Response to Graff

In Graff’s essay, the one thing that really struck my attention was that Americans wanted to lower the illiterate percentage only because they thought it would help the economy. It had nothing to do with having the population actually being able to read, but to see if it would help their economy grow. Of course this excluded African Americans and the poor because Americans feared what the outcome would be if they were able to read and write; just as we read about Frederick Douglass. But eventually they did, and so did the poor by all of the free schools being made so they can have their chance at learning. Even with all the hype of literacy going around, it didn’t mean you had an advantage if you knew how to read. There were very few cases where a person was given a better job because he was literate; it was mostly based on race, social class, and of course gender. It is interesting to see the total flip our society has made over all these years. Now it is determined on your education and training whether you can find a job or not. There are very few well paying jobs out there for people with out a college education, let alone a high school diploma.

Response to Rodriguez Precisis

I am in total agreement with SS because I felt the same way in reading this piece. As we discussed in class somethigns and stories are just inspiring and this was one of them for me. He got through life by trying to better himself and that is never a bad thing. I wish I could read as much as him and enjoy it as much but the drive for me is not there because I have to read so much for my classes. I love inspiring stories because they do make us feel so so even if just for a minute.I do though see nothing wrong with being a "scholarship boy" as I am a scholarship student myself and because it is made so much eaiser for me to go to school I love it all the more. I thinkk if I had to work all the time to pay for it I would not want it as much. I too motivates me to be eager to lear and there is never anything wrong with wanting to learn more. I do however think that it is not necessarily the money that hinders the child from learning at the secondary level but it is just a crutch and I find it a bad one. You can learn if you want to and you are the only one that holds yourself back. All in all I was inspired and saw myself as lucky in a way that I hadn't before.

Discovering a Passion

The first book that really grasped my attention was Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson. We were asked to pick a book of our choice in my sophomore English class and something about it intrigued me. It took me by surprise how much I enjoyed reading this novel and when I was finished with it, it almost felt like something was missing. I tried to continue reading other novels through out the year, but I just didn’t seem to click with anything. It wasn’t until my junior year, when my English teacher started reading Harry Potter, that I became even more infatuated with reading. I read every book of the series and again had that feeling of missing something when I completed each book. So I continued to read for my class The Great Gatsby, Black Boy, and a few others. By the end of the year, I realized that reading wasn’t as bad as I thought it had been before. And my passion grew even more once I became aware of Jane Austen and all of her brilliant novels. It is now hard for me to go into a book store and not buy something; especially in the classic literature section.
My parents are very encouraging when it comes to reading; especially my mom. She is the one person in my household that prefers to read instead of watching television. While I was growing up she would constantly urge me to read a book if I was bored. Both of my parents are active readers, yet have very different tastes. My mom reads true crime novels; while my dad reads a lot of history novels. My mom constantly wonders where I got my taste of classic and modern literature from.

Justice in Literacy

As I read everyone’s autobiographical posts for week 2, I noticed that everyone’s experience was different. While that is expected since we are all individuals, I thought I would find more similarities or common patterns in our literacy acquisition. I believe that shows that the environment that a child is in and the resources that child has available to him is a critical element in whether or not a child will have access to literacy as well as thrive in it. One thing I found fascinating about Douglass’ account of his journey to literacy was how hungry and cunning he was. He needed to learn, as if his entire being would fall off the face of the earth if he did not learn. Is that hunger within all children, including the ones that society and the school system seem to write off? Is the inquisitive nature and burning fire for knowledge a part of our human nature? And if so, who is it that is beating the fires out of these seemingly disinterested children? The question was posed in class “Who owns literacy?” That is a question that I have no answer to, but out of that question I started to think of who takes literacy for granted. What would happen to most of us if we didn’t have the opportunity to learn to read and write? I know I’ve been very fortunate in having extremely supportive parents, been in excellent schools, and have had amazingly wonderful and dedicated teachers. I often wonder where I would be if I didn’t have all of those things, all of those things that I often took for granted. While watching the Freedom Writers in class, the question popped up in my mind; What would have become of me if instead of having the whole world support me, I had the whole world against me? It’s a question that has grounded me, and will help shape how I see my students when I begin to teach.

