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Bedtime Stories
As a child, my mother would read to me and my brother before bed. As we got older, we would all take turns reading a page. Sometimes we would spend a few weeks finishing a chapter book and other times we would read more simple books such as "Goodnight Moon," which was always my brother's favorite. This demonstrates the developmental dimension and instruction. My mother helped and challenged me and my brother and I to become better readers by practicing with us and making it fun. -
Letters To/From Dad
My dad was on active duty when I was younger so we commonly communicated through phone calls, short letters, but mainly pictures. He would send me pictures of things that I would like with a small description on the back. This made language more real to me; it was no longer a story I was reading but personal messages. This demonstrates the mediation dimension. -
Social Stories for Ronny
Growing up with a brother with autism, there were always visuals everywhere in my house. There were social stories on how to act in certain situations and visual lists of what he needs to do in the morning. Ronny would be able to look at a list of pictures without words and still understand the meaning of it. This demonstrates literacy in visuals. -
Classroom Pen Pals
In elementary school, we had pen pals in different classrooms. Every Friday, we would write to our pen pal in respondence to what they have written the previous week. This also demonstrates the mediation demension because it helped all of the students make literacy more personal. It also was a fun activity for Fridays, but a long term project as well, which the "task" in the 6 T's says is the most effective way of learning. -
Confirmation Classes
Starting in 7th grade, I began confirmation classes every Thursday. Each time, we would have a group of about 5 students and the pastor. We had assigned readings and then we would analyze and interpret the text. Along with helping me understand what the Bible was trying to say, my pastor also taught me vital analyzing skills, which goes along with one of the articles we read talking about the importance of finding the important information in a text and having the ability to understand it. -
After Lunch Reading
In middle school, after lunch, every class would have 30 minutes of silent reading (even if you were in math class). The teacher would provide carpet squares and soft background music and it would always make me look forward to reading after lunch. This demonstrates the "time" and "text" of the 6 T's, because we all had to read books in our reading levels and we had consistent quantities of reading time throughout the day which is needed to become a successful, independent reader. -
Independent Reading Projects
In highschool, I did independent reading projects. Every Friday, we got an entire class period to read our books and jot down our feelings about it. Along with that, we had to answer generic questions about our book such as, "is the main character experiencing conflict? If so, what is it?" In a sense, this can be related to the "talk" of the 6 T's because my teacher asked us personal questions to keep us engaged but also asked scholastic questions to be sure we were still interpreting the text. -
Texting/Snapchat
Most of the communicating I do throughout the day is through my phone. It makes communication a lot less personal but I can see an emoji in a text (such as a laughing face) and know that person thought whatever I said, or whatever they are telling me, is funny. This is symbolic literacy and going along with pictures, it enables me to understand these things with no words. -
Reflection
Throughout my personal literacy history, I realized there was a lot of picture interpretation in my early learning and then a lot of analyzing and understanding in my later learning. During my middle school and high school years, we had a lot of the same reading projects, it just gradually got harder with higher reading levels and more projects to do along with reading a novel. All of these things played a vital role in making me a successful and productive reader.
