Taylor Davison Jan Rieman English 1101 September 14, 2012 Literacy Memoir When I first thought about

my literary history, nothing really came to mind. I just couldnt think of anything that discouraged or encouraged me. But when I finally thought of one event, I start remembering all these significant moments of my literary history. All these events in my life have shaped my writing to what it is today. Those events even led me to the beliefs I have about reading and writing. As we grow up, we never really think about how these events will affects us in the future. But when the future is actually here, thats when we realize that those events have affected us and shaped us to what we are today. I cant remember the first book I ever read, but I do remember reading the newspaper with my dad. I never understood what the words meant, but I would always sound the words out and get help from my dad. We would even read picture books together at night before I went to bed. Soon I was able to read most of my books easily because my dad helped me. I even learned how to sound words out and pronounce them when I was reading the paper with my dad. In kindergarten, we had a reading long to complete every night. It didnt matter how much we read, all that mattered was that we were reading. On nights when my dad worked, I would read to my mom or my baby
Comment [i1]: I really like your introduction. In fact I might chose to do something like this for my paper because I was having the same problem with coming up with something to write about.

Comment [i2]: I see this is where you were introduced to reading and your reading skills built from this event.

sister. I enjoyed it because I liked how I felt when I read. I was independent; I didnt have to wait for my parents to come help me, I was reading on my own. I guess you could say that my family was my motivation to learn how to read. I was also motivated by pleasure. Once I learned how to read, I started to read the picture books that my mom bought me. Dinofours was a book series that we owned. We had about 20 of those books that were simple to read and really good for a young child to read. I enjoyed these books not only because i was learning to read more, but they also thought me other lessons like being respectful, sharing, not to be bossy, etc. I read these books to my little sister because she liked when I read to her. I even tried to get her to read some words as well. When I was in 3rd grade, I attended Winding Springs Elementary. My teacher, Mrs. Eckert, would take our class to the library every week to check out a new book or to get a different one. On this particular trip, a few of my friends were reading a book from the series Goose Bumps. They said the books they were reading were good and were pretty easy to read. I decided that I would get one of those books to read as well. I figured that if I had trouble with it, I could always ask my parents for help or just get a new book next week. I waited in line to checkout with my friends, but when I gave my book to the woman, she looked at the book, looked at me, then back to the book. She then asked me what a young girl like me was doing with a book like that. I told her that my friends were reading those books and that I wanted to read them too. She shook her head and told me that these books may be too advanced for [my] young mind and made me go and get a different book- one with lots of pictures and fewer words. I was so confused and upset; I couldnt figure out why the other kids my age could read that

Comment [i3]: Its good that you didnt give up or wait for your dad to get home.

Comment [i4]: I would maybe add a picture of the book series.

Comment [i5]: Were you in an AR program or was this a weekly thing. Did you have contest in elementary school to see who could read the most pages or books? If so, were there any prizes involved?

book but I couldnt. It made me think that I wasnt smart enough to read chapter books. In the following weeks, I would stick to reading the easier books rather than challenging myself. When I think about this event now, I just get confused. It doesnt make sense to me that someone would discourage a child from reading a chapter book- or any book for that matter. She should have been glad that I wanted to challenge myself to reading a larger book than what I usually read. The woman never knew this, but what she said and did affected the way I thought about myself for a few years. I always thought that I wasnt as smart as other kids or that I couldnt understand things as well as they could. But in reality, I was just as smart as them. For the remainder of elementary school, I always stuck to small books that were less than 150 pages. I didnt think that I could handle reading the bigger books so I never tried. But as I went into middle school, I started to challenge myself more. I would read books that were a little larger than what I usually read, like (insert book names here). I remember in 7th grade, I read House of the Scorpion. I was really challenging myself by reading that book because it was like 600 pages! When I first started reading it, it was on a Friday. I remember not liking it but I didnt want to stop reading because I would be curious as to how it ended and I wanted to stick to my challenge. As I read more into the book, I started to enjoy it. I liked it so much that my parents couldnt get me to stop reading it. I spent all day Saturday reading and all day Sunday reading until I finished it Sunday night.

