My Literacy Story

1
My Literacy Story

• By Felicia Neal

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In The Beginning

• My mother said she started to read to me when I
  was 1 or 2 years old. One of the books she read
  to me was called, Seven Little Monsters, by
  Arthur Yorinks ,when I was about 3 or 4 years old.

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What I Remember

• When I was about 4 years old, my grandfather
  bought me a12 Disney books series. I remember my
  favorite book was Pinocchio. I must have read
  that book over and over, however I read it based
  upon the pictures.

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Good Times

• I dont really recall using phonics when I was
  younger, if so I was too young to remember the
  name. When I was in first grade, I always loved
  to read books. The majority of the books I would
  read were animal books, much like fables.

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• One thing I remember in 1st grade, was that my
  teacher read many books to us and I loved story
  time. I remember our class going to the library
  and the librarian reading to us. I was always
  glad the books that were being read to us were
  not boring. One of my favorite books were, If
  You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

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Dreaded Times
H

• Once I started second grade, my writing started
  to really pick up. I remember writing sentences
  after sentences to show my hand writing. I hated
  the line paper we had to write on. They always
  made us write in big letters, which really made
  me not want to write at all.

Q Z
B
A O
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• Later on in my early elementary school years, I
  remember writing stories and having to make sure
  everything was spelled correctly. I liked
  writing stories, but I hated the fact I had so
  many erase marks on that horrible line paper! It
  actually made my story look like a mess and
  sometimes I would have holes in my paper!
  Sometimes my teacher would have me write the
  story over again.

8
Bad Days

• INCORRECT! There are know, good stories to
  write about?
• When I started 4th grade, I had a hard time with
  Language Arts and Spelling. In Language Arts I
  had to correct sentences and I was horrible with
  using the correct punctuations. When it came to
  tests or anything involving Language Arts, I
  would not do well.

INCORRECT!
9

• My grandmother received a brand new car for
• her retirement.
• I dreaded the day I got to 4th grade because I
  new when spelling time came, I would have to
  correct sentences. I always got spelling word
  correct, but never the sentence the teacher had
  provided to us. It wasnt actually until the end
  of the year when I finally caught on to how to
  correct sentences. I kind of taught my own self
  how to use the correct punctuation marks.

Last Spelling Test!
Correct!
10

• When I was in the 5th and 6th grade, Language
  Arts was fairly easy for me. The only problem I
  had at the time was my reading. There would be
  times were I would be afraid to read out loud.
  This was because I would not know where we were
  in the story. Or I was afraid that I would come
  to a word I did not know, but everyone else might
  have known. I did not want to pronounce the word
  incorrectly.

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Troubles

• I always loved to read when I was younger, but
  the problem I had was reading in my head. We
  would spend so much time doing independent
  reading, that we never really had time to read
  out loud. So as I got into higher grade levels,
  I was not learning the words I should have. So
  when it came to take state tests, I would do
  poorly on them.

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• I remember my 7th grade teacher making each
  student take a reading test to determine their
  reading level. I had always fell between 5th and
  6th grade reading levels. I remember I tried to
  read different grade levels books, but she would
  not allow me to read them because she said they
  were not at my level. I truly believe and still
  to this day that I dont do well with
  standardized tests. Nevertheless, if there is
  something going on in the classroom, I can put as
  much effort as a student who is reading or
  writing at a higher level.

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And Now
Spell Check Please!

• Im still dealing with a few things when it
  comes to reading and writing. I am not as good
  of a speller as I was when I was younger, but I
  think I manage. However, I am still a little
  cautious reading out loud, but after a while I
  warm up to it. I think my writing has improved
  because Im more cautious of what I write.
  However, I still would like to have someone
  proofread my work just to make sure my spelling
  and grammar is correct.