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Mom's Story
My mom was about 6 years old when she began to read. She learned to read by reading Dick and Jane books. She liked them because they started off simple and taught as they went along. She kept them and showed them to me. She also shows them to she younger sisters as they grew up and the books also helped them to learn how to read. -
Sign Language
When I was just a baby, before I could walk or talk my mom taught me sign language. This worked out very well because I was able to communicate with my family what it was that I wanted without crying and making them guess. I would sign things like cookie or milk and they knew exactly what I wanted and to this day I still know how to do some along with the alphabet. -
Bed Time Stories
When I was younger my dad read to be every night. I had a bookshelf in my room and he would pick one off the shelf, sit down in the recliner in my room and he would read to me as I went to sleep. I slowly began to pick up the words, or memorize the books, but I was able to tell the stories by myself. -
Computer
I was 5 years old when a computer first made its way to my bedroom. It was big but I didn't really care. I first used it to play games. Most of the games I played on it were all reading related in some way. I either had to read a story to move on in the game or I had to read what I had to do next. But me being 5 did not always read what I was supposed to. -
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
Growing up my favorite books to read were the series of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. I read every one of the books that I could get my hands on. They were my favorite because they kept my attention and they made me laugh. I got to the point where I could almost recite each book. I read them at any chance I could and I read them to anyone who would be will to listen to me. -
Reading Cirlcle
I began to learn how to read in 1st grade. My teacher always read to us or would let someone have a chance to do their best to read to the class. We would always sit in a circle and she would walk around in the middle and read to us. She usually read the Magic Tree House series which then made everyone want to read more of the series. -
Library Reading
Over the summers, my mom would take me and my sister to the library every year. We participated in the summer reading programs and we always tried to out read each other. I always ended up being able to read more because I was older but it was always fun to see my sister try to beat me. -
Crosswords
I had a teacher in second grade who liked to push us to know big words and read as much as we could. About every two weeks she would assign these massive cross word puzzles and they didn't come with word banks so we had to try to figure them out ourselves. I would work on them with my dad and we came across one word one day that neither of us could get. My dad wrote a note to my teacher but she still got mad that it wasn't completed. -
Playing Teacher
Whenever all my cousins got together, all the girls played teacher. My oldest cousin was in middle school and we were all much younger than her. She would set up a room like a classroom and would let us all know when it was time for us to come to class. She would read to us and give us little writing assignments to do as we went along. -
Shopping List
My mom, every week, for as long as I can remember, has written a shopping list for groceries. I know when I was younger I would try to sneak some stuff on the list and see if she would bring it home after going to the store. Today I still do the same thing if I think that something sounds good. My whole family also writes down what they would want for the week and sometimes we get what we want and sometimes we dont. -
Poems With A Story
I read a book in 5th grade that my friend told me to read. She said it was made of poems and I had never liked poems but I read it because she kept talking about how good it was. I remember reading the first couple poems and figuring out that they all went together and told a story. This book interested me so much that I couldn’t put it down and I didn't. I finished the whole book that same day and looked for more poem books like it to read. -
Colored Reading Levels
When I was in 5th grade, my teacher assigned us colors for the books we got to read at reading time. We all knew that the colors meant different reading levels and it didn't take us long to figure out which colors meant what. We knew who the strong readers were because of how big of books they were reading and it wasn't hard for me to figure out that I was not a strong reader and that discouraged me to try to become a stronger reader. -
Reading Together
My mom used to help me with my reading throughout middle school and high school. When I had books that were assigned to us to read at night, we would both read it. We either each had our own copy of the book or we just shared and read back and forth taking turns. She did this to help assure that I understood what I was reading or just to simply know what I was reading about in school so she could relate to me. -
Poetry Read
Middle school came around and in 6th grade we had to write poems. We wrote all different types of poems that we were told we didn't have to share if we didn't want to. Then they told us that we were going to have a poetry read and that everyone had to share at least one poem, in front of the whole grade and everyone’s parents. I was terrified. -
Writing Journal
I really liked my 8th grade english teacher. She understood that some things we write are private and she only had us share our writing if we were comfortable with it. She gave us time every day at the beginning of class to write about what was on our mind. Some days I would write pages full and other I would write about how I just really didn't know what to write about. -
Time Capsule
In 8th grade, I had to write a story about myself for a time capsule. We were told that the story would be about 10 pages long if we talked about everything that she gave us to discuss. My story in the end was about 25 pages long. I never realized it but when I started to write about something that I know and something that I enjoy talking about, then I can write a lot. -
Organized Writing
In high school while preparing to write a paper, I usually sat down and looked over everything that I was going to put into my paper. I liked to find a way to organize it before I actually wrote stuff down. I did this because I like to be very organized. If I just wrote all my thoughts down I would get very frustrated and it would take me so much longer to just write the paper and have it be done. -
Spanish Speakers
In high school in my Spanish class, we had students from Costa Rica come visit us. I had been learning Spanish for 6 years at the time and I thought I was getting pretty good at understanding what was being said even if I couldn't say it myself. These students did not speak English at all and when they started talking with their true accents, I had no idea what they were saying at all. -
Popular Culture
Today I enjoy reading online posts or things about popular culture whether it be online, or in magazines. I like reading about what is going on in people's lives. I like this because it gives me a look into how other people live their lives. I could be reading about celebrities or my distant family members. It doesn't matter who I am reading about, I just like to read what they have to say about their experiences. -
Writing Stories
When writing today, I tend to be most successful in writing stories or writing about my opinions. I like to write this way because I’m writing like me and not how someone wants me to sound. I don't like writing research papers because I feel I have to sound very professional about a topic that I don’t know much about besides what I’m learning along the way.