Bookworm

I think the first time I was ever truly affected by a book was when I read Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I had always felt compassion for the protagonists of the novels I read at school, but this novel really grabbed me. I was introduced to this book in my junior honors English class. One of my classmates proclaimed that she loved Thomas Hardy and thought he was a fabulous writer; I on the other hand had no idea who he was. I pretty much proceeded with reading the book as I did with any other assigned reading. I had no idea that it would strike me as it did. Now before I read Tess, I’ve read plenty of novels that I love and still own to this day, but those books were just intricate entertaining plots to me, written with eloquence and precision. Tess, however, was different. It struck me in a way that I still find hard to describe. I think it was Hardy’s plot that really got me. This innocent, sweet girl pretty much gets hammered over and over again, to no fault of her own. She had no control over any situation she was in. What spoke to me the most in Tess is that she remained strong through all her plights. That image of a strong but gentle woman struck me, and has always stayed with me.
As I stated in my previous autobiographical essay, reading was a major part of my childhood. My mother took me to the library once a week to get books and reading was one of my favorite pastimes. There wasn’t much television or video game playing in my household, so the environment was conducive to doing other activities such as reading. My mom had a very impressive collection of books herself. She grew up as an avid reader, which is why she stressed reading in our family so much. The other reading materials in my home were mainly magazines. My mom subscribed to Parents magazine, among others that I was not allowed to read simply because they were not appropriate for my age. I remember reading along in the Parents magazine in the section called As They Grow. I would always read the section that featured my age group to see if I was developmentally on track. It’s really funny now that I think back on it.
The last novel I read with real enjoyment was Sula by Toni Morrison. Morrison has an exquisite writing style that will draw you in as soon as you read the first line on the first page. It also appealed to me because it had my two favorite subjects in it, sex and death (for some reason all of my favorite novels have sex and death in them). Also, what appeals to me about the subjects of sex and death in novels is how the author places them in the plot and how the characters deal and react to them, not because I have some weird fetish (just a disclaimer). =)

Autobiographical Piece 2

The first time I can truly remember a book affecting me and catching my attention was in middle school. I was having trouble finding a book that could keep my attention and when I went to my language arts teacher she had the perfect book in mind. It was not only a book but it was a four book series by Caroline B. Cooney; it was called Both Sides of Time. This book at the time was so amazing and it grabbed my attention and so much so though that I could not put it down until I finished reading it. I can remember it so much so because I was really excited about the book and everytime I look at the books now I still get a little bit of that feeling back. This book mattered to me so much because it let me know what type of books I was into and now that I am older I read the older versions of the same genre.
When I was younger I only remember big books being read if required by the teacher and other books read for fun were more like graphic novels and real kiddie books full of pictures. My parents would tend to read fairytales to us at night to get us to go to sleep and once they were done it was the golden book series of every story. Mainly books were “at your leisure as you like” type of thing. They were there but we mainly chose when and where to read. My parents were very hard on reading the required stuff though because it was obviously more important because the teacher required them. They would even quiz us on the chapters to make sure we were reading and if we did not get every question right then we were to read it again.

"Scholoarship boy"

Rodriguez, "The Achievement of Desire"

In Rodriguez’s essay, “The achievement of Desire” was about a boy that grew up in a different cultural and his family wasn’t there to support him throughout his education because he felt that they were uneducated and un-motivated to read to him. His childhood teachers which were nuns had encouraged him to achieve where he is now. His family has helped him realize who he is and made him stronger in dealing with the pain. He mentions how it seemed like he was living in “two different worlds” meaning that his family life was completely different from his life at school. He loved to go to school and throughout his education has been reading a lot of upper class books which his teachers would brag about to the other students. Rodriguez referred to him as the “scholarship boy”, he read this term in a book he read by Hoggart which was “ The uses of Literacy” which he related his life to the examples in that book. He knew that he was this kind of boy who loved to read and who get a lot of education and someday find the real reason why he done all of this hard work. All his teachers would say “your parents must be proud of you”, but I seemed like he never really shared his accomplishes with his family. Since he felt that they would never understand why he was so motivated to learn.
I feel that the most insightful part of the essay was the motivation that he got from himself to push him further in his education because of how his family was. I could related to that experiences, when your own brother and sister and making fun of you because you do care about you future and your education. You want to do something with your life and these family members are putting you down because you are making them look bad or because they see it as worthless if the rest of the family doesn’t encourage it. When Rodriguez continues to explain his life story of how he became to love reading, he mentions all these books that he read when younger and ones that he uses to relate things back to other books. I think would be amazing, if I had the passion to keep reading and not had so many distractions when I was younger. Reading his article was motivation to me that I need to read more and by doing so I will achieve my goals in life plus just being able to understand my life better. “Two negatives make a positive” is a great way to look at ways things are and how to understand. I feel it is an optimistic way of looking at his family.
...SS

