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The beginning,
The first possible start to my literary history. -
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Family reading/bedtime stories
Reading was always an important thing in my family. Having siblings who could read a long with my parents there was always someone reading in the house. Everynight before I went to bed my parents would come in and read me and my siblings a book. Ranging any where from something that is more kid friendly to something that was more my sisters age (5 years older than me). -
first words!
My first word, like many kids probably, was one that was very common. It was dada. Just shy of 7 months old I made my first actual improvement in my literary history. I said my first word. Up to this point I made the typical coos and other baby noises and still did until I grew older and increased my vocaulary. Being the youngest of three I was able to have a lot of people around me who I could listen to and try to mimic. -
First time reading on my own
As a kid there were books that were read to my so many times that I was pretty much able to memorize them. I would go around and pretend i could read these books but really they were just memorized. However, when I was in kindergarten I really started to learn to actually read. My favorite books at this time was pretty much any Dr. Seuss book. -
Writing, writing, and more writing.
In kindergarden, one of the big focus for us as students was to learn how to write. We would come in everday and practive writing. It started out with us using these pre printed sheets with the letters made out of dotted. lines. We would trace these and then write the letters underneath. We then progressed to just writing on our own. Whatever it was however, they had us write every day in class. -
First Series
By this age I was really into reading. My favorite books when I was about 8 years old was the magic tree house books. This was also the very first series that I read. Whenever I had down time you could always find this book in my hands. -
Spelling Bee
In my elementary school we had a grade wide spelling bee for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. It would happen every year and everyone would participate. At the end the winner from each grade would go up against eachother to find an overall winner for the school. I was never the best speller so I never made it very far, but I do remember having to practice both in class and on our own whenever it was time for the spelling bee. -
Third grade troubles
when i was in 3rd grade my teacher was really sick and had to take a leave for the year. So for my entire thrid grade we were jumped from sub to sub. This had a negative impact on my edcation including my writing/reading. We never had a constant teacher so it was tough for us to really learn and improve when the teaching style kept changing. By the time we moved to 4th grade me and my entire class felt like we were a step behind the other students in our grade. -
Battle of the books
When I was in 5th grade we did this thing called Battle of the Books. Our grade was split up into different groups and we would all read the same books. After one book was read the groups would go up against eachother in a quiz like game to see who knew more about the books. This went on for most of the year. I felt that it was a fun and engaging way for them to get us as students to really read and try to understand the books. It was also a fun way for them to quiz us about the books we read. -
Public Speaking
It seemed that at each grade level we had to do a presentation at one time or another. It wasnt until highschool, however, that I had to give my first actual speech. Up until then I was pretty terrified of public speaking and still was when I had to give this speech. Speaking infront of my peers was something I was never good at, but having to memorize my speech and the recite it to the class was even worse. This was definitely my first taste of public speaking. -
Masterpieces of Literature
One of the most education yet challenging english courses that I took was my masterpieces of literature class. It was a class that I took my sophmore year of college. This class made me look at reading in a whole new way. My teacher had us reading stories and books from all different cultures and time periods and then analyzing them down to the smallest detail. Even though I really struggled in this class I felt that it taught me a lot about other cultures writing and also the art of analysis. -
What the future holds
Being an Elementary Ed major means that my Literacy History is far from over. I will have many more experiences with literacy both on my own and in my classroom with my students. I hope to share some of my more memorable experiences with them in hope for them to make some of their own milestones in their own history.
