on How writers are defined as unskilled, and how do they write?
The code, the order of writing.
Speaking while writing.
Is there a “correct” way to plan your writing and write?
Importance of prewriting exercises.
How is effective writing developed.
Use of models in writing.
on I pay attention to the important things, and I try to apply it to my writing. I also practice the writing styles I may use.
on Derek Tremblay Help Received:
Major Garriott General Review: Major Garriott
ERH 101-03 Peer Review: A.J. Bradt
November 16, 2016
A Literacy Roller Coaster
My literacy journey was influenced largely from the experiences I had learning and reading as a youth. Ever since I can remember, reading was greatly encouraged in my family., Before kindergarten my aunt would take care of me every day being that my dad had to work every day of the week. I can remember us occasionally walking about half a mile to the local K-mart to get lunch at the K-mart café and after we would head to the book section where I would pick out numerous books that I thought I would be interested in. Firetrucks, cars and construction vehicles were often the topic of the books that I chose. I would go home and my aunt would read them to me and I would look at the pictures for hours and try to read the books for myself. However, my literacy journey has not always been so reinforced as it was when I was younger. As I got older I started to drift away from a strong background of reading and writing. My development journey of literacy has shaped the way I write today. My strengths and weaknesses come from my use and non-use of literacy resources and support from literacy sponsors as a youth.
My aunt played a large role in my literacy development from a young age. Much like Alexie I didn’t grow up in the best financial situation but our house always seemed to be filled with books (Alexie, 129). My dad worked two jobs to provide for his four young children and was often not at home, after my mother passed from cancer my aunt stepped in to help my dad and even moved with us to Virginia from Maine. She took care of me and my siblings and did her best to provide us with the care we badly needed. While my siblings were at school she would do “play school” with me and I would dress up like I’m going to school and she would teach me letters and numbers. She would read to me and help me learn to read for myself. A book she had in her apartment that really aided my development as a child was “Dick and Jane. She would read it to me until one day I could read it myself. Much like Superman comics for Alexie, “Dick and Jane” and a large part in me learning to read at a young age (Alexie, 129). The simple words and fun stories kept me interested in reading and was the start of my literacy journey. My aunt’s positive interactions with me since I was a child gave me a solid foundation and a head start on being interested in reading and literacy.
Influences on my literacy development didn’t end with my aunt, eventually I started school and my dad got remarried so I was less dependent on my aunt to take care of me. In kindergarten I was the “problem child”. I constantly challenged my teachers and didn’t listen to their instruction. I would get in conflicts with the other kids and I often got sent to the office for my behavior. The conflicts I had has a child are comparable to Alexie’s childhood interactions with classmates (Alexie, 130). While these might not have been positive interactions it represents who I was and how far my personality has come. Despite this behavior my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Scott, was very kind toward me and she was always willing to work with me to make sure I would learn the material. Ms. Scott’s kindness showed me that teachers could be trusted and learning could be fun, she reinforced the positive literacy experiences I previously had. However, not all my teachers throughout elementary school had a positive influence on me. In the third grade my Language Arts teacher didn’t care much about us and the learning process of third graders. She assigned us to read books that were way past our reading level and books that we weren’t very interesting and hard to follow. She would then give us packets with questions on the readings. Me with my third-grade reading level was unable to comprehend a 400-page book such as “Little House on the Prairie” and answer difficult questions on the text. For the first time I started getting bad grades and I started believing that I wasn’t very smart. Rather than having a bad teacher harming my literacy development, I believe that aided my development. I had a strict father who would punish me when I was younger with grounding for my bad grades because he thought if we got a bad grade I was just “not trying”, so my Language Arts grade caused me to spend continuous months alone in my room for being unable to bring up my grade. All the time I spent in my room as a child I was reading books. I remember in elementary school I would go to the library and request for them to get certain books. I then would check in with the librarians every morning wondering if the book had come in, probably annoying them to death. Just as Alexie had, I fell in love with reading, and I would read any spare chance I had, I was known to leave my lamp on until late at night because I able to read what I wanted to and I was interested by the stories. Like Alexie I read anything I could get my hands on from, kid’s almanacs, to books about space, to young adult chapter books (Alexie, 131). These books were influential to me, they increased my vocabulary, and made me want to read more and more.