I am "Matilda"

I would say there are many books that I read that touched me in some way. Books that I read for fun and others for educational purposes. In my childhood, the books, I remember and have still today on my bookcase is the Ronald Dahl book’s. I have the whole collections, from The Witches to BFG, I enjoyed reading when I was younger. They all were easy to read and had a meaning behind each that made me have a very creative mind. I liked really those strange books that made you think. The Bell Jar touched me when I was reading it because it did relate to me a lot and was a good book to explore the life of this real life woman. I read this book and many others in my young adult class that really meant something to me because all the books were coming of age stories and dealt with similarities in my high school years. I think the most influential book I read that made me the person I am now, is the Chicken Soup for the Kid’s Soul, there is a story in it that is titled Fire Truck. This story touched me because I wanted to me that girl in the story that helped the little boy find happiness. I wanted to be caring like her and touch someone’s family like that. This gave me the knowledge to be kind and care about others and treat them with respect.
My family wasn’t as big on the reading scene as most parents are. I feel that I was the one who picked up the books and enjoyed reading them. My mother and father never really cared if I did read, well maybe just for school purposes like reading for 15 minutes for homework. For some reason, I was the odd one out and enjoyed it and I did have many books that I got from school, I felt like the Matilda in my family.
The book that I read recently with real enjoyment is the Twilight series. These books have made reading a major part in my life now. I felt that I wasn’t reading as much when I got in college and I felt overwhelmed at times, so I never sat down and finished a book. Until Twilight came along. I have to admit that I saw the movie first but I wanted to read the book because the book is always better than the movie. The book is about the high school girl who moves with her dad and attends a different school, which she has to make a new life for her. In doing so she falls in love with this vampire and the two struggles to be together. I don’t want to give that much away. I couldn’t put the book down when I began, I feel in love with the characters, I related to the characters and I loved the way Meyer, the author, wrote with passion about these characters. I wanted an “Edward” in my life that would sweep me off my feet. This book, to me was a way to escape the real life to a magical place which Meyer keeps you entertained.

...SS

Frederick Douglass and his Literacy Journey

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave. Literature at SunSITE. 14 May 1997. Berkeley Digital Library. 21 Jan. 2009 http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/07.html

In Chapter seven of his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass reveals the details of how he learned to read and write. The majority of the chapter explains how he achieved such a feat when it was nearly illegal to educate a slave. He first writes about how his mistress first began the task, then ceased when she was condemned by her husband for her actions. Frederick’s simple learning of the alphabet was enough to create an unquenchable thirst for knowledge within him. He proceeded to devise several methods in which he could learn how to read and write.

The chapter goes on to reveal the tactics that Douglass concocted in order to feed his hunger for learning. He became friends with the neighborhood’s poor white children by giving them some much coveted bread. His newly acquired friends would then show their gratitude by teaching him how to read. Douglass carries on in the chapter by noting that his newly literate self was now most painfully aware of his grim situation. His venture to learn how to write was different from how he learned how to read. He had no real teacher but himself. Fredrick’s first acquisition of letters is achieved at the town’s shipyard. After learning only four there, he trick any young boy whom he knew could write into teaching him more letters. He then finally achieved his goal by sneaking into his master’s copybooks when he was home alone and copying all the work that his master had learned at school.

This chapter from Fredrick Douglass’s autobiography is quite profound. What was most intriguing is that the simple learning of the alphabet was enough to ignite a fire in him that was to only be put out by the acquisition of knowledge. It was interesting that the only bitterness throughout the chapter is only towards his condition. He was extremely fortunate to have the company that he did. His mistress had a good enough heart to begin teaching the young slave. Douglass managed to find young white boys in his neighborhood willing to help a slave boy learn how to read. He had resources around him and the inherent intelligence to find clever ways to gain access to the inaccessible.

The chapter is also filled with a sort of anguish. He points out the irony in the prohibition of his being educated: “I am strongly tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear them; but prudence forbids;--not that it would injure me, but it might embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian country.” Douglass also has a conscious grasp on how bittersweet his achievement was. After becoming literate, Douglass talks about how his existence became gloomier. As the Romantics would say, he came into experience and finally learned every dark truth about his circumstances. Douglass’s experiences with literacy show how important literacy is to self-awareness and awareness of the world.

