Hampton 1

Allison Hampton
Professor Marcum
English 1103-Section 052
2 February 2016
Literacy Narrative
I remember learning to read at a fairly young age, or at least faster
than most of my peers and classmates. I feel like reading sort of came
naturally to me or was fairly easy for me to learn to do. I dont ever
remember having trouble with learning how to sound words out or read
sentences, but I did have a bit more trouble with learning to spell and and
eventually how to write. Writing also seemed harder to me because with
writing, unlike reading, there are no set rules and guidelines that you must
follow, which made it harder for me to grasp.
Throughout most of my life, my feelings towards reading and writing
have varied dramatically based on what I was learning in school as well as
the purpose or reason for why I was reading or writing.
During most of my life growing up, I hated reading, especially
throughout elementary and middle school. I remember first starting to hate
reading when I was in about the second grade. That year we mainly focused
on reading and reading comprehension. During that time, I usually felt as if
reading was a chore and most of the time I found it boring. I typically read
very slow and would fall behind in class because of it. We were often tested
on our reading comprehension and during timed tests, I very rarely finished

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because most of what was assigned to read was very boring to me so I read
very slowly. I believe my problem was that I was never able to find anything
interesting to me in anything that I was assigned to read in school and most
of the time found what we were reading was boring and unexciting. This is
what I believe prevented me from reading outside of school for many years;
because I thought it would be the same way.
Throughout high school, though, many of my teachers began assigning
readings that I found actually interested me. I still had the initial dread when
a teacher would give a reading assignment, but I learned to keep an open
mind when reading these assignments because most of the time I found that
I would actually enjoy reading these assignments. I learned that you can
usually find interesting and relatable things in most books you read, you just
need to be willing to find them.
One of my favorite books came from an assignment I did for my senior
year AP English teacher. The book that was assigned was interesting and had
many elements in it that were relatable. I found it hard to put the book down
until I finish reading it because it was so engrossing. Since completing this
assignment I have reread this book several times because it continues to
influence me on a daily basis. Because the book had such a unique way of
dealing with things that everyone goes through in their lifetime, my
perspective of life has been completely changed. I believe that I think, act,
and live life differently because of this book, and I feel like this change is a
positive one. I definitely look at the world in a new way. I intend to read this

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book again because I feel like I have learned and discovered something
completely new and different each time I have read it, and I wont hesitate in
the future to read other books because of this possibility.
Now, I no longer hate reading, but my feelings for it vary depending on
the reading material. I enjoy reading only if what I am reading is interesting
to me and unlike when I was growing up, I find myself reading a lot in my
free time. Reading for me acts as a form of escape or a way to decompress
after a long or busy day. I still have trouble reading if it is assigned to me
because I sometimes find it difficult to read things that I may not find
interesting. If I am given an assigned reading for a class, I usually dread
reading it until I find something in the reading that sparks my interest.
Through learning to give reading a chance I have also found that I sometimes
become interested in things that I had found boring or uninteresting prior to
reading an assignment.
My feelings about writing have typically varied throughout my life
depending on why I am writing or what I am writing for. If I am writing on my
own I usually like it because it allows me to be expressive and creative in a
way that is different than any other medium. I use writing as a way to vent
my emotions or thoughts. For me, writing is also a way for me to get all of
my ideas down on paper or in one place.
My earliest experiences with writing were very positive for the most
part. Although writing was a bit harder for me to pick up initially, once I
finally got the hang of it, it started to become easier for me. I was pretty

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successful with writing in elementary and middle school and through out
most of high school. During both my freshmen and sophomore years in high
school I had English teachers that were both extremely passionate about
writing and allowed my classmates and I to explore writing with a lot of
freedom. Some of my best writing that I have ever produced I wrote in these
classes. The instruction and feedback I got for my writing was inspiring and
built my confidence up as well as gave me good foundation to build from in
my future writing endeavors.
Although I do love writing, and have for a long time, there are a few
instances when I was not as fond of writing. If I am assigned a writing
assignment, my initial feelings are not typically pleasant. When I am writing
for a class or in a situation where other people will be reading my work I get
very self conscious and it is hard for me to allow myself to be creative and
express myself fully because I am not as comfortable with others reading my
writing. I have never liked feeling like others are judging me for anything, so
allowing someone else to read my work is extremely hard for me. I feel like I
am very timid with my writing because I fear writing in a wrong way or in a
way that others do not like.
I believe that these feelings stem from my writing experiences during
my senior year of high school. Most of my AP English class during my senior
year was dedicated to writing essays. Even though in past English classes I
had done quite well with writing, I struggled with the essays that were
assigned for this class. I found that no matter what strategies I tried using in

