-
Origins of My Attitude Towards Reading and Writing
Reading has always been a big part of my life. My mom loved to read as well and I feel like her love of books has made me love books too. She would always read to me when I was younger. In kindergarten, I was one of two students who could read and I've always been an accelerated reader and writer. If I wasn't as accelerated and struggled to read, I probably wouldn't love books as much as I do. -
Kindergarten Circus
My elementary school, Van Buren, had a kindergarten circus with different animals, acrobats, clowns, strong men, ringleaders, and more. Originally, I was supposed to be an acrobat and I was so excited, but since the girl who was originally supposed to be the ringleader couldn't read that well, I had to be the ring leader and she was the acrobat. I remember vividly that one of the few words that I couldn't pronounce was "elephant." Looking back, I'm really glad that I was the ring leader. -
Learning Grammar
I began learning about grammar in first grade. It was the basics; mainly noun and verb. As I went on in school, I'd learn more difficult subjects like clauses, compound predicates, etc. I feel that the way I learned commas and how to use them was confusing. At first, it was easy, but then learning the rules made it more difficult to understand. -
Public Library
My mom would take me to the public library at least three times a month and we would go and get books and movies together. I had such a love for reading that I would read almost every day after school. I read books like: "Ramona and Beezus," "Junie B. Jones," "Katie Kazoo Switcheroo," "Curious George," "Little House on the Prairie," and "The Boxcar Children." -
Student of the Week/Month
In third grade, I was nominated and elected as student of the week. My third grade teacher was the one who nominated me and I was on the front page of the Gazette. He is definitely one of my favorite teachers. In May of my twelfth grade, I was the Morning Rotary Student of the Month. I still don't know who nominated me, but it was such a confidence booster and gave meaning to all of my hard work in school and the community. -
Wordmasters
During fourth and fifth grade, since I was an accelerated reader and writer, I was in Word Masters. We would study arduous words, studied analogies, and even wrote our own stories that were judged. I wrote a book about Christmas and I could have done better if I wasn't a procrastinator. I really enjoyed this group because it challenged me and I'm sure it was way more fun than silent reading in the classroom. -
Play School
I have always loved learning, so after I got done with elementary and middle school, I would come home and play school. I would save assignments that I got, erase my answers, and then redo it. I would make my own math timed tests. I would also sometimes force my little brother to be my student, and he was a good sport about it. I always wanted an overhead, so I would pretend I had one and write on plastic divider with a pocket and put paper inside and write on it with a dry erase marker. -
Daily Oral Language
In fourth and fifth grade, every morning my class would do a Daily Oral Language exercise. The teacher would write a sentence or two on the board with spelling and grammatical errors which we would have to correct. This exercise helped me to really understand commas and also which nouns to capitalize. -
Fifth Grade Storytime
Everyday in fifth grade, my teacher, Mr. Caley, would take at least thirty minutes to read to us. I feel like being read to gives a different perspective on a story because you hear someone else reading instead of you and can concentrate more on what you're hearing instead of what you're reading. A couple books he read were "Maniac Magee," "Tangerine," "Where the Sidewalk Ends," The BFG," and "Wringer." I still remember these books because his reading is so memorable to me. -
Spelling Bee
In fifth grade, I won the schoolwide spelling bee and made it to the city-wide bee. About two months before the city-wide spelling bee, I was given a packet full of words that I may be asked to spell and my mom and I would practice and go over the words a few nights a week. I made it through a few rounds and the word I got out on was "chogfish." -
English Tests
I've always had a hard time with English tests because I feel that sometimes, the answers are based off of the reader's perspective and that there isn't always just one right answer. I've always had a different way of thinking, which makes english difficult for me. I believe that's why I like math so much. Math many times has only one or two right answers and that's it. You cannot come up with a different conclusion. -
Seventh Grade Mentor
I've always done well in school, yet I was very shy and had very few friends. My seventh grade language arts teacher, Mrs. Murphy, took me under her wing and made me very comfortable and saw my potential. In seventh grade, we would separate into reading levels and she was the accelerated teacher. Mrs. Murphy made me feel comfortable enough to participate and helped me see my full potential in reading and writing. -
Language Arts
The first time I ever really learned the extent of the parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and also diagramming a sentence. This really helped me learned grammar more in depth. We took many quizzes to make sure that we understand and can move forward. Seventh grade is where I learned what a dependent and independent clause is. Compared to other classes, I learned so much more in this class than others. -
The Classics
The classics are the staple of every high school English class. I like that classic books are mandatory because people nationwide will learn essentially the same things, creating another area of communication. The classics also give a unique perspective of the past. Some books are also challenging because many of the vernacular used in the classics are different than today, so some of the words and phrases may be difficult to understand. -
My First Research Paper
I've written papers before in middle and high school, but my first official research paper with citations was written my sophomore year of high school. We could write about anything, and I chose to write about Mahatma Gandhi. It was difficult because I was never too worried about plagiarism, but with the website we used, it calculated how similar our papers were to other articles found on the web. It took a few months to complete because we'd have different tasks each day when we wrote. -
Writing Timed Essays
In AP Literature my senior year of high school, my class would have timed essays and they were a huge part of our grade. I've always struggled with timed essays because when I think, my ideas are jumbled and it takes me a while to get them on paper and in order. I also am a perfectionist, so when I do write a paper, it has to be perfect, especially the thesis, or I'll stress about it and it will take me even longer to write. -
Writing Resumes and Cover Letters
In my twelfth grade Senior Composition class, writing resumes and cover letters. This is important because I'll need this knowledge later on in life for jobs. There's many assignments that I've done that I feel weren't exceptionally important. Doing things in school that I know are important and that I'll use them in the "real world" makes me want to do the work and make sure that I'm doing it right.