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Introduction
This timeline explores my literacy development throughout my adolescent years ages 9 through 14. Before my adolescent years, I already knew how to read and write and was beginning to learn the writing process. Before these years, I loved to read and loved going to school and learning. My literacy events throughout this timeline show how I used my prior knowledge of reading and writing to help build throughout my literacy. At this time, my parents and teachers were encouraging literacy everyday. -
Reading and Writing- 4th Grade
During 4th grade, I loved to read and write. My 4th grade teacher helped me understand the writing process, format and made writing engaging. There were many factors in building my love for reading during this stage. My parents would read with and to me during the week. My 4th grade teacher and past teachers would read aloud to the class everyday. I found myself reading a book more often and engaging in my reading. I have always had a love for reading and it continued to grow. -
Family Involvement
Throughout my adolescent years, my parents influenced me to become more efficient at my literacy skills and helped build on my prior knowledge. I remember my parents helping me with my homework and checking to make sure it was all done correctly. My parents would read to me if I did not understand the reading the first time. Through the practicing and observing my parents, my literacy skills grew tremendously and fostered my enjoyment for reading and writing. -
4-H
Growing up in a rural community, I was apart of a club that allowed me to expand on my language skills at an early age. In 4-H, I was able to be creative and explore my language capabilities. I was able to help and volunteer in my community. When showing my projects, I learned how to properly speak to adults and explain the process of my projects and how I came to finish them. I became more confident in my language skills with talking in front of people and showing my projects for the show. -
Visits to the Bookstore
When I was younger, I would travel with my parents to Barnes and Noble almost every weekend. I remember watching my parents buy all kinds of books and reading them through the week. These visits to the bookstore impacted my literacy because it promoted my love for reading. I can remember that I would beg my parents to stop in the bookstore and let me look at the new books on the shelves. To this day, I still find myself venturing in Barnes and Noble for books to read on my leisure time. -
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Adolescent Literacy Timeline
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My Favorite Teacher
My favorite teacher was my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Rodgers. She was the most positive, outgoing, and engaging teacher I have ever had. She was always incorporating literacy in all content areas and encouraged me to keep working hard at my reading and literacy skills. The literacy activities Mrs. Rodgers had me do back then are engaging activities I would like to incorporate or inspire my students some day. -
Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows was my favorite book in 5th grade that we also did a unit reading on. I really enjoyed this book because it was based on the little boy's relationship with his dogs. I related to that relationship to my own dog at the time. During the unit, we read the book together as a class, wrote summaries or reactions towards the book, and made connections from the book to our own lives. This experience helped build my vocabulary and comprehension skills while enjoying the book. -
Accelerated Reading in 5th Grade
I can remember taking an online pretest to gauge what grade levels I could read at. When I was younger, I was not a good test-taker and did not have strong reading comprehension skills; so I did not score above average but just at average or a little below. This experience discouraged me from reading because a lot of my friends and classmates were reading at higher reading levels and I was not. I enjoyed reading on my own time, but procrastinated when it came time to take an AR test. -
Writing Process in 5th Grade
During 5th grade was when I started to learn more about the writing process. Although the writing process was implemented in earlier grades, in 5th grade, I understood how to express my writing and incorporate more academic language while writing. This experience, and the teacher I had at the time, made me enjoy writing. I especially liked to write persuasive essays. I got to voice my opinion on certain topics that we were reading or learning as a class. -
Learning states and state capitals
In 5th grade,my teacher, Mrs. Rodgers, challenged us as a class to learn the states and state capitals as fast as we could. She provided flashcards for us to use.To study, we would write them all out on our own flashcards and we would study with partners or groups. By the end of the year, my class named all states and their capitals under 1 minute and 30 seconds. She incorporated many literacy activities about states and capitals in our everyday class. -
Quilt Project
One of the literacy activities that stands out in my mind the most is a quilt project. My teacher gave each student a material square piece and each student had to write or create the square about one's self. This activity impacted my literacy experience because it allowed me to use expressive language in my writing and write and create a piece about myself. It allowed me to express my thoughts on a higher level of thinking and develop a deeper meaning about the project. -
