Allie Wyman English 1103 Section 16 Literacy Narrative 24 September 2013 Kindergarten 2001: Introduction to the Writing Process

At this point in my literacy awareness I was living in Monterrey, Mexico. I went to an American school by the name of American School Foundation of Monterrey (ASFM). ASFM was a school that consisted of mostly Mexicans who were fluent in English at a young age. I however, was fluent in just English when I moved to Monterrey. As I entered this school I was placed into a class called Special Spanish Speaking. I was immediately separated from my class without even starting school. Even though it was an American school as so says the name of the school, I was placed in a special class with students who just fluently spoke English because there was a period of Spanish throughout the class day that I would not be able to understand. Literacy awareness never ceases to get away from me. No matter what I do in my life I am always learning and applying my knowledge to the best of my ability, even at a young age of five. It was in Kindergarten when I was first taught anything about writing. I did not know anything pertaining to writing, i.e. how to hold a pencil, how to delineate a letter, or how to make sense of the lined paper that was distributed to me on my table. Ms. Jennifer was the first teacher to introduce me to writing, something I was so excited about back then. I felt like a big girl because I always looked up to my older sister who could do things I could not, such as writing. All throughout my life my sister, Kylie, has had an impact on the way I am determined to do well in school. She had straight As throughout high school and a

4.0 all through college. Although I have not succeeded as well as her in those goals, she has been my mentor through my literacy awareness for my whole life. Her drive pushes me to strive for my best. The first class I started to write, which eventually became the introduction to my development and awareness of the writing process, I was given a sheet of lined paper with lines the width of a chalk board eraser. Next to the paper laid a fat, thick, red pencil that was about as long as my arm. Ms. Jennifer told us to pick up that very intimidating, yet so encouraging pencil. I was to form my hand placement just like hers. I looked around the classroom to the students next to me to make sure I was doing what they all were doing. In front of me was my name, on a nametag that Ms. Jennifer told us to copy. At this point, she was just trying and testing to see what our class was capable of without any instruction given. It was one of the first steps to the writing process I experiencedunderstanding how to conform the letters that were in front of my eyes onto the sheet of paper that was on my desk. I remember feeling defeated because the outcome of my work looked nothing like that of the nametag Ms. Jennifer made. The feeling of defeat was not a feeling Kylie ever experienced, so when I came in contact with it I did not know how to handle it. Once again, Kylie was ahead of me in the game. Feeling defeated was just the beginning of becoming ever more determined to learn and widen my literacy awareness. I was given a book with the alphabet inside and after each letter that took up a whole page, a page followed with empty spaces to copy what was on the page before. The lessons consisted of three to four letters a day. The way we would practice the letters was by repeatedly copying each one, ten times on the next page.

When it came to the is I remember that I had to make sure to dot the I on the broken spaced line or else it was not known to be a lower case i, and the same case with crossing my t. After going through the whole book, Ms. Jennifer then tested our class on writing our name again- this time without our nametags in front of us. I succeeded, and felt as though I was on top of the world for being able to write my name. I went home that day and immediately showed my parents and older sister what I learned. Being young, careless, and so interested I was able to want to expand on my literacy awareness without even knowing what it entailed or meant. Being young, careless, and so interested made it easy to learn because at that point there was so much more to come. After being able to write my name, I moved onto writing simples words out such as cat, car, boy, etc. Each one would have to be spelled and written out three to five times in order to keep practicing. At the end of Kindergarten, I was able to confidently write words out knowing that the letters I was writing out spelled words that I could recognize. First Grade 2002: Introduction to Sentences Moving on to first grade I was still in the Special Spanish Class because I was not fluent in Spanish. Having to go to that class this year did not bother me as much as it did my year in kindergarten. I learned to love my teacher, Ms. Melanie. It was interesting because the simple words I was able to write were the simple words she was teaching me to speak in Spanish. Looking back on that now makes me understand how influential literacy awareness was all around me at all times. Even though I was learning how to write, I had to learn how to speak another language. Although it did not get thrown at me all at one time it shows how much writing,

speaking, and reading go hand-in-hand with one another. When all three are being introduced in a form of a different language, the realization that each one can build off of one another helps one understand the concept of reading, writing, and speaking all together. Ms. Melissa, my first grade teacher made learning just about as fun as it could ever be. In Monterrey, a student became close to their classmates and teachers. There would be parties and gatherings outside of school on a regular basis that included our teacher. However, Ms. Melissa became especially close with my family. She was a teacher who had the greatest impact on me throughout my findings of becoming aware of my literacy. Although I do not realize that until I think of it now, someone who is close to you personally, is easier to listen to and want to do well for because you do not want to disappoint. Ms. Melissa introduced me to the next step in my literacy awareness. Transitioning from Kindergarten to First grade was still exciting. I knew I was going back to school to learn and at that age, learning is always fun-as well as getting homework. Ms. Melissa taught me how to create simple sentences out of the words I learned to write throughout Kindergarten. My sentences during this year were simple, choppy, and unorganized. I was however, able to create a sentence that could make sense to my audience and I. The sentences configured inspired me to want to learn and strive to make more than just a sentence on each line of a paper. Second Grade 2003: Introduction to Paragraphs At this point in time, I was still living in Monterrey, Mexico learning how to speak Spanish. Learning in this setting and/or environment enabled me to get a

