Hannah Cox

ENC 1102 B001

June, 26 2014
Literacy Narrative
Everyone has their own story as to how they developed their literacy. Some fall under the category of
"normalcy" and others are more intriguing and interesting as they overcame difficult situations and
disabilities. Unfortunately, my literacy narrative falls under the normalcy category. Of course, my
narrative might be intriguing to some because everyone has a different story, no matter how similar
they may seem to be. As with most people, my family was my biggest sponsorship and of course
schooling and daycare also played a significant role.
Growing up, I gained most of my literacy from my family. My immediate family, as well as people like my
cousins and great grandparents, always talked to me and read things to me and encouraged me to talk
and write my name and eventually read. My family is not one of great wealth or of high education. My
mother, at the time, only possessed a high school diploma and a few gen-ed courses from a local
community college while my father only possessed a high school diploma and a certificate from a
technical school as an electrician. I am in no way implying that my parents cannot speak good English,
but rather that they do not speak levels of English that involve high levels of vocabulary very often.
Generally speaking, you could say that I was raised in a normal household. That is something that
must be kept in mind throughout my narrative. One of the first instances I can remember of me learning
to read is my mom or dad reading to me every night before I went to sleep. Childrens books that
included pages with only 1-2 sentences were the most common, although midnight moon was my
favorite. Its hard to remember everything about those nights but my parents tell me that I absolutely
loved to be readto. I would make a point every night to ask and make sure I got my nightly stories. I did
not say my first word until I was about one year old, it was duck. My parents explained that this was
probably my first word because my room had rubber ducks all in it. My parents loved to fill my room
with objects such as animals so that they could point them out to me and tell me what they are, in
hopes of me being able to talk. It worked; duck came out of my mouth one evening before I was put to
sleep. I guess you could say that moment marked the beginning of my path to becoming literate.

From the moment I first spoke, my parents began to up the difficulty in the stories they read to me
every night and begin using a method with me that had so obviously worked in helping me say my first
word, connecting words with pictures and objects. My mom tells me that was the most common way
that her and my father tried to teach me new words. They also invested in materials such as picture
books and kid games and toys that helped children develop a vocabulary. I was told that it was not
difficult for me to begin picking up on words and phrases. I loved to talk and I loved my parents and my
family to talk to me and read to me. I wanted to talk so that people could understand me and my
parents note that they could tell that I was so motivated to learn how to do so. My mother and father
divorced when I was about four, so things became very different. Instead of the two of them working
together under one roof to teach me to read, write, and speak I now had two different houses using two
different techniques. My father soon invested in bath crayons with which I could draw and write on the
walls while in the bathtub and wash it right off when I was done. He also invested in magnetic letters
and pictures to stick on the fridge, he says that I would sit in the kitchen for hours trying to identify the
objects in the pictures and trying to identify the letters. It became a hobby of mine. At my mothers
house, she still continued to read to me every night and give me toys that would helpme read and learn
to talk. I must say that my fathers new techniques were my favorite and that they more than likely
made me want to continue going on with my literacy development.

It was not until about two until I began to attempt writing, with my name. My parents made that my
homework every night; although I was only a child and could not possibly have homework they made
sure that every night before I went to sleep, I spent at least ten minutes trying to write my name. I loved
it and thought it was the coolest thing. I would always brag to people and ask, Do you want to watch
me write my name? It took tons of practice to finally be at the point that I was able to write it in legible
writing and right, at that. It took hundreds of the sheets of paper that have spaces for upper and lower
case letters and hundreds of crayons and pencils but I did it. My parents told me that I never did want to
give up, no matter how many times I got it wrong. I would write it on the bathtub wall with the crayons
my father bought and I would spell it on the refrigerator with the magnetic letters and I loved to write it
in chalk in my driveway. It was my favorite part of my path to literacy, learning to write. Unfortunately,
it is not the same anymore. As I got older and higher up in grade school, I started getting the FCAT
rubrics to begin practicing for the FCAT. I believe that test truly ruined my drive and love for writing. My
creativity was held back as I was forced to write about whichever topic was on the practice test. And
after 8 grueling years of FCAT and its practice tests, you can understand how a kid could get annoyed
really quickly, especially because writing was such a fun thing to me in first and second grade. I
remember that every 9 weeks during my first three years of elementary school, we had to write a book
about whatever we wanted. We got the chance to write it and illustrate it to our own desire and make it
whatever we wanted to be. Those were my favorite times of the year. I loved writing those books and I
was so proud of them. Being able to let my creativity soar and opening up new doors were some of the
most amazing parts of my childhood.Once I entered the third grade though, it all stopped and I entered
the world of FCAT. Today, I am still generally told what to write about and most of it involves research.
So it is hard for me to say that I still have that love for writing unless it involves a subject that I am
interested in.

As far as reading goes, it was also something I loved as a child. I owned just about every Dr. Seuss book
imaginable and I collected the Magic Tree House book and read every single one, some more than once.
I would come home from elementary school or daycare and go in my room and read. I had a full
bookshelf and my parents said that sometimes it was all they could do to pull my nose out of the book
for dinner and playtime. But unfortunately also, I experienced love killers with reading. In upper and
middle elementary school, I began to get reading logs which required me to read 20 minutes every night
and have a parent sign off saying that I did it. I hated these assignments because something that was so
fun for me and something that was done at my leisure became so important and forced, it took away
the enjoyment I used to get in reading. As I have grown older, I have continually been told to read this
and read that for the quiz and read that and answer the questions about it. This kind of work frustrated
me because often, the stories in my textbooks were horrible and did not interest me in the least bit. It is
hard to point out what specifically ruined my love for reading that I had as a kid, but, I think that once I
started being told what I could and could not read, I lost interest. Today, I enjoy reading when I have the
time for it and when I find a book that I really love. Both seem to be rare and hard to come by as much
as I wish it was easier.

Literacy is now meant to include so many different types of technologies and materials that we have
access to today. I believe that my literacy is still going to expand for as long as I live, just as long as
technology continues to expand as well. It is not always about the technology, however. As you can tell
my biggest sponsor in my literacy development was myparents and my own sheer motivation and desire
to be literate. I had many materials available to me that made it possible to be where I am today, and
that is a confident and literate American. I think I have come very far and overcame a few obstacles,
such as my parents divorce. My literacy narrative may sound similar to many peoples, as I stated earlier,
but I can assure you that there are quite a few differences as well. Not everyone has access to the same
materials and even not everyones parents teach them the same way as other people do. My parents
and my family were huge sponsors and as an 18 year old, I feel confident to say that I feel equal to their
literary level, and hopefully higher when I graduate college in four years as most of my family has not
gone to college. I will make it happen with my own sheer desire and will and the help of sponsors.