Literacy Narrative Rough Draft

Bennett 1
Elizabeth Bennett
English 111
Professor Williams
Due date: Oct 9, 2022
Reader to Writer
Literacy in my life has been a constantly changing thing from first learning to read and write, to
then honing those skills. My reading skills developed much faster than my writing. Once I set my
mind to it reading was very easy for me and I enjoy it. Whereas writing has been more of a
struggle and still a struggle for me, it just never came as easily.
Literacy in my life had a somewhat rocky start. In second grade just about the time I
started to learn to read and write my teacher, Mrs. Harold would assign our class thirty minutes
of reading every night for homework from a book we were given. Second-grade me refused; I
don’t remember exactly what I hated about the homework so much, maybe I didn’t like the book
or wanted to play with my friends instead I don’t know, all I remember is that this assignment
was like the end of the world for me. My parents would try to make me do my homework as
most parents would, and I would throw a tantrum getting into screaming matches, and crying, it
was awful. I remember one time my mom told me I wasn’t allowed to come out of my room until
I finished the magic treehouse book I was supposed to read. So I sat in my room for maybe a
solid 7 minutes then I marched my little self to the kitchen and tell my mom I finished it.
Obviously, she didn’t fall for it, there was no way I could have finished the rest of that book in
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that short amount of time. There was just no way I was going to read I had a terrible relationship
with reading at the beginning of my literacy journey.
Second grade ended and I went into third grade my teacher was Mrs. Beam and at the
start of the year she was my worst nightmare; anytime we had free time she would have us read.
Finished a worksheet, read. Done with a test early, read. Finished your book, pick another. It
was constant. At the start of every week, Mrs. Beam would take us to the library and we would
pick out three or four books each for the week. I never found interest in any books, I would just
pick a couple randomly and pretend to read them. We had AR reading at my school, we would
read a book take a test on it, and get points; at a parent-teacher conference Mrs. Beam brought up
how low my AR points were and I finally confessed that I just didn’t like reading and didn’t find
interest in the books I read. Next week comes and Mrs. Beam takes us to the library like normal
except this time she pulls me aside and helps me pick out a book, asking what I was interested in
and what story I thought was cool. Finally, I settle on the Boxcar Children. Unlike the other
books, I gave this one a chance, and I loved it. This launched me into reading I would read at
home in my free time I loved it. I was reading all the time so much that my school counselor
bumped me up to a higher reading level, a fifth-grade reading level. Mrs. Beam and my parents
were so proud of me; this gave me so much confidence in my reading abilities and made me
want to keep growing.
I kept reading pretty constantly up to fifth grade. This was the first year I moved to
Lincoln Charter. Lincoln Charter was a lot harder than the school I was at previously this new
school moved faster, had more classes, and more responsibility. So my focus shifted from
reading to trying to keep up with my maths and sciences. Around the time when I finally felt
adjusted to the new school my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Lineburger started reading the book
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series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians to us. There was a time when I was out of school for a
week; I had gone on a family vacation to Disney world one February. Mrs. Lineburger had sent
the book Percy Jackson and the lightning thief home with me to get caught up. Instead of just
getting caught up I read the rest of the book that night. That one book caused me to fall back in
love with reading. I was reading even more than I was back in third grade. I took so much pride
in my reading ability and I was coming out with the highest AR points every quarter. By the end
of the year when I graduated fifth grade the awards were being handed out at our graduation
ceremony and I can in 2nd place for the highest AR points; I had lost by 0.3 of a point. I
remember not caring about coming in second I was so proud of my work to win that award after
such a hard year in school.
All through middle school, I stayed constant with my reading; but this was the first time
teachers expected us to write. All years of middle school and my first year of high school it was
pretty much the same story I was expected to write, but I never really knew how. It is hard to
explain. I remember in the eighth grade being asked to write an analysis on Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde but having no clue even where to start, what a thesis is, what a theme is, what it was
supposed to look or sound like. I never asked for help though I just powered through the
assignment, turned it in, and hope for the best. That was pretty much the story of my writing
career through middle and part of high school.
Finally, in tenth grade my English two teacher Ms. Chase saw where we struggled. She
went through each step of the writing process, giving us examples, and most importantly gave us
assignments to turn in then gave us very specific revisions to help improve our writing skills.
This was a huge help for me in understanding what writing should look like and I wasn’t so lost
anymore.
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Of course, I still struggle with the writing part of literacy and I have much room to
improve but I finally understand more and see growth in how I write. Reading will always be my
favorite over writing but I have had an overall improvement in my literacy and hope to still grow.

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Bennett 1

Due date: Oct 9, 2022

with reading at the beginning of my literacy journey.

want to keep growing.

such a hard year in school.

career through middle and part of high school.

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