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Avery Hodges Professor Raymond English 1103 9-17-13 The History of My Literacy Narratives. I began to read when I was between the ages of four and five but I didnt learn how to fully write until I was in kindergarten. While I was learning how to read my Mom created pages (similar to flash cards) that had the letter of the alphabet on the front and a story to go along with the letter on the opposite side. Every day I would receive a page from my Mom, and then I would study the card through the day, then at night we would review the letter before bed, because she would tell me that people remember important things if they go to bed thinking about them. So every day and night for approximately a month we would review these pages until I retained all the information on them. She would tell me how the correct pronunciation for the words and which letters made what sound to make the word sound like that. When I began writing in kindergarten, I wasnt able to read The Grapes of Wrath as mentioned in Superman and Me I remember us having to write each letter of the alphabet, first capitalized, then lower case. My teacher, Mrs. Mashburn told us that this was the best way to learn. She said, The only way to correctly do something is by constant repetition. So we would spend an entire week writing the alphabet and creating short and simple sentences with them. Being at such a young age, I thought it was just a pointless activity that we were asked to do, but now I realize the importance of that year which set up the next twelve to thirteen years of my life academically and has been the starting point of where I am at today with my writing skills. For that I am very grateful to her and the other teachers who have been a helping hand in my learning.

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As my friends and I progressed through school, grades became less important to them, but me on the other hand, thats all I cared about. I had to live up to my familys expe ctations of me academically. Unlike Lilys father in The Secret Life of Bees, my parents made me read and wanted me to become something. However, in the neighborhood I grew up in, academics wasnt an important thing to people. I grew up in a neighborhood that was similar to the setting Malcom X experienced in his autobiography Learning to Read while he was in prison. Studying books and furthering your education wasnt important at all. To Malcom X and me, we both had determination to expand our literacy narrative skills and better our futures for ourselves. The way I grew up shaped my thinking and writing, by the view which I had on the world. I wanted to do well in school so I could escape the city of Statesville, North Carolina. My plan was to use my literacy narrative skills to better myself academically and give myself a better life than others had where I grew up from. My hometown motivated me to do my best and lit the fire of my passion for continuous learning. A few experiences shaped my reading and writing skills when I was younger; other than just were I came from. My favorite experience would be the summers that I had to stay with my Grandparents. There were only two things to do; chop wood and read. Once or twice a week my Grandma would go to local yard sales and pick up a few items and also a few books for myself. She would always return back with my favorite novel series at the time, Goosebumps. The thing that interested me the most would have to be the stories and how they were mysterious and spooky at the same time. They were unlike most children books and that is what I liked most. The stories helped me by improving my reading comprehension, vocabulary, and the speed in which I could read and process what I was reading. During past years when summer had ended I would quit reading, but when I was an upcoming freshman at South Iredell I began taking greater

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interest in to increasing my knowledge and literacy narrative skills which would be helpful in my future success in high school. My freshman through senior year I was placed in the higher English class so I could enhance my literacy narratives in a proper and constructed way, instead of just my own at home doings. Most of the homework assignments that have been given to me, I founded to be very interesting. Most of the time we would have to write journal entries which makes me think of Lily in The Secret Life of Bees because she was always writing something in her notebook of stories. These entries began to develop my writing narrative because it was a constant improvement from day to day in the writings I had produced. For those short four but seemingly endless years I learned so much on my literacy narratives, but not only that I could work on perfecting them and learning material I hadnt already known about literacy narrative. The past eighteen years of my life have been extremely important in shaping me into the person I am today. Not only have the past experiences increased my overall moral on life, but enhanced my visual preference that I see the world and the way I produce my writings. My high school years have most significantly shaped my ability to analyze the story in a more logical and professional perspective. The improvement for my literacy narratives have just began, and there is no end on the knowledge that I am waiting and eager to obtain through my next four years of college.

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Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me. Mcquade, Donald, Ed. The Writers Presence: A Pool of Readings, fifth edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006.7376. Kidd, Sue Monk, The Secret Life of Bees. New York Penguin, 2002. Print. Malcolm X. Learning to Read.smccd.net.web1.Aug.2013