When I finished it, I was really proud of myself because I stuck to my challenge and proved to myself that Im not stupid. I got over that fear that I wouldnt be able to comprehend what other kids my age comprehended. My parents were shocked at how fast I read the book; they even decided to get me my own library card so I could have access to hundreds of other books. The next day my dad took me to the library and I checked out two new books. I read those books pretty fast too. 7th grade was a very important year for me because thats when I realized that I loved to read. Most kids wanted new videogames or toys, I just wanted books. After 7th grade, I moved to a different city- Waxhaw, NC. I started my 8th grade year at Parkwood Middle School. My English teach, Mrs. Hentz, was very helpful to me that year. She gave us weekly vocabulary and writing exercises and tested us every week. We even had to write book reports, but those were fairly easy for me. One time we had to write a paper about a subject that I cant remember, but I remember turning in my rough draft for her to grade. When I got my rough draft back, there were a good bit of comments. Some were saying how I had a good idea and I structured my paper well. But other comments told me how I could make my sentences stronger or how to incorporate my idea better in the paper. It helped me because I learned how to write stronger sentences and make my writing flow better. Also in 8th grade year, our English class started to learn about poetry and all the different types of poems and writers. Mrs. Hentz made us write multiple types of poems to be turned in and graded. I never wrote anything before this, but I started writing poetry more often and enjoyed it. I showed my parents and they were really pleased by it. They even showed my neighbors who were really impressed. Soon I was writing

every day and thinking of new ideas for poems. This was a way for me to express my feelings in a more creative form. I really enjoyed it. I kept writing during the summer and into the start of my freshman year, at high school. During that year, our school was having a poetry slam. Everyone who took English that first semester was required to write a poem and present it to the class. When it came time to present, I was really nervous but was able to present. My poem was about the beach and how relaxing it felt to me; it even got voted to the second round. I was really excited but I didnt go to the second round because I didnt want to read my poem in front of 300 students. I was just pleased because I wrote something that everyone liked. It encouraged me to keep writing but I never shared it with anybody except my parents. But as that school year went on, I started to get more homework and hung out with friends more often. I had less time to write so I eventually stopped. I write occasionally now, but not like I used to. In 11th grade, I had a terrible teacher for English, Mrs. Zvanut. When she graded papers, she never gave any good feedback. She always responded with hmm, okay, uhh, and other phrases like that. She never gave constructive criticism so I never knew what I needed to improve on or what I was doing right in my writing. On one of my papers I got back from her, she wrote this couldve been written better. I had no idea how to respond to that or what to think. I thought to myself How am I supposed to improve my writing if she doesnt give me any advice or tips? Since I really didnt know where to go from there, I went to my online class facilitator, Mrs. Englert, who used to be an English teacher. I asked her to read my
Comment [i6]: Why did you only share it with your parents? I think it would be good to elaborate on why you didnt share your work.

paper so she could tell me what I couldve done to write it better. When she finished reading my paper, she told me that I just needed to work on my sentence structure, grammar, and add some more details. Mrs. Englert gave me better advice about my paper and helped me more than my own English teacher. For the rest of my junior year I always went to her for help on my papers. She gave great advice and even helped me to come up with other ways to restate my thesis statement. Mrs. Englert was one of the most helpful teachers Ive had in High School. My senior year English teacher, Mrs. Nelson, was very helpful as well. Every week we learned new vocabulary and the roots that went with them, grammar rules, and writing lessons. We also had to write a research paper on Beowulf. We read the book in class and I was one of the few who actually enjoyed it. When it came time to write the paper, I found it easy. She made us write a detailed outline which was helpful, even though I dont like outlines. When I turned in my final paper and got it back, there were a lot of good marks and some bad marks. The bad marks were just little comma issues and other small grammatical errors, but the good marks were notes on where I did something right or how she liked how I phrased a sentence. Overall, I ended up getting a 99 on the paper. I was pleased with myself and glad that I was able to get a good grade on the paper. This paper helped made me realize how all my English teachers over the years have helped to get to where I am. I learned to challenge myself by reading larger books and to read for pleasure; I learned how to express myself and be creative though poetry; and I learned how to build stronger sentences and to really convey my point to
Comment [i7]: How did that make you feel about your English teachers comments?

my audience. All this proves to me how past events in my literary history have shaped me to be the writer I am today.
Comment [i8]: I like how you put your events in chronological order. Comment [i9]: Overall your paper was good. You took time to explain every that you listed and as a reader it made me understand more about your childhood.