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writing these essays, I never did very well. With each essay I wrote, my
scores stay the same, I never got better or worse, but I was never satisfied
with my grades.
Aside from my experiences with writing during my senior year of high
school, most of my experiences with writing have been fairly positive.
Throughout most of my education I have been fairly successful with my
writing. Throughout most of high school I wrote many stories and papers that
I consider to be my best work I have ever produced. Although I do still
struggle with expressing my thoughts and being creative, I also enjoy writing
outside of school and on my own. When I am writing in my free time or on
my own, though, I seem to have a much easier time being creative and
allowing myself to fully express my thoughts and emotions. It is definitely
much easier for me to write freely when I know that no one will be reading
what I have written, so the fear of judgment seems disappear.
My worst writing experiences were in high school in my senior year AP
English class. That year, we focused mostly on writing essays and we
typically wrote at least one essay each week. I seemed to really struggled
with these writing assignments because they were typically very hard and
had extremely specific prompts.
Although I never completely missed the mark on any of them, I still
never made the kinds of grades I was used to on writing assignments. I
always received passing grades, but I was never truly satisfied with the
grades I was making on them. Because of this I struggled to figure out what

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to do differently in my essays that would improve my grades on them. It
seemed that it didnt matter how hard I tried to make my writing better, I
never improved and mostly received the same grades consistently
throughout the course of the class.
Writing these essays were always extremely stressful for me because I
feared that my writing would not improve or that I would not completely
understand what the prompt was asking for. I wanted my essays to be
creative and fresh but most of the time I felt as if I fell short on creativity. I
believe this was mainly because I feared that taking a risk with my writing
would result in my teacher not liking what I wrote. I feel as if this caused my
writing to be very safe or boring and lack creativity. When I did try to be
creative and write my essays, I found that it would usually backfire and result
in my teacher telling me that I was missing the points that the prompts were
asking for. Anytime we would receive our grades on these assignments I
would be left feeling defeated and discouraged. These experiences were
extremely embarrassing because it seemed most of my friends would make
higher grades than me and I felt like I was falling behind.
I definitely believe that these experiences, positive and negative, have
affected my growth and development within reading and writing and have
influenced my likes and dislikes when it comes these fields. I feel like my
education of these two subjects have also greatly influenced what styles I
gravitate more towards and what I find interesting and how my experiences
with these subjects will result in the future. I enjoy writing, but I still struggle

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to allow myself to be creative when others will be reading my work. And I
love reading, but not everything I read interests me or allows me to relate to
it.
1. Read the first paragraph of the essay and then stop. In a sentence or
two, describe what you expect the author to say in this essay. Who and what
is this paper going to focus on? Underline the sentence(s) that give you the
main idea of the essay. Well she starts saying how easy it was for her to learn
how to read so my initial reaction was that this girl is going to have zero
problems with her literacy.
2. Finish reading the entire essay. Respond in the margins with your first
reactions as a reader. Briefly summarize the essay (2-3 sentences). Then
summarize each paragraph in a sentence or less. Where does the author get
off track? Where does the author stay focused? If you are having a hard
time summarizing the paragraphs, then something in the paragraph may be
undermining the focus. She was focused the entire time, sometimes show
wouldnt supply the best examples to back up her point of view.
3. In the introduction, how well does the author begin the story? What does
the author do to keep the readers reading, ie. a hook or reason to be drawn
in? What could he/she do to draw the reader in more? Does the introduction
lead up to a thesis sentence or an indication of where the rest of the essay is
going? Does the conclusion do more that restate the main points of the
essay? Does it point to how literacy will impact them in the future? If the
conclusion is not satisfying, what would you do to make it more engaging?
Well she could have made the intro a little more dramatic but thats hard to
do when discussing literacy, I mean its not like talking about something too
eventful or controversial.
4. Does the author share three or four key literacy events and give their
significance or show how the event illustrates something about literacy?
Does the author make useful connections between their literacy events and
at least three of the readings we have discussed in class? Highlight the
sections of the essay where you feel the author is able to critically reflect on
the cultures within which the literacy event/s occur. Not so much on the
readings we discussed in class.
5. Does the organization of the paper make sense? How has the author
structured the essay? Do they alternate paragraphs switching between
personal experience and scholarly ideas about literacy? Is it structured all
around a personal narrative? If so, what suggestions do you have for
helping the author break from this pattern? If the structure seems either
confusing or strong indicate where you see this. How would you improve it?
Improve by tying on more of the readings and providing examples. Give the
reading some weight!

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6. Does the author consider the audience? Indicate how the author could
address the audience better or where the author does a good job of
considering the audience. She just writes it for whoever wants/has to read it.
7. List two things you think the author does a good job on. List two things
you think the author should work on. Make at least one suggestion for how
she/he might go about improving each of those aspects of the essay.
8. List two things you would like to hear more about. What does the author
not deal with as much or as well as youd like? Explain what and why you
think these elements are important enough to include.