It was around this time that my dad remarried. My step-mother was an avid reader and still is today. She would always read books with me and encourage me reading on my own. Countless times she would take me to the local library to pick out books, and as I grew older and could read bigger books, I would carry home two armfuls of books every time we went. Me and my step-mom would read the books I got from the library and we would talk and have engaging conversations about them. She read books that I liked such as the Artemis Fowl series and I would read some of the books that interested her like the Jason Bourne series. Reading these books caused the development of my literacy, vocabulary, and ability to write. The stories were exciting and caused me to love reading. This was a large part of my literacy development growing up. She influenced me to enjoy reading and to read often, she was my main literacy sponsor growing up. My step-mother’s influences made me interested in reading and writing and was the pinnacle of my strength in writing.
During middle school my literacy in writing and reading decreased for multiple reasons. In the seventh and eighth grade I started to become involved with sports. Having baseball and football practices mixed with weight rooms took away from the energy I was willing to spend reading late at night. Also, I stopped getting in trouble and getting bad grades so I stayed out of my room and I stopped having an excuse to read as much as I did. My interests changed and I also saw it as “uncool” to read. My time became more preoccupied with other hobbies. As I moved to high school my habits didn’t change and I never picked up reading again. The school work became harder and the sports became more demanding and I grew further and further away from where my reading literacy once was. Maybe I just became lazy and these are all excuses I’ve led myself to believe as to why I don’t read anymore, either way, my literacy and my writing ability has suffered over the years. Although my reading and writing literacies suffered in high school and middle school I gained valuable literacies in baseball, football and other sports. The development of these literacies, while they harmed school related ones, were valuable because they allowed me to excel at sports. If I had never developed these literacies when I did I wouldn’t be at VMI today and I would probably not have an opportunity such as the one I have here at VMI to further my education.
My literacy that I once had in writing is most what influences my literacy in writing at VMI. My literacy did not grow much in high school, I only took the basic classes and I almost never had to write papers or do critical reading like I do in college. I feel like my writing now is still mostly the remnant of the books I read when I was younger and the literacy sponsors I had as a kid. As I experience new things every day and as I experience VMI my literacy will grow and I believe my writing will improve reflecting my growing maturity.
My literacy journey has been full of ups and downs. The solid structure I had from literacy sponsors as a child, by my guardians and teachers, caused me to have a love of reading and writing. When I got older I started making decisions for myself and I became busier and I neglected my literacies in reading, while gaining literacies in sports. The current strength of my writing is effected by my neglect of reading during my adolescent years.
Works Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” Writing about Writing
Word Count: 1595
on Derek Tremblay
Major Garriott
ERH 101-03
November 16, 2016
Literacy Journey
My literacy journey was influenced largely from the experiences I had learning and reading as a youth. Ever since I can remember, reading was greatly encouraged in my family., Before kindergarten my aunt would take care of me every day being that my dad had to work every day of the week. I can remember us occasionally walking about half a mile to the local K-mart to get lunch at the K-mart café and after we would head to the book section where I would pick out numerous books that I thought I would be interested in. Firetrucks, cars and construction vehicles were more often than not the topic of the books that I chose. I would go home and my aunt would read them to me and I would look at the pictures for hours and try to read the books for myself. However, my literacy journey has not always been so reinforced as it was when I was younger. As I got older I started to drift away from a strong background of reading and writing. My development journey of literacy has shaped my strengths and weaknesses in the way I write today.
My aunt played a large role in my literacy development from a young age. My dad worked two jobs to provide for his four young children and was often not at home, after my mother passed from cancer my aunt stepped in to help my dad and even moved with us to Virginia from Maine. She took care of me and my siblings and did her best to provide us with the care we badly needed. While my siblings were at school she would do “play school” with me and I would dress up like I’m going to school and she would teach me letters and numbers. She would read to me and help me learn to read for myself. A book she had in her apartment that really aided my development as a child was “Dick and Jane. She would read it to me until one day I was able to read it myself. The simple words and fun stories kept me interested in reading and was the start of my literacy journey. My aunt’s positive interactions with me since I was a child gave me a solid foundation and a head start on being interested in reading and literacy.