I Can Read!

My early language and literacy development was marked with humorous incidents as well as feats that to this day I find remarkable. My first spoken words were “Aw shit”. I was 1 year of age and I was simple repeating what my mother said frequently in my presence. My older sister taught me how to read at 3 years old. She is 2 years older than I am and was in kindergarten. As she was learning sight words and how to read herself, she would come home after school and teach me. I read my first whole story at 4 years old. It was called “Rico and the Little Red Pony”. The story was in a first grade reading book that belonged to my older sister titled Colors. It was as compilation of stories written specifically for beginning readers.

School played a major role in my literacy development since that is where I learned how to write and where reading was most available to me. My earliest memory of learning how to write was in kindergarten. I remember writing my name often on my homework. Amusingly enough I thought my name was Keko, which is a nickname my grandmother called me often. My elementary school participated in a program called Reading is Fundamental. This program provides free books and literacy services to children all over the country.

My mom also played an important role in my literacy development. She constantly stressed the importance of proper grammar, as well as the importance of reading. My mom never had to force me to read because I loved to do it. She restricted our television watching to mostly educational programs. Reading Rainbow was one of my favorite. One of my favorite childhood memories was my mom taking me and my older sister to the library once a week. She would also purchase us books when we would have book drives at school. I’m extremely glad and appreciative that I received a tremendous amount of support in my literacy development. It helped me advance much farther than I would have if I didn’t have the support and resources that were available to me.

My development of Literacy and Writing!

I really don’t remember anything of my childhood development of writing and literacy development. I feel that my high school experiences are the most influential part of my writing and literacy development because I felt I accomplished more and understood what I wanted in my life. My teachers had a major influence on this growth since I related more with them plus I felt I needed a support group other than my family when going through a divorce. My family may had a big role with my lingo since I grew up with them and my parents taught me how to say certain words and also the way I go to my parents for help on certain ways to approach something. When it comes to reading I think the school had a more part of this because I did read the interesting stories in school and also could explore the different genres in the school library. Writing, I think is something that has to come to you over time so many teachers have helped me develop my own writing style.
....SS

Autobiographical Blog

The first thing I can remember about my childhood is that I did attend pre-school before going into kindergarten. So I am aware that I had a good sense of communication, knew my alphabet, and was aware of my first and last name and probably my address. I do not remember most of my elementary years as far as literacy goes. From kindergarten through 5th grade I attended a Catholic private school. We weren’t asked to read a lot of books or even short stories; we just had the usual spelling quizzes. It wasn’t until I had entered into the public school system that I was given actual novels to read. My vocabulary and grammar were always excellent, yet I did not like to read. I found it boring and could not find a book that would get my attention. It wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school that I actually read a novel I loved. Part of this might have been because the teacher was allowing us to pick a book on our own as long as it was approved by her. I picked Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, and I fell in love. Every year after that I continued to find books that captivated me. My reading improved so much, as well as my vocabulary and grammar, that in my junior year of high school I was awarded a small scholarship for having such a high score in reading comprehension on STAR testing. Ever since then I have wanted to be an English teacher and have wanted to share my passion for reading.

Autobiographical reading experience

The first time I can honestly remember reading having an impact on me was not until second grade. To say that alone seems like it was too late for such an impact but I do believe it lead me in the direction I am now in with reading. It was actually due to a school program implemented in my elementary school on the Navy base. I thought it was only because of the lifestyle I was forced into that this reading torture was implemented on the students. This program was so time consuming and forced you to remember the little details of the reading to move up the reading ladder they had designed for us. You would have to read these little books and then after reading them you would have to take a ten to fifteen question quiz on what you read. Sometimes you couldn’t remember anything and had to keep reading it until you passed the test and then you could move on to the next level. There were 30 levels if I remember correctly and the relief I felt when reaching level 30 was unbelievable because I felt so accomplished and felt I was on top of the world. This program forced me to learn to retain the information I was reading and in the end it the transferred to all my school work and it felt great. My parents of course read to me at night and other times but I do not remember any book they read me having such an impact on me as those books in elementary school. I may hate reading now but I still took something from it that has helped me in more ways then I can count.