest.

6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade – SSR was required and once again I lost all interest in reading. Reading was a major chore for me. I realized reading was a requirement so make the best of it, and try to understand what is happening.

All throughout middle school my mom would sit down with me when I had an English paper and she would go over all my errors in red pen. I became a better writer.

9^th grade – Writing was fun and I loved my English class. Mrs. Baldson was my teacher and she always a way of making English fun. I liked how the books we read usually had a movie to go along with it so I could make visuals.

10^th grade – Leaning about American literature was interesting.

11^th grade – I did not like language arts at all. I did not like learning about British literature nor did I like reading about it. It was a lullaby for me and I wanted no part of it.

12^th grade – Mrs. Corbett, my English teacher, taught me how to go over parts of a book I did not understand. She also told me to use sticky notes when I read to make notes and write down any questions I had in my reading. I love the sticky note method.

I was in DECA and had to write a 30-page research paper with barley any guidelines. That challenged me to use my writing skills that I have acquired over the years. It paid off because I had the highest score at state competition and went on to international competition where I placed well.

TODAY - As long as a book can keep my attention I don’t mind reading, if it doesn’t I have a really hard time focusing. Writing has become easy for me because of my spelling test, and revising with my mom. 

Literacy with Sherman Alexie

    Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie talks about how Sherman began to read and how it made him into who he is today. Sherman looked up to his father as an idol and he was an avid reader so Sherman began to read at a young age. He remembers how paragraphs came together and began to make sense. The superman comics made paragraphs easy to understand because it was broken up scene by scene with pictures. Reading comic books also allowed him to get a feel that reading goes from left to right and down. He was a very intelligent young boy. This was frowned upon at school because Sherman is Native American and Indians were not supposed to excel academically. Today Sherman is a writer and goes to Indian reservations to share his experiences and to teach students about writing.

    I too can remember learning to read from picture books like Sherman did. Sesame Street books were some of my favorite to read because I could identify the picture and put the words together. I am a visual learner so it really helped me to see what was happening and make the word connections. When I had to start reading chapter books I was able to make the words into a picture in my mind. Reading to me can be bland without being able to create a picture resulting in me losing all interest.

Why is writing important

Writing is important to me because it will allow me to expand on my vocabulary as well as help with my career of being a physician assistant. Word selection is a key component to communication skills. In the field of medicine speaking to patients and making sure that they understand is crucial. Medical terms will probably not make clear sense to a patient, so choosing words and phrases that will simplify the explanation will allow the patient to know what is happening. The medical field does not only require communication skills, but also the ability to write.

         Physician assistants must write letters, emails, exam reports, prescriptions, and more. Therefore, I need to be aware of how I am developing into a writer. I should try to find my professional voice through writing classes. I imagine the MLA format will haunt me in the professional world, so I need to ensure that I know it and can use it. Writing is extremely important and is an area that I will improve upon.