Reading Timeline:

I don’ think that my school writing is all that good but I’ve gotten a good response from it so I am going to start posting the personal story essay’s here.   Meaning any personal assignments about my life and life experiences will be here, not so much my research essay’s and boring assignments.If you like what you read and want me to keep posting comment let me know.

Personal Literacy Memoir:

Reflect on your literacy transformation – books, events, people that mattered in your life as a child in relation to reading. Describe key formative literacy experiences, both positive and negative, inside and outside of school that have shaped your attitudes and abilities as a reader. You can create a timeline of these memories or write about them in 1 to 2 pages.

Timeline:
My first memory regarding reading was at bedtime when my mom would read my four favorite books to me, When I Grow Up, How Do I Love You, The Girl in The Little Red Wagon, and Chika, Chika, Boom, Boom.
Around the same time my mom wrote me my own version of The Girl in The Little Red Wagon where I traveled the world but was home in time for dinner. Being in the story made me want to learn to read even more.
In kindergarten we had different levels of books and the goal was to get to level ten by the end of the year.
I was in level four when I found out that I had cancer and I quickly got pulled out of school. I stopped learning to read because I had other things to worry about, I was so sick.
The day my Uncle Mike found out that I was sick with Cancer, he bought me a book called “Today I Feel Silly & Other Moods That Make My Day.” It’s about this girl, me actually, it’s in first person, each day I have a different mood from happy, sad, to silly or angry, Uncle Mike bought me this book to help me not only learn about myself and learn to tell how I was feeling but also to help me cope with my sickness.
On the days that I was well enough to go to school I picked up the Arthur series by Marc Brown. I loved learning to read through Arthur’s adventures! I didn’t even know it was a TV show until a couple years later.
In the second grade the Give Kids the World organization had a book written about me. It had everything from my teacher teaching my class a lesson, to eating dinner with my family, to playing with my best friends. My mom read it to me, and when we finished the book for the first time my teacher read it to the class.
By the third grade I was still missing a lot of school so while my friends were starting to read chapter books, I was struggling to read the little books.
Christmas in third grade was a tough one. I was sicker than ever, and my only wish was that my parents let me die. I remember holding my moms’ hand and asking her to let me die. I said, “Mom I can’t do this anymore, just let me go, I’m done.” We both cried…. But the next morning I had a package from strangers. A class of kids from a few towns away heard my story and a few days before Christmas break, they made me cards all saying get better soon and we love you and things like that. At the bottom of the box was a book Titled “Angle Pig & the Hidden Christmas.” The last thing that was in that box was a video wishing me better and reading the story to the class and me. I love that book because it gave me a reason to keep fighting, these strangers saved my life.
The second half of fourth grade I started going to school more regularly and my teacher started reading Because of Winn-Dixie to the class.
When I got back to class everyone was talking about the “best book of the year so far.” They were talking about Where the Red Fern Grows.
I finally got the courage to look for “Where the Red Fern Grows” on the first day of fifth grade. I got it from the library, but I hadn’t ever read a chapter book on my own. I was a little bit nervous because it was a big book. I renewed this book five times, keeping it a total of ten weeks, but I finally finished my first chapter book on my own and I feel in love with the book and with reading.
At the end of fifth grade my dad noticed that I was really enjoying reading so he bought me a series called “Everything You Need to Know About…” Each book was about a different subject, I had a ton of different animals, and science subjects. I loved getting to learn new information about the subjects I already enjoyed. In addition to these amazing informational books my dad bought me an arroyo of fictional worlds and even poetry books.
That started my journey into the realm of reading.

(I am not 100% sure when I got the series of Everything You Should Know About…. but for the sake of this assignment I said the end of fifth grade)

 

My Instructor’s Feedback:

Wow, that was so inspiring. You are one brave soul and I am soo impressed. I loved reading your essay and really hope this class gives you an opportunity to share your experiences with all of us and inspire us even more! 🙂