Adolescent Literacy Timeline

I grew up the oldest of three kids. I had a very supportive family that consistently encourage my education. My parents were always reading to me and finding ways to enhance my learning. Being the oldest, I tried to mimic my mom's behaviors toward me toward my younger siblings. I always wanted to read to them and help my parents take care of them.

Like I mentioned in the introduction, I am the oldest of three children. As my siblings got older I always wanted to play with them. That being said, my favorite thing to play was teacher. I loved reading to my siblings and then giving them assignments and grading them.

I started participating in my libraries summer reading program the summer leading into my fourth grade year and continued this until the summer leading into seventh grade. As part of the reading program there were specific tasks listed on a game board that you would receive when signing up. As you completed these tasks you would receive prizes. It was a great way to motivate kids in our community to read even while being out of school.

Through the summer reading program I found the book series that continues to make an impact on me today. I really connected with the Harry Potter series. Over the course of the summers in the program I finished the series and have proceeded to reread it multiple times since them. I really loved the magical world that J.K. Rowling created through this series.

Once I enter fourth grade, AR was implemented into our school system. I had always loved reading. I loved reading to my siblings and just silently to myself. When AR started I began to feel as if reading was being forced upon me rather than something that was meant to be fun and enjoyable. I started reading less and less and really struggled to reach the point goals that were set for me.

Along with playing the teacher role with my younger siblings, I liked playing the librarian as well. This didn't start until I started going to my public library. I always liked looking at the way the books were organized on the shelves, and one day I decided to do that with all of the books in my home library. I organized them by related subjected and numbered the shelves. I would have my siblings and my friends check books out as I played the librarian.

In fourth grade is also when I was first introduced to reading groups. today I see reading groups as both a positive and a negative. For me personally they were a little more on the negative side. I have never been an extremely quick reader and that is something that still makes me self-conscious. That being said, I always felt like I was so much farther behind the rest of the students in my groups so I began reading more to get through the material and started struggling with comprehension.

My parents recognized the struggle that I was facing with reading and encouraged me to keep going and motivated me along the way. Both of my parents, especially my mom, offered me a lot of supports and tips to help me get through this. My mom would read books and other materials for school with me and help me to discuss the topics in order to increase my comprehension.

One support that my mom introduced to me that really made a difference in my reading comprehension was audio books. I began checking the local library for books on tape versions of the books I was reading in class. By using audio books I was able to hear the story while also reading it which helped me to better understand and take in the text. I was no longer as self-conscious about the amount of time it took me to get through a text.

For my 11th birthday I received a Password Journal. This was a really cool gift for me because it was the first time I ever remember feeling motivated to write. Having a journal I knew was all mine made really want to write about the day that I had and the things I did. Looking back now it is really interesting to see the things that I wrote about and it's fun to bring back those memories.

Papaw is what we call my grandpa on my mom's side. He has been a major influence in my life especially when it comes to my education. He is an avid reader and wanted me to do the same because of the benefits he has gained from it. He began teaching me words like ambidextrous when I was three years old. When he saw me struggling he took the step to read the same books that I was so he would be able to talk to me about the story to help me better comprehend it.

Mrs. Moher was my writing and science teacher in sixth grade. I then went on to intern for her when I got to high school. She is the kind of teacher that I want to model myself after as I move into my career. I truly believe that she was able to make a difference for all of her students. She made an effort to get to know all of us and was always involved in the community. She was strict and had high expectations while also pushing every lesson to be fun.

As part of the writing lessons that Mrs. Moher taught us, we did "Watermelon Writing." This activity spread from the beginning to the end of the year. At the beginning of the year she gave us cutouts in the shape of a seed and on them we would brainstorm writing topics. Whenever it was a free writing time and we were stuck we would turn to these seeds and grow them to vines as more detailed thoughts and then eventually a watermelon as the whole story. She provided the cutouts all year.

During sixth grade I took an intramural drama class through an after school program. I enjoyed the class so much that I decided to tryout for my elementary school's spring musical. During my sixth grade year the musical was the Wizard of Oz which was my favorite movie growing up. Getting involved with this program helped me socialize with people I had never talked to as well as increasing my confidence, public speaking, and memorization skills. I later joined drama in high school as well.

Social media made its debut in my life around sixth grade. Many of my classmates along with myself had some form of instant messenger. I used AIM or AOL Instant Messenger. This was a platform that we used to all communicate with each other after school.

Seventh grade is when I had my first opportunity to tryout for and get involved with a team sport. I tried out for and made my school's cheerleading team. This is something that I continued with all of high school. Getting involved with a team helped me learn to collaborate well with others and get to know more people. As a part of cheerleading we memorized motions and words to cheers. Cheerleading was similar to drama in the way that it helped me be more confident and grow in front of a crowd.

After rediscovering a love for reading I began asking a lot of my friends about the books that they were reading. Looking back all of the books that we read were the mainstream or popular books out at that time.

Of these popular books and series that we were all reading was the Twilight series. I started this series in seventh grade and I read all three books back-to-back and couldn't put them down. It was nice to find a series or even just a book in general that I finally connected with after having such a strong dislike for reading for quite some time.

After the Twilight saga was turned into films, I tended to gravitate toward books that were being transformed in the same way. I love that feeling after reading a book and being able to actually see the characters that you've been reading about and connecting with. I still have a tendency to do this, but I am firm about being sure to read the book before I see a movie.

Though I still had a little time left with AR, I was finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and find enjoyment in reading again. I love the feeling that books create as if you can escape this world and be completely enveloped in another.

My school continued to implement AR until eighth grade. That being said, I still wasn't finding a lot of joy in reading until I entered my seventh grade English class. The first book we read that semester was The Giver. My teacher for that class, Mr. Valley, put a whole new spin on reading for me that semester. He was very animated and involved. He created the story in the classroom and really helped us to understand what the text was about. He really shed a new light on reading for me.

Not only did I start to rediscover a love for the English language, I had an interest and learning another language as well. At the time, my school only offered Spanish as a foreign language but I decided to take it and absolutely loved it. I continued with Spanish classes all the way through high school and even took a dual credit Spanish class my senior year of high school.

After doing this timeline I have been able to recognize what did and not work for in school in terms of language and literacy. The biggest influence on my love and interest for language has definitely came from my teachers and friends and family who were there to support me, and that's what I want to be for my future students. I want to help them find a love for reading like the one that I had to work to rediscover.