Influences on my literacy development didn’t end with my aunt, eventually I started school and my dad got remarried so I was less dependent on my aunt to take care of me. In kindergarten I was the “problem child”. I constantly challenged my teachers and didn’t listen to their instruction. I would get in conflicts with the other kids and I often got sent to the office for my behavior. Despite this behavior my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Scott, was very kind toward me and she was always willing to work with me to make sure I would learn the material. Ms. Scott’s kindness showed me that teachers could be trusted and learning could be fun, she reinforced the positive literacy experiences I previously had. However, not all of my teachers throughout elementary school. In the third grade my Language Arts teacher didn’t care much about us and the learning process of third graders. She assigned us to read books that were way past our reading level and books that we weren’t very interesting and hard to follow. She would then give us packets with questions on the readings. Me with my third grade reading level was unable to comprehend a 400-page book such as “Little House on the Prairie” and answer difficult questions on the text. So for the first time I started getting bad grades and I started believing that I wasn’t very smart. Rather than having a bad teacher harming my literacy development, I believe that actually aided my development. I had a strict father who would punish me with grounding for my bad grades, so my Language Arts grade caused me to spend continuous months alone in my room for being unable to bring up my grade. All the time I spent in my room as a child I was reading books. I remember in elementary school I would go to the library and request for them to get certain books. I then would check in with the librarians every morning wondering if the book had come in, probably annoying them to death. That’s when I fell in love with reading, and I would even leave my lamp on until late at night because I read what I wanted to read and I was interested by the stories.
It was around this time that my dad remarried. My step-mother was an avid reader and still is today. She would always read books with me and encourage me reading on my own. Countless times she would take me to the local library to pick out books, and as I grew older and was able to read bigger books, I would carry home two armfuls of books every time we went. Me and my step-mom would read the books I got from the library and we would talk and have engaging conversations about them. She read books that I liked such as the Artemis Fowl series and I would read some of the books that interested her like the Jason Bourne series. This was a large part of my literacy development growing up. My step-mother’s influences made me interested in reading and writing and was the pinnacle of my strength in writing.
During middle school my literacy decreased for multiple reasons. In the seventh and eighth grade I started to become really involved with sports. Having baseball and football practices mixed with weight rooms really took away from the energy I was willing to spend reading late at night. Also, I stopped getting in trouble and getting bad grades so I stayed out of my room and I stopped having an excuse to read as much as I did. My interests changed and I also saw it as “uncool” to read. My time became more preoccupied with other hobbies. As I moved to high school my habits didn’t change and I never picked up reading again. The school work became harder and the sports became more demanding and I grew further and further away from where my literacy once was. Maybe I just became lazy and these are all excuses I’ve led myself to believe as to why I don’t read anymore. Either way my literacy and my writing ability has suffered over the years.
The writing and rhetoric class I’m taking at VMI is starting to re-develop my literacies. The assignments and readings are causing me to be more thoughtful about reading and are encouraging me to read more. I am gaining valuable reading skills as my writing becomes more self-aware and part of me and my experiences. I see my writing improving and Major Garriott has played a large role in my writing and unlocking my writing potential. I hope one day to start reading again and I hope to write successfully and better each time in future classes I’ll take and papers I’ll write.
My literacy journey has been full of ups and downs but I see it slowly improving.
on The writer does a really good job using and explaining their real life examples. He/she makes it easy for me to understand their point. Has a good use for the secondary source. Uses “I” a lot and explains personal thinking and ideas.
on It keeps my attention and my interest and it goes along with my thinking process and it helps me understand the author’s point better.
My school work isn’t often shaped by my personal experiences. Essays that I have to write that have nothing to do with my interests are much more difficult to write and i find i often get worse grades on them as opposed to writing about an interest of mine. I believe personal writing should be used more in school to develop a better, interested, writer.
on When I was younger I read through a 2000 kids almanac given to me by my aunt and a student dictionary I got from school all the time. This gave me an insight, at a young age, to learning and knowledge.
on Malcolm X wants to be more traditionally literate to be relatable and to be able to convey his ideas to the general public. It gave him power to think for himself and to express his ideas.
on Knowledge allows for informed insight, and with informed insight adequate change can be made. Literacy is a large part in obtaining knowledge access is important but can be self taught such as in Malcolm X’s case. The people have the power as a whole to shape their own lives. It has given me the opportunity to further my education and make a better life for myself, my confident attitude as developed my literacy narrative.