Creative Writing in 7th Grade
In 7th grade, my english teacher would give out writing assignments that were either group work or individual practice. My teacher would start the story off and in groups or individually. We would have to finish the story. This allowed me to focus on storytelling and not grammar. I was allowed to be creative and develop my writing skills through the writing process. I remember loving writing during this time period because I was allowed to write about my interests or creative thoughts. -
Keeping a Journal
In 7th and 8th grade, my english teacher had my class write in our journal everyday. Keeping a journal made me reflect on how my day was going and how I felt about certain topics that were discussed. I enjoyed writing in my journal everyday. It impacted my literacy by building my everyday writing and it was improving on my writing and academic language skills. Although I did not continue my journal writing outside of the class, I continued to write and read everyday. -
Book Report Activity
In 8th grade, my english and reading teacher had my class read any book we liked and do a book report on a cereal box. This literacy activity allowed me to use my imagination in how I was to create my cereal based on the book. This activity was a great way to assess the students' knowledge on the book.The cereal I created was the Ghosties. I enjoyed this activity because I was not writing about what I knew from the book, but I was using critical thinking skills in how to create my cereal. -
Community Involvement
Growing up in Pinckneyville, there are certain factors that influenced my language. For instance, Pinckneyville is a small town with little to no diversity. During my years, I was not exposed to other languages or accents. This may have hindered my language development because when I would speak to people in the community, it was one language. I know that not being exposed to other languages did result in a culture shock later in life. Although this happened, I am glad I live where I do today. -
Types of Books I Liked to Read
During my adolescent years, I liked to read non-fiction, fiction, historical fiction, and fables. I enjoyed reading on my own time and I liked to read a variety of genres. Some of my favorite books I can recall are, Where the Red Fern Grows, Bud, Not Buddy, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, and Shiloh. I enjoyed books about animals, history, friendship, and family. To this day, I still venture to books with theses specific themes from time to time. -
Band
During 5th grade and through high school, I participated in the school band. I played the saxophone and had to learn how to read music and a drill card for field shows fluently. Learning how to read music helped in my literacy development by learning to seek out patterns, learning to read fluently, and to learn to stay with the speed of the tempo. While in band, I learned certain vocabulary that was used in class and I was expected to understand what my director was conducting. -
Multimedia
Multimedia impacted my literacy development by becoming literate on computers. I learned how to type at an early age and during these time periods, I was learning how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Internet. I learned very quickly how to operate a computer and how to properly use the Internet for research. It has increased my multimedia resources for future education. I use technology more now and am glad I learned the basics at an early age. -
How my literacy has changed throughout the years
Throughout my adolescent years, I have learned many reading and writing concepts that I incorporate in everyday life. My literacy has grown by using more academic language in my writing and oral language. Each year, my literacy development grows and as I assess my literacy, I grow and build new knowledge from past experiences. -
Perspectives as a Teacher
As a teacher, I hope to inspire my students to work and build on their literacy development just like my past teachers have done for me. I hope to create engaging and meaningful activities and projects that may impact my students' literacy development. I want my students to love reading and writing by modeling how much I enjoy literacy. I hope for my students to gain new knowledge and incorporate that knowledge in everyday life. I want my future students to become successful learners. -
Writing on a regular basis
I have seen my mom and dad write on a regular basis my entire life. My mom is always making shopping lists,to do lists,and events on the calendar. My dad is always writing certain documents for his job. Since my parents write everyday I have noticed I have to write everything down or I will not remember. I noticed throughout my entire lifetime.I have written lists, papers, or homework everyday or week and have continued to this day. My parents have shown me that writing is important in literacy. -
Proofreading Writing with Family
An event that has impacted my literacy is proofreading my writing with my parents. When I would write a paper or paragraph on a certain topic, I would write it myself and then I would sit down with my parents and have them proofread the piece together. This impacted my literacy because I was learning to look for mistakes in my writing which, helped me fix those mistakes in the future. My parents would tell me what to fix in my writing and why. I became a better writer through this experience.
