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The following literacy narrative explores key events and progressions in my early life that shaped my current reading and writing ability. Describing how I iniitally learned to read and write was more challenging than expected, and not because it was difficult to recall events that took place so many years ago, but because it is hard to articulate learning a skill that is now so natural to me. It’s like describing how I learned to ride a bike. Which would essentailly boil down to a trial-and-error process of falling down and getting back up.

In writing this piece I was able to visualize my reading and writing progression chronologically, and quickly noticed some patterns. For instance, it seems that I always preferred the practice of writing to reading, predominately due to the freedom of creating my own arguments as oppose to absorbing those of others. I think the most unique attribute of my literacy narrative is my early eagerness to read and frustration with writing, which ironically turned to an aversion toward reading and a fascination with writing.

https://rebeccatinklereng101s18.wordpress.com/literacy-narrative/

Preview of Narrative (work in progress)

What I learned from this task: Good to brainstorm and physically write out ideas. Easier to be messy/ add extra linking information. Makes it less daunting. Made me reflect on my childhood a lot. Strange things to think about but very interesting to try and pinpoint events.

Writing process: It was different to brainstorm ideas. Usually type down certain ideas, but they rarely link and it just clutters up my actual work document. Brainstorming made it much easier to begin the actual writing. I have lots of things I can talk about … usually I don’t know where to start.

What did you learn about yourself? I remembered how much I used to enjoy reading and I got to think about lots of happy memories. This writing made me realize that not all English writing tasks have to be boring/ dreaded. Always had conventional/ essay based English classes and so it is refreshing to try a new approach.

Most interesting sentence? (Work in progress)

How did you learn to read and write? In my page, you will discover the reasons and the process from which I became a writer.

My process for writing this narrative felt considerably easier than papers I have written in the past. I think the freewriting before hand really helped guide me through the process. The act of answering the specific and simple questions almost wrote the entire paper by itself. This was very different than my typical process of staring at the blank page and waiting for inspiration to present itself from the ether.

Through writing the narrative I recognized the dedication my parents and the rest of my supporting cast gave me. This gave me a strong feeling of appreciation which I’d like to express to them some day.

The most interesting sentence in my opinion is, “I was disappointed in myself for not getting further but then realized I had unintentionally memorized the entire chapter in my head.”

• Please write about the key moment when, where, and how you first learned to read. What was learning to read like for you? What sorts of books did you read?

From my  memory, I learned how to read and write twice. One is Korean, and one is English. I can no longer what I read in Korean books anymore, but I know that my first book in English was The Holes.

• How did you feel about reading and writing as an adolescent — say, during middle and high school? What sorts of experiences did you have as a reader and writing in school?

During middle and high school, I really was disinterest in reading and writing. I didn’t hate it, but I would avoid taking writing related classes.

• What are your experiences with social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or others? What do you remember about your first experiences with such sites? Do you text on a smartphone? What sorts of experiences have you had writing to/for people with those sorts of technologies?

Only social network I have is Facebook, and I rarely use them. I never got into social networking culture. I felt that there was no need for me to express my thoughts in open public area.

• What are some of the biggest struggles you have had as a reader and/or writer? What are some of your best moments as a writer?

My biggest struggle with reading and writing was properly utilizing English. I really never had best moment as a writer.

Link to Essay

Ever since I was a child, I have been obsessed with text books, encyclopedia, and any sort of book which directly and explicitly states information, unlike novels, whose overwhelming amounts of sugarcoating and lack of conciseness bores me. Although these still comprise a great part of my passion for reading, I am still in search of other forms of recreational reading which deviate from my current interests. I’m kind of a tough cookie when I attempt to read a novel: I usually do not go beyond Chapter 1 if the content is not concise at my degree of liking. My childhood experiences in elementary school cemented this preference over explicit information rather than fictional, sugarcoated narratives.

As I wrote this analysis of my peculiar reading preferences, I realized it was about time to share my perspective with other people. Talking about my reading preferences is something I usually avoid, given that they deviate greatly from the general public. Writing was a breeze, especially after freewriting prior to its composition. In a sense, it was refreshing to finally let it all out after such long time keeping these thoughts to myself; it made me realize that not talking about this for so long has actually been a terrible idea, since my quirkiness opens up new topics of conversation, and possible recommendation of books that I might actually enjoy.

If there is one sentence in this essay that best reflects who I am, it would be the following:

“I went over to the kindergarten section of the library, did my “market research”, and did the math…”

I think now it’s the time to read about a chubby 5^th grader against the world in my literacy narrative.

It’s a hard thing going back in time to when you first read a book. In remembering my past I remembered how difficult it was for me to learn to like to read, how long and arduous the path was but also how amazing it felt. From struggling to read a single page to falling in love with comics or picking up my first non-fiction book the experience was not only hard but rewarding. To convert those emotions and memory onto paper, however, is always a challenge and my literacy narrative shows that; it was not easy capturing those moments with words. The more lax writing style was very helpful and allowed me to be more creative. I think, given more time, I will be able to better portray those feelings. Overall it was a very interesting and challenging experience that I’m excited to see develop further in the semester.

I think this is a good line: “I used to hate books.”

My narrative essentially focuses on my development as a reader and a writer in my early years.  I realized that this was important because those years laid the foundation to how I became a reader today.  In further thought, I have realized that many of my previous reading habits, albeit elementary, are similar, however, they are significantly more refined.

Initially, I was not very keen on the idea of any writing exercises before I wrote my essay.  Though, I decided to follow Professor Morgen’s idea to start doodling before I wrote my essay.  This concept seemed intriguing to me because I guess I enjoy doodling.  Initially, I thought that it may not be helpful for me, but I became significantly more relaxed when I continued.  Since I was relaxed, I was not as stressed. Subsequently, it made it notably easier to write.  In fact, I anticipated to only write half of the base of the essay in one sitting.  I wound up writing nearly the whole thing because it seemed easier to do so.  I also tried to jot down ideas in order to try to structure my essay better.  However, this did not seem to work very well.

While writing this essay, it allowed for a great deal of introspection.  I realized that reading and writing have had a large impact on my life.  Specifically, though I did not write about it, I contemplated the tasks I complete everyday that involves reading and writing.  My experiences as a child clearly made these tasks second nature.  I found it surprising that I vividly remembered some of these moments.  One in particular was a nightmare that I had when I was reading a book before bed.

This essay was quite enjoyable to write.  Perhaps it is because I was able to write about myself rather than a history or philosophy paper.  I understand that writing about myself is much more enjoyable because I hold all the information; in order to unlock, I do some reflection.