different perspective out of my literacy awareness. The reason being so, some of my teachers, including Ms. Melanie, were of Mexican decent. Because of that, throughout speaking, she was becoming aware of what she was saying. She would stutter on some of her words because she could not think of what she wanted to say; I would sit there capable of knowing what she wanted to say. Being able to understand that explains to anyone that no matter what point in life anyone is at, there is always a time where literacy awareness strengthens intelligence. When I entered Second grade in Ms. Kiss room I was just as ready to learn as I was when I entered First grade. I now knew how to write sentences and I knew this year would broaden my writings skills somehow. I still was not at the same level as my sister, being able to write feeling fluent. The way Ms. Kiss introduced me to writing paragraphs was by making me draw a picture. She would give a general topic of what my picture had to consist of, but at first I would draw. After I was finished drawing I was told to write not just a sentence, but sentences. I was only ever told to write one sentence in first grade and it did not have to correlate to any picture that was in front of me. Ms. Kiss instructed me that I had to write three to five sentences about the picture I drew. I can see the exact sheet in front of me. I was learning about clouds at that time (nimbus, cumulus, and stratus) so I chose to draw the three different types and write my three to five sentences about those three types of clouds. I then wanted to get creative, and I went to the art corner in my classroom and got cotton balls and made them look like each type of clouds and finished my explanation of my clouds. This was a point in my literacy awareness that I felt proud of the work I did. At the end of this task, she told me that what I had

created and wrote about my picture was a paragraph. I was new to this word and it did not have meaning to me. She then went on to explain that a paragraph consisted of three to five sentences explaining a topic. Learning this new process of writing was just another step up getting to the actual writing process. From then I moved on from drawing a picture to getting a picture from Ms. Kiss. When I was given a picture, it challenged my literacy awareness because it was not something I was already thinking about. I had to come up with words, that formed into sentences, which then configured into a paragraph to describe what was in front of me on a piece of paper. It was a challenge I was up for and continued growing and expanding upon my awareness of literacy.

Eighth Grade 2009: Introduction to the Real Writing Process Skipping through many years of school I come to a point where my literacy awareness reached the highest point. At this point in time I was living in Erie, Pennsylvania due to my dads occupation. It was in eighth grade where my teacher, Ms. Means, introduced to me what I thought would eventually be the death of me. It was something that snuck up on me faster that I though and essentially became one of the hardest years of school. It was hard because I was finally challenged (not saying I never was before, but this put me at a complete halt). The ever so infamous year dealt with the Writing Process. The writing process I was taught in eighth grade dealt with the standard five paragraph essay that consisted of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introduction had to have an attention grabber as the first sentence,

an explanation of what was going to be said, and the thesis consisted of the three main points the paper was going to be about. I was to list it sequentially from the most important information, the second most important, and the least most important or vise versa. I had a huge three-inch binder that I had to tug to class everyday. In that binder we had an enormous packet that read The Writing Process on the front cover, which definitely made it seem as though this was the one and only process used world wide. Ms. Means classroom was located in the back of the 081-circle pod in Walnut Creek Middle School. It was always so comfortable and cozy in there because she believed that in order to have your best thinking cap on, a student had to be comfortable in his/her environment when learning. When I was told to open up my binder I saw words so intimidating such as thesis, call to attention, body paragraphs, transitions, transition words, the no no vocabulary, etc. I thought to myself that it was not going to be easy because I had no idea what these words entailed and the no no vocabulary were words I used all the time in assignments. It was then that I became aware of my literacy ways. I learning how to write and construct a well-written essay by the time I graduated middle school.

Junior Year 2012: Just Throw It All Away Ill start off with the word defeated. Defeat is the way I felt a majority of my junior year in High School. When I say defeated I mean I felt worn out, discouraged, dumb, and unable to write. I had to change my writing style that I had practiced since Eighth grade. It was difficult to fall out of a style I had spent years writing like

and was always told it was the correct way. When I entered Ms. Roberts class she told me that the three subject thesis points were prohibited in her class. She said that a paper does not consist of only three body paragraphs (which is understandable because I knew all my papers would not just be three body paragraphs). What challenged me the most was when I could not list three words in my thesis that would describe my body paragraphs. My thesis had to be a sentence that would introduce all my ideas through one thought. That was the hardest transition I had to make which widened my literacy awareness. Taking this English class with Ms. Roberts as my teacher challenged me and I thought I would never be able to finish the class with a passing grade. What made me fight through the stressful year was my sister, Kylie, again. I knew she had gone through something like this and got over it, so I knew it was possible. She always made good grades and my parents would always, and still do, compare me to her. Although it gets stressful and annoying, it pushes me to do the best I can do, and during that year of my life I was pushed more than anything.

College 2013-2017: It Never Ends Being aware of my literacy will always be present from now on. I know that it constantly is changing and I will learn and practice new ways every day of my life. If I were to block out any new suggestions I would only be hurting myself. Being open and aware to new ideas, new ways to learning, new ways to do anything, allows me to be able to gain knowledge. Gaining knowledge then turns into me becoming more successful and knowing what is right for me and what is wrong for

me. Multiple of mistakes will come along through this new chapter of my life, but like I always say, one can choose to let a mistake ruin their life or one can learn from the mistake and prosper from it. Mistakes are not bad; in the end they help me out more than anything does because I choose to learn from it. In the end, it just makes me more aware of my literate capabilities.